How to Start Studying for the GRE: 5 Steps for Success

Last Updated on October 17, 2024

Do you need to study for the GRE? Getting your GRE prep started on the right foot will help set you up for success on test day.

In this article, we’ll walk through the 5 simple steps that every starting GRE student should take to ensure a smart, efficient GRE study plan that will get you to your score goal. By the time you’re finished reading, you’ll know not only what you need to do but also how to do it.

Here are the topics we’ll cover:

• GRE Quick Facts
• Step 1: Get to Know What the GRE Tests and How
  • Analytical Writing
    • Analyze an Issue
  • Quantitative Reasoning
    • Quantitative Comparison (QC)
    • Numeric Entry
    • Multiple-Choice — One Answer
    • Multiple-Choice — One or More Answers
  • Verbal Reasoning
    • Reading Comprehension
    • Sentence Equivalence
    • Text Completion
• Step 2: Do Some Practice Questions
• Step 3: Determine Your Baseline GRE Score
• Step 4: Choose Effective GRE Prep Materials
• Step 5: Create a “Foolproof” GRE Study Schedule
• What Amount of Time to Prepare for the GRE Do You Need?
• In Conclusion
• What’s Next?

Before we break down each step of how to start studying for the GRE, let’s take a look at some key facts about the GRE that you should know before you start your prep. 

GRE Quick Facts

Designed and administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the GRE is a computer-delivered standardized exam required for entry into many business and grad school programs, including master’s, MBA, JD, and doctoral degree programs. It used to be that only the GMAT was accepted for application to business schools, but essentially all business schools now accept the GRE as well, and many of the top business schools state that they have no preference between the GRE and the GMAT. 

Of course, for admission to other graduate programs, the GRE has long been the standard entrance exam because it provides graduate school admissions committees with a universal metric to assess the readiness for graduate-level work of applicants who come from highly diverse educational and professional backgrounds. After all, the GRE tests critical thinking and data analysis skills, basic math proficiency, reading and writing skills, and college-level vocabulary.

In other words, the GRE tests abilities that you have developed over the course of your educational career and that are both useful and necessary regardless of your chosen field of study.

KEY FACT:

The GRE tests critical thinking and data analysis skills, basic math proficiency, reading and writing skills, and college-level vocabulary.

The GRE is not totally unlike other standardized exams you may have taken in the past, but it does have some features and “quirks” that make it unique. Before we get to those, let’s take a quick look at the basics of how the GRE is structured and scored: 

• Run Time: just under 2 hours
• Exam Content: Analytical Writing, Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning 
• Exam Structure: 5 sections, 18-30 minutes each
• Analytical Writing: One 30-minute section containing one task, the “Analyze an Issue” essay. This section always appears first.
• Verbal: The first section consists of 12 questions in 18 minutes, and the second consists of 15 questions in 23 minutes. 
• Quant: The first section consists of 12 questions in 21 minutes, and the second consists of 15 questions in 26 minutes.  An on-screen calculator is provided.
• After the Writing section, the GRE section order is random and may be different each time you take the exam.
• Score Scale: 260 to 340 (See a detailed discussion of how the GRE is scored here.)
• Quant and Verbal are each scored in 1-point increments from 130 to 170. These two section scores make up your total score.

• Analytical Writing is scored in half-point increments from 0 to 6. This section is scored separately and not factored into your total score.

Now, here are some key features of the GRE that make it different from other exams:

• Section-Adaptivity: The GRE Quantitative and Verbal sections are “section-adaptive,” meaning that your performance on the first Quant section you see determines the difficulty of the second Quant section you see, and likewise for the first and second Verbal sections. The Quant and Verbal sections do not, however, affect each other. 
• Mark and Review Questions: The GRE allows you to tag questions within a section, so you can skip them (or select a provisional answer) and return to them later if you have time remaining in the section. You cannot, however, return to questions in a section you’ve already completed. 
• Change Answer Selections: You can go back to a question you already answered within a section and change your answer. You cannot change answers to questions in sections you’ve already completed.

KEY FACT:

The GRE takes just under 2 hours to complete.

Now that we’ve covered the basics of the GRE format and features, it’s important to familiarize yourself with what each GRE section tests and what GRE questions look like.

Step 1: Get to Know What the GRE Tests and How

Before you dive into your studies, you should have a firm grasp of what kind of questions you’ll see and what concepts will be tested on the GRE. After all, you’ll be wading into deep GRE waters over the coming weeks and months, so you should probably get your feet wet first, right?

