gre biochemistry tips


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Before the exam: • Registration for the test

https://web1.gre.org:448/gre/gremain_srv.htm

• Try to take a quick look at all the figures of “THE CELL” book (Molecular Biology of the

Cell, Alberts et al.). If you do not have this book, you can access it online here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowTOC&rid=mboc4.TOC&depth=2

Just type in keywords or chapter numbers (e.g. type in “chapter 1” or type in “apoptosis”) and then analyze the figures and read the figure captions or you can just read the whole text of the book. Alternatively, you can go to www.pubmed.com and search in the by typing: apoptosis AND mboc4[book] (do not forget to change the “PubMed” to “Books” in the drop-down menu just at the left of the search box).

• Decide to which institutions you want to send the scores to. This test is paper-based, so you have to know before the exam, where you want to send the scores and get the institution codes. You may not want to send the scores if exam doesn’t go as desired, but having the institution code numbers in your pocket before the exam is a good idea, of course, if you want to send 3 score reports for free.

• Study these topics in detail. Steps should be memorized to be able answer some of the

short but difficult questions.

o Kreb’s cycle (TCA or Citric acid cycle) o Electron Transport Chain o Urea Cycle o Photosynthesis system I o Photosynthesis system II o Replication fork

• An important note: review your classical genetics very well. Last time I took the test,

most of the questions that I found difficult were the basic genetics questions involving simple crosses. Solve several pedigree and cross problems before you take the exam, to refresh your knowledge of basic genetics.

• Solve the practice test provided by ETS (can download it from here:

http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/BioChem.pdf) and solve our practice questions and identify your weaknesses (i.e. the topics at which you are not very good yet). Make sure you strengthen your knowledge in those topics before the exam.

• Whenever you don’t understand or know a term, just look here in the glossary:

http://www.sciencelauncher.com/molbiolglossary.html

You are expected to know or at least be familiar with most of the terms in this glossary.


The exam: • Don’t forget to take an ID that has your photo, a couple of soft pencils and an eraser. • It is a long exam, so have a chocolate or something sweet before the exam. However,

remember that you will not be allowed to eat or drink during the exam, so make sure you will not be too thirsty.

• Make sure that you complete all questions. Though, don’t panic if you have many

blanks left – I have left 14 blanks and still got 93% in April 2005 test! • Don’t “just guess”. It is better to leave it blank if you’re not sure – you’ll lose 1 point for

every 4 wrong answers. Try to eliminate some of the choices and decrease the chance of being wrong (you start with 4/5) to 2/5-3/5 so that your chance of guessing and being right is 40-50%.

• Save time for the last questions – the experiment questions are usually easy to solve,

given you have enough time. So, manage your 180 minutes so that you have enough time to read those long experiment paragraphs. It is important to figure out whether you will be able to solve the questions given that you read the whole paragraph. If the technique is something TOTALLY unfamiliar to you – just skip it and save it to the end of the exam.

• There will be questions of the following type:

1) Which of the followings are zymogens?

i. Trypsinogen ii. Chymotrypsinogen iii. Pepsinogen iv. Gastrin

a) I only b) II only c) III and IV d) I, II & III e) I, II, III & IV

Use ELIMINATION strategy effectively in these types of questions. For instance, if you know that gastrin is not a zymogen, but you are not sure of others, FIRST OF ALL, eliminate choices that have IV (C and E will be eliminated). You will be left with fewer choices to work on.

• Remember that this is a paper-based test and thus, you will be filling in circles on

an answering sheet. The sheet will be provided as a separate piece of paper that is thicker than regular printing paper, which makes it easier to fill in the circles. Make sure that you do not “frameshift” your answers if you leave some of the questions blank.

• Some people like to first answer all the questions on the questionnaire and then

fill in the circles on the answering sheet at the last 10 minutes of the test. Be aware though that when the time is out, there is no more filling in the circles, so manage your time wisely if you are going to use this strategy! And make sure that the fillings are nice and beautiful, because the optical reader may not read a badly filled in circle.


After the exam: • Learn your scores and consider taking the exam second time, if time constraint

allows you to. You should be improving your score by at least 5% if you take it second time – just because it is not your FIRST TIME anymore.

• Make sure that you order additional score reports from ETS at least a couple of

weeks before the application deadline. Ordering the scores via a phone call reduces the time it takes ETS to send the scores down to 5 days. But, it is better to be safe than sorry, so manage this score reporting issue smartly.

• Additional score reports can be ordered from ETS:

http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/?vgnextoid=ef152d3631df4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=1b9c46f1674f4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD

gre biochemistry tips

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