How to Study for the GRE

The Graduate Record Examination, GRE for short, is a standardized test that evaluates the applicant’s rational and analytical skills in reading, writing, and mathematics.

We suggest you devote between four and twelve weeks to GRE preparation.

1. Find your baseline

Your standard score is the score you would obtain if you took the GRE today. To make a study plan, take a full-length GRE practice test under the identical testing setting as the similar or actual thing. The results will assess your preparation by giving you an idea which content areas you need to focus on and prepare the most.

2. Fix your target GRE score

At this time, you must be making a list of the graduate programs that interest you. Compare your practice test score against the regular GRE scores of the most recent incoming class to each program (find this information on the school website or in grad school profiles). Your target score is one that would put you above your aimed score.

3. Make a plan to close the gap

Whether you are opting for prep course, online program, or a test prep book, you need an intense prep plan that will evaluate your skills and level thoroughly and give you the results you need. With a little exploration you’ll discover the true environment for you.

4. Practice for technique

Concentrate on how you evaluate each question while taking practice trial tests and drills. If you emphasis on just the results, you do nothing more than underscore the way you are taking the test right now. The techniques you use and the way you solve a problem are what help you get better at taking the GRE.

5. Review your results

Always critically review your test results after taking GRE practice exams. What kinds of questions you are missing or consistently failing at. What question types do you tend to champ, and which ones you are attempting slowly?

This is where taking a help from a tutor or expert can really give you a leg up. Preparation for the test is only partially about becoming skilled at content—it’s also about your striding and test-taking skills. To be completely set to give a test, we recommend that you sit down with a tutor to evaluate your performance on practice exams and make an effective and smart plan to meet your GRE score goal.

7. Build up your GRE vocabulary

For the verbal part, vocab is an important content part. You can get a grip of many of the words that will show up on the GRE by reading journals and publications such as academic journals or some of the more scholarly newspapers and magazines. Make a list of words and add new words as and when you come across them. They have been used before on the GRE and they may very well be used again. You can also find the vocab catalog online.

8. Practice with and without a calculator

A calculator is provided to the test-takers in GRE as an on-screen display, and it can benefit you hugely if used correctly! But the calculator can also be a problem. Figure out how you can achieve the same accuracy without a calculator.

You can find many free GRE practice tests online. Here is one by Princeton University.