Over the past few weeks, the opportunity to continue my education has presented itself. I did not need either the GRE or the MAT to get into my master’s program, but I will for either of the doctoral programs I plan to apply to.
I am familiar with the basic premise of the test. It’s simply solving a bunch of analogies. I’m just wondering if anyone has taken it and if there are any strategies I should use to prepare for it.
I’ve got a pretty good shot at getting into both programs, provided I don’t whiff the MAT.
I did, back in 1991. My vocabulary was pretty decent with all of the reading I do but I had been out of college for four years when I took it.
At the time it was 50 analogies each worth 2 points. I had one or two practice books and did at least two timed tests every night for the week before the test.
I blew through the thing in about 30 minutes and then went back and checked my answers and changed a couple that I missed the first time through.
Probably at least half of the answers were flat out gimmes, another large chunk were obvious with a few seconds to a minutes thought and six or eight were stumpers.
I honestly don’t remember if there were any words that I wasn’t familiar with, but there were a few that I didn’t have a good enough grasp of the definition to handle a sophisticated analogy.
I don’t think that I could have done much more than take the practice tests. I doubt that I would have lucked in to the few definitions that I wasn’t clear on by studying vocabulary words, because there just weren’t that many that I didn’t know.
In the end I was thrilled with my score. I didn’t ace it but I did really well. I still wish that I could have had a copy of the answer sheet to see what I missed.
With your facility with language, I’m sure you’ll do well. Good luck!
These used to be on every standardized test; I think the year I took the SAT was one of the last years they were included in that test. In fact my friends had a joke: when someone uttered a nonseqitour. someone would reply “…as stucco is to Cleveland?” As in, what does that have to do with what was just said?
It tests a odd combination of vocabulary and pattern-seeing. Sometimes if you’re not sure of a definition you can fall back on what part of speech it the “sides” are.
Yes, I helped my mother study for it in 1973-ish, and took it myself in 1987, so the format is probably different. Get a practice book or program–whaever format it’s administered in, practice with that. Learn the (lemme see)…8? kinds of analogies; even if you don’t know some of the words, you can eliminate some choices if you can tell they’re in the wrong order. Back in the old days, brushing up on your vocabulary would help.
When I took it, I was astonished to learn that people applying for elementary school teaching programs (at the master’s level) had an average score of 23. Since the raw score at that time was also the scaled score (there were 100 questions with 4 answer options each), this means that the average score for this group was below the random guess average (or, at least, the “Choose C every time” strategy). Scary.
I took it a couple of times in psychometrics classes. I don’t really think you can study for it. It tests a combination of pattern matching skills and vocabulary learned over a lifetime. The questions go from easy to outrageously difficult to measure the entire Bell Curve. The best you can do is to take a practice test to learn how it works beforehand.
Thanks for the wiki link, I will stand by my statement that only six or eight were stumpers though!
I tested with four or five other women who were bemoaning the fact that they had to get at least a 25 to get in to their teaching program. I was appalled when I heard them and even more so after I finished the test.
That is one test that it pays to study for.
When you’ve gone through a few prior example questions you get a better feel for what types of tricks they have to trip you up.
I took it less than a year ago. I agree that the best way to study is to take practice tests, including the two Miller practice tests on their website. Are you taking the test on a computer or pencil-and-paper? If you are doing it on computer, I’d definitely suggest taking the computer practice tests to get used to the system. (It isn’t tricky at all, but the test is timed, so you don’t want to waste half a minute figuring out where to click to go back a question. The real test is actually a little easer to navigate than the practice tests.)
I got stumped by the art and history ones which required, for example, picking the artist to go with the other French Impressionists or the Italian inventor to go with the other Italian inventors. The practice tests definitely gave me the benefit of knowing to expect those and knowing that those were my weak area. Vocabulary is very important as well, but I have a good vocabulary, so I was happy with those ones. A couple of questions on the test were clever enough to make me laugh, but I don’t remember them now.
I enjoyed taking it and got a good score (which I don’t remember), but I got a job afterwards and decided not to apply for the grad program his year.
I took it when I was applying to grad schools (Harvard used the MAT, not the GRE). I didn’t study for it. I got in. It’s much MUCH easier than the GRE.
Hey, did you go to HGSE? I took it back in '97 for my Ed.M. I took it because, yes, it is much easier than the “Gree.” It seems to pay to have a lot of arcane knowledge in one’s head.
Unfortunately by the time I got my doctorate they phased it out and they’re all GRE happy now.
I found out that the college I went to offers the test, but on paper, not on a computer. It’s also a lot less expensive than I thought it would be. I’m scheduled to take the exam in February.
The reason I’m favoring the MAT over the GRE is because I’ve got a lot of arcane knowledge (I’m a Doper, after all! ), and I don’t have a lot of the math that the GRE seems to require, nor do I care to spend a lot of time learning it.
), and I don’t have a lot of the math that the GRE seems to require, nor do I care to spend a lot of time learning it.