National Task Force on Equity in Testing Deaf Individuals
Test Preparation
Strategies for Deaf Test
Takers
Charlene C. Sorensen, Ph. D.
Professor of Chemistry, Gallaudet
University
Prof. Sorensen provides these notes from her courses to prepare deaf and hard of
hearing college
students to take the Graduate Record Examiniation (GRE).
TEST TAKING STRATEGIES....
These are the strategies used to for the "Preparing for the GRE workshops." However, their application
is much broader than that.
GENERAL INFORMATION:
1. Be familiar with the requirements and regulations of the test. For example, go to the web site
look up the registration process, deadlines, how to request interpreters and how to get extended time if
desired. For example, the GRE is offered as a computer "smart" test (Computer adaptive GRE). Be sure you
know what this means. This will help you determine how much time is needed and how to structure your
studies based on the time before you test.
2. Take a practice test. Many companies publish practice manuals. These help you identify weak
areas. If the test you are taking will be on computer, you may want a to get a CD of practice tests as
well.
3. Establish a group of people you will either study with or will report your progress to. This
will help you keep on track for your studies.
4. Look up the schools you are interested in on the WWW. Look up information regarding their
average admission scores, whether or not you should take a specific test (subject test, general test,
etc.) Contact the school(s) you want to apply to if you will need special accomodations for the test.
Some schools will not require you to take the GRE in certain situations requiring special
accomodations.
5. Test far enough in advance of the application due date to be able to re-test if you need to.
Some schools pick the best of your Verbal, the best of your Quantitative and the best of your Analytical,
even if they were not on the same test.
6. When taking practice tests, eliminate answers based on "which is the worst possible answer."
This improves the statistical chance of choosing the right answer. For example, if you look at 5 answers
and "guess" that C is the correct answer. You have a 20% chance of getting the answer right. If you
have eliminated 3 and choose to guess from the 2 remaining answers, you have a 50% chance of getting the
answer right.
ABOUT THE VERBAL PARTS:
1. To build word power/vocabulary recognition: Use a practice manual/study guide that provides
lists of prefixes, suffixes and root words common to the test. These are ususally Latin and Greek word
parts. The suffixes will give you information as to whether the word is being used as a noun, verb,
adjective or adverb. This will help on specific parts of the test (described later). Also, many books
list the most frequently used words on the test. Make flash cards for these words. REVIEW, REVIEW,
REVIEW!
2. To build reading comprehension: Be sure you practice the skills involved with reading
comprehension. Learn to find the main idea of the article. Ask yourself to summarize the reading in
only one SHORT sentence. Be able to find the "feeling" of what your are reading. This means determining
what you think the purpose and/or attitude of the writer is/was. Finally, be able to apply what you read
to other situations. Another major key to solving these types of questions is deciding which of the
above the question is asking for. There are key words to look for in deciding what the goal of the
question might be. Words of "according to the paragraph", "according to the author", "this passage
means..." usually want the main idea or a direct answer from the reading. Words of "this implies", "the
inference is", "inferred", "believes", "thinks," "seems to suggest" usually mean you are determining the
purpose/attitude of the writer. The words "analogy," "applied to", "further discussion might include" are
word/word phrases which usually mean you need to extrapulate or apply the information in a different
way.
Be able to determine key words that will "guide" your answer in a specific direction. For example,
if you see the words "however," "nevertheless," "notwithstanding," "on the other hand," "rather than,"
these suggest an answer or opinion in contrast to the original discussion/argument. Words like
"furthermore," "in addition," "also," "moreover," suggest an answer that is in support of the original
discussion/argument.
3. Specific types of questions and what will help you in these question types:
a. Sentence completion: These are sentences with one or two (usually) words missing. You should
read the sentence carefully. Look for the guiding words. If a contrast word is used between the missing
terms, then they will tend to have opposite meanings. If a support word is used, the missing words will
have similar meanings. Eliminate any answers that differ from the suggested relationship between the
words. Determine if the terms should be nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs from sentence placement.
Eliminate any answers that are not the right part of speech.
b. Analogy questions: For these questions, you will be given three out of four words. The first
two of these are words that set up a relationship. The third word is given and you are to find the
missing word that will make a relationship between the third and fourth words that is similar to the
relationship between the first and second words. Use your word parts to get a hint for the meaning the
three words if you do not know any or all of them. Make up a sentence that is using the first two words.
Take out the first two words and try to substitute word three and the answer choices into the sentence.
The right answer will have the right relationship and right part of speech for the sentence.
c. Reading comprehension: see the reading comprehension description in number 2.
d. Antonym questions: these are looking for opposites. Use your word parts and parts of speech
to match words with their opposites.
QUANTITATIVE REVIEW: (MATH)
1. Most review books have a complete review of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and simple statistics.
The key to doing well on this part is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
2. The types of questions:
a. The comparison questions: these are questions where you have
two equations, conditions or numbers in two columns (A and B). Your job is to decide which is larger, A
or B. If neither is larger, then you must decide if they are equal (choose answer C) or if you do not
have enough information or it depends on the value of a variable, you choose answer D. For these
questions, be sure you carefully consider any conditions. For example you might be asked to compare x/y
in column A and xy in column B where there is a condition that x and y must be positive. One way to
decide which is bigger (especially when you are given a formula) is to try the following numbers -10, -1,
-.1, 0, .1, 1, and 10. If you have a condition, do not try any of the numbers that will violate the
condition. These numbers were chosen as they are easy to use in calculations, and they represent
negative numbers, fractions, whole numbers and zero.
b. Discrete/direct questions: These are questions which may require geometry, algebra or
arithmetic. Use rounding/estimates and logic to eliminate as many answers as possible. For Geometry, if
you see an irregular shape, look for several "regular" shapes that would make up the irregular one.
Then solve the problem.
c. Data interpretation: you will be given percents or other statistical components, graphs
and/or tables and asked to read and interpret the information. Read carefully the description, the
questions and any limitations suggested by the question.
ANALYTICAL REVIEW: (LOGIC)
1. These are often solved by drawing pictures or charts. Then, show relationships between the pictures.
Example: A cannot be sitting next to B, but C and D are always together.
2. Read the conditions one at a time to begin drawing a picture for yourself.
3. Do not infer. The conditions are literal. Even if common sense says a dog and a cat should not be
in the same place, don't assume they will not if there is no conditions stating that explicitly.
4. See if two conditions, when their information is combined, will imply/require a condition.
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