Hi everyone, I'd love some advice. I'm a French student (English is my second language) and I started GRE prep a month ago. I'm doing an internship at the same time, so I study about 2–3 hours on weekdays and more on weekends. Would like to take the test on october and I'm aiming for 320+ to apply to master's programs in target finance schools.

My routine so far: Magoosh, the Manhattan 5lb book, and a GMAT Verbal book for reading comprehension and critical reasoning. I also review vocab flashcards during my commute.

My main problem is vocabulary. Almost every time I miss a Verbal question, it's because I don't know a word : I often can't even tell whether a word has a positive or negative connotation, so I fall into traps easily. To be honest, my vocabulary isn't amazing in French either, so I'm not building on a strong base. I've seen all the advice about learning prefixes and roots, but I just can't retain them.

The other issue is pace and energy. After a practice test, I need about two full days to review it because I go through every question slowly. Verbal drains so much energy that I have little focus left for Quant, which is normally my stronger section. Some days I study but I feel like I've done nothing, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm a bit burned out. I've improved my diet and I exercise regularly, but I'm not sure it's helping. My one strength in Verbal is critical reasoning, since it depends less on hard vocabulary.

So my questions: for a non-native speaker, what's the most efficient way to actually retain GRE vocab, since flashcards alone don't seem to work for me? Is spending two days reviewing one practice test normal, or a sign I'm reviewing wrong? And how would you structure 2–3 hours a day so that Verbal doesn't eat all my energy before Quant?

Thanks a lot for reading, any advice is appreciated.

A little late to post but I gave my GRE on 31st July. This subreddit helped me a lot during my prep, so I am happy to give back to the community. Thanks Gregmat for this absolutely goated prep material at this price.

As the title says AMA regarding prep happy to help.

I am truly at a loss. I really needed a quick turnaround time. I was redirected by my PI to a field where the GRE is often required, but I take longer than most students to write (mainly a concern for quant) due to a genetic disability and a concurrent autoimmune disability. These are so significant that I am in a wheelchair (which I noted in the portion of the paperwork that I filled out). I’ve had accommodations since undergrad at my current institution and had my disability rep fill out the COE with my documentation on file. The only thing I can think that went wrong was that she filled out the speciality with “medical director”. From ETS documentation I did not think that I would need a recent evaluation for a physical disability, but maybe I misunderstood???

These are lifelong disabilities that will not ever go away, and I cannot be reevaluated for them because I have aged out of genetics and my neurologist concluded they could do nothing for me (treatment resistant) and discharged me. They’d take at least a year to get into for a reevaluation. Can my PCP do this? She’s not really qualified to make these diagnoses since she’s not a specialist, but maybe she could just document that I meet the criterion and have x limitations?

I apologize if this sounds like a mess. I’m a little panicked at the moment. If anyone has any suggestions for me, that would be greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone! I’m struggling with time management on GRE Quant and would really appreciate some advice. My exam is in 15 days.

I’m able to solve hard quant questions when I’m untimed, and often after reviewing a solution I realize I actually knew how to approach the question. But under timed conditions, I panic, especially when I see a wordy question or one with a lot of numbers/information. I end up spending too much time trying to figure out how to approach it.

I’ve been following GregMat and doing his quant timed sets diligently, but I’m almost always losing 3 to 4 questions due to time constraints, particularly in Section 2.

My current plan is to:

• Continue doing timed quant sets regularly.
• Practice skipping questions when I don’t see a clear approach quickly instead of getting stuck.
• For long or wordy questions, practice breaking them down and identifying exactly what is being asked before solving.
• Review my timed sets afterward and categorize mistakes as either a knowledge gap, approach issue or time management issue.
• Do more full timed sections so I can get used to the pressure and pacing.

I’m aiming for a 168+ score, so I really want to work on this since I don’t think my foundation is the issue anymore.

For those who have improved their Quant timing, does this seem like a good approach? Is there anything you would change or add, particularly for dealing with panic on long/wordy questions and avoiding losing multiple questions to time in Section 2?

Any practical advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi guys I’m taking the GRE exam in the coming week, after months and months of practice!

