feature_gretimer

The GRE can be intimidating: you know yous need to study to get a good score, but what does that actually mean? Should you spend ii hours or two months prepping? How long should you study for the GRE?

Knowing the correct amount of fourth dimension to study for the GRE will assist you maximize your score and avoid wasting time past over-studying. This guide will walk you through the exact procedure of figuring out exactly how long to study for the GRE, when you should start preparing, and how to create a written report schedule.

How Long Do Near People Written report For the GRE?

As mentioned above, there's a wide variation in the amount of time people choose to prepare for the GRE.However, most people spend about i to 3 months studying a few hours a week for the GRE. This means the corporeality of studying for the GRE could range roughly from 8 hours (studying 2 hours a week for four weeks) to 120 hours (studying ten hours a week for 12 weeks).

That's a wide range, and information technology besides doesn't account for the unlike means in which people prepare for the GRE. People may take practice tests, read up on the different exam sections, skim old notes from school, purchase and read a GRE prep book, or a combination of the above.

So, the amount of time people spend preparing for the GRE and how they study for it can vary widely. How long should you study for the GRE? Read on to figure out your individual study plan.

How Much Do You Want to Meliorate Your Score?

In order to figure out how long to study for the GRE, you starting time need to fix a goal score and effigy out how far y'all are from it.

Step 1: Figure Out Which Score Y'all Should Be Aiming For

First, research the average GRE scores of the schools you're interested in applying to. Look for this information on the program's Admissions page. Non all schools list this data, and, if y'all tin't detect information technology, you can effort emailing or calling an admissions person at the schoolhouse directly to see if they tin can tell you more.

Make a list of this data for each of the schools you're interested in. Then, find the highest scores for both the Verbal and Quantitative sections.Add together ii points to each of these scores to become your GRE score goals.

This process ensures that, if yous meet your score goals, you'll be higher up the acceptable score range for the schools you're interested in, merely it as well doesn't gear up your goal score so high that you're spending a lot of time trying to get an unnecessarily high score. (Remember, your GRE score is but one part of your application, and having an peculiarly loftier score probably won't give your awarding that much of a boost.)

To larn more about finding information on school GRE averages and setting goal scores, check out our guide "What Is a Good GRE Score?"

Step 2: Take and Score a Practise GRE

Your adjacent step, if you oasis't already done so, is to take a GRE practise exam so you tin can go an idea of how you're currently scoring. You can download software with 2 official practice tests to become started. Have this examination timed, with only the breaks that are given, and with minimal distractions in lodge to go the most accurate score.

Your Verbal and Quantitative sections volition be automatically scored, and there are scoring instructions for the Analytical Writing section.

Footstep 3: Effigy Out How Much You Need to Study to Meet Your Score Goal

Now, compare the scores y'all got on the do examination with your goal scores. How many points abroad are you from your goal scores in Exact and Quantitative Reasoning? (Belittling Writing is mostly the section schools are least interested in).

Beneath are estimates of approximately how many hours you lot need to written report in guild to heighten your score past a certain number of points.These numbers indicate how much you demand to study to raise your GRE score past that many points across BOTH sections. And so, in forty hours, you could enhance your score for each section past about  2.5 points (v points full).

      • 5 points = xl hours
      • 10 points = 80 hours
      • 20 points = 160 hours
      • 30 points = 240 hours

These are very rough rules of thumb. Depending on your individual circumstances, you may need more or less time – we'll explain more beneath.

If you're looking to amend your score more than than 30 points, know that it will probably be difficult and take a lot of time. The GRE tests cognition yous learned from over a decade of school, and information technology'due south hard to build up the content and skills you lot need to raise your score by that amount. If you are hoping to make large improvements in your GRE score, you may want to look into hiring a tutor to help with your studying.

body_gretutor
A tutor may help yous make large improvements in your GRE score.

How Long Should You Study for the GRE?

Now you tin figure out exactly how long to study for the GRE in order to get the score you want. Information technology may seem like there are a lot of steps, but they're quick to go through, and by the end you'll be able to create a customized GRE study schedule.

Step ane: Effigy Out How Many Hours You Demand to Study

If you haven't already, use the guidelines in a higher place to get the total number of hours you need to report based on how much you want to improve your score.Think, yous can raise your score by about five points per 40 hours of prep.

So, if you want to improve your score by 10 points, you'd need to report 80 hours.

Step 2: Brand Any Necessary Adjustments

You may need to tweak the total number of hours you need to study based on your circumstances. If you've already studied a lot, y'all may want to add together another 10-twenty hours to the time you lot need to written report since it volition probably take y'all longer to make significant progress.

The more studying you've already put in, the harder it will exist to raise your score. The first few hours of studying you do for whatever subject are ever the most productive because you'll get the "low-hanging fruit": equations y'all were mixing upwards, careless mistakes you lot were making, a certain question blazon y'all had no experience with etc.

Also account for how quickly you pick up new material. Tin can you choice upwardly and retain data the get-go time you come up across it, or do y'all demand to see information technology a few times before information technology really sinks in? If you're a fast learner, you may want to decrease the number of hours you need to study by about 10-25%, while if learning new topics commonly takes you lot longer, y'all may want to increase the time by 10-25%.

Finally, the better the prep materials you use, the faster you'll better. If you're using unrealistic practice questions or bad pedagogy materials, you'll make less progress. If you employ pinnacle-of-the-line realistic questions with lessons that teach you lot slap-up strategies, you lot'll exist much more than efficient.

