Time to study for the GRE?

Started by epicpt89
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epicpt89

Full Member
7+ Year Member
hey whats up everyone?

i was planning to take the GRE sometime in December. I was just curious as to how much time everyone gave themselves to study? Would a few months with maybe 2 hrs a day 4x a week suffice?
 
It really depends on how far out from the concepts you are and what your baseline is already. I took mine almost 1.5 years after I graduated, so 3.5 years out from any real math class. It took me a few months of sporadic studying to relearn the math concepts but after that it was fine. I would recommend really focusing on the vocab though because there is never a shortage of words to learn. Also, consistency is way more important than anything, so as long as you are setting aside the time each day/week you'll be solid. I reviewed vocab flash cards for 10-20 minutes before bed each night and it helped a lot.
 
I studied for about 3-4 hours daily (5 hours on the weekends--practice exams) for about 3 months over the summer. I was fresh out of undergrad, and ended up receiving a 316. I primarily used Magoosh.
 
I wouldn't recommend the way I did it to everyone but I valued my time more than the cost of the test so all I did was study for a couple hours to familiarize myself with the format of the test and a couple tips for how to approach the questions. My mindset was that if I did well then I saved myself a ton of time studying and if I did poorly then I would know where I need improvement and could focus my studying to those areas. I ended up getting a 157, 152 and 3.5 the first time so I focused on my weakest scores and after a couple months of studying those a couple hours a week I took it again and got 157, 159 and 4.0.
 
It honestly depends on how you are as a test taker. I scored very high on the ACT with no studying, so all I did to prepare for the GRE was read the tips and review at the end of each section in a GRE book the week before and I ended up with 154,158,5.0.
 
I am also going to be taking the GRE maybe the 2nd week of January. A fellow member on here gave me their study tips and I'll be studying for 3 weeks for about 12 hours a day. We'll see how I do. Good luck with your exam.
 
Yes, your plan will be fine. There's actually a large technical literature on the subject of the efficacy for studying for standardized tests like the SAT and the GRE. The science tells us that after you get acquainted with the format of the test, more studying doesn't necessarily yield better scores.

My advice:
-Get acquainted with the format of the test by taking a few practice exams
-Brush up on some math skills that you may have forgotten
-Commit the 100 most common GRE vocab words to memory using flashcards
-Plan in advance how you will format the two essay questions

Beyond that, there's not really much you can do to increase your score. These tests are designed to measure one's general intelligence and can't really be studied for.
 
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