How to Study for the GRE in a Month

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Last Updated on November 14, 2023

So, you want to earn a good GRE score, but there’s a catch: test day is just one month away. Is studying for the GRE in one month even possible? If so, what’s the best way to prepare for the GRE in one month?

In this article, I’ll share my top 5 tips for how to prepare for the GRE in one month, plus a one-month GRE study plan. Studying for the GRE in one month is no joke — many students devote numerous months to their GRE prep. So, if you plan to sit for the GRE in one month, read on. You’ll need rock-solid study strategies to get you to your goal!

Here are all the topics we’ll cover:

Can You Study for the GRE in a Month?
- The Law of Diminishing Returns
How to Prepare for the GRE in a Month: Top 5 Tips
GRE Study Plan: 1 Month to Test Day
Key Takeaways
What’s Next?

First, let’s answer an important question: Can you prepare for the GRE in a month?

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Can You Study for the GRE in a Month?

Unless my students are already within a few points of their GRE score goals, I generally do not recommend that they study for the GRE for only one month. The reality is, the vast majority of GRE test-takers looking to make significant gains in their scores need more than a month to do so.

Of course, I realize that not everyone has 3 months – or 6 months – to devote to GRE prep. Furthermore, not everyone wants or needs to ace the GRE. There are any number of reasons why a test-taker may have only a month until test day to study. That said, it would be irresponsible to present a one-month GRE study plan without mentioning that for most test-takers, a GRE score increase of more than 10 points in just 30 days may not be realistic. And if you’re seeking a score increase of 15 points, though I won’t say such an increase is impossible, you’re getting into rare territory.

TTP PRO TIP:

A GRE score increase of more than 10 points in a month may not be realistic for many test-takers.

The Law of Diminishing Returns

The number of hours you can study for the GRE each day is certainly a factor in how much you can increase your score in one month. However, it’s important to remember that there are limits to how much people can study before they burn themselves out. Eventually, the law of diminishing returns does kick in.

Even a score increase of 5-10 points in one month’s time can require an aggressive daily study schedule. So, simply saying, “Well, if I need to study X hours for an 8-point increase, I’ll just study 2X hours to get to 16 points,” may not be realistic. Just imagine how burned out you’d be by test day if you studied for, say, 10 hours a day, every day, for 30 days straight.

So, if your goal is to increase your score by more than 10 points, I encourage you to give yourself more than a month to study, if at all possible. An additional 2-4 weeks may be all you need to gain another few points. (If you’re not sure how much time you may need to study for the GRE, this guide can help.)

Remember, there isn’t much point in sitting for the GRE exam if you aren’t likely to hit your score goal. When it comes to the GRE, hoping to get lucky on test day is not a winning strategy!

TTP PRO TIP:

If your goal is to increase your GRE score by more than 10 points, consider pushing back your test date to allow yourself more time to study.

With that in mind, let’s dive into my top 5 tips for how to study for the GRE in a month, the first of which relates to our discussion of how much of a score increase you’re targeting.

How to Prepare for the GRE in a Month: Top 5 Tips

Tip #1: Start With a Baseline Score

Whether you’re studying for the GRE in one month or six, the first thing you need to do is establish your baseline GRE score, so you know how far you have to go to reach your goal.

After all, the study schedules of someone who needs a 3-point score improvement in a month and someone who needs a 7-point improvement in that time are probably going to look quite different.

So, before you start your GRE prep, take one of the free official GRE practice tests that ETS offers. The results of that practice test will not only tell you approximately how many points you need to gain to reach your goal, but also provide insight into your GRE weaknesses. As we’ll discuss later in this post, knowing your weakest areas will be an important aspect of crafting your one-month study plan.

In order to get the most accurate results from your practice test, replicate test-day conditions as much as possible. Follow all test-day rules. For instance:

Take your exam in a quiet space where you won’t be interrupted.
Use the note-taking implements required for your chosen test administration (in-person or online).
Don’t do anything during the practice test that you wouldn’t be able to do during the actual exam.

If you’re not already familiar with the GRE, before you sit for your initial practice test, take some time to familiarize yourself with the test format and question types. Also, do some practice questions of each type. That way, you won’t go into the test completely cold and have to learn about the test while taking it.

TTP PRO TIP:

Before you start your prep, take a full-length, official practice test to establish your baseline GRE score.

Tip #2: Alternate Quant and Verbal Study

Generally speaking, it’s smart to do some GRE Verbal and some GRE Quant prep each week, so the concepts you learn for each section remain fresh in your mind. To see why, say you spent the first two weeks of your prep studying Verbal, and then you did nothing but Quant for your remaining study time. Would you feel confident that, on test day, the Verbal concepts you studied early in your prep would still be fresh in your mind?

If you’re doing some Quant and some Verbal throughout your prep, you’re more likely to stay fresh on both (assuming you need to study both). Alternating also gives you a little break from each section, so you don’t become burned out on either.