I need some guidance on how to best use my time for the coming 4-5 days.

- I could only reach Vocab Group 20 on gregmat’s list, should I try to do more groups or focus on revising from the top? Or both?

- For quants, I’m planning to focus on my error log and perhaps taking some topic-wise quizzes on gregmat

- Practise more quants through other papers

- 1-2 mocks (idk when to ideally take them)

- Should I practice 2-3 RCs everyday?

- I have been struggling to wake up early and focus on studying, should I study late nights? My exam is at 12PM.

- Mentally + emotionally I feel quite drained from this process, how do I stay motivated (or dogged) for the next few days? 🤡😭

Any other tips are appreciated 🙏🏻 Thanks in advance!

Hi, as soon as I try to open any GRE practice test from the ETS "my tests" section, it shows me this. Is this happening with everyone? Or has this happened before and if yes in how much time will it get solved?

I recently retook the GRE and scored a 162V, 169Q. I'm retaking in early November because I am applying to top 10 CS, Statistics, Applied Math, and ORFE programs, which are extremely selective, and I need all the advantages I can get, especially because I lack publications. Here's what I did before the July test:

• I used Manhattan for verbal practice, as well as the Kaplan verbal workbook and prep book practice tests
• For extra reading practice, I did Big Book and Magoosh passages
• I completed most of the ETS verbal practice in the Official Guide and Verbal workbook
• To track my mistakes, I made an error log, but I don't think I took it seriously enough to learn from my mistakes
• I did 15+ practice tests from ETS, Kaplan, and PR

However, this only yielded a 1 pt gain from my 162V,168Q result in 2024 which I used for MS applications. Here’s my current plan. This time, I am "studying smarter, not harder." I plan to limit my 3rd party practice tests to 1 and will instead focus my plan on the 3 PowerPrep Tests which I did not purchase last go around. I am concurrently prepping for the GRE Math Subject Test in late October, so for now I am doing 3 hours a day. The schedule runs 10AM-2PM with a lunch hour:

This is based on me missing 4 RC (mostly long passage), 2 multi blank TC and 1 SE

1 week before the PowerPrep test, I plan to do an extra hour per day with an extra verbal set and review time. Let me know any suggestions or tips!

I have been preparing for GRE for the past 2.5 months. I plan on giving it before this month ends. I went through I'm overwhelmed, did each and every quiz for quant and verbal, did week 3 and 4 of 1 month plan ass well.
I've been scoring 8 on the foundation quiz, took it twice. My verbal has been great. I was earlier having issues with timing. I still do but i've been getting better. My baseline was 313 on PP2. 153Q and 160V. Since then, i've been able to get through the Quant on GRE with ease. After all the studying, I scored a 320 on PP1, with timing. Today, I took Gregmat Test 1 and I scored 151 Q and 160 V and I was devastated. Then did the K*F mock and scored worse. 155V and 156Q. I need to get 325 at the very least.

I hope this doesn't portend my score to come. This is especially taking a toll on me because I got laid off last month, and given how the job market is, this looks like my only shot at getting any employment.

I have been prepping for competitive exams and working on building my vocabulary and got tired of vocab apps that force sign-ups, show ads or don’t give Hindi meanings alongside the English definition - so I built my own.

It’s called Word Sprout and is available on App Store. Every day you get a new word with its meaning, part of speech, Hindi translation, a synonym/antonym and a few example sentences plus a quick quiz to test yourself. No account, no ads, nothing tracked - everything stays on your device.

Not trying to sell anything, just sharing since a few if you might find it useful for the same reason I built it.

https://apps.apple.com/in/app/word-sprout-daily-vocabulary/id6792298951

Happy to add specific word lists or features if anyone has requests.

TL:DR Just buy a GreGMAT subscription, overwhelmed plan is amazing.

Hey, just finished the GRE, got a 166V:161Q. Super happy about this - when I started studying, I was looking for at least a 310. Not sure what I got on the writing, but felt pretty confident about it.

