Fill In The Blank Argumentative Essay: Fill & Download for Free

No, education very much is not easier in the UK. For comparison, I’ll use exams from my senior year at university (economics) and first anthropology master’s, where we had traditional style exams. Different subjects, but still social science, and I was past the “show your workings” stage of intro economics classes.Senior year exams (US): Each course had a 2-hour final exam, typically 30–40 questions. In some of these exams, we were expected to solve a few equations. In others, we’re asked write a paragraph or two. Exams could also include multiple choice, fill in the blank and short answer. The questions were typically stuff we had learned in lectures and been tested on previously. These exams were worth somewhere between 10% and 50% of the final grade. At that level, most of our marks came from projects and papers, which typically involved a lot of research and analysis but less thinking on our feet.Master’s level exams (UK): You are armed with a pen and a booklet of paper. Now hand-write two full 3–5 page essays on questions chosen from this list, none of which you have seen before. Don’t forget to set out your theoretical underpinnings, create a sensible essay structure and make sure your handwriting is legible. By the way, this is your whole grade. You have 2.5 hours. Go!I rarely got below a 95 in my undergraduate degree in the US. In my first Master’s program I ended up with a Merit, for which I worked my ass off, meaning that my average scores were in the high-60s. In one case, I got a 65 on an exam where I consistently got the name of the theorist wrong (apparently I perfectly recalled their argument though). The highest distinction in our year told us that he had an average score of 76, but nothing above 80.tl;dr: UK education isn’t easier. It’s just scored differently.

I’m a debater.Let me give you a little trick.Make a table with two columns, “For” and “Against”.Now start brainstorming. When you get ideas, just put them in the appropriate column. Always make sure you jump to the next row after entering one entry.Do this until you have a total of about 10 rows, each with either a “For” or “Against” entry.Now go back, and for each row, fill in the blanks. You’ll find that this is pretty easy, because you are just doing the opposite of what is there.Now you’ll have 10 Fors and 10 Againsts. The next step is to review them carefully and pick the three best for the side you are arguing. In this case, you are “Against”, so you will pick the the best “Against” arguments.Almost done! You now write your essay:IntroPoint 1Point 2Point 3ConclusionBut wait! There’s one more thing. When you write your points, you already know what the contrary arguments are, so you can cover them too!Try it. It works.

THIS IS NOT A LOT OF STUDY. Just a rather descriptive post. I did most of this in less than a week, but with long, intense study hours. Two or three weeks of relatively less manic preparation will easily finish all I've mentioned.This is not going to tell you what the GRE questions look like - all books do that, have a look before reading this. These are just a few things I observed and practised while studying for and taking the test.Schedule:I wouldn't recommend following the schedule I did. It was five days of very intense studying. Too much pressure and no fun at all.Three to four weeks would be ideal to prepare without panicking. Take a diagnostic test - found in almost all GRE books, to assess what you need to study. It's basic math and english, so studying things you already know is definitely a waste of time. Identify weaknesses and study those. Whatever you are good at can be revised later on.Quantitative Reasoning:So this is 7th grade Indian middle school math. No exaggeration, but one might have forgotten certain things. So a quick revision might help. Statistics, probability, geometry, arithmetic and algebra are covered. No trigonometry or calculus - but extremely basic trigonometry sometimes helps with the triangle questions, even though it's not prescribed to study.The best way to do this would be to do several practice sections and then revise whatever you don't know.Data interpretation questions are sometimes confusing and require practice, if only to see what they look like. There are several types of graphs that can be given and interpreting them may require different methods. These questions sometimes take longer than others, so I always left these to solve last.Quantitative comparison questions often have corner cases that you may not consider if you haven't practised them enough. There are two quantities given and they are to be compared. So do plenty of these questions in order to understand what sort of values can be used to test the quantities. Generally important are using values like 1, -1, 0, negative and positive fractions apart from other real numbers/integers.This is true of the GRE in general, but more so in quant. Do not assume anything! Figures