Another key benefit of alternating Quant and Verbal study, particularly when you’re on a compressed timeline, is that you’re less likely to find that you haven’t left yourself enough time to study for a section.

For instance, say you know you’re stronger in GRE Verbal than in Quant. So, you put off any Verbal prep until you’re nearing the end of your 30-day timeline. However, once you dive into Verbal, you discover that mastering Verbal concepts and strategies is more challenging than you expected. Your accuracy on Verbal practice questions is not as high as you assumed it would be. As it turns out, you need more time to study Verbal than you’ve given yourself.

Of course, depending on your baseline and goals, you may need more work in one section than the other. So, you’ll want to apportion your daily/weekly study time accordingly.

TTP PRO TIP:

Alternate between Quant and Verbal study throughout your prep, apportioning more time to the section in which you need greater improvement.

Tip #3: Work on Weaker Areas First

In an ideal world, you’d have time to study the ins and outs of every GRE Verbal and Quant topic, ensuring mastery of all the material you could see on test day. However, with only one month to prep, you’ll need to be a bit more strategic.

Now, normally I wouldn’t advise putting too much stock in how you performed on specific question types in an initial practice test. After all, that sample size is a mere 40 questions each in Quant and Verbal. However, studying for the GRE in one month is not the typical situation for most test-takers.

So, in this case, you’ll want to closely analyze the questions you answered incorrectly on your initial practice test. See whether any patterns emerge that indicate particular weak areas. I recommend also taking TTP’s free 40-question GRE Verbal and Quant diagnostic. You’ll see a free, detailed analytics report of your performance on that test, which will give you further insight into your GRE strengths and weaknesses.

Using the data from your full-length practice test and your TTP diagnostic, plus your own knowledge of where your greatest strengths and weaknesses lie, you should be able to identify some GRE topics that are likely among your weakest. When you begin your GRE prep, start with those topics! Since you have only one month to prep, working from weakest to strongest topics is probably your best bet for making significant score gains.

Furthermore, if you run out of study time before you review all the GRE topics, you’ll hopefully have missed only topics in which you’re already somewhat skilled.

TTP PRO TIP:

Analyze the results of your initial practice test and TTP diagnostic to help gauge your weakest topics. Make those topics the starting point of your GRE prep.

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Tip #4: Do “Quick Hit” Vocab Study Every Day

In addition to studying concepts and strategies related to the various Quant and Verbal question types you’ll encounter on test day, you’ll need to study GRE vocabulary. I recommend making GRE vocab study part of your daily GRE prep. By doing so, you’ll have a reasonable shot at learning an adequate number of words.

Test-takers with longer timelines typically study hundreds of GRE words (if not more than 1,000) over the course of their prep. Unfortunately, cramming a ton of vocab words in a very short time period is not a particularly effective learning method. Learning vocabulary is primarily a memorization task. So, you’ll have a better chance of retaining the definitions you learn if you study vocab in small chunks every day.

To that end, flashcards are an excellent tool. Flashcards allow you to fit in short bursts of vocab study anytime, anywhere. If you take public transportation to and from work or school, use that commute to study your vocab flashcards. If you’re waiting at a coffee shop for your friend to arrive, whip out your flashcards for a quick quiz.

Since you’re short on time, you may want to look for premade, digital cards from a reputable GRE prep company, so you don’t have to spend time making cards yourself.

Try to get in a total of at least 30 minutes of vocab study each day, adjusting that total amount as needed depending on your existing vocab proficiency.

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Use flashcards to do “quick hit” vocab study sessions every day throughout your GRE prep.

Tip #5: Make GRE Prep Part of Your Daily Routine

It’s going to be tough, but for the next month, you need to make GRE prep a part of your daily routine. That means no taking weekends off or being a “weekend warrior.” With such a limited amount of time to study for the GRE, studying only some days of the week is not a great plan.

Now, the amount of study time you’ll need will vary depending on the score increase you’re targeting. So, I can’t provide a universal guideline here. That said, generally speaking, a good starting point given a one-month timeline would be 3 hours of study time each weekday and 5-6 hours each weekend day.

You can break up that time according to your schedule and your study style. For instance, if you’re not a morning person, scheduling all your study hours for the morning probably won’t yield great results. Furthermore, if marathon study sessions feel like a slog, you could study for 1.5 hours each morning and another 1.5 each evening. If you prefer to really “dig in” for a stretch of studying, you could put in 3 hours of study after dinner each day.

Those are just a few examples. The point is, you need to create a study schedule you’ll be able to stick to day in and day out, so GRE prep is part of your daily routine. And if for whatever reason the schedule you’ve created is difficult to stick to, don’t hesitate to change it! Remember, it’s not enough to simply “get in the hours.” Your study time has to be productive.

TTP PRO TIP:

A good, general starting point given a one-month timeline is 3 hours of study time each weekday and 5-6 hours each weekend day.

GRE Study Plan: 1 Month to Test Day

Keeping the 5 tips we’ve discussed in mind, let’s take a look at the specifics of what a smart one-month GRE prep plan would look like. Remember, there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to a one-month study plan — every student has different competencies and goals. So, use this plan as an example and a general guideline, but adjust as necessary.

