Studying for the GRE

I didn't spend a single penny on GRE prep and neither should you. Here are some great free resources I've found helpful as well as a full step by step how I studied for the GRE. 

The Resources

• Powerprep Online - 2 free full length practice tests made by the creators of the GRE (so you know it's legit)

• Kaplan - 1 full length practice test, they also do a GRE question of a day sent straight to your inbox if you want to practice on the daily

• Princeton Review - 1 full length practice test

• Manhattan Prep - 1 full length practice test

• McGraw-Hill - 1 full length practice test

How I studied 

I started studying two to three weeks before the date of my test. I took one of the Powerprep tests to start, knowing that the score I got on that test was a good measure of my starting point. I took this test (and all the tests) like the real thing. No phone, sitting down at my kitchen island on my laptop with no other windows open on the screen. Only taking breaks when prompted to by the online test. After doing that first test and realizing that I was starting in a pretty good spot, I rotated through the rest of the online tests for the following week and a half to two weeks. 

I kept a notebook full of notes through this process. Scores for each section and cumulative scores for each of the tests (knowing that if I could get over 300 consistently, I was in good shape for the real test). I also logged areas that appeared to be weaknesses for me. Off the top of my head, I can remember that trigonometry was a weak area for me back then. I would then spend a little extra time trying to refresh those weak areas. Whether that be reading over the math rules or doing some extra practice problems

Two days before the real test I took the second Powerprep test. This test served as my final little bit of prep before the real test as well as an indicator of how I expected myself to do on the real GRE. Once again, treated this test as if it were the real thing. No distractions, no breaks, no phone... 

And that was it! My study method was really chill, but that is mostly because the first test that I took I scored over 300 and knew that I was likely going to get the score that I wanted without needing to study more intensively. That being said, if you've taken time off school or you know yourself and you feel ill prepared, give yourself more than three weeks. I wouldn't recommend studying more than a month and a half in advance, but anywhere within that time frame would be more than enough to get you where you want to be. 

Let me know in the comments how you studied for the GRE and what you thought of the test.

x, S