Footstep 3: Decide How Many Hours You Can Report in a Week

Next, figure out how many hours you can set aside each week to study for the GRE.Make sure you're realistic when you choose this number considering, if you overestimate, yous could end up burned out and frustrated, which could lead to you not doing every bit well as you'd like on the test or abandoning your study plan all together.

If information technology's summertime and you have a lot of free fourth dimension, y'all may be able to fit in 20-twoscore hours of studying a week. However, if you lot're already balancing school and/or piece of work, 5-10 hours of GRE report a week might exist more than realistic.

To a certain extent, the more hours you can report a week, the fewer overall weeks you lot'll have to study. Nevertheless, don't remember that cramming 40 hours over a weekend will have the same effect equally spreading that studying out over several weeks. If you try to fit a lot of studying into a single day, you'll probably wear yourself out and stop retaining information later on a sure betoken.

Similarly, if you just study an 60 minutes every week or two and stretch your studying over a long menses of time, you'll probably forget what y'all learned at the beginning by the time of the GRE.

feature_grecalendar

Step iv: Summate How Long You Demand to Study

Here's where y'all figure out how long you demand to report for the GRE.Take the full numbers you need to study and dissever information technology by the number of hours you can study each week. The number you come upwards with is the number of weeks you need to study for the GRE.

Then, if yous need to study ninety hours (lxxx hours to meliorate 10 points plus x hours because information technology takes you longer to remember material), and you call back y'all tin written report 10 hours a week, xc divided by ten gives you 9, which means you'll need to study 9 weeks for the GRE.

Step five: Include Time for Retakes

If you think yous may want to retake the GRE if you lot're not happy with your commencement score, be sure to upkeep fourth dimension for retakes. You accept to await at least 21 days betwixt GRE tests, but, to exist prophylactic, give yourself iv weeks for each retake so you'll have enough time to figure out what you did incorrect and better. For most people, 2 retakes are enough.

To keep the case from above, if you needed 9 weeks to prepare to take the GRE for the first fourth dimension, and you want to budget time for one retake, you'd need a full of 13 weeks from when yous offset studying to when you take the GRE a 2d time.

Step 6: Double-Check Schoolhouse Deadlines

One time you've decide how long to written report for the GRE, you'll want to make sure you'll have enough time to prepare for and accept the exam before grad schools need to have your scores.

If y'all're not applying for grad school for at least half-dozen months, this step doesn't apply to you considering you lot'll have plenty of time to take the GRE if you lot start relatively presently. If you choose which schools to send your score reports to at the test center immediately after you stop the GRE, it volition take 10-fifteen days for those schools (and you)  to receive your official scores, so, to be safety, be certain to have the GRE at least 3 weeks before deadlines.

And then, accounting for three weeks for schools to receive scores, the person in the case would demand to brainstorm preparing for the GRE sixteen weeks earlier their first awarding deadline (9 weeks to ready for the first exam + iv weeks to prepare for a retake + 3 weeks for schools to receive the scores).

What if you lot can't fit in your studying before schoolhouse deadlines? There are a few things you can do. First, if you lot factored in time for retakes, you can decide to fix really well and simply take the GRE in one case, although there is more risk involved.

Second, you can try to see if y'all can fit in more hours of GRE prep each week. The more than hours you lot can study each calendar week, the fewer weeks you lot'll need to report for the GRE.

Pace 7: Create Your GRE Study Schedule

Once you know when you need to begin studying and how long yous'll need to study, create a study schedule so you lot can rails your progress and reach your score goals.

Commencement, try to schedule your study times for the same times each day or calendar week. This volition aid you lot plan the residual of your schedule, and you'll be more than probable to do the studying you need to if information technology's always at the aforementioned time.

When you study, think to take regular practise tests, about every calendar month or then, to rails your progress. You lot'll besides want to gear up goals to achieve at the end of every study menstruum. You could have daily, weekly, or monthly goals depending on your schedule and what works best for you. The goals could exist covering a new topic or increasing your score a sure number of points on a exercise exam.

How Long to Study for the GRE: Final Verdict

Some people study months earlier they take the GRE, while others don't prepare at all. However, to go your all-time score, y'all demand to know how long yous should study. After figuring out average GRE scores for the schools you lot're interested in and taking a practice examination, yous'll know how many points you'll need to meliorate in social club to see your goal scores.

Take into account how busy you are, when school deadlines are, how chop-chop you study, and how much you've already studied in order to fine tune how long you need to written report for the GRE.

Developing a study schedule once you've figured out how long yous demand to report will help you track your progress and meet goals throughout your preparation.

What's Next?

Want more information on the GRE? Cheque out our guide to everything you demand to know about the GRE, including how long information technology is, what it covers, and how y'all should prepare.

Once y'all've decided when to take the GRE, how practise you register for the exam?Read our step-by-step guide to GRE registration for everything you need to know.

Thinking nigh taking a GRE Subject field Test? Learn who should take them, how important they are, and how you can fix.

Ready to meliorate your GRE score by 7 points?

Nosotros've written a eBook about the elevation 5 strategies y'all must exist using to accept a shot at improving your GRE score. Download information technology for free now:



Christine graduated from Michigan Country Academy with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Principal's from Duke Academy. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the Saturday and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries. View all posts by Christine Sarikas