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You have one month to study for the GRE, and you want to get a great score. This is the stuff of nightmares! Most students need about 3 months to adequately prepare, and you want to be ready in just one month. Really … is this possible? And if it is, how can you successfully finish a GRE crash course in 30 days?
Read on, as there’s no time to waste. First, I’ll share 5 solid tips to get you going with your GRE quick study, and then we’ll look at a 30-day GRE crash course study plan. A word of advice: read carefully and follow every suggestion. You’ll need every bit of help to get you ready for test day!
Here are the topics we’ll cover:
- Can You Get a Respectable GRE Score in Just a Month?
- It’s Easy to Burn Out If You Study Too Much
- GRE Crash Course: Top 5 Tips
- GRE Crash Course – 30 Days
- Key Takeaways
- What’s Next?
First, let’s answer an important question: can you prepare for the GRE in a month?
Can You Get a Respectable GRE Score in Just a Month?
Some students are just naturally blessed with talents that allow them to put in minimal GRE study time and get phenomenal scores. However, the vast majority of students need more than 30 days of study to earn their target score or to show sizable gains from a previous score.
But realistically, not everyone has 3 or more months to devote to studying for the GRE.
There may be many reasons for opting for a 30-day GRE crash course, including a last-minute decision to go to graduate school, a change in a job situation, or a particular family concern. It’s even possible that you don’t need a great GRE score. For example, you may have already passed muster for admission to a particular program, and you need to submit a respectable but not necessarily stratospheric GRE score.
No matter your situation, you must realize that 30 days is not enough time to master every topic on which you’ll be tested. It may be possible to score a 10- or maybe a 15-point point increase, but any score increase greater than about 10 points in 30 days is rare.
KEY FACT:
Increasing your score by more than 10 points in 30 days is a rarity.
Keep in mind that trying to cram in too much studying can lead to burnout. Let’s discuss.
It’s Easy to Burn Out If You Study Too Much
One of the most important factors for showing a score increase is how much time you can devote to daily GRE study. The greater the number of hours you can study each day, the more you can learn. But you must be realistic in your approach so that you don’t burn out. The law of diminishing returns comes into play here.
To get a score increase of 10 points in a month requires a committed study schedule. Some students think that if 5 hours a day is good, then 10 hours a day is twice as good! Instead of a 10-point score increase, they could earn a 20-point increase in a month. But you have to be realistic. Studying for the GRE for 10 hours a day for 30 days would most likely result in burnout. There’d probably be nothing left in the tank on test day.
So, if it’s at all possible, you should find an additional 2-4 weeks (or more) to set up a proper study schedule. In fact, you can determine how much time to set aside for your GRE study instead of using our crash course. You want to make sure that when you do take the exam, you are well-prepared to earn the score you desire. Remember, wishin’ and hopin’ won’t make it so.
TTP PRO TIP:
If you don’t feel comfortable that you can score what you need on your scheduled test day, it may be wise to reschedule your exam.
With all of this said, let’s see what we can do to get the most out of a 30-day GRE crash course.
GRE Crash Course: Top 5 Tips
Tip #1: Determine Your Target and Baseline Scores
For any journey, you need to know where you are and where you are going. The same applies to your GRE journey. Your life will be much different if you determine that you need a 15-point score improvement instead of a 5-point increase. Thus, you need to know your target score and your baseline score before you start.
First, you want to determine your target score. You can easily do this by visiting the websites of the programs that interest you and determining the GRE scores of accepted students. Or you can see if your program suggests a minimum GRE score.
If you’ve already taken the GRE, the score you earned is your baseline score. If not, you’ll want to take one of the free official GRE practice tests from ETS to determine your baseline score. In either case, taking the exam, in addition to providing your baseline score, will give you valuable insight into the areas of weakness and strength. This will help you when you create your GRE crash course study plan.
Taking Your First GRE Practice Test
When you take your GRE practice test, you must follow all test-day rules. For example, you should turn your cell phone off. Use only the on-screen calculator, and don’t take any breaks. In other words, you must replicate test-day conditions as much as possible.
If you’re not familiar with the GRE structure and format, familiarize yourself before you take the practice test. Do some practice questions of each type. You can take a mini-quiz from ETS to get an idea of what you’ll encounter on the practice test.
