When to Start Studying For GRE
The industry standard tells you that you have to study about 3-4 months for standard tests, including GRE. But it is wrong to follow industry standard. By following “industry standard” most students will end up with scores around average.
Just by reading this article till the end you will learn how to break out from average and score higher. I will explain when to start studying for GRE and how much time is sufficient for GRE preparation.
How long did you study for GRE – a month, two, three? Did you take a test and got your results? Most likely you left points on the table by rushing into taking exam too soon. I bet you have read a few articles and forums about how long to study GRE before taking and they told you to follow “standard.”
Standard does not work anymore because thousands of other test-takers also follow the same standard. You will never beat them by doing standard. Do more.
GRE
It is also known as Graduate Record Examinations. Today, GRE is one of the most popular and widely respected and trusted standardized tests in the world. Many graduate schools in the USA and Canada use GRE to evaluate the capability of students who are keen on getting into some of the best graduate schools and colleges in the above two countries.
The test has been around for many years now and the first exams were started in the year 1936. The tests were established by the famous Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching. Over the years it has become one of the most trusted and respected entrance examinations of the world.
There is no doubt GRE is a highly standardized test. It helps the students to showcase your skills and knowledge. If you are able to meet and exceed the threshold limits set for the GRE exams, you will stand a very good chance of getting admission in the best of graduate school and colleges. The students, therefore, should aim to get the best of grades and scores.
This will enhance your chances of getting admission in some of the topmost and some of the most prestigious business schools and schools that teach other subjects and specialties. Almost all well-known and reputed colleges and schools will be keen on taking only those students on roll who have some of the best grades in GRE.
Therefore, while passing in these exams is of paramount importance, there also is the need to ensure that students aim for the best of ranking because of obvious reasons.
It is quite obvious that there is a need for rigorous, timely and thorough preparation for GRE as far as the students are concerned. While most students are intelligent, smart and are willing to do what it takes to pass the GRE test, they may lack experience and expertise. They certainly need the right guidance and counseling failing which they may not be able to fare well in these highly competitive and demanding GRE exams.
Look At the Broad Skills Tested
There is uniformity of the pattern of GRE tests that are conducted across the globe. The tests cover three broad skill sets of students and they are Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning and lastly Analytical Writing. The students are tested on these three areas because they will be using them on a daily basis. This is perhaps the reason as to why GRE tests are considered vital and important for all Phd programs as well as MS Programs, especially in the many English Speaking countries.
To sum it up, there is no doubt that GRE is one of the most important skill-testing tests for all students inside the country and outside. It forms the basis on which the universities assess the suitability or otherwise of thousands of students who take such tests.
Now that we have a reasonably good idea about the various aspects of GRE and its importance, let us now spend some time trying to answer the main questions that come into the minds of the students who are preparing for these tests.
It will surely be helpful in answering some lingering doubts that students may have. It also will help them to prepare better and make better use of the time that they have. It also will enable them to get started at the right time without starting too early in the day or too late in the day.
How Much Time Is Sufficient for GRE Preparation?
There is no doubt that GRE tests can be quite intimidating. How much time is sufficient for GRE preparation is very individual thing which cannot be washed down into some kind of “standard”. Therefore, students should be ready to work hard and enough time has to be devoted to prepare for the GRE exams. However, not many students may be aware as to what exactly is enough time.
Is it two months, or two weeks or just two hours a day prior to the exam? Though giving the right answer to this question could be a bit tough, we will try and answer it to the best of possibilities.
The logic is quite simple. If the students are able to devote the required amount of time for the GRE tests, it will certainly help them to maximize their score. Spending a minimum amount of time for the exams may help students to secure only pass grades and rankings, but in a highly competitive market situation, this may not yield the desired results. The following few lines may help clear certain doubts about the time that is sufficient for preparing reasonably well for the GRE exams.
How much time is sufficient for GRE preparation depends on how much you have and whether you are capable of learning for a long stretches of time. Though different students devote different amounts of time preparing for GRE, based on experience and expertise, certain things can be surmised.
Suggested “industry standard” consisting one to three months of studying time consisting of a few hours a week should be just enough to start cracking the GRE exams.
But, as you read further, I will explain why you should spend more time preparing.
