GRE Psychology Test: Strategies and Overview

• This book contains a full-length GRE Psychology Test and test-taking strategies.
• It helps in gaining familiarity with the test structure, content, instructions, and answering procedures.
• Compare practice test results with the performance of those who took the test at a GRE administration.

Table of Contents

• The book covers an overview, test content, preparation, test-taking strategies.
• It also discusses score meaning, taking/scoring the practice test, evaluating performance, scoring worksheets, and a score conversion table.

Overview

• The GRE® Psychology Test has 144 multiple-choice questions.
• Stimulus materials like experiments or graphs may be the basis for several questions.
• The testing time is 2 hours with no separate sections.
• The publication provided is an overview of the test.
• It is designed to help test-takers understand what is being tested.
• Test-takers will gain familiarity with question types, review test-taking strategies, understand scoring, and practice taking the test.
• Further details on the GRE Subject Tests and their computer-based administration are provided, and they are administered beginning in September 2023.

Test Content

• The Psychology Test questions come from undergraduate-level psychology courses.
• Questions may require factual recall, relationship analysis, principle application, data conclusion, and/or research design evaluation.
• The Psychology Test yields a total scaled score and six percent correct scores, and is administered beginning in September 2023.
• The correct score pertains to the following content areas: Biological, Cognitive, Social, Developmental, Clinical, and Measurement/Methodology/Other.
• Questions are distributed throughout the test, and are not labeled separately, although several questions from a single content area may appear consecutively.
• Major content categories include: Biological, Cognitive, Social, Developmental, Clinical, and Measurement/Methodology/Other.

Biological Content

• The Biological section has 30 questions.
• Topics include Sensation and Perception, as well as Physiological/Behavioral Neuroscience.
• Sensation and Perception involves psychophysics, signal detection, attention, perceptual organization, vision, audition, gustation, olfaction, somatosenses, vestibular and kinesthetic senses, theories, applications, and issues.
• Physiological/Behavioral Neuroscience includes neurons, sensory/motor structures and functions.
• More topics include central structures and processes, motivation, arousal, emotion, cognitive neuroscience, neuromodulators/drugs, hormonal factors, comparative/ethology, states of consciousness, theories, applications, and issues.

Cognitive Content

• The Cognitive section has 29 questions.
• Topics include Learning and Language.
• Learning involves classical/instrumental conditioning, observational learning/modeling, theories, applications, and issues.
• Language includes units (phonemes, morphemes, phrases), syntax, meaning, and speech perception/processing.

Social Content

• The Social section has 19 questions.
• Topics include social perception, cognition, attribution, beliefs, attitudes, behavior, social comparison, and self.
• More topics covered include emotion, affect, motivation, conformity, influence, persuasion, interpersonal attraction, relationships, group processes cultural or gender influences, evolutionary psychology, altruism, and aggression.
• It also touches on theories, applications, and issues.

Developmental Content

• The Developmental section has 18 questions.
• Topics include nature/nurture, physical/motor development, perception/cognition, language, learning, and intelligence.
• More topics also include social/personality, emotion, socialization, family, cultural influences, theories, applications, and issues.

Clinical Content

• The clinical section has 23 questions.
• Topics include personality and clinical/abnormal psychology.
• Personality touches on theories, structure, assessment, personality/behavior, and applications/issues.
• Clinical/Abnormal psychology includes stress, conflict, diagnostic systems, assessment, causes/development of disorders, neurophysiological factors, and disorders' treatments.
• Epidemiology, prevention, health psychology, cultural/gender issues, theories, applications, and issues are also discussed.

Measurement, Methodology, and Other

• The Measurement, Methodology, and Other section has 25 questions.
• Topics include general issues and measurement/methodology.
• General includes History, Industrial-Organizational, and Educational aspects.
• Measurement/Methodology encompasses psychometrics, test construction, reliability, validity, research designs, statistical procedures, a scientific method regarding the evaluation of Evidence, Ethics/Legal issues, and Analysis/Interpretation findings.

Preparing for the Test

• GRE Subject Test measures skills and knowledge over time, with long-term preparation, and is more helpful than last-minute cramming.
• Reviewing college courses is the best preparation for the test.
• The test covers a broad range, and no one should be familiar with every question's content.
• Become familiar with the types of questions in the GRE, paying attention to the directions, in order to use more time during the test to focus on its questions.
• The computer-based administration of the test begins in September 2023.