Once you have your target and baseline scores, compare the two to calculate the GRE score increase that you’ll need during your GRE Crash Course.
TTP PRO TIP:
Determine your baseline and target GRE scores. The difference tells you the score increase you’ll need to shoot for during your 30-day GRE Crash Course.
Next, let’s discuss how to handle studying Quant and Verbal topics.
Tip #2: Stagger Your Studying of Quant and Verbal Topics
A steady diet of either all Verbal or all Quant will quickly make your GRE preparation tedious. You’ve got to alternate your time between Verbal and Quant topics to get through your 30-day crash course successfully. In addition to avoiding monotony, your learning and retention will be significantly improved.
Some students try compartmentalizing their studying, covering all the Quant material first and then all the Verbal material. It might make for easy movement through the topics, but how do you think they would feel on test day? Their Quant knowledge would be a faint memory at best. They would have difficulty recalling math formulas, procedures, and concepts. On the other hand, if they had staggered their Quant and Verbal studying, they would have recent experience with both categories, leading to a more balanced recognition of the concepts tested.
If you alternate your studying, doing some Quant and some Verbal during your prep, it’s likely you’ll stay fresh on both. You’ll avoid the monotony of doing just one category, getting a little break from each section, so you don’t become burned out on either.
You Can Adjust Your Timeline
Because you’re on a compressed timeline, alternating Quant and Verbal will make it easier to make adjustments to that timeline in case you have underestimated the time it will take to cover a particularly important topic.
For example, say you feel you’re stronger in GRE Verbal than in GRE Quant. If you were to put off any Verbal studying until just a few days before your exam, you might discover that you overestimated your Verbal knowledge. Perhaps you forgot that a big part of the Verbal section is knowledge of vocabulary, or you had some other Verbal deficit. As a result, you would not have enough time to recover, and test day could be a disaster.
It is quite possible that you will not need a 50/50 split of your study time between the two sections. You may need to give more attention to one than the other. You’ll want to apportion your daily or weekly study time appropriately.
TTP PRO TIP:
Alternating study time between Quant and Verbal is good for keeping a balance, avoiding burnout, and ensuring that you are focusing on the material that you most need to study.
Let’s now discuss how to address any GRE topic weaknesses you may have.
Tip #3: First, Concentrate on Your Weak Areas
If you could create a 3- to 6-month study plan, you’d have time to cover every GRE Verbal and Quant topic, ensuring mastery of anything you might see on test day. However, with only 30 days to study, you’ll need to be much more strategic.
Normally, I don’t advise students to analyze their performance on the initial practice test. The results generally just establish their baseline GRE score. But with a condensed timetable, you’ll analyze those 54 questions as an indicator of your strengths and weaknesses.
Take a look at the questions you missed on the practice test. Try to identify any patterns that indicate particular weak areas. Another source of useful data can be obtained by taking TTP’s free 40-question GRE Verbal and Quant diagnostic. The detailed analytics report will give you additional information about your strengths and weaknesses.
After you analyze the data from the practice test, the TTP diagnostic, and a self-assessment of your knowledge, you should have an idea of GRE topics that could be test busters on exam day. It is a wise strategy to start your GRE preparation with these topics! With only 30 days to study, your best strategy is to work your way from your weakest to your strongest topics. This will maximize your chances of making significant score gains.
Additionally, if you end up not being able to study every topic in your GRE study plan, you’ll have skipped topics in which you are already skilled.
TTP PRO TIP:
Identify your weak topics, then study these weak topics early in your GRE crash course preparation.
Many test-takers struggle with GRE vocabulary, so let’s now discuss how to improve your vocab skills in a short period of time.
Tip #4: You Must Study Vocabulary Every Day
Probably the least favorite study topic of most GRE students is vocabulary. In addition to traditional Quant and Verbal question types you’ll encounter on test day, you’ll be tested on your knowledge of vocabulary and word usage. Even with a 30-day study plan, you must fit in daily vocabulary learning and review.
Look at the following words. Can you define each of them?
