Day-wise GRE Preparation Schedule for 1 month

GRE is the key to your study abroad aspirations. It is the pathway to Ivy League colleges and other reputed schools worldwide and is the most popular graduate admission test. This day-wise GRE Preparation schedule is designed for aspirants who want to score 320+ in the GRE exam but due to other commitments were not able to start their GRE preparation until now.  We understand it is difficult to study for the GRE examination in 1 month- especially if you have other priorities like school, work, family, college, etc. Also, the GRE exam syllabus is pretty vast, which adds to the aspirant’s worry.

While it is indeed not very easy to do your GRE prep in 30 days, it is still doable. In this article, we will give a day-wise GRE preparation schedule, along with the resources required and tips to analyze GRE mocks.

Books for the GRE Exam Preparation

Here we are mentioning the books and materials you would need for your overall GRE preparation. If you feel you’ll need special attention to any particular section, we will be mentioning books specific to each section below.

Also Read: Books for GRE exam- Know Your Best Fit

• ETS Official Guide (OG) – for GRE

It is the official book written and compiled by actual paper setters of GRE.  The book will give a very clear idea about the paper pattern, type of questions, and formats.

• BARRONS NEW GRE (19TH EDITION)

The Diagnostic Test of the Barrons Guide will help you to gauge your preparation. Besides, the content for both the Verbal and Quant section is comprehensive. However, the difficulty level of questions in this book is not on par with the actual GRE exam. So it is recommended to use this book as a supplement.

• GREKing Free GRE Ebooks

The content of these e-books is designed keeping in mind the actual GRE exam paper. The questions are of different difficulty levels to help you from an amateur stage up to the pro level.

Some of the Ebooks are:

1. GREKing 50 Most Repeated Words
2. GREKing 50 Must Solve Text Completion Questions
3. GREKing 50 Must Solve Sentence Equivalence Questions
4. GREKing 100 Must Solve Quantitative Comparison Questions

You can get the ebooks here. We are adding more Ebooks every day so that you can have access to more resources. So be sure to check back and refresh the website regularly.

Analyzing GRE Mocks

Once you are done with solving enough practice problems, it’s time to start attempting the GRE mocks. It is recommended to give at least 5 GRE Mocks before attempting the GRE exam. However, just giving GRE mocks is not sufficient at all. An even more important exercise is to analyze the mock results. Here’s how you can do that.

• In an excel sheet mark three columns- Unaware of the concept, Unable to understand the concept, Time Management Issue. Now put every question you got wrong in the GRE mocks or any question you did not attempt, under one of these column heads. This way you will get to see your performance in a structured, quantifiable format.
• Color code the three columns and track the sheet. The goal is to have less and less of the first two columns as you start learning and practicing.  Now go through the solutions of the GRE mocks and consult with your mentors to shorten the time taken for solving each question.

Day-wise GRE Preparation Schedule

Before starting with the GRE preparation schedule, let us go over some important pointers:

• Reading Comprehension forms 50% of GRE Verbal Reasoning
• Arithmetic and Geometry comprises almost 50% of Quantitative Reasoning
• Read one article every day from either the New York Times, Economist, Wall Street Journal, or Forbes
• For Vocabulary, start completing one session every day from ‘Norman Lewis Word Power Made Easy’. Once you are done with that, move to GREKing Vocabulary Ebooks.

Also Read: 10 Types of RC Questions common in the GRE exam

Day 1

Read the official ETS Guide & understand the complete GRE exam pattern, question types, sectional duration, exam syllabus, etc. Complete one session of Norman Lewis Word Power Made Easy. Then, read one article from the mentioned sources. Note down the meaning of the words you are unaware of. Now go through past year GRE exam papers.

Day 2

Give one Diagnostic GRE mock. If you have enrolled for the GREKing course, you can give GRE Mock 1. Analyze the mock scores in the excel format. Then, continue the Vocab and article reading exercise.

Day 3

From today, you will start with your subject preparation. This GRE preparation schedule is designed keeping in mind you are dedicating around 6 hours for your GRE prep every day for the one month. First, choose one topic from the Verbal Reasoning section. Go through the foundational videos on your course dashboard and the GREKing Youtube page. After this solve some practice questions from the topic-specific GREKing free ebooks. Repeat this same exercise with one topic from the Quantitative Reasoning Section.

Day 4

Write one AWA Essay today. The topic can be chosen from the GREKing AWA Practice Ebook. Then, give 2 topic tests of each GRE Verbal and Quant. Don’t forget to analyze the result and practice questions where you went wrong.

Day 5-6

Choose topics from Verbal Reasoning section, Go through the tutorial videos, and practice exercises from GREKing Ebook. Repeat the same with topics from Quantitative Reasoning. Try to finish as many topics in these 2 days as possible.

Day 7

Give one full-length GRE mock. Then analyze the results in the excel sheet format.

The vocabulary and article reading practice will continue every day for the 30 days. So, we will not be repeating that in the daywise GRE preparation schedule.

Day 8

Refer to the Verbal topic videos and instead of practicing from the Ebooks, focus on attempting GRE Verbal Reasoning sectional mocks from the dashboard. Attempt the same approach with Quantitative Reasoning.

Day 9-12

Choose topics from the Verbal Reasoning section, Go through the tutorial videos, and practice exercises from GREKing Ebook. Repeat the same with topics from Quantitative Reasoning. The aim is to inch closer to finishing off most of the topic videos by the end of week 2, which is Day 14.

Day 13

Write one AWA essay. Now focus on the Sectional Tests of Verbal and Quants. Give at least 2-3 tests of each section and analyze the results.

Day 14

Give one full-length GRE mock. Then analyze the result in the excel sheet format.

By now, you should be closer to finishing the topic videos of both Verbal and Quant. The topics must be finished before Day 20. After that, we will focus on giving more sectional tests and GRE full-length mocks.

Day 15-20

These six days will focus on practicing Verbal and Quant from the GREKing Ebooks, finishing tutorial videos if you are left with any and giving one or two topic tests if time permits. If you are done with these Ebooks, you can refer to the other materials mentioned above. In these 6 days, write two AWA essays.

Day 21

One full-length GRE mock and analyzing results in excel sheet format.

Day 22-28

This is the last week before your GRE exam. And the most crucial one. In these six days, give full-length GRE mocks on alternate days and analyze them. The rest of the days, practice more and more sectional tests of Verbal Reasoning and Quants, write AWA essays.  Try to write at least two AWA essays in these 6 days.

Generally, we suggest pausing learning new vocabulary words one week before the main exam. It is because along with learning new words, it is crucial to retain them. But since the time is limited in this scenario, learn new vocabulary until Day 26. The last three days will just be for revising the learned words.

Day 29

Do not give any GRE mock or Practice Test today. Relax. Revise the formulas. Gather all necessary documents, eat well, sleep early.

Day 30

It’s your day! What are you waiting for? Go, rock the GRE exam!