Get Prepared for the GRE

Get a Great GRE Score

Take the stress out of the process by developing a plan. Here is a simple strategy for getting the highest score you possibly can on the GRE.

1. Know What to Expect on the GRE

   1. Know What to Expect on the GRE

   The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) was created in 1949 to test the verbal, quantitative, and analytical skills of graduate school applicants. The test is a general one, intended to measure the long-term accumulation of some of the skills useful for graduate study; separate GRE Subject tests (Biochemistry, Biology, Cell and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Literature in English, Mathematics, Physics, and Psychology) cover curriculum-specific topics, so the main test is more general.

   The test has three scored sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytical Writing. The Verbal and Quantitative sections have a scaled score range of 200-800 in ten-point increments; the Analytical writing section's score ranges from 0-6, in half-point increments. There is also often an experimental section of the test; the test-taker is not usually informed which section is experimental, and therefore must devote the same effort to it as to the scored sections.

   Where the computer-based GRE is available, test-takers can take the test year-round, though no more often than once a month or five times in a year, even when the score is canceled. A paper-based GRE is offered in places where a computer-based GRE is not available; see the ETS website for details.

2. Master the Skills Covered on the three sections of the GRE (Verbal, Quantitative and Analytical Writing)

   2. Master the Skills Covered on the Three Sections of the GRE

   The Analytical Writing section is the first one on the test, and consists of two essays, an Issue and an Argument. The Issue essay gives you 45 minutes to choose and analyze one of two essay topics. The Argument essay task gives you 30 minutes to critique and improve an argument, with no choice in topic. In both cases it is more important that your essay be well-constructed and well-written than it is to believe what you are writing. It is likewise more important that your essays be clear than that they be clever. In other words, you should only try to do what you know: using bigger or rarer words than you normally use, writing more complex sentences than you normally do, or adding additional ideas to the essay late may boost your score if you do them right, but will hurt your score if your misuse of such things confuses your reader or prevents you from finishing the essays. It is also worth your time to outline your essays before you start writing, as it allows your intro and conclusion to most closely match the body of your essay.

   The Verbal Reasoning section consists of antonyms, analogies, sentence completions, and reading comprehension questions. The first three are tests of your vocabulary, and all four rely a great deal on the amount and nature of your reading over a long period of time. For all question types, readings in the Humanities are the most likely to improve your vocabulary. Antonyms ask you to identify the answer choice that is most completely opposite the word given; in many cases having a general sense of the word's meaning is enough to get you the correct answer. Analogies give you a pair of words, and ask you to find the answer choice with a pair of words that most closely matches the relationship of the initial pair; putting the original pair of words into a sentence that defines the relationship and then reading each answer choice into that same sentence will allow you to both eliminate wrong answer choices and refine your sense of the words' relationship. Sentence completions ask you to complete a sentence with one or two blanks, using the clues in the rest of the sentence; reading carefully for sense clues (the difference between the effect of "and" or "but" on what follows, for instance) in your first reading will allow you to predict the kind of word(s) you're looking for before you look at the answer choices. Reading comprehension questions will be based on a longer passage; you will answer several questions referring to that passage.

   The Quantitative Reasoning section tests high school math topics with two question types: problem solving, which ask you to find the specific answer among the choices, and quantitative comparisons, which ask you to evaluate the information in two columns, then determine if possible which (if either) is greater. Some estimation can help you answer both types of questions, though some need to be calculated precisely. The emphasis is more on what you can figure out using problem-solving skills, mathematical properties, and arithmetic or algebra than it is on long calculations or high-level mathematics.

3. Develop a GRE Study Plan

   3. Develop a GRE Study Plan

   3+ months away. Choose a test date that gives you both plenty of time to study and a little time to re-take the test if you need to -- different schools and even different programs within the same school will value the GRE differently. Take a full-length practice test to identify your strengths and weaknesses. If your weaknesses are verbal, you will need more time to improve them; while quantitative topics are all things you knew back in high school, verbal ones are based on a lifetime of reading, and almost certainly involves words you've never seen before in your life. Plan studying/reading for an average 30 minutes per day, 7 days per week; in practice it is almost impossible to keep that kind of schedule, but avoid doing a marathon seven-hour session every two weeks.

   2 months away. Begin taking full-length practice exams around every other week; you need to master both the content of the test and the experience of staying focused through the whole exam. Focus on doing questions properly rather than quickly; the goal is to get as many questions right as possible, and you will get faster as you practice. Buy index cards and begin making flash cards of words that cause problems and math formulas you have trouble remembering. Use a dictionary to look up every word you don't know, every time you see it, until you know the word. You may have to look up the same word several times before you learn it.

   1 month away. Take a practice test every week, and review both every question you got wrong and you got right, but can't exactly explain why your answer was right. Do the essays with the exam, and have a friend proofread them. Make sure you finish every exam, even if you have to guess on the questions at the end.

   1 week away. Reinforce your strengths; at this point you know which questions are "good" for you and which ones are not. Work on getting as many questions right as you possibly could, and getting to a "good guess" as quickly as possible on ones you either don't know or have a lot of trouble with -- the time you save can go toward getting more questions right.

   The day before the test. Relax! You want to have high energy on test day, so don't wear yourself out. Do some questions if you want to, but not too many. Do not cram. Go to bed early and get a good night's sleep!

   Test Day. Eat a good breakfast, one that won't make you uncomfortable later when you're sitting at the computer. Get the amount of exercise appropriate for your average activity level; more or less than your body's expecting can be a distraction. Arrive at your testing center early. After it's over, you can relax!

Register for the GRE

The GRE is offered as a computer-based test and you can usually take the test at any time, but early registration is recommended to get your preferred test locations and date selection

Register for the GRE