To that end, let’s examine each GRE section individually, starting with the section you’ll see first on the exam: Analytical Writing.

Analytical Writing

The first half-hour of your GRE will be spent on the Analytical Writing section consisting of one task, the “Analyze an Issue” essay. 

In writing this essay, you’ll need to showcase your ability to construct your own arguments, clearly articulate and provide supporting evidence for complex ideas, effectively focus and organize your thoughts, and follow the rules of standard written English. 

The Writing section does not require that you have specialized knowledge of any particular subject or issue, nor will you be scored based on your personal opinions about an issue or argument. 

So, let’s take a look at the writing task in greater detail.

Analyze an Issue

The “Analyze an Issue” essay presents an opinion on an issue of general interest and asks you to develop a convincing argument for your own position on the issue, using examples to support your case. 

There are 6 possible response types that you may be asked to write for the Issue essay, but at their core, they are all asking you to do the same thing: clearly and cohesively express a point of view supported by sound reasoning and compelling evidence. 

Specifically, you may be asked to do one of the following: 

1. Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with a statement, explaining your reasoning and considering ways that the statement might or might not hold true. 
2. Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with a recommendation, explaining your reasoning and providing examples of circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be beneficial.
3. Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with a claim, addressing the strongest arguments and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.
4. Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with a claim and the reason given for that claim.
5. Discuss which of two views presented more closely aligns with your own position, explaining your reasoning and addressing both views.
6. Discuss your views on a given policy, explaining your reasoning and addressing possible consequences of implementing the policy.

The pool of possible issue topics for these response types is quite large and encompasses general topics related to education, government and politics, society, and human behavior. 

Again, these topics do not require any specialized knowledge; in fact, the statements and claims made in Issue essay prompts are general enough that any person with a basic level of education should be able to come up with arguments both for and against them.

Here are just a few examples of the types of statements you may see in Issue essay prompts:

• Society should make efforts to save endangered species only if the potential extinction of those species is the result of human activities.
• Teachers’ salaries should be based on their students’ academic performance.
• The luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life prevent people from developing into truly strong and independent individuals.
• Governments should place few, if any, restrictions on scientific research and development.
• Claim: The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its role models.
  
  Reason: Heroes and role models reveal a society’s highest ideals.
  
• Some people believe that in order to be effective, political leaders must yield to public opinion and abandon principle for the sake of compromise. Others believe that the most essential quality of an effective leader is the ability to remain consistently committed to particular principles and objectives.

Without having any expertise in sociology, psychology, government, academic administration, or environmental science — or even having taken classes in those topics —  you can probably, pretty quickly think of at least one reason why someone might agree with each of the positions above and at least one reason why someone might disagree with each, right? 

You can probably even quickly come up with a real-world example that supports or challenges each of those positions.

So, as you can see, your specific knowledge of particular subjects is not what is being tested by the Issue task. Rather, it is your ability to clearly and persuasively analyze and express ideas that is being tested.

I’ll reiterate here that there are no “right” and “wrong” answers to Issue questions, as far as scoring is concerned. In other words, which position you choose to take on an issue doesn’t matter; how effectively you explain and support your position is what matters.

You can view the entire pool of Issue topics here, but I don’t recommend reading through all of the questions or attempting to memorize them as a method of preparing for the Issue task. The point is to get a flavor for what types of statements you’ll see in Issue questions and how you’ll be asked to evaluate and respond to those statements. 

Keep in mind also that the Issue prompts published by ETS in the list linked above may not represent the exact wording you’ll see on your GRE — all the more reason not to waste your valuable study time trying to commit them to memory.

KEY FACT:

For the Issue essay, you will need to develop a convincing argument in response to a statement, claim, recommendation, or policy related to an issue of general interest, using examples to support your case.

Since you have no way of predicting which Analytical Writing prompts you may see on the GRE or how exactly those prompts will be presented, reading through every prompt — or worse, attempting to formulate answers to every prompt — is simply not a productive use of your GRE study time.

Skim the topic pools to see the various question formats, and read a handful  of questions from each pool thoroughly to get a solid sense of what you may face on your exam. Just don’t go overboard trying to memorize questions or spending hours reading prompts.

TTP PRO TIP:

Don’t waste valuable study time trying to memorize essay prompts or prepare answers for all of the questions in the Issue topic pool. Such an exercise provides very little “bang for your buck.”

Another important thing to keep in mind about the Writing section is that tools such as spell checker and grammar checker will NOT be available to you on the GRE. And although both the human and computerized essay scorers are primarily concerned with how well you organize and articulate your positions, your essays still should demonstrate that you have a good grasp of the rules of written English. 