How Much Preparation is required for GRE?
The preparation time that is required for GRE would again depend on students and it may not be possible to straightjacket the whole thing. It would depend on the overall objective that the students have in mind.
For example, some students may be keen on getting admission to the best business and technical schools in the USA and Canada. So, how much preparation is required for GRE, or, essentially, when to start studying for GRE before exam?
The “standard” range may vary from eight hours a week to around ten hours a week. This is good only if you work full-time. If you are not – then please, do at least 15-20 hours per week of focused and thorough preparation.
Obviously, such students would like to spend more time so that they have much better ranks. These students do not mind spending at least 15 to 20 hours a week and they start this process at least two to three months before the date of the exam. This helps them to season their mind and also strengthen their emotions.
While being thorough with all the three skill sets mentioned above is extremely vital, this alone may not see the students doing well. There is no doubt that there is a big element of nerves and the students must be ready to be prepared for this also. Starting a bit early in the day will ensure that the emotional quotient and the mental fitness levels are also adequately addressed.
Here is a most important rule I learned over the years, but few people listen. You must study fir as many hours per week as you can, for as long as you see at least marginal improvement in your diagnostic test scores.
If it takes you three months to get top score – great. But the rest of us need more time to prepare and absorb information. If you study for 6-9-12 months regularly and thoroughly you should see very serious improvement sometime in the last couple of months of your preparation.
Just to get some science – it takes us about one year to develop strong neuro connections for new skills or knowledge. So, do not be afraid to spend one year preparing. This may be the answer to question of how long to study for GRE before taking.
If you hit plateau – change something in your studies – a book, a course, approach, take a 10-14 days break, and then start again. You should eventually move over plateau and increase your score a little bit more.
Only if you go for 1.5-2 months without any increase, after changing methods or materials no improvement, and your score is decently good, then you may have hit your peak.
Understanding Something about GRE Scores
A good GRE score is again relative to the program that a student is planning to choose. While answering the question how much preparation is required for GRE is important, at the end of the day is the scores that matter. The higher the score, the better your chances of getting admission in some of the best schools.
The average score for all GRE examinees right now is 150 as far as verbal assessment is concerned. For maths the average score is 152 and for analytical writing anything above 4 is considered good because the rating ranges from – to 6. When all the above are taken together and looked at from a total perspective, we will be arriving at the overall GRE score percentiles.
For example if you have scored 47th percentile, it means that you have scored better than 47 percent of other students who took the test. Therefore, it is obvious that the higher the percentile, the higher will be your overall ranking and this certainly will work to your favor.
How to Study Well For GRE?
Yes, it is quite obvious that you must find the right answers to the question as to how long to study for GRE before taking or how long did you study for GRE. However, all this will have meaning and consequence only if you are able to answer the question how to study well for GRE.
There are a number of theories, approaches and practices that have evolved over time when it comes to preparing well for the GRE tests. Each of their theories is versatile and unique and has many points that could be common to many such theories. We are happy to list down a few of the main points that could help a student to study well and make use of the time that he or she has decided to spend for this critical exam in his or her life.
- Finding the baseline is important. You must know where you are before you start preparing for the GRE test. Therefore, it would be a good idea to take a comprehensive GRE practice test and give it the seriousness it deserves. This will help you to find out where exactly you stand and you can start improving from the baseline and go up the ladder before the exams. This also may be able to help you find the right answer as to how much time you should be devoting for the GRE test preparations.
- Having a target GRE score is also vital. This can be done by comparing your baseline GRE test results with the average of the many GRE scores that are available on the internet. This will again help you to benchmark with other students and improve in the areas where you should while strengthening the areas where you are strong.
- You surely will have a gap between what you want in terms of the final score and where you are actually right now. Your objective should be to bridge this gap as quickly as possible. If needed you could increase the overall time spent as you near the date of the GRE test.
- Split your time adequately between the three main skills and this certainly will help you to ensure that you are giving equal importance to the three main skill sets.
Conclusion
While it is quite obvious that you should devote the right amount of time and should start preparing at least two months before your GRE test date, you must know how to manage time efficiently and productively.
How long did you study for GRE – let me and readers of this blog know in the comments. Hopefully, this info can be useful to other readers too.
