How can one study for the GRE during their commute?

October 1, 2009 4:38 AM

A friend is doing a last minute cram for the GRE but is lacking in time. The bulk of her available time is in her 2-hour-per-day commute. Are there any _good_ podcasts she could listen to, specificall for vocabulary? Or .. should she look into hiring someone to call her and drill her for those two hours? If so... how?

She's looked at podcasts on itunes and there is very little good content (and what's there appears to have been abandoned). The idea of hiring someone to do live call-and-drill for one or both hours of commute each day is something I thought of, but I wouldn't even know how to begin hiring someone for this.

Complication: GRE is in mid November, whatever action is to be taken needs to be taken now.

posted by rr to education (8 comments total)

We need more information here. Has she taken practice tests? What sections is she still struggling on? If her problem is vocabulary then your podcast idea is probably doable.

I'm probably overly harsh on this point, but perhaps she can do something fun, like listen to a radio show she likes, during her commute, and then spend whatever recreational non-commute time she has now on studying for the GRE. It's not really "available time" if you're driving a car at the same time.

Is your friend located outside the US? Inside the US the GRE is a self scheduled exam.
posted by telegraph at 5:23 AM on October 1

What about flash cards? I bought some GRE vocabulary flash cards at Barnes and Noble. They were in the test prep section. My boyfriend and I used them on our commute and they were great.
posted by apricot at 5:27 AM on October 1

She is only in need of vocabulary study. Math, etc. are all aced on the practice tests.

She is inside the US. Her schedule is based on the cutoff date for applying to a few very competitive programs she decided at the last minute to apply to (this is a sincere decision, the last minute aspect was due to a change in life circumstances).

Note: She is commuting alone, by car. There are no public transport options at all on her commute.
posted by rr at 5:32 AM on October 1

I'll reiterate my point about studying at another time of day. 30 minutes of dedicated study is worth so much more than two hours of half paying attention half driving (hopefully at least half driving). It must be frustrating to have two hours every day during which she feels like she's doing nothing, but that's how it goes.
posted by telegraph at 5:54 AM on October 1

Right, I agree that separate study time is the right answer, but it is already occupied (by work). This is an experienced person in their late 30s working full time in upper management; time management is not an issue here, genuine lack of time is.
posted by rr at 6:04 AM on October 1

When I was cramming for the GRE (signed up well in advance, but it kind of snuck up on me), I spent my lunch hour doing practice problems somewhere quiet. After doing this every day for a week or so, I ended up with a really good score. Just learning vocab won't really help; your friend should get one of the big name practice books (Kaplan, Princeton, etc) and just work through it. Sucks, but it pays off.
posted by oinopaponton at 6:23 AM on October 1 [1 favorite]

Ah. For some reason I thought she was on public transport.

I googled GRE vocabulary audio book and found this CD set. You can also buy it directly from the company here. That might be a good option for her, and the price is reasonable.

I just took the GRE last fall, and scored in the 98th percentile on the verbal section (let's not talk about the math, please!). I found that learning roots of words, and prefixes and suffixes, was what really helped my score. I didn't always know the meaning of the word in the question, but I could usually eliminate answers I knew to be incorrect based on the parts of the word itself. Memorizing hundreds of words is difficult or impossible, but memorizing word roots is less so. My Kaplan prep book has lists of them. Just some unsolicited general advice!
posted by apricot at 6:25 AM on October 1 [1 favorite]

For vocab, Princeton Review's "Word Smart" and "Word Smart II" are effective (but not in the car).
posted by SuzB at 2:00 PM on October 1