are NOT drawn to scale. Something that looks like a right angle is NOT a right angle unless it is marked or specified.The rest of quant is basic math, make sure every topic is refreshed. It shouldn't take too long, if you were good at high school math. If a lot has been forgotten, practice! Quant is definitely the easier GRE section for a large percentage of test takers.What most people realise is that the quant sections are extremely easy, but it's also very easy to make (incredibly) silly errors. Quant sections are 35 minutes, 20 questions. Most questions do not take over a minute to solve. I tried to solve all questions within 20 minutes and use the remainder to solve ALL the questions again. I changed a couple of wrong answers in my actual GRE on doing this, so it's rather important to CHECK each answer at least once. Do not check passively. Check a problem by solving as if it's the first time you're seeing it - in practice tests as well.Verbal Reasoning:Verbal reasoning questions are text completion, sentence equivalence or reading comprehension.I won't describe what these questions look like, but what I studied and practised.Reading comprehension (RC) - none of my practice tests (Barrons, ETS) had RCs as difficult as the ones I saw on the GRE. The multiple choice questions have confusing, convoluted answer options - and often, two answers seem equally likely. In my opinion, the only way to overcome this is by doing a few *difficult* RCs and looking at answer explanations, understanding why one option is more likely to be correct. I did not do ANY practice comprehensions that were as difficult as the actual test, but ETS Powerprep comes quite close.Another thing with RCs is that some of them are long - over 6 paragraphs. It is important to know how to handle such passages without losing track of the content while reading - so practice doing these questions.NEVER assume anything in RCs. Everything you need is in the paragraph. They are not asking for your opinion or assumptions. If something is asserted in an answer choice, but it is not implied from the paragraph - it is wrong, no matter how logical/correct/appropriate it may seem to you. The world is ONLY the respective reading matter and not the world around you. It has to be implied or mentioned by the passage.Coming to text completion and sentence equivalence, blanks need to be filled in with appropriate words. This is one of the most challenging parts of the GRE because the answer options are words that might not be present in an average vocabulary.Improving ones vocabulary is best done by reading plenty. But GRE prep time may not be sufficient for reading a lot, so other sources can be used.Apart from actually *knowing* a word, context and elimination of other options is VERY useful. In sentence equivalence, you have to select two equivalent options. If an option is not similar/equivalent in meaning to any other option (IN THE CONTEXT), eliminate it. Read the sentence/text to be completed and understand the context before selecting options.In the GRE I wrote, all words except ONE were found in the following sources:1. My pre-GRE vocabulary2. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis3. Barron's 1100 Words You Need To Know4. Magoosh Basic Wordlists and Common Wordlists5. Barron's 333 high frequency wordsWhen I took the diagnostic test, I identified vocabulary as my weakness and concentrated most efforts on that section (so my initial vocabulary wasn't spectacular).I covered the other sources in their entirety. It does not take very long if you can do 300 words a day, but that is rather painful. If you have over two weeks, do 20-50 words a day and keep revising. WRITE DOWN words you don't know with their meanings. It is so much easier to revise from your own handwriting than from print. I can't stress that enough. Revise all previously done words every day.Rote learning of words will NOT HELP. The ETS is testing your English skill and NOT your learning-of-definitions skill. So it's very important to learn words in context. Barron's 1100 does exactly this and I highly recommend it for everyone. Words are given in a (funny) story and I often remembered several words because of the stories I learnt them in.Word Power Made Easy is also brilliant. It takes a bit long to read, but keep at it. It teaches word roots so deciphering unknown words becomes easy. Apart from roots, several common GRE words are taught as well - in a format that is structured. Again, no word-definition pairs. It's interesting with plenty of humourous examples.Magoosh's flashcards are GREAT on the go! Android and iOS have an app. WinPhone users (like me!) can use any third party app that extracts flashcards from Quizlet.They *are* word-definition pairs and are not sufficient to learn context properly. But I used them simply because I always had my phone around. Any free fifteen minutes was spent revising a few words. Basic and common Magoosh lists are a must-do. I did not touch the advanced