Last Updated on March 13, 2024
It’s a nightmare scenario for any GRE student: You study for months for your exam, hit your score goal on your practice tests, and figure that you’re ready to sit for the GRE, only to see a lower score on the actual GRE test than the scores you earned on your practice tests. Once the initial shock wears off, you’re left asking yourself: Where did I go wrong?
Seeing a score drop on test day is an unwelcome surprise for any student, but it’s actually pretty common. In this article, we’ll look at the 10 most common GRE mistakes that can lead to a score drop from practice tests to the real deal, and how to make sure you don’t fall victim to “score shock” on the big day.
Whether you’ve already experienced a surprisingly low GRE score or you’re hoping to avoid one, troubleshooting key aspects of your game plan will help you ensure that you don’t set yourself up for a rude awakening when test day rolls around.
Here are the topics we’ll cover:
- Issue 1: Not Taking Practice Tests Under Realistic Conditions
- Issue 2: Not Taking All 5 Official Practice Tests
- Issue 3: Relying on Unofficial Practice Tests
- Issue 4: Prepping With Materials Designed Around Questions From Official Practice Tests
- Issue 5: Over-Relying on In-Test Tools
- Issue 6: Falling Back on Bad Habits
- Issue 7: Putting on the PRESSURE!
- Issue 8: Burning Yourself Out Before Test Day
- Issue 9: Having “One of Those Days”
- Issue 10: Implementing Last-Minute “Improvements” in Your Routine
- Top 10 Causes of a Low GRE Score: Key Takeaways
- What’s Next?
Troubleshooting key aspects of your game plan will help ensure that you don’t set yourself up for a rude awakening when test day rolls around.
Let’s begin by discussing how you take your practice tests.
Issue #1: Not Taking Practice Tests Under Realistic Conditions
If you expect to get an accurate picture of your GRE skills when you take a practice test, the conditions under which you take that test need to mimic actual GRE test conditions as closely as possible. If you skip the Analytical Writing section, peek at your notes during Quant, take a break, or do anything else that you could not do on test day, you may not get an accurate practice test score.
Without accurate practice test scores, you may not realize that your GRE score is not improving and that you’re not actually ready to sit for the real GRE. So, you must follow realistic test-day conditions whenever you take an official practice GRE exam.
Here are some tips for creating a realistic GRE experience during your practice tests:
- If possible, take your practice test at the time of day that you will take your actual GRE. If you work or go to school full-time and plan to take your actual GRE exam on the weekend, then take your practice test on Saturday or Sunday morning, when your mind is fresh. It would not be a great idea to come home after working all day and sit down to take a practice GRE.
- Go to a quiet location outside of your home, such as a private study room at the library or a closed office at a coworking space, to take your practice test (unless you’re taking the online GRE; in that case, taking practice tests at home, in the same room where you’ll take the actual GRE exam, is a good idea).
- Turn your cell phone off and put it out of view.
- Do not skip any sections of the exam. Yes, that means you must do the Analytical Writing task as well as all 4 Quant and Verbal sections.
- Do not take breaks or do anything you cannot do on test day,such as pausing the exam to cook dinner. Use only the on-screen calculator provided.
- Do your scratch work with paper and pencils similar to those provided at GRE test centers. If you are taking the at-home GRE, use the exact same whiteboard or clear sheet protector that you plan to use while taking the test.
Remember, unless you adhere closely to actual GRE testing conditions when you take a practice test, the practice test will not be an accurate gauge of your ability to hit your score goal. If you repeatedly pause the test, eat lunch while you’re testing, or exceed the allotted time for a section, your score will not be representative of your GRE readiness.
Do you really want to waste the precious hours you have to spend on each practice test, and the limited number of official practice tests available, by relaxing the rules of the test? The results will be not only receiving an inaccurate score, but also missing out on the valuable training for the rigors of test day that a practice exam provides.
For more on how to maximize your use of practice GREs, check out this article on how to incorporate practice tests into your prep.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: You’re not taking official practice tests under realistic test-day conditions.
Solution: Simulate a testing environment as much as possible and follow all of the GRE rules each time you take an official practice test.
Issue 2: Not Taking All of the Official Practice Tests
Suppose that your GRE score goal is 330+. You take a free, official practice exam from ets.org. You score 330, so you figure that you are ready to sit for the GRE. Needless to say, you’re shocked when you score 315 on test day. How could this happen?
Many GRE test-takers make the mistake of taking just a couple of the available official practice tests and assuming that the average score from those tests is a true representation of their current GRE skills. What they don’t realize is that their sample size is too small.
ETS (Educational Testing Service, the GRE test-maker) currently offers 2 full-length practice exams: 1 free POWERPREP exams and 1 paid POWERPREP PLUS exams. (Note: Currently, these are the only official practice exams for the shorter GRE launched in September 2023. ETS says more practice exams are coming soon.)
