GRAD School / MBA News and GMAT / GRE Strategy

If you’re studying for the GRE, then you’re probably already aware that vocabulary is a big component of the test. The GRE—or Graduate Record Examination—contains many questions that test your knowledge of academic English. Unfortunately, there’s no way to gain a comprehensive knowledge of every possible word you might encounter on test day. The English language is simply too vast. Even studying official past tests will only help you insofar as it teaches you the kind of words you’re likely to encounter on the test. The actual vocab words you’ll encounter on test day are unlikely to include many repeats from past tests.

But all that doesn’t mean there’s no way to prep for the vocabulary on the GRE. It just means you’re going to have to more strategic in the ways you study. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of helpful study tips, so you can make the most of your GRE prep.

If you’re considering applying to grad school, then there’s a good chance you’re going to have to contend with the GRE. The GRE—more fully known as the Graduate Record Exam—is used as an admissions test by many graduate schools in the US and Canada, for a variety of academic disciplines. The GRE’s wide applicability has to do with the fact that it measures a broad and general range of skills, including verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing, and critical thinking.

If you want to improve your GRE score, you have many options at your disposal. You can self-study using free or extremely low-cost GRE prep materials from ETS, invest in a slightly more expensive self-paced GRE course, or enroll in a more expensive live in-person or online GRE course. Most people would agree though, that if you have the financial means, the most efficient and effective way to improve your GRE score is to enlist the help of a private GRE coach.

To save your time, we've compiled all the essential formulas to know for the GRE, so you could just jump right at it and start your GRE prep.

If you are thinking about how to study for the GRE, perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that proper planning will lead to a higher GRE score. The GRE is not like an IQ test. The more you study for the GRE, in general, the higher you will score. One basic mental mistake students often make is to keep toxic thoughts in their head about being “bad at math” (or verbal) and thus viewing GRE prep as a process they must endure, but which probably won’t help all that much. That’s wrong. While perhaps not a completely linear relationship, the more you prepare, the better you’ll do. Yes, how you prepare matters a lot too (more on that below). But just showing up and putting in the time is certainly an important part of the battle here.

A high GRE Analytical Writing score won’t help you get admitted to a top graduate program, but a below average score can keep you out of one.

The Analytical Writing measure assesses critical thinking and analytical writing capabilities. It evaluates your ability to communicate and support complicated ideas, design and test arguments, and engage in a clear and intelligible discussion of an issue. It doesn’t assess how much you know about a specific topic.