If you take the computerised version, how you are penalized depends on when you get your answers wrong. If you answer the first five correctly, you're almost automatically saved from patheticdom.

It's scaled. you get penalized for incorrect answers much more in the beginning than towards the end of the test. Answer the first 5 correct (spend as much time as you need to do this), best to answer first 10 correctly if you can. Than get through the rest and finish, you get penalized for not answering all the questions. (This applies to the computer version or CAT).

thanks so much, thats more than i needed,
while we are on the topic, any there any other helpful tips that arn't so obvious?

Yeah - concentrate on your portfolio - it's more important than any GRE score.

You're not actually penalized/graded down for wrong answers at all - in other words points are never deducted for wrong answers - just added for correct answers. But the reason that wrong answers - especially at the beginning - can hurt you is because the program judges your "level" based on the questions you've already answered, and gives you easier or harder questions next, as a result of your performance. If you keep answering questions wrong then you keep getting easier questions. This results in never getting the most difficult questions, and so not allowing you to get to the highest score possible. If you keep answering questions correctly then it gives you harder and harder questions, and answering those correctly can result in higher scores because they're "worth" more.

yeah- if you're taking it on the computer, you cannot go back to previous questions if you have time left over. You must do it in order, so don't skip questions thinking you can go back to it at the end.

essays also take into account word length and complexity of sentence structure. it's partially graded by computer so you can bump your score if you know what to emphasize. compound sentences and long words are good (if used correctly).

oh yeah, go beyond the regular periods, commas, and question marks. Exclamation points are rarely appropriate, but colons, semicolons, and even dashes (if you know exactly how to use them) are appreciated by the reader because they show you are aware of the nuances of pause and are trying to control how the reader's mind flows through your work.

It doesn't matter. I know a bunch of people who went into Ivy leages after getting the lowest scores. Chill!!!

What test materials did the people who took the GRE's use? I found two books on amazon, Cracking the GRE from the princeton review, and GRE Exam by Kaplan.

What test materials did the people who took the GRE's use? I found two books on amazon, Cracking the GRE from the princeton review, and GRE Exam by Kaplan.

I did download the practice test from both sites, anything else I should look for?
sorry i'm a bit test anal

i used the barron's book.

i find most "advice" given in those kinds books common test taking sense so i just looked for a book with a lot of questions.

granted that the GRE is far from the most important part of an M.Arch application, does anyone know what admissions committees do if you have taken the test twice? Do they combine your highest scores like they do at the undergraduate level or do they keep them seperate?

ETS doesn't dictate anything. They release all scores to the schools and the schools have varying policies as to how they deal with them. Some schools average scores while others use only the most recent and others use the highest... It's completely up to the school.

j: this isn't a change from the past - at least not the moderately recent past. I worked for my school's admissions office as an undergrad (late 1980s/early 1990s) and this was the policy then as well.

Most schools enter test scores into a matrix, in which every applicant's scores are available in one view. For M.Arch programs the scores are not particularly important - but IF they are especially high or especially low then they may stand out in comparison to others.

could you please go to gre.org and study the website??? its pretty damn comprehensive.

dont pretend you dont have an internet connection

J+Bloopox thanks for the insight.