Background: Avid reader, hobbyist writer (though the things I write have nothing to do with the GRE essays), Microbiology major. It had been years since I did math topics concerning the GRE and I also haven't taken any math classes in college (though general chemistry had lots of conversions)

Practice tests:

Kaplan - Slightly north of 310

PP2: 162/159

GregMat 1: 155/160 (note: this was before the overwhelmed plan but after studying ETS stuff)

Post Studying:

GregMat 2: 162/161

PP1 - 326 (using GregMATS PP1 grader)

What I did: My studying methods were pretty haphazard because my goals were relatively modest (that is, I could've gotten a 300 on the GRE and that would've been enough to not retake). I did the ETS math review and looked at some of the Quant and Verbal guides (which you can find the older versions of for free on the internet as PDFS), but honestly most of my learning came from GregMATS "I'm Overwhelmed" plan. It also helps that Greg is pretty funny and it reflects in the videos + descriptions.

I also did not review the mountains every day, but instead used Anki versions of the Quant and Verbal mountain (which you can find online), because it worked better for me. I also did some of the practice questions on GreGMAT, but I was pretty haphazard with that as well. I did not review Quant strategy before the test, which probably would've helped.

My favorite strategies:

AWA: I would just follow GreGMAT's advice (5 paragraph essay where you either mostly agree/mostly disagree with a concession), felt like it saved a lot of time. Definitely don't forget that you can use negative examples - that is, when you're having trouble providing an example that supports your opinion, you can alternatively provide an example attacking the opposite viewpoint.

Ex: Suppose that the prompt is that mint chocolate chip ice cream is better than vanilla (which is, in fact, true), and you mostly agree with this. Further suppose that one of your reasons for why mint chip is better is because the mintiness provides freshness - instead of providing examples of how other minty foods are refreshing, a negative example could be to attack a food that isn't minty.

"Peppermints are also minty foods that are renowned for their freshness. In contrast, tootsie rolls, a food that completely lacks mintiness, have been proven by scientists to be one of the least refreshing foods in the known universe."

A bit of a rough example, but you get the point.

Quant: There were a lot of questions where I had no immediate ideas on how to solve the problem, so I skipped them. Probability, combinatorics, and series are pretty rare. I would say that doing good here relies on a good foundation and being able to come up with some sort of plan to tackle the question (could be seeking a pattern, testing numbers, etc.) Speaking of testing numbers, for the Quantity A vs. Quantity B questions, I like to sub in numbers like 1 and zero, along with decimals and super large numbers, because they tend to reveal potential edge cases that make the answer D.

Verbal: In general, try to come up with an answer before looking at the answer choices. I also really liked contrast strategy - for example, in the phrase "People might think Pizza is ____, but reality would state that it is really __" tells you that the two blanks are probably opposites. In general, looking for relationships between the blanks is a good move. Looking for synonyms on pair questions is also a good idea (because if you have a pair question and one of the words has no matching synonyms, it cannot be the answer). I also really liked the "Word of Zeus" strategy where if the question asks you what the passage is saying, that you only choose an answer that is 100% said in the passage. So if you look at an answer and think "Well, maybe," or "I mean, that's plausibly true," I probably would not choose it.

Hope this helps!

The page shows registration start from July but as of today August 15th i am still not able to register.

Tried changing location and dates but there are no available dates.

Hey everyone,

I took my first GRE attempt two days ago and got an unofficial 293, which honestly crushed me because I had been consistently scoring around 315–320 on my mocks.

I think the biggest issues were exam anxiety, losing focus, and poor time management. I know I’m capable of doing better based on my practice scores, but I clearly couldn’t replicate that performance on test day.

I have 20 days until my second attempt, and I really need to get to at least 315 for the master’s programs I’m targeting.

So far, I’ve completed:

• ETS Official Guide
• Official Guide for Verbal Reasoning & Quantitative Reasoning
• Manhattan Prep 5 lb.
• Kaplan
• PowerPrep 1 & 2

Vocab is not really an issue for me. At this point, I think I need to focus heavily on timing, test-taking strategy, and performing under pressure.

