GRE是去年年底考的，當時考完很累，又在忙著申請大學，沒有機會寫一篇總結。但是說真的，準備GRE的備考過程，本身就是一段值得回憶的人生經驗。筒子們，不要把GRE當成一件讓人痛苦的事去做，而要想想過程中的所獲所得，這樣子你的學習效率會更高，而且你不僅僅是在準備一個考試，更學到了很多東西，打開了一個新的視野去看待。

1）選用好的工具去準備復習。

我們生活在一個有各種方便學習工具的年代，應該好好利用這些東西來準備GRE。在這里我推薦以下幾種我用過的：

有道詞典 （這個APP可以裝在手機上，可以裝在電腦上，不管android/iOS還是windows/Mac都有版本，里面*有用的是一個叫有道單詞本的東西，記過的單詞，可以儲存起來，隨時隨地都可以看，還可以自行customize測試題）

你的手機里的各種GRE做題程序。尤其推薦iPad上一款叫GRE+, 由Arcadia Prep, Inc準備的數學題。非常好。

EverNote （一個我放在iPad上可以隨時記作文靈感的app，手機上也有，記錄了所有的作文題，沒事翻出來一個看看然后想points）

2）瀏覽有用的網站

寄托，chasedream這些國內知名的準備gre的網站我就不提了

推薦Magoosh () 網站。這個網站真的非常好。大家應該去看。比什么Kaplan, Princeton Review來得好多，對GRE的分析很到位，很細膩。

3）看英文的一些新聞

比較簡單的英文文章可以在The Atlantic, Good Magazine, New York Times看到。還有比較晦澀難懂的，譬如Barnes & Noble Review。鑒于GRE經常時不時考一些book review的文章，看這個會有幫助。

啊。。。有點扯題了。我好想本來應該討論作文的，結果討論成籠統的整個gre了。。。好吧，我現在開始講我怎么準備作文的。

1）首先是搜集材料。

寫GRE作文里面有一個很有用的論證方法就是舉例論證。當然有很多更抽象的方法可以來證明我們的觀點。但是舉例論證無疑是*容易的。那么例子從哪里來呢？

與其去學習其他GRE作文的例子，不如自己搜集例子，這樣可以避免抄襲。而且自己得來的資料自己也比較熟悉。不會說臨時忘記時間人物地點什么的。

例子不宜多。太多記不住。每個分類的記錄幾個正的反的。

比如，關于政治家的ethic problem，可以用，或者來做例子。

每個分類都應該有自己的例子。政治有政治的例子。歷史有歷史的例子。教育有教育的例子。

如果能用時下最新新聞里報道的一些事來做例子，那是再好不過。讓改卷人耳目一新，而不是一直看著那幾個翻來覆去反復使用的舊故事。

2）分類準備points

這里我強烈推薦大家去用《誰來拯救我的GRE ISSUE》一書。寄托里有人分享下載。

當然，我沒有那么多的時間，去整本看完。我主要是看它的分類。一共有五大分類：歷史文化傳播， 思想文化行為，成長學習教育，政治法律社會，科技生活時代。每個大分類之下，又把類似的文章分成幾個小類別。所以，只要這些小類別，你都去想想一些points，正反的觀點。然后看看你那幾個自己備用的例子能不能adapt上去，就相當于整個題目你已經提前審題好了。

我來一個example吧：

- 關于政治家的道德， 有以下兩個小題目：

104: To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards. (Claim)

107: To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards. (Statement)

我的提綱是這樣的：

Introduction: I fundamentally agree that public officials must adhere to high ethical and moral standards which are beneficial to the their leadership as well as the society, although it is not their political duty to pursue the highest uprightness in morality.

First of all, public morality and successful leadership are for sure closely connected.

Consider many leaders, such as Hitler, whom most people would agree were egregious violators of public morality -> such leaders forfeit their leadership as a result of the immoral means by which they obtained or wielded their power.

Watergate scandal (a break-in into Democratic National Committee offices before American election and the subsequent attempts in cover-up by Nixon; Nixon administration's abuse of power toward the goal of undermining political opposition). President Nixon, whose contempt for the very legal system that afforded him his leadership led to his forfeiture of it.

The leader has a social responsibility to be morally upright in order to set a good example for the society

All the people who deal with him, whether those working under him or the common people , look up to him. He has responsibilities that he has to fulfill. Such an official needs to be exemplary by setting moral standards . This is because a good leader should act as a motivator and the best motivation to adhere to rules and regulations can be provided by a leader if he practices the regulations himself.

