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From: news@cit-vax.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.college,comp.edu
Subject: Re: Preparing for GRE's (especially Computer Science)
Message-ID: <1752@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Wed, 11-Feb-87 03:40:44 EST
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.1752
Posted: Wed Feb 11 03:40:44 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Feb-87 23:53:43 EST
References: <9186@duke.duke.UUCP>
Reply-To: jon@oddhack.UUCP (Jon Leech)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 44
Xref: utgpu soc.college:230 comp.edu:85

Organization : California Institute of Technology
Keywords: GRE
From: jon@oddhack.Caltech.Edu (Jon Leech)
Path: oddhack!jon

In article <9186@duke.duke.UUCP> ravi@duke.UUCP (Ravi Subrahmanyan) writes:
>Can anyone advise me as to the best way to prepare for GREs? (Especially
>the Computer Science one?)

	Read Knuth (don't spend much time on the complex sorting and
numerical stuff). Ignore all your classes. I can't remember any CS GRE
questions that were related to any class I took here. Be familiar with
basic concepts: algorithms and data structures, digital logic, etc.

	Oh yes: make SURE to get lots of sleep the night before. It's a pity
the subject test is in the afternoon, when you're already burned out by
the generals.

>Can anyone recommend a good book to review all the CS thoery I have either
>forgot or never learned?

	Knuth. Just skip over all the code written in his horrible
assembler notation (MIX, I think it's called), and concentrate on the
algorithms themseleves.

>DO GREs really matter?

	Depends on the grad school. I found it trivial to get an impressive
score but some people seem to think GREs actually indicate something other
than one's ability to memorize. As for my personal opinion on GREs and
similar stuff:

       "Anthropometry, or measurement of the human body, is not so
	fashionable a field these days, but it dominated the human
	sciences for much of the nineteenth century and remained 
	popular until intelligence testing replaced skull measurement
	as a favored device for making invidious comparisons among
	races, classes, and sexes."

	Stephen Jay Gould in ``The Panda's Thumb''

    -- Jon Leech (jon@csvax.caltech.edu || ...seismo!cit-vax!jon)
    Caltech Computer Science Graphics Group
    __@/