A couple of small grammar and spelling errors aren’t going to kill your Writing score, but you certainly don’t want to turn in sloppy writing.

KEY FACT:

Spell checker and grammar checker will NOT be available to you on the Analytical Writing section.

Now that we know the ins and outs of the Issue and Argument essays, let’s turn our attention to the two sections of the GRE that will make up your total GRE score: the Quant and Verbal sections.

We’ll start with Verbal.

Verbal Reasoning

GRE Verbal is renowned for being vocabulary-heavy, and many students agonize over needing to learn thousands of GRE vocabulary words. While it is true that you’ll need to devote significant time to expanding your lexicon in order to earn a high score on GRE Verbal, you’ll also be tested on your ability to read carefully, understand relationships between sentences, and accurately interpret context clues in order to fill in missing information

About half of the total of 27 questions you’ll see in the two Verbal sections will be Reading Comprehension questions, which ask you to read passages and answer questions related to those passages.

The other half of the questions you’ll see will be either Text Completion or Sentence Equivalence questions, which ask you to interpret and complete sentences, groups of sentences, or paragraphs.

KEY FACT:

Roughly half of the Verbal questions you’ll see on the GRE will be Reading Comprehension questions. The other half will be Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions.

Let’s look at each of those three question types in greater detail.

Reading Comprehension

GRE Reading Comprehension questions present you with passages that are anywhere from one paragraph to several paragraphs long, with the majority of passages being just one paragraph. Your job is to answer anywhere from 1 to 6 questions about each passage. These questions may be formatted as single-answer multiple choice, multiple-answer multiple choice, or questions that ask you to highlight a sentence from the passage. 

Reading Comprehension passages cover topics from the arts and humanities; the biological, physical, and social sciences; and business, for example. You don’t need to have specialized subject knowledge in order to understand Reading Comprehension passages or answer the associated questions.

On the contrary, Reading Comprehension questions test your ability to understand and interpret the information that is given to you, draw conclusions, identify strong and weak points in an argument, see the relationships between different parts of a text, recognize opinions and assumptions, and make logical inferences.

Let’s take a quick look at the three formats of Reading Comprehension questions:

• Single-answer Multiple Choice: These are standard multiple-choice questions in which you are presented with a question and 5 answer choices, and you must select 1 choice.
• Multiple-answer Multiple Choice: You are presented with a question and 3 answer choices. Either 1, 2, or all 3 choices may be correct. Your job is to select ALL of the choices that are correct and only the choices that are correct.
  If you select only 1 or 2 of the correct choices to a question in which more choices are correct, the computer will mark the question as answered incorrectly. Likewise, if you select 2 or 3 choices for a question in which fewer choices are correct, even if 1 of the choices you selected was correct, the computer will mark the question as answered incorrectly. 
• Highlight a Sentence: These questions ask you to highlight (using your keyboard) the sentence in the passage that fits a given description. For longer passages, the question typically will apply to only one or two specified paragraphs, and you will not have the option to select the sentence from elsewhere in the passage.

You can see sample Reading Comprehension questions here.

Sentence Equivalence

Sentence Equivalence questions present you with a single sentence that has a blank where one word is missing. 

You are given 6 one-word answer choices and must select the 2 choices that logically complete the sentence and that result in sentences with equivalent meanings. While the correct words to fill in the blank may not always mean exactly the same thing, the two sentences that result must essentially convey the same meaning. 

For example, while the words “original” and “innovative” don’t mean exactly the same thing, in the first Sentence Equivalence question, they do produce two sentences that mean (essentially) the same thing.

Importantly, you do not receive any credit for selecting only 1 answer choice to a Sentence Equivalence question, even if that answer is a correct one. In other words, your answer will be marked correct by the computer only if you select 2 answer choices and both of those choices are correct. Selecting just 1 answer choice is, in effect, the same as selecting none.

KEY FACT:

Your answer to a Sentence Equivalence question will be marked correct by the computer only if you select 2 answer choices and both of those choices are correct.

Text Completion

Text Completion questions present you with anywhere from 1 to 5 sentences that have up to 3 blank spaces. You must fill each blank with the word or short phrase that best fits the meaning of the sentence. For questions with only 1 blank space, there will be 5 answer choices. For questions with multiple blanks, there will be 3 answer choices per blank. You must choose 1 answer for each blank space, and again, you will not get “partial credit” if you fill some but not all blanks correctly.

You can view some sample Text Completion questions here.

