<p>First, for the math portion of the GRE, I don’t think there’s a problem with judgment. There’s just one correct answer since the subject matter is digital (literally and figuratively). But with the language portion, my question is whether you believe someone could think to much or too deeply about such things as vocabulary choice, interpretation, writing topics. For example, say you are answering a vocabulary question, and you know a lot about language. I’ll use a hypothetical example. Say there’s a question that asks you to find the right word that implies being impartial or neutral, and the answer choices are fair, uninterested, disinterested, non-commital, and objective. I’d say the answer is ‘disinterested’ and if I trained my mind to think like a test-taker, I would just check it off and go on to the next question. But say that I was into language and began to consider the subtlties of language, and started actually thinking about them. This could make me lose time, even if my natural way of thinking is to ‘philosophize’ or some other style of thinking. Aren’t I being penalized for the way I think? If so, the verbal portion of the test might be rewarding people who ‘program’ themselves to do a ‘search and destroy’ mission sort of strategy–with the destroy part being getting the write answer.</p>
<p>Of course you can over think the verbal section (or lots of other types of tests). And of course the test is biased/unfair/at times ridiculous - but it’s a standardized test. A hoop you must jump through. You can over think this issue too…</p>
<p>standardized tests IMO test more your method than your actual knowledge. as you said you have to learn what they want. just to give you a quick example.</p>
<p>I took the TOEFL two times, the first time I scored MORE than the second. and the second time I already spent almost 2 years in the US while attending college and I was completely fluent. BUT the second time I studied much less, especially for the listening and verbal sections. I think the test didn’t test my language skills nearly as much as my method.</p>
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<p>I’m pretty sure that you’ll be penalized in the writing section :D</p>