The PowerScore Weekend GRE Course Syllabus
What we cover in class

The PowerScore Weekend GRE Course consists of four sessions of four hours each. Sessions I and II are taught on Saturday, and Sessions III and IV are taught on Sunday. The total in-class instruction time is sixteen hours. Your seminar booklet contains extensive discussions of GRE questions, drills, and analyses, and all attendees at the course receive the GRE Practicing to Take the General Test, 10th Edition, which contains more than 1000 actual GRE questions. Prior to the course, registered students are sent math and verbal primers including the PowerScore Roots and Affixes Dictionary™, the PowerScore GRE Lexicon™ (a compendium of key GRE words and their definitions), and the PowerScore GRE Homograph Glossary™.

The following syllabus is used in the PowerScore Weekend GRE Course:

• GRE CAT Format and Scoring Reviewed

The Format of the GRE
Experimental Questions
CAT Adaptivity and Question Order
GRE Guessing Strategy
The Critical Dynamics of CAT Pacing
GRE Pacing Strategy
Negotiating the CAT Environment

• Quantitative Section—General

Section Overview
Rules of the Quantitative Section
Quantitative Question Types
Problem Solving Questions—Word Problems
Backplugging™ an Answer Choice
Backplugging™ by Supplying Numbers
Numerical Approximation™
The Importance of Analyzing the Answer Choices
Problem Solving Questions—Data Interpretation Problems
Chart Rules and Dynamics
Quantitative Comparison Questions
Quantitative Comparison Methods and Techniques
Know, Don’t Solve™
Backplugging™ Revisited
The Possibility Matrix™
Simultaneous Column Manipulation
Working with Multiple Variables and Undefined Variables
Quantitative Comparison Traps

• Quantitative Section—Algebra

Creating Expressions
Creating Expressions—Mini-Challenge
Equations
Simplifying Equations
Solving Equations
FOIL and Quadratic Equations
Classic GRE Equation Forms
Equation Traps
Sample Equation Problems
Inequalities
Sample Inequality Problems
Functions
Sample Function Problems

• Verbal Section—General

Section Structure
Basic Verbal Principles
The Importance of Vocabulary

• Verbal Section—Antonyms

Directions and Question Format
Defining Antonyms
Initial Antonym Approaches
The Stimulus Negation Technique™
Answer Choice Elimination
Attacking an Unknown Stimulus - Five Critical Points
The Context Principle™
The Negativity Principle™
Sample Antonym Problems

• Verbal Section—Analogies

Directions and Question Format
Three Ironclad Rules for GRE Analogies
GRE Analogy Strategy - Six Critical Points
Common Analogy Traps
Common Analogy Categories
Sample Analogy Problems

• Quantitative Section—Geometry

Lines—Intersecting, Perpendicular, and Parallel
Polygons
Triangles
Classic GRE Triangles
Quadrilaterals
Circles
Solids and Volume
Coordinate Geometry
Attacking Problems and Technique Application
Formula List

• Quantitative Section—Word Problems

Rate Problems
Work Problems
Mixture Problems
Interest, Discount, and Profit Problems
Sets and Groups Problems
Probability—Single Event, Multiple Event, Conditional
Formula List

• Verbal Section—Reading Comprehension

Approaching the Passages
Common Passage Types
Accumulating and Controlling Passage Data
Common Question Types
Attacking the Questions
Political Correctness Passages
Humanities and Social Science Passages
Natural Science Passages

• Verbal Section—Sentence Completion

Directions and Question Format
Vocabulary versus Context
Context Recognition
Punctuation Review
The Four Sentence Completion Question Types
Prephrasing Possibilities
Answer Choice Elimination
Eight Sentence Completion Principles
The Single Elimination Principle™
The Affiliated Answers Principle™
Sample Sentence Completion Problems

• Analytical Writing—General

The Purpose and Use of the Analytical Writing Section
Section Scoring and Analysis
Essay Graders
Eight General Essay Points

• Analytical Writing—Issue Task

Issue Task Directions
Eight Issue Task Essay Considerations
The Issue Task Writing Template
Sample Discussion Prompts
Time Management Strategy
Issue Task Sample Responses and Criticism

• Analytical Writing—Argument Task

Five Argument Task Essay Considerations
Classic Errors of Reasoning
Argument Discussion Prompts
Time Management Strategy
Structuring Your Essay
Argument Task Sample Responses and Criticism