KEY FACT:

There is no “partial credit” for GRE questions. As with Sentence Equivalence, if Text Completion questions feature multiple blank spaces, you must fill all blanks correctly in order to get the question correct.

Finally, let’s take a look at what you’ll be tested on in GRE Quantitative sections.

Quantitative Reasoning

The GRE Quantitative sections test numerous, high school-level math concepts involving algebra, geometry, and arithmetic, as well as data analysis skills that draw from both high school algebra and introductory statistics. Advanced subjects such as trigonometry, calculus, and inferential statistics are not tested.

Many students think that scoring well on GRE Quant will be easy because they can use a calculator for the Quant sections, but the fact is, the GRE is a thinking test, so the majority of the work you’ll do in the Quant sections will be analytical reasoning, not number-crunching. 

GRE Quant tests your reasoning skills and basic math knowledge using 4 different question types: Quantitative Comparison; Numeric Entry; Multiple-Choice — One Answer; and Multiple-Choice — One or More Answers. Let’s look at each type.

Quantitative Comparison (QC)

Quantitative Comparison questions provide you with two mathematical quantities: Quantity A and Quantity B.

Your task is to determine which of the quantities is greater, or whether the quantities are equal, or whether the answer cannot be determined based on the information given. The important thing to know about QC questions is that they don’t often require that an actual numerical value be calculated for all of the variables involved. 

For example, in the question below, you don’t actually have to perform the final step of calculating the numerical value of z² to figure out that Quantity B is greater than Quantity A; you simply have to get as far as figuring out that z is a negative number (see the full solution here).

As you can see, part of the trick of mastering QC questions is knowing when to stop working on them. After all, scoring high on the GRE requires both knowledge and speed. Now, of course, if you aren’t totally solid on foundational math concepts, you may not realize that you can find the right answer to a QC question without determining the actual values of all of the variables involved, or that estimation can be used, and you may end up wasting precious time performing unnecessary calculations. (Notice also that our example above is not one in which a calculator is needed.)

KEY FACT:

QC questions usually don’t require that an actual numerical value be calculated for both quantities in order to find the correct answer.

Numeric Entry

Numeric Entry questions are the only questions you’ll come across in GRE Quant that are NOT multiple choice. 

For these questions, you must type your answer into a box. So, unlike QC questions, Numeric Entry questions must be solved “all the way” (although sometimes you will be asked to round your answer to the nearest integer). 

An important thing to keep in mind about Numeric Entry is that the answer box will sometimes be labeled to indicate what form your answer should be in. For example, the answer box might be preceded by a dollar sign, or followed by a percent sign or the word “miles” or “hours.” So, you need to be sure that you’re not missing a final step of converting your answer into the correct units.

So, you need to be sure that you’re not missing a final step of converting your answer into the correct units.

KEY FACT:

Numeric Entry questions are the only questions in GRE Quant that require you to enter your own answer rather than select one from multiple choices.

You can view some sample Numeric Entry questions here.

Multiple-Choice — One Answer

These are standard multiple-choice questions that provide you with 5 answer choices from which you must select 1 answer.

Multiple-Choice — One or More Answers

These are multiple-choice questions in which one or more given answer choices may be correct. These questions ask you to select either a specific number of answer choices or all choices that apply. In the latter case, there may be one or multiple correct choices.

Check out some Multiple Choice sample questions here.

As I mentioned earlier, the GRE Quantitative sections also test you on data analysis. 

Specifically, you will see 2 data interpretation scenarios (charts, graphs, or tables) with several questions about each.

The questions associated with a data interpretation scenario may be Numeric Entry questions or either type of multiple-choice question. For example, you may see a table like the one below, followed by a standard multiple-choice question, a Numeric Entry question, and a “select all that apply” multiple-choice question.

The table shows two certain food items, peanut butter and soup. It shows their serving sizes, servings per container, calories per serving, percent of daily value (PDV) of dietary fiber per serving, and percent of daily value (PDV) of saturated fat per serving.

Erica loves peanut butter in her soup. At lunch, she adds one tablespoon of peanut butter to the entire can of soup as she is warming it. Assuming that she will eat the entire can of soup, by what percent has she increased the caloric value of her lunch soup?

• 19
• 27
• 38
• 57
• 76

So, did you try to solve any of the sample GRE questions above on your own? Now that you’re acquainted with the content and question types on the GRE, the next step in the study process is to actually try your hand at some realistic practice questions.

Step 2: Do Some Practice Questions

Now that you have a good idea of what GRE questions look like and which concepts they test, you need to have a sense of what it feels like to actually solve them — or at least, to try solving them. 