Bill Clinton: Although he was involved in the Lewinsky Scandal , he was considered to be an effective leader. But immorality is very infectious and could creep into the system very quickly . Thus people who would not support my stand could have Mr. Clinton as an excuse for being effective without being a man of morals and integrity. If moral values are compromised by leaders or if they are found to be involved in scandals , their image is smeared in the eyes of the people . Their decisions are scrutinized and their motives will be doubted. This would lead to ineffective leadership. He could have been a more effective leader if he would not have been involved in such a scandal. He admitted his mistake and finally he ,too stuck to morality to salvage his lost pride .

However, it is unrealistic to demand highest or complete pureness in politicians' morality.

In Machiavellians' political thoughts, it is of most importance for politicians to maintain his power and orderliness of the state instead of pursuit of justice.

Politicians are ruling a world which is itself not morally good.

Some prominent figures lie, not for self-serving reasons, but in attempt to secure what they saw as morally important political goals.

In those elections, you can't expect whatever the candidate says is true. They are using political tactics or tricks to convince the electorate to vote for them.

As long as ... then it is okay.

這個提綱可能過于詳細了。但是你要知道，經常這樣去brainstorm，有時候一個題目總是忍不住就會有很多想法，于是靈感就來了。東西也寫出來了。

再給一個比較難的提綱，關于藝術的。同樣，是《誰來拯救我的GRE ISSUE》那本書的一個分類，叫“藝術與可理解性”。

55: In order for any work of art—for example, a film, a novel, a poem, or a song—to have merit, it must be understandable to most people. (Statement)

Introduction: I fundamentally disagree with the claim because there are many invaluable artistic works which are not understood by most common people. （首先想好自己的立場）

1. The artists might be ahead of time and produce works which are not appreciated and understood by contemporary people. （靈感來了，記下）

（1. Visual arts, Vincent van gogh. （凡高的例子。這個例子去熟悉一下，以后藝術的題還可以重復用）

（2. Nowadays people appreciate the impressive strokes and colors used in his paintings. Many works received high acclaims such as the starry night.

（ 3. However his works were ignored when he was alive.

2. The artistic beauty of a good piece of work might be appealing even though people do not truly understand it's meaning.

（1. song can be merited even if its lyrics are not understandable. The music of the song can be appealing even though it is in a different language. The synthesis of sounds of various musical instruments can create an extremely mellifluous tune attracting people and surpassing the fact that they do not understand its meaning. This explains songs being popular globally.

(2. People feel the emotions, although they interpret it differently in mixture with their emotions.

3. Sometimes the merits of a work can only be judged by select group of people.

( 1. Shakespeare's works.

(2. There are very few people who understand Shakespeare’s plays in its original form. Yet it is truly known work of merit. This is because people need a level of literary skills to be able to comprehend it. This brings it to a higher than the ordinary literary works and sets it apart. The very fact that most people cannot understand some literary works grants it merit, as it needs skill to understand it.

3）以上講了怎么去搜集材料，怎么去根據文章分類來brainstorm和列提綱。不過*重要的，是你要有幾次練筆的機會。

很多人因為對寫作文本身就有一種恐懼感，總覺得“不知道怎么寫啊”，于是遲遲不去動筆。這是錯誤的。從來不去嘗試，根本找不到感覺，就算你列再多的提綱，看再多的范文，也很難有那種考場上筆很順的感覺。

另外一個極端的情況是，不停的寫，不停的寫，卻從來不去問自己有哪些地方需要improve，這也是錯誤的。對于語法錯誤，當然找個朋友幫忙看一下是沒問題。但是有一些邏輯上的錯誤，其實平時不一定要直接把作文給朋友看（朋友可能很忙），而是跟朋友討論一下，這樣一個題目，我這樣一個思路，邏輯對不對，好不好，會不會很幼稚，會不會很怪，有沒有更讓人耳目一新的表達手法，等等。

關于開寫，*需要把握的是自己的時間。

有兩種寫作時間的掌控方法。

3.1）一種是按部就班。先花五分鐘涉及全文思路，然后開始introduction, paragraph 1, paragraph 2那樣寫個梗概。例子先不寫。論證先不寫。但是有個文章的枝干在那里。直到所有的points都列出來了，開始填進去例子和論證。

3.2）有些人容易在introduction那里卡半天。這種情況我建議直接開始寫paragraph 1，然后文章軸心部分寫完了，回頭填一個introduction。可以避免浪費時間在introduction上，導致文章主干部分沒時間寫。