words at all.Flashcards at: chloemoreno | QuizletAlso on the Magoosh website.Barron's 333 high frequency words are a quick revision of supposedly common GRE words.The vocabulary isn't extremely challenging. These are words used in everyday high-level conversation. I did not see more than two or three advanced words on the actual test. Again, all words except one were from the sources studied. Know the basic words before you move to advanced in any wordlist!Alphabetical wordlists are confusing and rather painful, in my opinion. But if you can bear with them, go for it.I wish I had had time to make synonym trees. Try doing so -How to Tidy up the Vocab Clutter-Synonym Trees (Part 1).Barron's 800 essential words is useful too, I have heard. I did not have time to go through it.For verbal as a whole, do timed practice sections. See where time is being wasted and try to cut down. With confusing answer choices, several minutes are lost in debating with yourself - try not to do that. Mark the question (the software allows marking) and come back to it later.30 minutes, 20 questions - one minute per question would be great. I always did text/sentence questions first (as they were quick) following which I did RCs in increasing length of reading matter, simply because I didn't want to spend initial time reading long passages. Figure out a pattern in your practice sections that works well for you and follow it.AWA:AWA is supposedly not very important for engineering programs (I don't know how far this is true). However, ONE practice essay of each type (Issue, Argumentative) is a must. ALL possible topics are already on the internet, published by ETS themselves - check the official website. Unfortunately, there are around 200 for each essay type, so practising all of them is near impossible. Writing in 30 minutes is not easy, so practice at least once.Issue essay - read sample essays (from ETS and the internet) and figure out what pattern of paragraphs you want to use.The essay is essentially asking you to analyse an issue, take a stand and support with examples. The stand does NOT have to be either for or against the issue. It could be inclined towards one side or even ambivalent, if you can substantiate it.I used introduction, brief body about my opinion and example 1, example 2, example 3, contradiction and justification, conclusion - 6 paragraphs.Contradiction is a paragraph where you approach the opposite stand and justify your stand with that view - like arguing with a completely opposite opinion.Argument essay - read samples (from ETS and the internet).Also, definitely look up the kinds of logical fallacies common to GRE argument essay topics. There aren't many (maybe five or six) and are easily identifiable. If you can detect three or four logical fallacies, you're set to write the essay.Pattern I used - introduction, fallacy 1, 2, 3, recommendations, conclusion - 6 paragraphs.GRE ESSAY GUIDETop 5 Strategies for the GRE Argument EssayBarron's Test Prep Blog - Online Education and Test PrepLong essays are preferred for both topics - look at ETS samples. 5-6 paragraphs is sufficient.<begin Anjishnu Kumar>The first thing about the essays - They are NOT testing how great of a creative writer you are. Do NOT try to use them to express your originality.They are testing articulation, perfect grammar and logical structure - so use simple language as far as possible and easy to understand sentences.Have a relatively rigid sentence structure for your essay - you then can devote more time to coming up with points to write and less time thinking about how to start the essay and conclude.Spend the first few minutes thinking about what you are going to write before you start typing- finish with time to spare and spend a few minutes proofreading what you write. Practice writing with a 20 minute time limit, it's OK if you overshoot a bit.BTW, they aren't important for MS programs, but PhD programs look at AWA scores very seriously.<end Anjishnu Kumar>Other:Powerprep II, the ETS Software - available freely on their website athttps://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/powerprep2.MUST DO. The software is exactly what the computer GRE test uses. The standard of questions is very similar as well.Make sure all questions in the ETS textbook are done as well - easy, medium and hard. Standard is like the GRE. Sample essays from this book are a must-read.TIMED PRACTICE SECTIONS are very important. The GRE is equally about speed and accuracy.I also took a few Barron's practice sections just for more exposure to different questions.I have heard Manhattan's practice tests are of high difficulty. They can be used if you are comfortable with everything else. I did not use them, though.Read Quora answers/blogs/Facebook help pages for recommendations on other practice resources. I only did timed section practices as I did not have much time. But for familiarity with questions, several huge question banks (Manhattan 5 lb, for example) are available.