Day 1-20: Do Topic-Focused Learning and Practice

The best way to study for the GRE is to do topic-focused learning. In this approach, you study one topic at a time, first learning the concepts and strategies related to that topic, and then completing numerous practice questions on just that topic. Using that method, you can ensure mastery of one topic before moving on to the next one.

So, according to our tips, you would start this topic-focused learning with your weakest topics and move progressively to stronger topics, alternating between Quant and Verbal and apportioning your study hours appropriately according to which section you need more work in. Make this topic-focused learning the focal point of your prep on days 1 through 20 of the 30-day period.

Additionally, I recommend that when you first start your focused practice in a topic, you complete the practice questions untimed, focusing on accuracy. Once your accuracy is high in questions on a topic, it makes sense to start timing yourself. If you time yourself from the beginning, you never give yourself the chance to become skilled in answering the questions. So, hoping to answer them quickly puts the cart before the horse.

Make Sure to Master Concepts First

It’s important to reiterate that, to implement this highly effective study strategy properly, you must learn the concepts on which practice questions on a topic are based before you attempt to complete dozens of practice questions on that topic. In other words, simply completing practice questions and reading solutions is not an effective path to topic mastery.

For this reason, I don’t recommend using nothing but the Official Guide or a similar prep book for your GRE one-month study plan. Books such as the OG provide practice but don’t teach the concepts and strategies you need to actually perform well in that practice.

For a resource that provides concepts, strategies, and ample practice, a great self-study course is a much better bet. The TTP course, for instance, offers an affordable monthly plan option, plus a 5-day, full-access trial for just $1 if you want to try out the course before you purchase.

Day 14: Add in Mixed Practice

On day 14, it’s a good idea to start adding some mixed practice sets into your topic-focused study sessions. Up until now, you will have been doing only topic-focused practice, which is great for mastering topics. However, once you have a decent number of topics under your belt, you want to start honing your skills at tackling questions on those topics as they’ll appear on the test — mixed together. Furthermore, this mixed practice will allow you to revisit topics you previously learned, so they stay fresh in your mind.

Keep in mind that it doesn’t make much sense to include practice questions on topics you haven’t yet covered in your studying (unless you already have solid knowledge of those topics). If you’re using a good self-study course, it’ll track which topics you’ve mastered, so that you can be sure you don’t waste time attempting to do mixed practice on topics that are still unfamiliar to you.

Additionally, after each mixed practice set, analyze which questions you answered incorrectly and why you answered them incorrectly. Then return to your study materials to brush up on any previously learned concepts that have fallen through the cracks.

During this time, continue with your topic-focused learning and practice as well. Remember, you’ll continue that topic-focused study through day 20.

Day 20: Start the Practice Test Phase

In the last 10 days before your GRE, you’ll want to get in some more full-length GRE practice tests. Taking official practice tests helps you get comfortable with the test-taking experience, hone your timing strategies, and build your mental and physical stamina for test day. It also allows you to see whether you’re hitting your score goal or are close to it.

I recommend taking a day or two to shore up your Analytical Writing strategies before you sit for the first of these tests. You’ll want to have a set basic outline that you follow for each essay type, and you could try completing an essay of each type.

It’s important to leave about 3 or 4 days between each practice test, for a couple of reasons. For one, you don’t want to burn yourself out taking practice tests every day (or every other day) right before you have to sit for the real deal. Secondly, you’ll need time to review the results of the tests, so that you can return to your study materials to brush up any weak areas uncovered. If you don’t give yourself a few days to perform that work, you’ll lose out on a huge benefit of taking practice tests.

Also, it’s never the best idea to take a full-length practice test the day before your actual GRE. Again, though your timeline is compressed, you still want to be sure you’re fresh, relaxed, and rested for the big day.

Given these considerations, you’ll probably be able to fit in 2 practice tests in these last 10 days, bringing the total number of full-length tests you take before your GRE to 3. (For students with a longer study timeline, I recommend taking all of the practice tests ETS offers.)

The Day Before Your Exam: Avoid Cramming

On the day before your GRE, it is very tempting to try to cram in as much studying as possible. Resist this urge! Chances are, you’re not going to learn a bunch of new GRE material in that final day. Furthermore, you don’t want to stress yourself out or burn the midnight oil right before your exam.

Instead of cramming, do some mixed practice (not hundreds of questions), review some relevant study notes (not all of them), and quiz yourself with your vocab flashcards (not hundreds of them). Keep your studying relatively light, rather than make the entire day about the GRE.

In fact, the day before your exam is the perfect time to do something fun and relaxing. Go for a long bike ride or grab dinner with a friend. Make sure you’ve got everything in order for test day, and get a good night’s sleep. If, in the hours leading up to your exam, you’re scrambling to master new topics or do every last practice question you can find, you’re probably not going to head into test day in the “calm but ready” state that makes for peak performance.