- ubiquitous
- cognizant
- platitude
- fortuitous
- antipathy
- prevaricate
- garrulous
- laconic
- opulence
- saturnine
Not so easy, eh? These are probably not words that you use in your everyday communication, yet you can expect to see them on the GRE. Fully half of the Verbal Reasoning questions involve vocabulary. The Text Completion (TC) and Sentence Equivalence (SE) questions will test you on words like these. Most GRE prep online courses recommend that students learn 1,000+ words in the course of their GRE study in order to perform well on TC and SE questions.
For your 30-day crash course, you should strive to learn at least 10 new words each day. The emphasis here is on “new” words. There are many words that you already know, so you should concentrate on new words to learn. In the interest of time, use a premade pack of digital GRE vocabulary words, and test yourself daily.
TTP PRO TIP:
Use flashcards to learn and review vocabulary words. Practice every day.
In addition to studying vocabulary every day, you’ll also need to study Quant and Verbal topics every day. Let’s discuss.
Tip #5: Study Every Day
A crash course is never easy. The good thing is that it will be over in a month! It’s going to be tough, but you must breathe, eat, and sleep GRE for the next 30 days. That means no days off on weekends or taking a “cheat day.” Taking even one day off could make a big difference!
So, how much time should you study each day? For a student following a 3-month study plan, we recommend study time of at least 18 hours per week. This would yield about 216 total study hours. But with our 30-day crash course, we have to condense this schedule.
If you have few or no work or school commitments, you might be able to swing 7 hours of daily study, for a total of 210 hours. However, this may be unrealistic because studying 7 hours a day, even for just 30 days, can be overwhelming. That said, a good starting number for a one-month timeline would be 3 hours of study time each weekday and 6 hours each weekend day, for a total of about 110 study hours.
Also, keep in mind the score increase that you need. If you need an increase of more than 10-15 points, you might need to increase your study hours.
The key is to create a study schedule you’ll be able to maintain for 30 days. You’ll need to make a commitment and stick to it. And remember that it’s not just “putting in study time.” You have to make it productive study time!
TTP PRO TIP:
A GRE crash course study plan would require at least 27 hours per week.
Now that we know how to get the most out of our GRE crash course, let’s examine what a productive schedule looks like.
GRE Crash Course – 30 Days
There are no specific topics built into the plan because everyone has different competencies and goals. So use this plan as a fluid example: a general guideline. Feel free to adjust as necessary.
Days 1-20: Focused Learning and Practice
Focused learning and practice is the best way to study for the GRE. For the crash course, choose your weakest topic. First, learn the material and then do practice problems until you’ve mastered it. Focus only on that topic and no other. Then move on to the next topic, rinse and repeat.
We’ve already mentioned how important it is to alternate between Quant and Verbal topics. Even if, for example, most of your weak topics are in Math, it’s still important to cover a Verbal topic periodically, just to break up your studying. In summary, for days 1 through 20, do focused learning and practice. And remember to flip through your vocabulary flashcards each and every day.
While you’re doing practice problems, you should not initially worry about how much time it takes to answer them. Your first goal is accuracy, so being able to get a question correct is much more important than answering it in 2 minutes or less. And remember, once your accuracy improves, your timing will naturally improve.
TTP PRO TIP:
Concentrate on accuracy first and then timing when you’re answering practice problems.
Don’t Start Doing Practice Questions Prematurely
Even though you’re doing a condensed GRE test prep plan, we must reiterate that you need to study the material before doing practice problems. If you don’t learn the concepts and jump immediately to practice questions, you will learn how to do only the practice problems that you’ve worked on! This is a bankrupt strategy because you will not have learned the foundation on which GRE questions rest. In other words, answering practice questions and reading solutions (or watching video solutions) is not an effective path to topic mastery.
We don’t recommend using study books like the GRE Official Guide (OG) for your primary GRE preparation. Books such as the OG provide excellent practice questions, but they don’t teach the underlying concepts and GRE test strategies needed for success.
A great self-study course is a much better bet than a study book. The TTP course, for instance, offers an array of GRE self-study materials, practice questions, and analytics. You can get a 5-day, full-access trial for free if you want to try out the course before you purchase.
Answering practice questions and reading solutions (or watching video solutions) is not an effective path to topic mastery.
