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Day 4: On this day, complete the Algebra tutorials section, and complete
approximately 10 practice questions on that topic. Finish the day with more
vocabulary practice.
Day 5: On the fifth day of the first week, complete the Text Completion section of the
tutorials. Like you've done before, complete approximately 10 of each question type in
the practice questions section. Finish with vocabulary practice.
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Day 6: On day 6, complete the essay tutorials section, and become familiar with the
type and scope of the essay topics that you'll be given.
Be familiar with Geometry, including solid geometry, lines and angles, parallel lines,
as well as volumes.
Text Completion: You will be presented with one or several sentences, with a single,
two, or three blanks. If the sentence that you are shown has a single blank, then you
will have five answer choices, but if the sentence has two or three blanks, you will see
three answer choices for each blank. Your task is to select that choice(s) for each blank
so that the sentence is coherent and correct.
Reading comprehension: The bulk of the questions that you will see on the verbal
sections of the GRE revised General Test will be reading comprehension questions.
There are three types: single answer,, multiple answers, and select in passage. The
passages range in length from a single paragraph, to three or more paragraphs. Most of
the reading passages are short.
Sentence Equivalence: You will be presented with a short snippet of text with a
single blank, along with six answer choices. Your task is to select TWO of the answer
choices, so that when either of them is inserted into the blank, the sentence is
grammatically, stylistically, and logically correct. Moreover, the two answer choices
that you select should generate sentences that are similar in meaning.
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Essay writing is one of those things that takes years of practice, and so do not expect to learn
how to write well over the course of four weeks, especially if it has been a long time since you
have written anything. You can, however, prepare for the exam by becoming familiar with the
format and the grader expectations of the essays. If you haven't written in a long time, then we
recommend that you glance over the different essay topics that you'll find on the GRE website.
All of the topics for both the issue and argument essay are listed on the GRE website, but
because there are so many of them, it is not feasible to prepare and memorize an essay for each
topic. However, just glancing at the list should give you an idea of what the topics are like. Look
at these topics, and brainstorm on ideas and themes that you could write about if you were given
those topics. There are two essays that you'll be asked to write:
Issue Essay: You are given an essay topic, and you are given 30 minutes to analyze
the issues pertaining to the topic.
Argument Essay: You have no choice for the essay topic, but instead are given a
topic, and you are allotted 30 minutes to critique the effectiveness of the provided
statement.
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Second Week
Plan for the Week
In the second week, you'll finish the tutorials, do more practice questions, and you'll take your
first simulation exam. You'll need to spend at least 6 days in preparing for the GRE, spending
upwards of 2 hours each day, for a total of 12 hours. Here is a sample week plan:
Day 2: Go over the reading comprehension tutorials section, and do the first 10
practice reading comprehension questions. Finish with more vocabulary practice.
Day 3: Start and finish the data analysis and quantitative analysis tutorials section, and
do approximately 10 practice data analysis questions.
Day 4: Take the first practice exam. Take it under real test conditions, meaning that
you should do the entire practice test in one sitting. This is how it is going to be when
you take the actual GRE, so you should practice and practice in similar conditions that
you should expect on test day.
Day 5: Go over the first simulation GRE exam, and, if time permits, quickly brush up
on some of the topics that you had trouble with during the course of the two weeks.
Don't skip the review of the practice test. Don't just look at the answers, but try to
understand why it is that you got a question wrong. What went wrong? Were you
confused? Learn from your mistakes!
Day 6: This is a vocabulary day! Take 2 hours going over vocabulary words, both new
and ones that you have seen.
If at any time you find that you are doing a lengthy calculation, STOP! The GRE will
never require you to do long math problems. Instead, look for a shortcut. Can you
simplify the problem?
Often-times, you can estimate the answer to eliminate several of the possible choices.
This is an especially good tactic when you are running out of time. View the tutorials
section on more information on how to estimate and, if necessary, how to guess.
Learn how to use the provided paper that you'll get during the test. Don't scribble, and
write legibly. Practice using only one or two pieces of paper when doing the math
problems, and this should mimic real test conditions.
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For the Quantitative Analysis questions, learn how to spot tricks or how to know when
NOT to choose choice E: The relationship cannot be determined. Review the tutorials
section on quantitative analysis if you need to.
Practice active reading -- you can do this outside of your daily two hour study session.
When you are reading a newspaper, try to imagine that you are taking the GRE. Can
you summarize the article that you have just read? What's the main idea? What is the
author's tone? Such active thinking will help you to focus your thoughts.
By now you have seen many vocabulary words, and you'll see many more. But, be
sure to review those words that you have seen, and try to master as many words as you
possibly can. Utilize the mastered and "not mastered" lists that are available in the
vocabulary section. This list is populated with those words that you've seen and
mastered and with those words that you've seen and have not yet mastered.
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Third Week
Plan for the Week
Week three is for practice questions and your second practice test. You'll need to spend at least 6
days in preparing for the GRE, spending upwards of 2 hours each day, for a total of 12 hours.