Now, let me make clear, this is not the point in your GRE prep when you should start practicing dozens of random GRE questions from every book you can get your hands on and all corners of the internet. 

Remember, you haven’t formulated your GRE study plan yet. So, is it really a smart strategy to begin the work of studying without a plan? The goal of step 2 is to become familiar with the look and feel of GRE questions, not to master solving them. 

If you dive right into trying to solve a ton of practice problems without a concrete study plan in place or structured learning of GRE content, trust me, that time will not be productive, and it will not get you closer to your ultimate goal.

So, try your hand at a few realistic practice questions of the various types you’ll see on the GRE. Do NOT turn this practice into a weeks-long process. You can start with these 5 GRE Quant practice questions, which include a mix of question types. 
Remember, you simply want to see what it’s like to answer different types of GRE questions; you’re not looking to learn new content, and at this point, you certainly should not set a timer or concern yourself with answering each question in a certain number of minutes.

TTP PRO TIP:

Try answering a few realistic practice questions of the various types you’ll see on the GRE, but don’t set a timer or spend weeks practicing dozens of questions.

Both steps 1 and 2 should, in total, take up no more than a week of your time. After that, you’ll be ready to move on to step 3: determining your baseline score.

Step 3: Determine Your Baseline GRE Score

Sometimes when I tell students that step 3 in their GRE preparation is to take a full-length, official GRE practice test to get a baseline score, they express some skepticism — or, to put it bluntly, panic. 

After all, we just discussed all of the reasons why GRE students shouldn’t dive right into doing dozens of practice questions, so why is it a smart idea to sit for an entire GRE? Are you really ready for that? What if you don’t perform well on your practice test? Does that mean you’re doomed to fail on the real thing?

Just as trying your hand at a few GRE practice questions is more for “informational purposes” than to master GRE concepts and skills, taking an initial practice test serves to give you information about your current level of GRE readiness, not to actually prepare you to sit for your GRE. 

Without a baseline score, which your initial GRE practice test will provide, you won’t know whether you’re 10 points or 100 points from the score you need. Knowing how far you are from your score goal is vital when you start studying for the GRE. 

You must know where you’re starting from in order to know which roads to take to reach your destination, and how long you’ll have to travel on those roads. 

ETS provides 2 official, full-length practice GREs on its website, 1 free exam and 1 paid exam for $39.95 each (more exams are expected to be available in the future). Before you begin your GRE prep in earnest, you’ll need to take the free exam. 

The results of that exam will both give you a good idea of what the GRE test-taking experience is like and show you how far you are from your score goal, so you can devise an effective GRE study plan and map out a realistic study timeline for yourself. (You can also take our free GRE Quant diagnostic to get a more detailed picture of your current Quant skills.)

To get the most realistic picture of your current GRE skills and the most accurate baseline score possible, try to replicate GRE test-day conditions as closely as possible when you sit for this initial practice test. 

Take the exam in a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted, complete all sections of the exam, using only the allotted time and trying your best on every question, and don’t take any breaks or do anything you wouldn’t be able to do during the actual GRE (such as answer a text message or eat a sandwich at your desk). 

If you’ll be taking the actual GRE at a test center, take your practice exam in a private room at the library, for example. If you plan to take the online GRE, sit for your practice exam in the location where you will take the real thing, prepare the space just as you would for the actual exam, and use the computer you’ll use during your actual exam.

TTP PRO TIP:

Replicating GRE testing conditions when you take your first full-length practice exam will ensure that you get as accurate a baseline GRE score as possible, so you can better plan your course of study.

Before you begin your practice test, be sure to do a quick review of the rules of the GRE, and try out ETS’s test preview tool to see what the actual exam screens will look like and how to navigate through the exam. 

Additionally, while you want to give your full and best effort on your initial practice test, try not to go into the test “expecting” a certain score.

Remember, the GRE is a challenging exam that requires not only conceptual knowledge but also well-honed timing strategies and a significant amount of mental and physical stamina. 

The vast majority of test-takers need months of studying and practice to master GRE content and refine their test-taking skills. So, although it’s natural to hope that you’ll perform well on your first practice test, expecting to “hit the ball out of the park” on your very first swing adds a lot of undue pressure to an already anxiety-producing situation.

Whatever your baseline score ends up being, the important thing at this stage in the game is that you have the information you need to create a strategic, efficient, and realistic GRE study plan. Of course, reaching your ultimate goal will be a lot more difficult (if not impossible) without the right GRE study materials. Let’s talk about that next.