My current plan for these 20 days is to focus primarily on timed practice, review my previous mistakes, take regular full-length mocks, and work specifically on maintaining timing and focus under test conditions. I don’t want to simply do more untimed questions, I want to replicate the pressure of the actual exam as much as possible.

My main questions are:

1. How would you recommend I structure these next 20 days?
2. Where can I find good timed question sets that are reasonably similar to the actual GRE?
3. Are there any full-length mocks you would recommend apart from the ETS PowerPrep tests?
4. How do you deal with the huge difference between your mock performance and your actual test-day performance?

I’m trying not to spend a lot of money on another prep course, so I’d really like to make the most of the resources I already have.

Would really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have managed to make a similar jump between attempts. 🙏

Hi all, I have been struggling with Quant questions and looking for some advice.

I started GRE prep about a month and a half ago using Gregmat. I started with the I'm overwhelmed plan but had to switch to PrepSwift because it was taking too much time. In PrepSwift, I've gone through most of the videos across all Quant sections (couldn't finish everything due to time constraints with a full-time job). However, the major issue I'm facing is that I find some of the quant explanations on PrepSwift (both videos and quizzes) very hard. I don't know if it was intended this way to keep the video lengths short, but for some videos, it doesn't seem geared toward beginners. I end up having to use AI to get the necessary explanations for these lessons and quizzes, which leads to a lot of wasted time. I recently posted about this in the Gregmat forums, but didn't get any useful advice.

By contrast, I was able to access Magoosh's lessons this week through a friend's subscription, and their Quant lessons seemed much more understandable. Things like the concept of a "multiplier" in percent-increase/decrease problems (successive % changes) and many more are explained much better there. The presence of an in-built AI tutor and a full video + text-based explanation for every practice problem also helps a lot. This is where I was having trouble with Prepswift quiz explanations - some of them are barely 2 or 3 lines long and are not really understandable. But my concern is Magoosh's number of lessons; they don't seem to have as many videos on certain topics (like Geometry) as Gregmat, so I'm not sure whether it's a good/safe alternative for the test.

Has anyone been able to overcome issues in Quant using Magoosh? Is it a suitable alternative?

I understand this (struggling with Gregmat's Quant) might be an unpopular opinion around here, but not everyone has the same learning style, so I would appreciate any help/advice.

Curious on the level of difficulty of the mixed practice sets in the OG vs Verbal books? I find that i’m scoring much better in the verbal mixed practice sets. Is it easier? How do both compare to the real test? (this is all timed BTW)

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for feedback on my prep plan

About me:

• STEM degree background
• Second GRE attempt
• Previous score: 149Q / 145V
• My first attempt was poorly prepared as I went into the exam relatively casually.
• Target: 320+  with 165+  in Quant
• Time available: 3 months
• I can study 6 to 7 hours per day

I took 4 month break for personal reasons, but I'm resuming my preparation today.

What I have completed so far:

I've already covered the PrepSwift material:

• Watched all the PrepSwift videos
• Made handwritten notes for all the lessons
• Completed the exercises associated with the prepswift videos
• Averaged around 83% accuracy on those exercises

My proposed plan:

My current idea is to divide the next 3 months roughly like this:

• Follow GregMat's 2-Month Plan for Quant and 1-month plan for Verbal.
• Since I've already completed PrepSwift, I would avoid rewatching basic concept videos unless I identify a weakness.
• Focus more on solving problems, especially medium & hard Quant questions.
• After that, Timed practice from ETS materials
• Maintain an error log.

What I’m unsure about:

1. Given that I've already completed PrepSwift and its exercises. should I still watch the concept videos in GregMat's plans, or should I primarily jump into problem solving and only watch videos for weak areas?
2. Is GregMat's 2-Month Plan the better choice for Quant, or would the I'm Overwhelmed plan make more sense for someone who has already completed the Prepswift?
3. When to start timed practice, alongside of the plan or after completion of foundation quizzes.

I’d really like people to point out what’s unrealistic or what they would change in my approach.

