3 Months Study Plan for the GRE

There is no standard time duration for preparation to get the desired score in the GRE exam. However, students worldwide on an average spend 3 months on GRE preparation. Assuming that you are familiar with basic quants and verbal aptitude we have created this 12 weeks study plan. Please don't pressurize yourself thinking that you need to spend the whole day and night to prepare yourself. At first, take a deep breath and then the first thing you need is motivation -motivate yourself that you can do it. So your first job is getting mentally prepared and enthusiastic. If English is not your first language then GRE vocabulary will seem an alien language to you but gradually you will learn how to deal with them.  Usually, in comparison, the math section will be easier for students.

Before making your study plan please keep in mind a few things –

Your daily schedule, work, commitment, personal life, and system loss are part of your life, so while making plan don't avoid these possibilities of system loss.

Try to keep the consistency, try to study almost every day of the week. If you study one whole day and then you keep yourself away from study for a week, this preparation won't benefit you.

Always keep enough time for revision.

When you have 3 months to prepare, try to divide your time properly. In the first two months, try to build strategies to solve the problems, discover short techniques, watch all the tutorials you need. However, in the last month just practice and try to solve everything quicker than before and most importantly give full-length mock tests.

You need to know your strength and weakness but how you are going to judge yourself? The best way is to give a diagnostic test. The GRE test maker, ETS offers two free mock tests at https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/powerprep/

Give the first one as your diagnostic test and keep the second one for later

Just don't attend the test, also find out your flaws and strengths. Go through the detailed solutions and explanations and get a proper idea about the timing and syllabus. Read thoroughly the ETS website and have a proper idea of the GRE exam.

Now when you have proper idea about timing you should concentrate on syllabus and as you have already given the diagnostic mock test then you already have some basic ideas about the syllabus and about your strength and weakness.

Essential Materials:

1. Official GRE Quantitative Reasoning Practice Questions

2. Official GRE Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions
3. ETS Official GRE Guide
4. Magoosh's online GRE Vocabulary Flashcards ( or Related book or app)
5. Barrons's 333 High-Frequency word. We have made a single YouTube playlist covering all 333 words with pictures, mnemonics, and stories. Watch it here. 
6. Manhattan Prep 1-6 (latest edition)
7. Manhattan 7-8 ( Reading Comprehension and Sentence Equivalence)( optional)
8. GRE BIG BOOK of ETS ( Reading  comprehension, critical reasoning)
9. Analytical writing section from Kaplan book, Kaplan GRE and GMAT exam s writing workbook
10. Nova's GRE Math Prep Course GRE MATH BIBLE
11. Manhattan Prep GRE 5 lb ( latest edition)
12. Online mock test resource. We have developed the most realistic and affordable mock test module, check it here https://higherstudyprep.com/subscription/gre/
13. Reading materials: Scientific American, The New York Times, The Economist

So now you have a proper idea about the syllabus and the exam and also you have the essential materials. Keep in mind you can use other materials too. ETS doesn't leak their questions, so almost every material will serve the same. Though people find Magoosh harder than real GRE. ETS books should be your top priority and if you have time please check the GRE big book too.

Now you are ready to make your own study plan. Here you will get a sample of that plan.

The plan will be in weeks as studying every day with proper and equal attention is not possible for everyone.

So here is the plan-

Week 1

Start making your own word list from any popular GRE vocabulary book like Magoosh 1k words. But you can start with Barron's 333 high-frequency words as it is the smallest word list of GRE. Learn at least 30 words per day. You have to know the metaphoric meaning and also the implementation of the words in real sentences.

Learn new words from the reading materials suggested above.

You should not count how many hours you need to spend, it will be the content on which you will concentrate as some are quick learners and some are not.

Start learning your mathematical concepts from Manhattan 1-6 and do practice from Manhattan 5 lb. In this week finish the arithmetic part from Manhattan 5 lb and ETS quant book.  Have a clear idea about multiple choice questions (select one or more), quantitative comparison questions, numerical entry questions.

Go to the official guide to the GRE General test and read the analytical writing section. ETS has two pools for the issue and argument tasks. ETS has some samples on the official GRE book. They attached the sample writings of those who got 6 or less with explanations of getting that score. You will learn the standard of writing in GRE.

Learn 150-200 words per week. and try to carry Flashcards (app or handmade) and learn vocabulary through all day long.

Week 2

Continue Learning words from Reading materials that we suggested earlier. You can use any relevant resource for reading habit.

Start practicing Verbal reasoning from Official GRE verbal reasoning practice questions of ETS. Start with reading comprehensions and maintain a note where you will note down the unknown words and their meaning. ETS never expects you to know all the words, they want to test your guessing power so try to develop that.

Complete Algebra, Inequalities, absolute values, Functions, formulas, sequence, Fractions and decimals sections from Manhattan 5 lb and NOVA's book. If you have problems in math basics try to watch tutorials (from our channel or some other youtube channel) or Manhattan(1-6) is a very good option. Try to complete the entire Algebra section of ETS quant book this week.

