What are the important tips that should be kept in mind before taking the GRE?

Preparing for the GRE is all about ‘knowing your enemy’. Hence, here are some tips that might help you combat the GRE. There is plenty of free advice out there on preparing for the GRE but what is important to know is the correct advice on preparing for the GRE. Students tend to hoard a lot of useless and repetitive material, thinking that solving all of it can help them get a great GRE score.

• You need to have a clear GRE study plan that is customized to meet your preparation needs. For many students, the study plan needs to be designed based on the urgency to appear for the exam. It is the simplest and pain-free way to start taking action!
• Understand the techniques involved for the GRE tests or the GRE subject tests because it is not just a test of Math and English. You need to dive deep into each question-type and ensure that you have a clear strategy to approach each question on the test. Students must attempt a sufficient number of tests to build their mental stamina for four hours.
• Get your queries clarified because the biggest problem with self-preparation is that you can never know why a particular answer is wrong or right.

There are certain basic aspects of the GRE test or GRE tips that most test takers already know, but it is important for students to keep in mind, these tips will help you get ready for your test day. When planning the GRE prep, it is important for test takers to take a practice test. A practice test will help in getting familiar with the various components of the exam, for example sections that include reading comprehension can be performed better with practice. It will also help in determining how much time is taken to complete the exam. There are plenty of free GRE practice tests available online.

How do I Prepare for the GRE? How do I get a good score in the GRE Exam?

The ETS (Educational Testing Service) GRE test has three sections: verbal reasoning, analytical writing and quantitative reasoning. The two sections, i.e. verbal section and quantitative section are scored between 130 – 170, so the lowest score you can get is 130 and highest is 170 for each of those sections. The analytical writing section is scored between 0 – 6 in half point increments.

The average GRE verbal and quantitative section score is 150 – 152 and for the analytical writing section it is 3.5. Now that’s the average score, so in terms of knowing what a “good score” is, is to find out the requirement of the college/ university or program of your choice. The more competitive a program, the higher the score requirement would be. That would be the first step in preparing for the GRE general or GRE subject test, “to know your goal or target”.

Once you’ve identified your goal, the next step is to sign up for the GRE test. That way you not only have your goal for your score, but you have a target date to make sure that you need to cover all of your exam content by. This will make it much easier for you to plan out your studies and figure out how much you need to get done every single week because you have that end state in mind. Once you have signed up for your exam and have your date in place, the next step is to get the appropriate resources.

The next step is to plan your GRE study schedule by planning for test prep classes and practice exams.  It's important to set aside your study time and figure out what exactly you need to cover to make sure you get everything covered before your test. Last minute prep to study will not work most of the time and hence a study plan created well in advance is advised.

Now your specific study schedule or calendar will look different depending on how many weeks you have until your test and what resources you've got. The exam takes about 3 hours and 45 minutes. So, you'll want about four hours to take GRE practice test as well as some more time to review your answers.

These steps are an important part of your GRE prep. Other important tips include:

• It is important that you get a good night’s sleep before the test. According to research, it has been found that for peak performance eight hours of sleep is optimally required.
• Find beforehand about your test center and see that you have all the required information.
• Students must not don’t stress themselves before the actual GRE test or even when preparing for the GRE.
• GRE is one of those tests that seem easy until you have to do it. Fortunately, it does get easier, and with time and practice, you’ll be scoring like a pro in no time. So, try and take as many practice exams or practice questions as many exercises on GRE vocabulary as possible.
• The GRE does not penalise you for incorrect answers. So, make sure you answer all questions even if you are not sure about your response.
• You will receive individual scores for the Verbal and Quantitative sections at the end of the computer-based test. However, the scores for Analytical Writing Assessment section will take up to two weeks to be released.

You can connect with your Relationship Managers at TC Global to know more about the GRE test preparation strategies, tools, resources and other details.