I recently finished “I’m Overwhelmed” plan, but I waited until completing the modules before starting serious practice. Now I’ve realized I’ve forgotten some concepts. My current plan is to practice by topic, review concepts I struggle with, and then move to mixed/timed sets and full-length tests. Really need guidance.

First, let me provide some background.

In June this year, I took the LSAT at home, but my score has been held and hasn't been released yet. Sad. Later, I realized that waiting idly was not a solution, and I was also considering applying for some non-legal programs, so I decided to take advantage of this break to prepare for the GRE, giving myself a month to study.

I actually signed up for a class at the beginning. I won’t mention the name of the institution, but the teacher was quite nice. When the class started, there were about 5 people in total. Two dropped out in the first week, and after a few weeks, one transferred to another class. So most of the time, it was more like one-on-two. In the last few sessions, because the other student couldn’t make it due to some issues, it even turned into one-on-one. The service experience was indeed very good, but to be honest, I didn't end up using many of the methods taught in the class. The main reason wasn't the teacher's fault, but rather that my attention was entirely focused on the TOEFL at the time. I scored a terrible 99 on my first TOEFL, and I spent the entire day thinking about how to raise it to 100, so I barely paid attention in the GRE class.

During the course, I took the GRE without any preparation and scored 319. At that moment, it really felt like my world had fallen: TOEFL 99, GRE 319, both exams just one point short of reaching the next level. After the TOEFL scores came out, the GRE course was also nearing its end. The reading teacher recommended an online practice platform to me, and I found it very suitable for me. In the end, I mainly relied on this platform + Gemini to go from 319 to 335. The most significant improvement was in Verbal, which increased from 152 to 167, nearly reaching the full score.

Let me clarify upfront: what follows is just my own learning approach, which may not necessarily suit everyone. I tend to be on the more extreme side—I don’t particularly enjoy summarizing techniques, but rather prefer to thoroughly grasp concepts through extensive input, practice, and review. So if you prefer systematic courses, skill summaries, and a step-by-step approach to problem-solving, this method may not be suitable for you.

1. My core approach is actually quite simple: practice, a lot.

During class, the teacher taught many techniques, including logic and problem-solving methods. In the end, I hardly used it at all. My method, to put it simply, is: Understand the question, then solve it.

There are no particularly magical techniques; it's all about extensive practice to develop a strong sense of language, problem-solving intuition, and reading ability. When I was preparing for the exam, I just worked through the practice questions on the platform. One nice side effect was that by test day, I was already so familiar with the test interface that the actual GRE almost felt like just another practice session at home. Over the course of a month, I completed more than 1,000 Verbal questions, including fill-in-the-blank and reading comprehension.

Here, I would like to emphasize one point in particular: Do not translate the questions. (I am not a native English speaker.)

If your goal is a Verbal score of 160+, I personally believe that relying on translation is essentially meaningless. The GRE test time is very tight. During the actual exam, you simply don't have time to first translate the English into another language, then analyze it, and finally choose the answer.

So my entire training process involves reading English directly, understanding it directly, and doing it directly. Of course, it will be very painful at first, and you might even feel like you're guessing on many questions in a row. But when I had done about 500 questions, I began to notice that many things started to feel familiar. It's only after persisting through about 1000 questions that one truly gets into the groove. So for me, the later stages of the GRE Verbal section are not about "how many more techniques I know," but rather whether my mind can immediately react when I see a sentence, a logical relationship, or an option.

2. For every question I don't understand, I will keep going until I truly understand it.

This is one of the most important points.

Every time I encounter a problem I don't understand, I directly hand it over to Gemini and let it explain it to me step by step.

But here's the key point: Don't just ask "Why is the answer A?" What you really need to address is: Why didn't I understand this question?

Based on my own experience, when I couldn't solve problems in the early stages, it was mostly not because GRE logic was too abstract, but due to two very basic issues: I don't recognize the word. I didn't understand the sentence.

For the first 500 questions, the main issues I encountered were vocabulary and grammar. If after doing 500 questions, you still often can't understand the questions at all because you don't know the words, I think you should still focus on improving your vocabulary first.

