HOW TO SCORE GOOD IN GRE

Whether your official GRE score is lower than your target score or you aren’t scoring as well on practise exams as you would like, there are actions you can do to change up your preparation routine and see your score rise. Here are our top five suggestions for how to increase your GRE score.

1) MAKE A LIST OF HOW YOU HAVE BEEN STUDYING FOR THE GRE.

You’ve realised that you’re not hitting your target score, therefore it’s time to change your approach to GRE preparation. Take stock of what you’ve done. The trick here is to be honest with yourself about your progress thus far. How many hours have you spent into your preparation over what time period? How many practise exams have you completed? How frequently do you study? Are there any distractions you can avoid in order to make your study sessions more productive?

Raising your score may be as simple as putting in extra effort. Consider adding an extra day or two if you’ve been studying once or twice a week. Even if you’ve just been at it for a month, most students show the most progress after 2-3 months of dedicated preparation.
Take efforts to fine-tune your approach to GRE preparation. For example, if you’re sitting down to study but are interrupted by messages and emails every fifteen minutes, consider placing your phone on Do Not Disturb or Aeroplane Mode so you can devote 2-3 hours of uninterrupted concentration to each session.

Perhaps you might enhance your efforts with additional resources. If you’ve been studying on your own, consider engaging with a GRE professional teacher or tutor who can assist you in identifying your most promising areas of potential. Live online and in-person GRE classes can help you arrange your preparation and give you tried-and-true tactics. You can work with a private tutor to get to know your specific strengths and weaknesses and plan your prep to serve your goals for the most personalised experience.

2) CREATE A STUDY SCHEDULE AND KEEP TO IT

Get organised once you’ve decided to improve your score. Choose your GRE exam date and work backward to plan your studies if you haven’t previously. Procrastination is appealing. If you don’t physically pencil in your GRE prep, you may find yourself constantly putting it off, wasting valuable time to conduct practise sets, review basic content, or drill vocabulary items. Create a study calendar by sitting down. Schedule blocks of time multiple days per week until your Test Day, whether you use a paper calendar, your computer, or your phone.
Be particular when creating your study calendar, committing each study day to a specific objective, to provide a layer of accountability and organisation. If you’re not sure where to begin, a GRE prep book might provide an overview of what’s examined on the GRE. Schedule a full-length GRE practise exam every few weeks to improve your stamina and familiarity with the test’s structure.

3) MAINTAIN AN ERROR LOG

When you answer a question incorrectly, a small part of you should rejoice. When you make a mistake, you create a tremendous chance to collect data and learn from it.
Your error log will act as a central repository for all of your errors while preparing for the GRE. This record can be kept in whatever format works best for you—paper or digital. You should keep the following information:

The question number and position (so you can quickly find it again), the date, and how long you spent on the question.
The mistake: describe your mistake in detail.
The reason: determine why you made the mistake and write it down. Some of your mistakes will fall into the category of “careless errors”; you may choose to leave these out of your log and merely make a mental note of them. Add any patterns you notice in your careless errors to your log.
The key is to figure out – and write down – how you can avoid making the same error again.
Simply noting your blunders, as described above, will help you avoid making such mistakes in the future. To get the most out of your error log, review it once a week, paying attention to obstinate patterns and mistakes that you continue to commit.

4) WORK ON YOUR GRE VOCABULARY

Text Completion, Sentence Equivalence, and Reading Comprehension are the three types of questions in the Verbal Reasoning portion. Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions are among the most difficult for students because they rely largely on vocabulary knowledge. Include GRE Vocabulary review at regular times in your preparation regimen.
As you work through GRE practise sets, make a note of any unfamiliar words you come across. Flashcards may be outdated, but they are a wonderful tool for memorising GRE vocabulary. Make a flashcard for each word and drill it until it is ingrained in your memory.

5) COMPLETE PRACTISE TESTS ON A REGULAR BASIS

The third GRE preparation suggestion is to take GRE practise examinations on a regular basis. To get the most out of your practise tests, try to make them as near to the actual test-taking setting as feasible. Make sure to finish all of your practise exams in a single sitting, adhering to the GRE’s time constraints. The more familiar you get with the GRE’s structure, the more efficient and comfortable you will be on Test Day—there will be no surprises, and the practise of taking the GRE will be ingrained in your body.
It is just as crucial to set aside time to review your practise tests as it is to take frequent practise tests. First, record all of your errors in your error log, taking the time to fully comprehend which errors you made and how you could improve your approach the next time you face the same type of question. Then, go over the questions on which you guessed or took longer than you expected. Finally, check over the questions you answered correctly to ensure you fully understand how you arrived at the correct answer. Reviewing your practise exams should take at least as long as a full-length GRE, so make sure to arrange enough time for these important review days.