Step 4: Choose Effective GRE Prep Materials

One of the biggest mistakes that test-takers make when preparing for the GRE is bouncing around between multiple study materials, with no real rhyme or reason to how they’re learning content and what they’re learning at any given moment. 

This kind of “patchwork” GRE study plan can be enticing because it may make you feel as if you’re “covering all the bases” and getting the best of all worlds when it comes to learning the GRE. And you may very well learn some new concepts and techniques at first, particularly if you’re starting from a place of only minimal familiarity with GRE content.

However, students who cobble together their GRE study by ping-ponging between multiple resources invariably find that their progress stalls well before they reach their goals.

If you’re simply picking up whatever study resources you come across, without fully vetting those resources and having a step-by-step study plan in place, you’re going to end up wasting a lot of time on resources that don’t really work for you. 

Furthermore, rather than covering all the bases, you may actually end up with significant gaps in your knowledge as a result of taking a piecemeal approach. 

Unfortunately, it’s very easy to fall into a pattern of disorganized studying in which you’re doing a little bit of everything and not getting a whole lot accomplished — I’ve seen it many times! 

TTP PRO TIP:

A patchwork study plan that cobbles together multiple GRE resources can lead to disorganized, inefficient prep that leaves gaps in your knowledge and stalls your progress.

So, how can you be sure you’re choosing effective study materials? First and foremost, keep in mind that the range of concepts that GRE questions cover is enormous, and you have no way of knowing exactly which concepts will be tested on any one GRE. 

Thus, to give yourself the best possible shot at earning a high GRE score, you have to be ready for anything and everything that could get thrown your way on test day. 

The best way to achieve that kind of well-rounded GRE mastery is to take a thorough and methodical approach to your GRE studying, so you know that you’re learning everything you need to learn about each GRE topic. 

To study in this comprehensive way, you must take a linear, topic-by-topic approach to your GRE prep, learning one topic at a time, and then practicing numerous questions on just that topic. After you perform that practice, revisit the concepts covered by the questions you answered incorrectly, and only once you feel that you’ve mastered those concepts, move on to the next Quant or Verbal topic and repeat the process. 

The benefits of linear, topical learning for the GRE cannot be overstated. In fact, the Target Test Prep course is organized in precisely that fashion because that type of learning is incredibly  effective for GRE students of all levels. 

For one, linear learning allows you to start with easier concepts and work your way up to more advanced ones, so you can successfully increase your knowledge regardless of what level you’re starting from, and so you don’t waste valuable study time on problem sets that cover concepts you haven’t yet learned. 

Secondly, by learning each GRE topic individually and following up your learning with practice that focuses on just that topic, you can uncover and fill gaps in your knowledge that you might not otherwise notice, thus ensuring that you truly master each topic.

Lastly, linear learning keeps your GRE prep organized and efficient because you’re not randomly switching from one topic to the next, perhaps doing far fewer practice questions on certain topics than on others or missing certain concepts in topics that cover a lot of ground, such as Number Properties.

So, when looking for a GRE study resource, you want to find one that allows you to learn linearly, learn each GRE topic individually, and then follow up your learning with topic-specific practice of many questions, ideally 50 or more per topic. 

Now, there are a TON of GRE resources out there, everything from books to classes to courses, and many options within each of those categories, so trying to figure out what your best option is has the potential to make your head spin. 

Luckily, there have been thousands of test-takers in your shoes, and you can learn a lot from their stories. In fact, one of the best ways to research GRE study resources is to see what has worked well for other test-takers. GRE Prep Club is a great place to read verified GRE course reviews from past test-takers, including folks who were GRE beginners not so long ago and went on to achieve top-notch scores. 

Reading through a good number of student reviews will go a long way toward helping you make an informed, objective decision about what resource to use for your GRE studies. 

For example, many students have earned great scores on the GRE by using an online self-study course. However, not all self-study courses are created equal. Of course, an effective self-study course should offer the kind of structured, organized, and linear approach to learning and practicing GRE content that I just outlined — that is your key to making consistent progress and studying efficiently. 

But there is so much more that a robust self-study course can provide. Most significantly, an effective self-study course should provide a detailed GRE study plan that you can follow from day 1 to test day. The TTP Course, for instance, provides a detailed, personalized road map to guide users, step-by-step, from starting point to score goal. 

Thus, all of our students know exactly what to do and when to do it, every single time they sit down to study. As a result, our students don’t waste precious study hours trying to figure out what they need to learn next or using slow and ineffective study methods. Having a road map is one of the reasons that TTP students consistently earn such impressive GRE scores.