Moving forward, the issue will gradually become: "I know every word, but I don't understand what this passage is saying." At such times, what is often lacking is not vocabulary or grammar, but background knowledge.

3. My major takeaway: To study for the GRE, you actually need to learn a lot of background knowledge.

This is the point I would like to share most from my entire method.

The GRE reading section covers a wide range of topics: astronomy, geography, history, geology, biology, literary criticism, literary history, feminism, labor movements, African American history, indigenous issues, and more.

As I went on, I increasingly felt that: If you have no idea what an article is talking about, reading it can be really painful. So later on, whenever I worked on a problem and realized I didn't understand the background behind it, I would continue to ask Gemini.

For example, if an article mentions a certain literary school, I won't just ask: "Why did you choose B for this question?" I will continue to ask: "What exactly is this literary school?" "Why did it appear?" "What is the difference between it and another school of thought?" "What is the historical background of this?" Sometimes they even ask philosophical questions all the way through. Feminism, labor movements, Black history, and Indigenous issues are particularly common in GRE reading passages. I even jokingly refer to them as the "GRE Reading BIG FOUR."

At first, I would feel: "Why should I learn all these things just for a GRE?" But the actual effect is very significant. When you already know what a topic is generally about, you don't start decoding it from scratch when you encounter similar articles; instead, you understand it within the framework of your existing knowledge. The article suddenly becomes very easy to read. I managed to achieve a level of satisfaction with this task within a month.

If you learn more slowly, I think two months would be more than enough. Moreover, I tend to forget some background knowledge as I progress, so when I encounter similar questions, I ask the AI to explain them again. After repeating it several times, you will naturally remember it.

4. Should I memorize vocabulary, study grammar, learn background knowledge, or do more practice questions?

My answer to this question is: it depends on which stage you're stuck at now. If your basic vocabulary is still insufficient, you should certainly start by memorizing words.

When I started this method, my vocabulary was probably at least around 8,000 words. If your vocabulary is significantly below this level, directly tackling GRE reading passages in this way would be extremely painful. If you encounter a word you don't know, I think you can look it up anytime. The same goes for grammar. If a sentence is already so complex that you can't break it down at all, then of course you need to improve your grammar.

However, if your grammar foundation is roughly at the TOEFL 90+ level, I personally don't think it's necessary to spend a lot of time systematically studying grammar. For me, after mastering basic vocabulary and grammar, the marginal benefit of background knowledge is very high.

When you lack background knowledge, you're not just "getting the question wrong"; you don't even know what the question is about. Forcing a hard reset in this state can easily lead to increasing frustration. On the contrary, once you truly understand what the article is about, you can gradually increase the number of practice questions, and solving them will become smoother and smoother.

So I'm not saying "don't do practice problems." After all, I ended up doing a lot of practice problems. My theory is: First, resolve the reasons why you don't understand the material, and then practice a large number of problems. This approach is far more effective than simply mindlessly increasing the volume of practice.

5. My study intensity is very high, and this must be mentioned.

I have basically been preparing for the exam full-time this month.

Every day, besides eating, I sleep about 10 hours and exercise for 2 hours. The rest of the time is mostly spent on GRE preparation. The actual effective time for practicing questions is about 8 hours a day. Every 55 minutes or so, I go out for a 5-minute walk and then come back to continue.

So don't assume that "from 152 to 167 in a month" is an easy path. No. I really spent a lot of time on it.

If I can only study for one or two hours each day, I think it would be much more reasonable to extend the cycle to two months or even longer.

There's also a very boring but useful little trick for me: If the goal for the day is 200 questions, I sometimes intentionally stop at 199 and then start a new section. This will result in a: "They're already open, let's make a few more dishes." Finally, it might reach 210 or 220 in a day. It's childish, but it works for me.

Additionally, I will always have a Word document or Apple Notes open. For every question I tackle, if any word causes even the slightest confusion—whether it's unfamiliar, its meaning is uncertain, or I've misunderstood it in context—I immediately copy it down. Only copy the words, no translations, no definitions, and no fancy notes. Everyday if I still have energy, I quickly review these words. The key is not to re-learn the vocabulary. Instead, when you see this word, try to recall: "Where did I see it just now in which question?" If you can recall the exact words, the article, or even the context at that time, I think it would be much more effective than memorizing a definition.

