20 Step GRE Exam Study Plan

by HSB on March 3, 2010

in GRE

Truth – Not everyone can get score high in GRE, GMAT exams without hard work and
preparation.

If you are a mediocre student, then amount of work you have to put will be more compared to
others. Everyone’s don’t have equal talent. But with exams like GRE, GMAT one can get
high score with practice and effort. We have published 10 Step GRE Study Plan, this article
is an expansion of the same plan.

Don’t decide on your GRE Exam dates and start preparing for the exam. You will understand
why that is not the right way to prepare for GRE exam after reading the article below.

GRE Study Plan

1. First, you need to know your current skill level and how much you can score with the
practice test.
2. To determine your current skill level, take a practice test using Power Prep for GRE. Lets
assume you got 900 in practice test.
3. Next determine how much you want to score in GRE (Be Realistic). It would be nice to score
1600/1600, but you only certain amount of time to study.
4. Your GRE Study plan will depend on the following
o Type of university you want to attend
o Score you want to get – Target Score.
5. So, lets assume you decided on a Target Score of  1200. Next you have to plan your course of
action to reach the target.
6. Make a detailed note of your strengths and weakness from the practice test. To improve
your scores, you have to work on your weakness.
7. Determine your learning style.
o Would you like to spend fixed time every day
o like to work with another friend preparing for exams
o Spend fixed time 2 days in a week, ..
8. To reach the target score of 1200 in GRE Test,  amount of time you have to spend has to be
calculated based on
o your learning style
o time you plan to spend daily
o University deadlines
o when you plan to write GRE [ How to Register for GRE]
9. If you have only 2 months and I need to score 1200 and can spend only 1 hour per week,
then you can expect to score in GRE between  900 to 1000.
10. GRE Study Materials: Make sure you have enough and right test preparation materials. If you
plan to study for 3 months, then you need to have study materials for 3 months.
11. Have a notebook to track your performance.
 12. Spend allocated according to the plan. Work on your weak areas ( Verbal Words, Maths
Algebra,..).
13. After completing the GRE practice test, make sure you spend more time analysis the
mistakes. If you spent 2 hours taking the test, spend atleast 3 hours to analyze the mistakes.
Instead if you spend 30 mins to just see the right answers, you are not improving your weak
areas.
14. Make a note of the mistakes you made and revise them weekly. So, you will not repeat the
same mistakes again.
15. Don’t forget to spend time to practice tests in strong areas of GRE Test.
16. You need to have checkpoint to track your progress. If you have 4 months to study and need
to improve 200 points, then every month your score has to improve towards the target
score.
17. By end of 2 months if you are still scoring 900, then you have to blame yourself. Go back to
the study plan and see if you are really followed the plan or just being ad-hoc and not self-
disciplined enough to follow the plan.
18. If you learned new strategies for a section, during practice tests, you have to get the right
answers. If you spent 1 week to improve on a section and then end up getting many
incorrect answers, then you just wasted 1 week of your preparation time.
19. For Example if you are weak in GRE Reading Comprehension and you spent 1 week in
learning new strategies and if you still get it wrong, then try new strategies. Solve 25 RC’s
per day. Live and sleep RC’s, you will get it.
20. You MUST stick to your study plan and follow it strictly. You need to have self-discipline to
follow the plan and that what differentiates from people who just have BIG dreams and
Achievers.  You might get a tempting invite from friends to go to movie, during your study
time and you will decide – “I will go to movies and will make it up next day”. If you can really
make it up, then you are good to enjoy the time. If not, you can just yourself  as Just another
loser, who is not going to be successful in getting high GRE Score.

Your GRE Study Plan

If you are in the process of preparing for GRE, post your plan and get inputs from other
readers, if you have right target and enough time to reach the target GRE Score.