There is a reason why the Target Test Prep study plan recommends that every GRE student take every official practice exam prior to taking the actual GRE. You want to have a substantial enough sample size of data to get an accurate idea of whether you’re truly prepared to reach your target GRE score.
So, bite the bullet and purchase the paid exams — at $39.95 a pop, they’re well worth it. If, after taking every official practice GRE, your average score is 330+ (or whatever your target score is), you have an excellent shot at reaching your score goal on test day.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: You took only a few official practice exams.
Solution: Complete all 5 of the full-length, official ETS practice exams, so you can get an accurate gauge of your readiness to hit your score goal.
Issue 3: Relying on Unofficial Practice Tests
When you take full-length practice tests that are not provided by ETS, you run the risk of getting inaccurate scores. So, should you never take any practice GREs from any companies other than ETS? I wouldn’t quite say that. But if you need the most accurate score possible, you’re better off taking an official practice GRE.
Additionally, you should be somewhat wary of comparing practice test scores from different sources. For instance, say that you took two practice GRE tests, one from GRE Prep Company A and one from GRE Prep Company B, and you scored 325 and 330, respectively.
Then, you took two official practice GREs from ETS and scored 310 and 315. Does this mean that your score has taken a nosedive? Maybe, but maybe not. There could be inherent differences between the tests from prep companies and the official tests. Your official GRE practice test scores are probably more accurate. However, knowing that for sure is next to impossible, since the tests are from three different sources.
A simple way to avoid this confusion is to make sure that you always compare apples to apples. So, prioritize the ETS practice exams — you may find, after taking those, that you actually don’t need to take more full-length practice tests prior to your GRE. If you feel that you absolutely must take more practice tests, then you can take some non-ETS tests. Just don’t be surprised (or stress yourself out) if the results vary from those of your official practice exams.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: Your scores are erratic because you’re taking practice tests from several different sources.
Solution: Take the official GRE practice tests provided by ETS before you consider taking mock GREs from any other source.
Issue 4: Prepping With Materials Designed Around Questions From Official Practice Tests
Imagine that you have a high school English test during seventh period, and your friend Jamie takes the same test during second period. If, during third period, Jamie tells you what the test questions were, what are the chances that you’ll perform better on the test than you would without that information? In other words, what are the chances that your score will be inflated? Probably pretty high, right?
Unsurprisingly, this same effect occurs when test-takers prep for the GRE. Perhaps you’re using study materials designed by GRE Prep Company Z, which built its practice materials by drawing heavily from questions on official practice tests, rather than designing materials that focus on the skills, content, and knowledge required to earn a good GRE score.
Of course, practicing official questions is necessary. That said, if the majority of the questions you practice with are simply models of questions on official practice tests, then you may not learn all that you need to and, as a result, you may receive practice test scores that are not reliable indicators of GRE mastery. Some prep materials can create the illusion of GRE mastery, an illusion that can be reinforced even when you take official practice tests.
Using study materials that focus heavily on content from official GRE questions may cause you to pick up on concepts and patterns that appear in some (perhaps very few) official materials, but it does not guarantee that you will actually hone your ability to think critically, reason analytically, and analyze problems logically.
Those are the skills that are truly necessary to earn a good GRE score. In reality, you may not be doing much more than mastering the art of performing well on practice tests. That is a recipe for disaster on test day, when any lingering GRE weak spots you have will likely come to the fore.
To avoid a surprise low GRE score on test day, be sure to thoroughly research prep materials and select a GRE course that provides the depth you need to truly master the GRE, not just perform well on practice exams. In fact, start with a 5-day trial of Target Test Prep for just $1. Our course gets a 5-star rating on GRE Prep Club.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: You’re prepping with materials designed around official practice questions.
Solution: Choose prep materials designed around the skills, content, and knowledge required for deep mastery of the GRE, not just pattern recognition in practice questions.
Issue #5: Over-Relying on In-Test Tools
Maybe it’s nerves, maybe your pacing feels a little off, maybe you encounter a couple of really tough questions and the time starts to get away from you — for whatever reason, during your actual GRE, you find yourself relying heavily on in-test features of the test, such as the marking option or the Quant calculator, way more than you did during a practice GRE.
Both the on-screen calculator and the marking option (the option to flag a question to return to later) are useful tools that you should by all means strategically implement during your GRE, but like many tools, their overuse can backfire.
In the case of the marking option, pulling up the status screen, identifying which questions you’ve marked, and returning to them can chip away at your time if you do it too often. Your optimal strategy, if possible, is to answer questions in the order they are presented to you.
Because the calculator is pretty tedious to use, you need to be sure that you’re not using it at times when you should be either doing the math by hand or recalling a key math concept to help you more easily solve the problem.
