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CS GRE
From dankwiki
Anything above a 800 (it's on a 200-990-point scale) seems pretty good (I've heard the stat that 8% of takers get a perfect score). It appears that quality single-volume preparation materials cannot be had at any price. Perhaps one ought be written?
- ETS Practice Booklet (PDF), from the Computer Science Exam page
(This second link is pretty dubiously-formed; YMMV. Go to the GRE page, click on Subject Info details, click on Computer Science Dank 14:58, 30 July 2009 (UTC))
- UCB notes from 2001
- GT notes from 2006
- 100 shareware CS GRE-like problems from Christopher Scaffidi
Books used to prepare
- Software Systems and Methodology
- Peter Van Roy and Seif Haridi, Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming, 1st Edition
- Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd Edition
- Computer Organization and Architecture
- John Hennessy and David Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, 4th Edition
- Theory and Mathematical Background
- Thomas Cormen, Charles Leiserson and Ron Rivest, Introduction to Algorithms, 1st Edition
- Michael Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation, 1st Edition
Subject Material
| Area (outline taken from the ETS CS GRE page, 2009-07-30 1500 UTC) | References |
|---|---|
| SOFTWARE SYSTEMS AND METHODOLOGY - 40% | |
| Data Organization | |
| Data types | |
| Data structures and implementation techniques | |
| Program control and structure | |
| Iteration and recursion | |
| Procedures, functions, methods, and exception handlers | |
| Concurrency, communication, and synchronization | |
| Programming languages and notation | |
| Constructs for data organization and program control | |
| Scope, binding, and parameter passing | |
| Expression evaluation | |
| Software engineering | |
| Formal specifications and assertions | |
| Verification techniques | |
| Software development models, patterns, and tools | |
| Systems | |
| Compilers, interpreters, and run-time systems | |
| Operating systems, including resource management and protection/security | |
| Networking, Internet, and distributed systems | |
| Databases | |
| System analysis and development tools | |
| COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE - 15% | |
| Digital logic design | |
| Implementation of combinational and sequential circuits | |
| Optimization and analysis | |
| Processors and control units | |
| Instruction sets | |
| Computer arithmetic and number representation | |
| Register and ALU organization | |
| Data paths and control sequencing | |
| Memories and their hierarchies | |
| Performance, implementation, and management | |
| Cache, main, and secondary storage | |
| Virtual memory, paging, and segmentation | |
| Networking and communications | |
| Interconnect structures (e.g., buses, switches, routers) | |
| I/O systems and protocols | |
| Synchronization | |
| High-performance architectures | |
| Pipelining superscalar and out-of-order execution processors | |
| Parallel and distributed architectures | |
| THEORY AND MATHEMATICAL BACKGROUND - 40% | |
| Algorithms and complexity | |
| Exact and asymptotic analysis of specific algorithms | |
| Algorithmic design techniques (e.g. greedy, dynamic programming, divide and conquer) | |
| Upper and lower bounds on the complexity of specific problems | |
| Computational complexity, including NP-completeness | |
| Automata and language theory | |
| Models of computation (finite automata, Turing machines) | |
| Formal languages and grammars (regular and context free) | |
| Decidability | |
| Discrete structures | |
| Mathematical logic | |
| Elementary combinatorics and graph theory | |
| Discrete probability, recurrence relations, and number theory | |
| OTHER TOPICS - 5% | |
| Example areas include numerical analysis, artificial intelligence, computer graphics, cryptography, security, and social issues. | |