Here is a sample week plan:
Day 5: Again practice brainstorming for the essays sections, and go over some of the
essay topics in the pool of topics that are available on the GRE website.
Day 6: Take the second practice test. Do the WHOLE test, including the essays. You'll
be required to do the essays during the real test, so it's best that you get used to the
actual test format.
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are preparing for the vocabulary section, access the vocabulary page and select to view those
words that you have mastered and words that you have not mastered. Those lists will be
populated with words that you have seen, and so those lists are a great way to review all of the
words that you have seen.
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Fourth Week
Plan for the Week
Week 4 is for practice questions and your third practice test. You'll need to spend at least 6 days
in preparing for the GRE, spending upwards of 2 hours each day, for a total of 12 hours. Here is
a sample week plan:
Day 1: Go over the practice test that you took on the last day of week 3. Don't just
look at the scores, but actually look at the questions. Was there a trick that you
missed? Truly study the test.
Day 6: Again practice brainstorming for the essays sections, and go over some of the
essay topics in the pool of topics that are available on the GRE website.
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Week Study Plan for Essay Component of GRE
Practice writing short, concise statements, and again continue to look over the pool of essay topic
questions that are available on the GRE website. Pick a few of the topics and brainstorm with
some ideas. What would be the main point of an essay if were you were given such a topic?
What proof or examples would you use? These types of questions are the questions that you'll
need to answer right away when taking the real test, so prepare yourself now by getting used to
such reasoning processes. Writing is something that takes a very long time to perfect, and so get
as much practice as possible. Luckily, the types of essays that are deserving of high scores are
not necessarily complicated; instead good academic essays are brief, to the point, and precise.
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Fifth Week
Plan for the Week
Week 5; almost done -- one more week after this. You'll need to spend at least 6 days in
preparing for the GRE, spending upwards of 2 hours each day, for a total of 12 hours. Here is a
sample week plan:
Days 1-4: Practice with practice questions! Vary them from different categories. By
now you should be nearing completion of the practice questions!
Day 5: Again practice brainstorming for the essays sections, and go over some of the
essay topics in the pool of topics that are available on the GRE website.
Day 6: Take the next practice test. By now you should be familiar with the format, and
so during this test, focus on spotting tricks and shortcuts in the math section, and when
guessing on a verbal question, be sure that you eliminate at least some of the choices
-- that's exactly what you'll want to do on the real test.
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Sixth Week
Plan for the Week
During week 6, you will finish preparing for the GRE. You'll review the last practice test that you
took, and, more importantly, you'll do more practice questions and then REVIEW all of the
practice questions that you have seen. You'll need to spend at least 6 days in preparing for the
GRE, spending upwards of 2 hours each day, for a total of 12 hours. Here is a sample week plan:
Day 1: Review the last practice exam that you took at the end of week #5. Really try
to understand why you may have gotten some of the questions wrong.
Days 2-4: Continue to do practice questions from ALL of the available sections.
Spend upwards of 90 minutes each day doing problems, and be sure to analyze and
study the explanations as well as provided hints for each practice questions. You'll
notice that the provided hints are meant to show you how you might want to approach
a problem. There is usually more than one way to arrive at a right answer, so your
method might be good, too, but be sure that you are comfortable with quickly
understanding each question and knowing if you have to guess or if you can eliminate
any of the choices. Most importantly, briefly review all of the practice questions
that you have done up to this point -- you should be pleasantly surprised that
some of the questions that you did early and which you thought were difficult are
straight-forward by this time. If this is the case, then you have most likely
followed the format of this plan and you should be well prepared for the GRE.
Day 5: Almost done! This really is the last day when you should be going over
vocabulary words and reviewing any of the tutorials that you may have struggled with.
Day 6: Ideally, drive or otherwise visit the exam center just to make sure you know
how long it takes to get there. It would be unfortunate if you were to find out on test
day that the examination center is 2 hours away as opposed to what you thought was 1
hour, in which case you'd add unnecessary stress on the test day. Also, briefly review
any of the tutorials sections that you have had most trouble with, and review those
questions that you've seen in those sections.
Week Study Plan for Math Component of GRE
There really are no new topics that you'll learn this week; instead your week will be spent doing
practice questions. By now you should have realized that the math part of the GRE is not about
testing you and whether you have memorized formulas. Although simple formulas are required,
the main part of the math component of the GRE tests your ability to dissect and analyze a
problem. There is no way for you to guess what questions you'll see on test day, but by now you
should be confident enough to know that you can tackle a math problem with ease.
Week Study Plan for Verbal Component of GRE
As with the math study plan for the GRE, the verbal study plan for the last week does not require
you to learn any new topics or ideas; instead you'll be doing plenty of practice questions.
Week Study Plan for Essay Component of GRE
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Like we've been saying all along, you can't learn how to write well in just six weeks, but you
CAN prepare for the type of essay that will be expected of you. Remember to write short, clear
sentences. The more complicated your writing, the more difficult it is to decipher, and the bigger
the chance that one of your essay readers will be confused and will be forced to give you a low
score. Remember; simple is better.
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