Day 14: Integrate Mixed Practice Sets into Your Studying
It’s Day 14, and you’re halfway through! So, now is a good time to begin adding some mixed practice sets into your study sessions. Until now, you have concentrated on doing practice problems only from a single topic. Thus, you have a decent number of topics under your belt. Before that learning gets stale, you need to start reviewing those topics. The best way to do this is to tackle some mixed problem sets, which contain problems from previously learned material. This mixed practice will keep you fresh with those concepts, and they will give you practice doing a variety of problems in one sitting, just like you’ll encounter on test day.
In your mixed practice sets, you don’t want to include questions from topics you haven’t studied yet (unless you already are solid on those topics). If you’re enrolled in a great self-study course, it will keep track of the topics you have already covered, so it will be able to automatically select a good mix of questions that are pertinent to your needs. You won’t be asked questions that you are unfamiliar with.
After you finish each mixed practice set, identify which questions you answered incorrectly and figure out why you missed them. Review your notes or study materials to freshen up on any concepts that have fallen through the cracks.
Note that from Day 14 to Day 20, you’ll be doing triple duty: focused learning and practice; daily vocabulary flashcard work; and mixed practice sets. Use your time wisely!
TTP PRO TIP:
Halfway through your crash course, begin solving mixed practice sets on topics you’ve covered.
Day 20: Begin Taking Practice Tests
In the final 10 days of your crash course, you’ll want to start taking some full-length GRE practice tests. There are 5 tests available from ETS, 2 of which are free and 3 that can be purchased. The benefits of taking official practice tests are fourfold:
- You become comfortable with the test-taking experience
- You fine-tune your timing.
- You enhance your mental and physical stamina in anticipation of test day.
- You can see how close you are to making your target score.
Up to this point, we have not mentioned the Analytical Writing task. Because the score is not part of your total score, it is considered by most programs as relatively unimportant. However, if the school or program to which you are applying factors it in as an important part of your application package, then by all means take at least a day or two before you sit for any of the practice tests to focus on the Analytical Writing task.
You should leave several days between each practice test. You will want to analyze and review each test before taking the next one. So give yourself time to assess your progress after each test and then review material if there are still some gaps in your learning. Make sure you don’t take the practice tests back-to-back. The in-depth review after each test is crucial to your success.
You’ll probably be able to fit in 2 or 3 practice tests in these last 10 days. Do as many as you can, but be sure not to take a full-length practice test the day before the GRE. This would be as foolish as running 26.2 miles the day before competing in a marathon!
TTP PRO TIP:
During the final 10 days of your GRE crash course, take 2-3 practice tests.
The Day Before Your Exam: Avoid Cramming
You may feel tempted to hold a cram session the day before your GRE. Resist the urge! First, you can’t learn much in one day, especially when you’re full of anticipation. Second, you don’t want to exhaust your body and brain just when you need to let them relax and rejuvenate.
If you must study, do some mixed practice (not hundreds or problems!), look over some study notes (not all of them), and flip through some vocabulary flashcards. Keep your studying light. In fact, you should do something fun and stress-free the day before your exam. Bake some cookies, go for a brisk, energizing walk, or grab dinner with a friend. Make sure you’ve got everything ready for test day, and then get a good night’s sleep. You want to head into test day in the “calm but ready” state that makes for peak performance.
TTP PRO TIP:
The day before you take the GRE, don’t cram. Instead, do some light studying and enjoy a relaxing activity.
Key Takeaways
For your 30-day GRE Crash Course, remember the following 5 key GRE study tips:
- Determine Your Target and Baseline Scores
- Stagger Your Studying of Quant and Verbal Topics
- First, Concentrate on Your Weak Areas
- You Must Study Vocabulary Every Day
- Study Every Day
Use the following general guidelines for your 30-day GRE study plan:
- Day 1-20: Topical learning and practice and daily vocabulary study.
- Day 14: Add mixed problem sets to your daily regimen.
- Day 20: Start taking practice tests.
- The Day Before Your Exam: Don’t cram. Relax.
What’s Next?
If you decide that a 30-day GRE crash course might not be your best strategy, check out this article about studying when you have a longer study timeline.
If you’d like some extra Verbal practice, take a look at some Text Completion, Sentence Equivalence, and Reading Comprehension practice questions here.