Test-Taking Strategies

• Questions in the practice test show examples of multiple-choice questions.
• Read test directions carefully, and work as rapid as possible, without being careless.
• Always choose the best answer from available options.
• All questions have equal value, so don't waste time on the more difficult or unfamiliar.
• Work through the test quickly, first answering questions confidently, then going back to the more thought-provoking, before concluding with the most difficult questions.
• The score relies on the number of correct answers.
• Incorrect/multiple answers count as incorrect.
• Nothing less is ever subtracted, maximizing your score by guessing answers without leaving blanks.

What Your Scores Mean

• The number of correctly answered questions (total correct score) is turned into a total scaled score for score reporting.
• This conversion ensures that scaled scores reported for editions of the GRE Psychology Test are comparable to other editions.
• Equal scaled scores on particular tests show similar levels of performance.
• GRE Psychology total scaled scores reported are between are from 200 to 990, with ten-point increments.
• A total score of 740 on the Psychology Test means something completely different when compared to a Math Test.

Percent Correct Scores in Content Areas

• Six percent correct scores (Biological, Cognitive, Social, Developmental, Clinical, Measurement, Methodology) are reported on a range from 0 to 100 percent.
• These percents indicate how many questions are answered correctly within content areas.
• Percent scores from different test editions can't be compared because they are simply not the same.
• For example, a percent correct score of 80 on Cognitive from one Psychology Test edition is not equivalent to a percent correct score of 80 on Cognitive from another Psychology Test edition.

Taking the Practice Test

• The practice test begins on page 7, and should take 2 hours.
• Taking practice tests, as conditions allow, is important.
• Use a quiet place and a minimum of 2 hours to fully study.
• Before beginning, collect scratch paper for notes/calculations, noting the time and beginning to mark your answers, ultimately only ceasing after 2 hours pass.

Scoring the Practice Test

• Page 32 contains a worksheet that lists the correct answers to the questions.
• The 'correct Response' columns are for you to mark the questions answered correctly.
• The "Content Area" column indicates the primary content area to which each question contributes.
• Mark the questions you answered correctly and add up your answers, while entering your total number of correct answers in the “Total Correct” space at the bottom of page 33.
• Next, use the "Total Score" conversion table that is located on page 34 to find the corresponding scaled score. For example, choosing correct answers to 136 questions results in a "Total Correct" entry in the table equal to 820.
• To calculate each correct score, you must enter the number you answered correctly in each of the six content areas that are located in corresponding "questions Correct in Content Area" spaces
• Compute this score by dividing the numbers answered correctly in the content area by the total number of questions within that content area, and multiplying by 100, ultimately rounding off to the nearest whole number. For example, answering 14 of the 30 questions in content area 1 correctly yields a scaled score of 47.

Evaluating Performance

• Now that you have scored your test, you may now compare its performance with the performance of those who also took the test.
• The worksheets on pages 32 and 33 are based on the performance of a sample of those taking the GRE Psychology Test.
• Numbers in the 'P+' column on the worksheet indicate percentages of examinees who are in the example that got each questions correct.
• These 'P+' numbers serve as your guide.
• The interpretive data is based on scores that were earned by a recent cohort of test takers, as well as scores that can be found at the GRE website.
• It displays, for scaled scores, the percentage of test takers that also received lower scores. Comparing yourself to this population can also be done by seeing the percentage next to the scaled scoring
• Note that this "interpretive data" is updated and reported in the yearly reports given back.
• These percent scores tell you about your strengths and weaknesses (6) that are found in the 6 sections of the GRE Psychology Test, with a desire to concentrate review efforts in areas of content where your percent correct scores aren't doing too well there.
• Note that conditions under which the testing occurs aren't going to be the same as any actual testing administration
• It is not possible to predict how different testing conditions will affect the individual. Comparing your performance with others who took the test will help you to determine your strengths and weaknesses, enabling you to form a program to prepare yourself for the GRE test under specific conditions.

A comprehensive guide for the GRE Psychology Test, featuring a full-length practice test and strategies. Gain familiarity with the test structure, content, and instructions. Compare your practice test performance.