Start solving GRE practice questions from our GRE practice module. The nice thing about this module is that you can completely customize your practice session based on subjects and other criteria.

Invent shortcuts and techniques. Note down all the techniques and major basics. Also, find out your weak zones and work on that. Our GRE practice module will give you a comprehensive progress report to find out your strong and weak points.

Start reading and practicing the analytic writing section from Kaplan book.

Week 3

Continue learning the vocabulary

Continue practicing reading comprehensions from ETS verbal book and you can check out Manhattan 7-8 book too.

By this time, you will learn about reading comprehensions. You have to deal with

1. Long passage - usually over 40 lines-4 questions

2.  short passage - less than 20 lines-1/2 questions

3.  medium passages - between 20 to 40 lines,2-3 questions.  

Since you have only 30 minutes per verbal section, you should try to spend a maximum of 5 minutes for longer passages and 2 to 3 minutes on medium passages. In multiple choice questions, it is easy when you have to choose 1 answer, but it becomes hard when you have to choose more answers.  Start practicing how to select in the passage.

Revise what you have learned in the past 2 weeks.

Learn to deal with critical reasoning questions (short paragraph) from GRE big book of ETS.

Start practicing math problems on percentages, divisibility, primes, exponents, and roots from Manhattan 5 lb. Learn these basics from Manhattan 1-6  book. You can take basic knowledge from NOVA's book too.

Keep practicing GRE online practice from our website.

Visit the pools of ETS- Issue and Argument tasks and try to write by yourself.

Week 4

Start this week with quant – get basics of number properties and solve Math problems from Manhattan 5 lb. Finish the word problems of Manhattan 5 lb and two-variable word problems from the same book. Don't get confused by the names, these two topics belong to the quant section. Solve the two topics named rates and work from the same book.

Continue learning vocabulary, by this week you should have learned at least 800 words and Keep reading newspaper and journals.

Start learning text completion from ETS verbal reasoning book. Try to spend 20-50 seconds for one –blank text completion, 30-75 seconds for two blanks, 45 sec- 2 min for three blanks.

Try to improve your analytical writing.

Week 5

Practice from our website (the portions you have studied).

Study the topics- variables in the choice problems, ratios, averages, weighted averages, median, mode, standard deviation, normal distribution, data interpretation, probability, combinations and overlapping sets from Manhattan 5 lb. If you have problems with basic go through the NOVA's book and Manhattan1-6. Solve the entire data analysis section from ETS quant book.

Revise the previous words.

Continue your reading and writing habit.

Week 6

For GRE vocabulary you must finish at least 1000 words. You can go for Barron's 800 essential words or word smart of Princeton review. By this week you must finish any one of this book along with Barron's 333 high-frequency words.

Start studying sentence equivalence from ETS verbal reasoning. Try to practice more and more.

3)Start geometry from Manhattan 5 lb. Learn the basics from our channel

This part includes polygons and rectangular solids, circles and cylinder, triangles, coordinate geometry, mixed geometry, and advanced geometry. Learn these topics from Manhattan 5 lb. Go through the Geometry section of ETS quant book.

Week 7

Start solving from ETS official guide. Solve this whole book.

Give the two power prep free mock tests from the ETS website.  

start giving full-length mock tests and section tests from https://higherstudyprep.com/gre-mock-test/

Don't forget to check all the explanations. By practicing on our GRE module you can know the time you have spent on each question and also how much time others have spent on the same question.

Continue your reading habit and learn more words.

Focus on analytical writing try to get reviews from others. You can post it in our facebook group and ask people to review it.

Week 8

Start revising all the words you learned.

Revise all the math basics.

Solve the mixed practice tests from ETS verbal book.

Try to have a minimum idea about all the issue and argument topics.

Try to give more and more online practice tests.

Practice with real GRE environment without interruption and disturbance.

Try to practice with the type of calculator that ETS provides. You can get one like ETS in our mock test module.

Try to solve easy math problems in your mind.

Build your own strategies and techniques

Week 9

By this time you have already registered for the exam date.

We won't count this week as we will take it as system loss

Week 10

Revise all the words and verbal reasoning from ETS.

Note down all the formulas, laws, basics in a writing pad or on your phone so that you can revise these things easily at any place, at any time.

Keep yourself calm and healthy.

Check the syllabus and rules again and check if you have left anything.

Try to speed up in mock tests and try to be faster.

Keep practicing analytical writing.

Week 11

Go through all the Maths of Manhattan 5 lb.

Revise the ETS quant book.

Try to solve your maths in a shorter time.

Week 12

The final moment has arrived. Please keep yourself healthy and tension free. Avoid social media, unnecessary advertisements or suggestions. Give mock tests and try to figure out your flaws and fix them. Revise words and math basics. Keep confidence and stay calm. Don't study anything new or harder.

Relax on the last day before the exam.

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So this is our 3 months GRE preparation plan. You can make your own study plan with different books, strategies, and websites. But this plan is a good sample.

Try to study at least 14 hours per week to get a perfect score. If you are a quick learner, you need less time. If you are slow, increase your study time.
For more tips, you can follow our facebook group and watch our YouTube channel