Psychology Testing: MAT and GRE
General Strategy
Take the tests you need the summer after your junior year or fall of your senior year in October; don't wait until December; many competitive programs have December 1, December 15, January 1 or January 15 deadlines. ETS usually requires 6-8 weeks to score and send out the results of the GRE. Taking the test later than October may mean that your test results are not sent to your graduate schools in time.
Check the graduate programs to which you plan to apply and see which tests are required. Some programs require both the General and Subject GREs; others, just the General. Some require the GRE and the MAT.
Find the dates of testing and register for a convenient date. There are registration booklets for the GRE in the Psychology Department Office or you can go the GRE website. You may want to consider computerized testing. If you do decide to test this way, make sure you practice test-taking strategies that are compatible with computer testing.
Types of Tests
Analogies require some abstract thinking and correct solutions require that one make connections, sometimes between very disparate concepts. For instance,
puppy : dog
kitten : ?
Practice solving analogies before taking the test. There is a book available in the Psychology Department which may help with this task.
General test. If you cannot take the GRE General test in October then arrange to take the computerized test which can be taken at any time; the cost is about twice that of written test.
Practice the verbal, quantitative, and analytical tests with a good practice book. These books help you to review concepts that you may have forgotten as well as teaching and reviewing test-taking strategies that are important in taking timed tests. Remember to guess if you don't know the answer because you are not penalized.
Subject test. Some graduate program require the psychology subject test as well as the general test. Take as many of your psychology courses as possible before the test. Re-read a good introductory psychology text for the subject test; make sure you know cognitive and physiological psychology. Don't guess unless you can eliminate at least two of the choices because you ARE penalized for wrong answers (1/4 pt.). Read through Practicing to take the GRE Psychology Test. . . or another text to learn test-taking strategies, etc.