Furthermore, an effective self-study course should include analytics that track your progress and provide a detailed picture of your performance, so you can clearly see how far along in your studies you are at any moment and easily pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses as you work through the course. In the TTP course, for example, each user has an online dashboard showing key, up-to-the-minute stats such as accuracy percentages for each topic studied, accuracy by question type, average time per question, strongest and weakest topics, percentage of the course completed, and more.

In addition to detailed analytics, a great self-study course should track the types of mistakes you make when answering practice questions, so that you can work to correct those mistakes. 

The TTP error tracker, for example, logs all of the questions you answer incorrectly, why you answered them incorrectly, and how often you make each type of error. 

So, if 25% of your wrong answers are the result of falling for a trap, 18% result from running out of time to answer, and so on, you have the data you need to proactively correct those tendencies and become a stronger, smarter test-taker. 

To top it off, online self-study courses are generally more affordable than GRE tutors or classes, provide the flexibility to mesh with any schedule, and are accessible wherever there is an internet connection (such courses are particularly convenient while COVID-19 is still a concern).

Plus, most self-study courses offer low-cost trials, so you can test out a few different courses before you commit to one. In fact, why not start with a $1 full-access trial of the TTP Course? 

TTP PRO TIP:

Find a GRE study resource that allows you to take a linear, topic-by-topic approach in which you can learn the concepts in a particular topic first, and then practice 50 or more questions on just that topic before moving on to the next topic.

Once you settle on your study materials, you’ll be ready for the fifth and final step of starting your GRE study: making a GRE study schedule.

Step 5: Create a “Foolproof” GRE Study Schedule

One of the toughest realizations for many GRE students just starting their prep is how much time they’re actually going to need to devote to their prep each day. 

After all, there is A LOT to learn for the GRE, and most of us are on a deadline. As a general rule of thumb, I tell my students to shoot for 18+ hours per week of GRE studying. Since fitting in that kind of time is no easy task, I also always advise that students physically write out a daily GRE study schedule on a calendar (or enter it into a calendar app). 

Doing so makes it a whole lot easier for them to hold themselves accountable and ensure that they’re devoting the time they need to their GRE studies. On the other hand, without a concrete schedule to refer to every day, it’s extremely easy (and likely) for an hour here and another hour there to slip through the cracks, and even for days to go by when they’re “just too busy” for GRE prep, and for days to turn into weeks…

Think that couldn’t happen to you? Many students have thought the same thing and watched their GRE prep stretch out for months past when they thought it would be completed. If you have your GRE study time scheduled in a calendar, then you don’t have to worry about “making time” to study each day. 

Your GRE study schedule becomes “foolproof.” So, even if you can study for only 1 hour every day, schedule in that hour! To be successful on the GRE, you have to be consistent with your studying, and that means doing everything you can to keep GRE prep at the top of the priority list regardless of the many other tasks, responsibilities, events, and last-minute changes of plans that inevitably arise to derail your day.

To maintain the ambitious (but necessary) schedule of studying for 18 or more hours every week, a good jumping off point is to try to study for 2+ hours each weekday and 4+ hours each weekend day. 

Of course, you may find that you need to break up your study hours differently. For example, if you have a busy work schedule that doesn’t afford you much free time or energy in the evenings, you may need to study for 1.5 hours in the early mornings before work, then get in longer study sessions on the weekends. 

If your schedule changes from week to week, you may need to sit down with a cup of coffee every Sunday morning and map out your study time for the coming week. The point is, however you can fit in your GRE prep, having a schedule written down will allow you to track the time you’re actually putting in, catch yourself quickly if you’re falling short on study hours, and make GRE studying a “non-negotiable” part of your day.

TTP PRO TIP:

Make GRE studying a “non-negotiable” part of your day by scheduling your daily study hours on a calendar, aiming for 18+ hours of study time per week.

To illustrate how you might set up your GRE study schedule, let’s look at a couple of sample schedules for one week of studying. Schedule A could be for a student in his senior year of college, whereas Schedule B could be for someone who works at a fast-paced office Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

During the week, the GRE student with Schedule A does 2 hours of GRE prep in the morning, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., before his classes start in the afternoon, so that his mind is fresh and he has the evenings for classwork and social engagements. 

On the weekends, he keeps roughly the same schedule but puts in longer, 4-hour study sessions, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., completing his GRE prep by early afternoon, so that he can spend the rest of the weekend doing classwork and relaxing with friends. Each week, he gets in 18 hours of GRE study.

