GRAD School / MBA News and GMAT / GRE Strategy

This is the first in a multipart series on how to go about studying for the GRE or GMAT. We don’t plan on going into detail on specific concepts covered on the GRE or specific test-taking strategies in this series. Instead, the intention is to cover higher level, foundational issues around preparing for these exams, such as what type of support to get, what materials to use, what mindset to cultivate, etc. This article is being posted on our GRE blog, but we’ll switch from GRE to GMAT over time, as the concepts are broadly applicable to both exams.

There are two games you must win if you want to score well on the GRE. The first is what I call the “outer” game. It consists of the how-to’s for getting right answers — the x’s and o’s, if you will — including math concepts, vocabulary, formulas, strategic elimination strategies, time management, and other such tangible applications. The outer game is where GRE students spend most of their time, and it’s what our online GRE prep courses do such a great job of teaching.

There is certainly a lot of content you must master to earn a high score on the GRE. Your mathematics, verbal reasoning, reading comprehension, and writing skills will be tested and obviously are key to earning a 90^thpercentile GRE score (or better).

Do you remember studying a ton of vocabulary for your SAT back in high school? Well, you probably took SAT right before the ETS reconfigured the whole thing and removed the vocabulary section.

Like the thousands of other humanities people getting ready to take the GRE, you may not have thought about exponents since high school. You probably spent your undergraduate years thinking a lot more about existentialism than exponents, and now need to feel confident enough about that tiny superscript number to work with it over and over again on the GRE.

As you're planning to take the GRE, you'll want to set up a structured study plan for yourself.  There's no single, correct way to do this, and each student approaches this test slightly differently.  Some students may opt for a rigorous prep course, while others might work with a tutor.  Still other students strike off on their own, get a few books, sign up for a few online resources and study the material themselves.  No matter which approach you decide to take, though, you'll want to find a way to structure your studying and measure your progress—and one of simplest and most effective ways of doing that is to simply take tests as you go along.