If you’ve taken every official GRE practice exam, by the time you sit for your actual GRE, you should be pretty quick (and sparing) with your use of the marking option and have a solid strategy for what types of questions you need the calculator to solve and what types of questions you don’t.
However, sometimes when test-takers hit some unexpected hurdles on test day, or the test isn’t going as smoothly as they’d hoped and the pressure is on, tools to make the test “easier” can seem like a ready solution.
Whatever the reason, if you felt the need to skip around within the test sections a lot more than you did on practice exams or use the calculator “just in case,” that could explain your score drop.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: Your strategic use of in-test tools such as the marking option and the onscreen calculator fell by the wayside on test day.
Solution: Take note if you find yourself skipping around in sections or checking your work on the calculator more than you normally would, so you can take a deep breath, refocus, and stick to your test-taking strategy.
Issue 6: Falling Back on Bad Habits
This is somewhat related to the issue we just discussed. When people find themselves in stressful situations such as taking the GRE, they often revert to old habits that they were able to keep at bay when the pressure wasn’t quite so great (for instance, during practice tests).
Rushing through questions, worried about the questions to come, attempting math calculations in your head — these are just some of the old habits that may reemerge on test day. Even if you walk into the GRE with ultimate confidence in your skills, if you fall back into your comfort zone when the going gets tough, you could see a drop in your GRE score.
To ensure that bad habits don’t get the best of you on test day, first off, make sure that you’ve eliminated such habits well before you sit for your GRE. Each time you take a practice test, practice good habits: work methodically and efficiently through each problem, concentrate on just the question in front of you; don’t rely on mental math.
When taking the actual GRE, try to maintain awareness of how you’re moving through the test. If you feel the urge to speed through a question or start calculating wildly in your head, take a deep breath and do a quick reset. Be aware of your bad habits so you can make a conscious effort to avoid them. You have the power to catch yourself if you’re sliding into old habits.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: You reverted to old habits, such as rushing through questions, thinking about what questions will come next, or performing mental math.
Solution: Work to eliminate your bad habits well before test day, and if you catch yourself falling back on them, take a deep breath and do a quick “reset.”
Issue #7: Putting on the PRESSURE!
Think back to any important event you’ve had to prepare for in life: a recital, a speaking engagement, the big game, a midterm. I’m sure that you would agree that, in those moments, you performed at your best when the pressure didn’t get to you, when nerves and anxiety were (mostly) kept at bay.
The same is true for the GRE. As well-prepared as you may be for your exam, if test day looms too large in your mind, the pressure could erode your confidence and, ultimately, your score.
One trick for managing your nerves in the weeks leading up to your GRE is to try some visualization techniques. Imagine stressful test-day scenarios such as having issues at the testing center, getting stuck on a question, feeling pressed for time, or overanalyzing how you’re performing.
As your stress responses start to kick in, practice pulling yourself together and focusing on answering questions correctly. By practicing responding calmly to stress during your GRE prep, you’ll train yourself to cope with stressful situations on test day.
During the actual GRE, the best way to deal with stress is to get busy answering the question in front of you, focusing completely on working through that question and nothing else, so that you redirect all of your nervous energy and calm yourself down. In other words, distract yourself with a goal.
Tell yourself that the only thing that matters is getting the correct answer to the question in front of you. When you finish that question, take the exact same attitude toward the next one. Focus on winning each “mini-battle” and you won’t have time for anxiety. If you win enough of those battles, you can win the GRE war.
The fact is, no matter how well you approximate test-day conditions when you take practice GREs, a practice run is never going to feel exactly like the race. So, it’s imperative that you do what you can to alleviate the pressure you put on yourself, both as you prepare for the GRE and on the day of your exam. Of course, no one can eliminate anxiety completely — after all, your GRE score is an important part of your grad school applications — but you certainly don’t want the weight of the world on your shoulders.
If you can cultivate a “calm but ready” attitude, your focus and ability to perform will noticeably improve. A little nervous energy can even be motivating! Remember, if you were able to work calmly and efficiently on your practice GREs, you are capable of doing just that on your actual GRE.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: Test day loomed too large in your mind.
Solution: Use techniques such as visualization and extreme focus to reduce stress and redirect nervous energy.
Issue 8: Burning Yourself Out Before Test Day
Have you heard the story of the GRE student who took 8 practice exams in the 8 days leading up to her exam and got just 5 hours of sleep each night? Are you at all surprised that her score went off a cliff on test day?
Overstudying in the week or leading up to test day is one of the most common mistakes GRE students make. It’s understandable! Everyone wants to be as well-prepared as possible for the GRE. That said, you want your mind to be fresh and your body to be relaxed when you walk into the test center. Cramming not only affects sleep patterns but also results in information overload, potentially burning you out before you even set foot in the test center.