During the week, the GRE student with Schedule B does an hour of GRE studying in the early morning before work, from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., and another hour during her lunch break, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., so she’s not attempting to study in the evenings when she’s tired. 

Depending on how she commutes to work — say, if she commutes by public transit — she may be able to get in an extra half-hour or so of studying or quizzing herself with flash cards on her way to the office.

On each weekend day, she completes a longer study session by lunchtime and has the rest of the day to relax and spend time with friends and family. Each week, she gets in about 18-20 hours of GRE prep.

These are just a couple of examples of how you can accommodate a large amount of study time even with a busy schedule. 

Of course, if you’re a night owl who typically has evenings free, you may choose to do most or all of your GRE prep at night.

Conversely, if you work during the evenings but have your afternoons free, you may schedule all of your GRE studying for the middle of the day. If you’re currently in school, it may be that your schedule varies during the week, but you can consistently get in a long study session after breakfast on the weekends.

Clearly, your GRE study schedule has to be realistic for you. Just remember, aside from responsibilities that you absolutely can’t forgo (such as work, family, or going to class), GRE studying should be a top priority in your life. So, you may have to make some tough choices and sacrifice some social activities in order to get in your study hours..

Your GRE study schedule has to be realistic for you.

Now that you know how to start studying for the GRE, you’re probably wondering how long you’ll need to sustain this study schedule in order to reach your GRE score goal. Let’s discuss some scenarios.

What Amount of Time to Prepare for the GRE Do You Need?

Unfortunately, there isn’t extensive research on the optimal amount of GRE study time. However, GMAT preparation time has been well-documented, and it’s useful to extrapolate that data to the GRE.

Let’s look at the minimum threshold that most competitive test-takers strive for: the 90th percentile, which is a combined GRE score of approximately 330. 

In one study, GMAT students who scored in the 90th percentile or higher studied for an average of 121 hours. Although 121 hours may seem excessive, many GRE students find that they need to study for 300 hours or more to earn a 330+ on the GRE. 

In fact, if you’re a student who has been out of school for a while or who struggles with a lot of the content that the GRE tests, you may find that you need to study for 450 hours or more in order to score 330.

Of course, an average is just that; GRE study timelines will differ depending on background and current circumstances. And yes, I have had students earn 330+ scores after far fewer than 121 hours of prep. 

Consider the average time a reference point to help you craft your GRE study plan, but keep in mind that it’s better to go into the study process expecting more work rather than less.

It’s better to go into the study process expecting more work rather than less.

Let’s look at a couple of possible scenarios.

Scenario 1

Baseline Score: 298
Score Goal: 313-323 
Increase Needed: 15-25 points 
Study Time Needed: 4.5 months (320 hours)

A realistic plan would be to study for 2 hours each weekday and 4 hours each weekend day, for a total of about 18 GRE study hours each week. At that pace, most students can realize a score increase of 15-25 points in just under 4.5 months.

Scenario 2

Baseline Score: 307
Score Goal: 327-337 
Increase Needed: 20-30 points 
Study Time Needed: 5.5 months (384 hours)

A realistic plan would be to study for 2 hours each weekday and 4 hours each weekend day, for a total of about 18 GRE study hours each week. At that pace, most students can realize a score increase of 20-30 points in a little less than 5.5 months.

Now, your situation may be somewhat different from the scenarios above. Maybe your baseline score is only 10 points from your score goal, or maybe you’re able to study for only 15 hours a week.

Regardless, the scenarios above should give you a good sense of how you can calculate the amount of GRE study time you’ll need to reach your goal. Just remember that these calculations are rough guidelines. There is no 100-percent accurate method of predicting when you’ll be ready to hit your targeted score.

TTP PRO TIP:

Use the number of hours you can study each week and the difference between your baseline score and score goal to calculate approximately how many weeks you’ll need to prepare for the GRE.

In Conclusion

To sum up, here are the five key steps to set yourself up for a successful GRE study plan:

1. Familiarize yourself with the GRE format, content, and question types. 
2. Attempt some practice problems of each type you’ll see on the GRE
3. Establish your baseline score by taking a full-length, official GRE practice test.
4. Choose GRE prep materials that cover all the bases, allow you to learn in a methodical way, and provide ample practice problems. 
5. Create a GRE study schedule that works for you, based on your other commitments and personal preferences. 

What’s Next?

Want to get the most out of your study time?  Check out these tips for studying GRE Verbal and GRE Quant. 
For more advice on how to successfully prepare for the GRE, check out this comprehensive guide to scoring 330+. Best of luck on your GRE journey!

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