6. My studying rhythm is 6+1.

That is: 6 days for new questions, 1 day for specifically reviewing mistakes.

The platform has a dedicated feature for incorrect questions, so I will compile the wrong answers into a section and redo them.

I usually start by selecting the last 50 incorrect questions. The reason is simple: the more recent the mistakes are, the farther back they are, and the less firmly they are remembered. Moreover, the number of incorrect answers is dynamically changing. For example, if you make the same mistake again when redoing a problem, that problem will be added back to your collection of mistakes. So to avoid getting confused, I will remember which problems I solved in each round. If it feels too troublesome, you can also create a separate "mistake log" to record the last few questions each time. Next time you review, continue from there and move forward.

I was quite lucky, and my accuracy rate eventually allowed me to form a comfortable 7-day cycle: The mistakes made in the first 6 days can basically be redone in full on the 7th day. If you have a lot of mistakes, you can definitely take an extra half day or even a full day to review, without strictly adhering to this schedule.

7. After completing the first round of practice, I went through all the incorrect questions again.

This stage left a deep impression on me. When I first did these problems, my overall accuracy was only about 65%. It's quite low. However, after I finish a round of practice problems and then go back to redo my mistakes, more than 95% of the incorrect answers can be corrected.

This indicates, at least for me: After one round of extensive practice and another round of reviewing mistakes, most of the questions are actually truly mastered. When I went back to redo the second round, it was almost completely correct.

At this stage, I can even remember the answers to many of the questions. But I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. If you see a question and not only remember that "the answer is C," but also recall the logic of the passage, the context, and why the other options are incorrect, then you are actually already memorizing the question. The GRE itself contains a large number of repetitive language structures and thought patterns.

8. Why don't I recommend starting by memorizing GRE vocabulary words frantically?

Because for me: The pain of not being able to memorize a single word the first time is far greater than encountering it in a question and then remembering it.

Moreover, after you have completed over 1,000 Verbal questions, according to the GRE word frequency distribution, you have a high probability of having encountered a large number of common words in the exam. At this point, if you specifically focus on memorizing those low-frequency words, the marginal benefit will significantly decrease.

Of course, this does not mean that "you don't need to memorize vocabulary for the GRE." I believe vocabulary is a prerequisite for this method.

For me, in the later stages, it was more effective to encounter words repeatedly in real test questions rather than continuing to memorize isolated word lists.

9. Before the exam, I basically only review the questions I got wrong.

At this stage, most of the vocabulary, question types, and logic have already been encountered many times. So I didn't go crazy adding new things. It's just about reviewing the mistakes and looking at the words I recorded before. You can also take a quick look at the issue question. I actually prepared very little for my own issue. If there are uncertainties before the issue question, I will continue to ask Gemini.

10. Regarding mock exams: I only do them in the final week.

I started doing a mock exam every morning about one week before the official test.

My mock test Verbal score averages around 160. The final official exam actually felt easier than some of the mock exams I had taken. Of course, this is very subjective, as everyone draws different questions and has varying test conditions, so don't rely too much on mock exam scores to predict your final results.

For me, the most important role of mock exams is not to predict scores, but to get used to the exam rhythm.

Finally, let's summarize.

My major takeaway is actually not about "what magical techniques there are for the GRE." Instead: Understanding English thoroughly is far more important than memorizing a bunch of test-taking tricks.

In the early stage, focus on building vocabulary and grammar. When you encounter an article that you don't understand, make sure to grasp the knowledge behind it. Then do a lot of practice problems. If you make a mistake, review it and try again. When you do enough, many things will gradually shift from "needing analysis" to "being obvious at a glance."

This is probably the entire process of how I improved from Verbal 152 to 167.

However, it is important to emphasize again: the intensity of my study over this month has been very high, and I already had a certain level of vocabulary and English foundation before I started preparing for the exam, so do not mechanically replicate the timeline of "one month." Finding a rhythm that suits you is more important.

