The McNair Scholars program At Southeast Missouri State University is hosting Graduate Record Exam preparation sessions to help students interested in pursuing graduate school.

“Unlock Your Potential” is a three-part preparation workshop free to students, but is limited to the first 40 students.

The GRE is a common entrance exam for graduate schools and the score will be placed on students’ applications, according to the director of TRIO/McNair Scholars Program, Monica Barnes.

The GRE is a four section test made up of quantitative reasoning, analytical writing, verbal reasoning and an unscored section, which can be a quantitative or verbal section.

Graduate assistant Morgan Clapham said the cutoff for graduate school is the 50th percentile in each score. The verbal and quantitative reasoning is scored from a 130 to a 170, however, schools look at what percentile your score is in. Analytical writing is scored from zero to six in half points.

Clapham has taken the GRE and tells students to actually use the preparation books they buy.

“I think my biggest advice would be to actually open the test prep book,” Clapham said. “It's so easy to go out and buy it and think, ‘Oh, I am going to study for this.’ It’s like, “Oh, I bought the books and I’m going to study for this and I’ve looked online and I know what’s on the test and then be like, OK.’ And then actually opening the book is the hard part.”

Senior Keana Henderson plans to prepare the most for the math and verbal section of the GRE. She is preparing for the exam by going to the “Unlock Your Potential” events and using the GRE app.

“Most of the schools that I have looked into admit students who score within the 50th percentile or higher, and so it kind of gives me a minimum to shoot for but it's still a minimum that is kind of hard to shoot for,” Henderson said. “So just making the minimum is still a little scary.”

Barnes suggests students attend the workshops so they can have experience with the exam.

“You have a leg up on the GRE if you already know what the test looks like and how to navigate through the test on the computer,” Barnes said. “So what's very important for students to do is to prepare themselves for the GRE. You think you might not be able to study for it, but you can.”

The first session was on Friday, Oct. 14, and focused on verbal reasoning. The second session is on Nov. 10, and will focus on math. The third session on Dec. 8 will be a mock exam, and students will be given a raw score for their exam.