Rather than thinking about your GRE 24/7 in the days leading up to your exam, do some fun, stress-relieving activities to keep your mind off the GRE: binge your favorite show on Netflix, go for a bike ride or run, cook a nice meal. At that point, studying nonstop and fretting about your exam will probably do more harm than good.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: You burned yourself out by cramming or taking too many practice exams in the days leading up to your GRE.
Solution: Instead of studying and practicing nonstop, do some fun activities that take your mind off the GRE in the final week before your exam.
Issue 9: Having “One of Those Days”
Even professional musicians and athletes at the top of their games sometimes sing off-key or strike out. Although it may seem obvious, it is completely reasonable to think that you simply had a bad day!
Maybe you had trouble falling asleep the night before your test (see Issue 7).
Maybe a few questions didn’t fall your way, and before you knew it, things spiraled out of control, and you didn’t perform up to your skill level. Bad days happen, and when they do, you simply need to dust yourself off, study for a few weeks, and retake the GRE. Chances are that lightning won’t strike twice, and you’ll have a much better day the second time around.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: Everything that could go wrong on test day did.
Solution: Don’t beat yourself up! Dust yourself off, study for a few weeks, and retake the GRE with confidence.
Issue 10: Implementing Last-Minute “Improvements” in Your Routine
Did you suddenly decide, a week before your exam, that a “superfood” diet would help your mental sharpness? Did you drink more coffee on the morning of your GRE than you normally would in a week? Did you start an exhausting new exercise regimen 10 days before your test because you wanted to improve your stamina?
Implementing healthy changes in your normal routine, such as eating a more vitamin-rich diet, going to bed and waking up earlier, taking yoga classes, or making sure to drink eight glasses of water a day, can produce physical and mental benefits that could boost your test-day performance. The point is to implement those changes gradually, over time.
Big, last-minute changes in your daily routine can have a significant effect on your GRE score. For instance, if you typically go for a run outdoors a few times a week, there is no reason to stop doing so in the weeks leading up to your exam. In fact, you may find yourself feeling more stressed and less energetic if you do. And if your friend who already took the GRE shares his recipe for the kale-wheatgrass-bee pollen smoothie that was his exam-day breakfast, do your stomach a favor and don’t try it for the first time on the morning of your GRE.
Sleep patterns, diet, hydration, and physical activity can all play a role in how you feel when you walk into the test center, so last-minute experiments involving routines that are radically different from what you’re used to are ill-advised.
TTP PRO TIP:
Problem: You made major changes to your diet, exercise routine, or sleep schedule in the days leading up to your GRE.
Solution: Implement healthy changes to your routine gradually, so that by the time test day arrives, they feel normal.
Now that you know the 10 most common issues that can cause a score drop on test day and the strategies to avoid them, you can make the necessary adjustments in your GRE preparation to ensure that your actual GRE score remains in line with your scores on practice tests.
Top 10 Causes of a Low GRE Score: Key Takeaways
In this article, we’ve discussed the 10 most likely reasons that your GRE score didn’t meet your expectations, as well as how to address them:
- You didn’t take your practice tests under realistic conditions, so your scores weren’t an accurate reflection of your readiness.
Solution: Take your practice exams in condition as close to test day as possible. - You didn’t take all of the official practice tests, and the small sample size let to an inaccurate estimate of your readiness.
Solution: Make sure you take every official practice test. - You set your score expectations based on the results of unofficial practice tests.
Solution: Take the official practice tests before you consider using tests from other sources. - You prepared with materials that only mirrored official practice questions.
Solution: Choose prep materials that help you build the knowledge, skills, and strategies necessary to handle any GRE question. - You relied on in-test tools more than you did during your practice tests.
Solution: Pay attention to how often you use the tools so you can take a breath, refocus, and get back to your normal approach. - You fell back on bad habits that you thought you had addressed.
Solution: Dedicate extra study time to making sure those habits are truly fixed. If you catch yourself falling back on them, take a breath and reset. - You put too much pressure on yourself to perform well.
Solution: Use techniques such as visualization to improve your focus and enhance your ability to handle anxiety. - You burned yourself out by studying too much leading up to test day.
Solution: In the week before your GRE, take time to relax so you go into the exam as fresh as possible. - You simply had “one of those days.”
Solution: Study for a few weeks, making sure to address any specific issues you noticed, and retake the GRE. - You made major changes to your routine right before test day.
Solution: Implement changes gradually so they feel normal by the time you take the GRE.
What’s Next?
GRE score not improving as you think it should be? You may want to check out this article on how to improve your accuracy on the GRE and this article on how to earn a high GRE Verbal score.
A good GRE score can increase your chance of admission to your targeted graduate programs, so remember, with a positive mindset and a smart study plan, you CAN crush the GRE!