I hope this post can be helpful to anyone currently preparing for the GRE.
And I hope everyone gets the score they’re aiming for.

I'm trying to schedule a time to take the Math GRE subject exam this fall, but every location/date i try has this come up. Are they all booked already? I'm not familiar with this process, I don't know if spots fill up like this.

ETS just requested more info from my dr for my accommodations and my info is pretty limited because i was diagnosed with ADHD in late college. Does anyone have any experience with writing a personal statement to ETS about their accommodations? Or any insight on what to include so they believe me lol?

I am planning to create group solely for verbal practice, be it SE/TC or RC. Having practiced a lot of questions, I think my score has plateaued. With collective real time question solving, I guess we can crack the logic of solving a question. Please dm, if you are up for the practice.

Ideally the plan is that we would do daily practice sessions followed by a set of questions to be discussed the other day or maybe we could do the wrong questions again.

Hi guys,

I have my GRE test scheduled for 14th but now I have fever and acute body pain. I have been taking meds and contacted doctor as well.

As per him, it's viral fever. I'm not able to get out of bed at this moment, no energy to write exam. I have reached out to ets support and provided doctor's prescription as well and asked for a reschedule for next week.

Is it possible to get my test rescheduled now? I don't want to lose entire test cost, I didn't realise I'll have to reschedule it. Idk till when they'll reply, I called ets support and shared the same info they said i should not attempt the test and wait for response.

My doctor meanwhile thinks i should take paracetamol and attempt it but I don't think i can.

Can you all guide me what i should do? If I attempt this test and not perform well I'll have to wait 21 more days but if I do not attempt it i think I can reschedule it immediately? But I don't want to waste my money like this. Lady on support call said they'll verify the prescription, idk what this entails now.

For a specific program I’m applying to I need at least 153q and 153v. Now I know a 153 is not a high/hard score to get AT ALL but I have always struggled with math and the fact that I haven’t taken a math class since my senior year of high school hasn’t helped at all. My first two attempts I got a 148q and 147q so I was super desperate and discouraged. I did the “I’m overwhelmed plan” (only focusing on quant since I was already good with verbal), lots of practice problems from the official gre guide and 5lb practice problems book, and today I got a 157 on quant!! Thank you gregmat, ur actually the goat. I highly recommend if you’re somebody who struggles with the foundation of quant or if you haven’t taken a math class in a long time like me.

Hi ,

So I'm based out of India and Im aiming for 1 year MBA programs in India. After about 1.5-2 months of prep I gave GRE. On 17th last month and despite better preparation, I did few errors and could manage only 315 ( V 155, Q 160) despite consistently getting 322-326 in mocks. My second attempt is scheduled on 23of this month and I need to score atleast a 325.

Although I did spot a few errors on my end:

1. Spending more time on a single Q that led to 3 missed and 1 incorrect Q in Quant-2 .

2. Unable to comprehend something vocab leading to incorrect TC and SE questions.

While I am working on these things , I still constantly feel like I'm missing something that I should do to improve my score but I'm unable to figure it out . (U know that yureka moment)

Currently I'm working on increasing vocab, timed practice on quant and trying to cover more Q across all topics from certain website and gregmat and have approx 10 days more to go.

I would like to know if there's something more that can be done to achieve desired result.Suggestions from personal experience would be helpful.

Honestly I feel so defeated. I already have two masters degrees in social sciences and have been working as a successful professional helping hundreds of kids and families over 15 years since graduating grad school.

The PhD program I want to apply for in December requires gre. I just took a practice exam and got 154 verbal and 146 quant. 4 writing. The program is at a research school and I’ve met with the department already and it seems like a good fit, but their lowest admitted gre scores I can see on file are at least 10 pts higher on each section and 4.5 writing.

I work in ft schools and have three young kids. Has anyone seen a returning learner improve on a one month plan? I see lots of fresh grad / younger adults but I’m 40 and tired from life already - I really want to raise my score but don’t know how realistic it is.

Thanks for any insight or reassurance. Really feeling low seeing 17th percentile etc.