Totally new to the GRE? Start your prep with these 7 Steps.

Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.
Vaclav Havel, as quoted in Getting Things Done

Some time back, I talked to a worried working professional who had been meaning to start GRE prep for three months but had done nothing beyond buying the Official Guide. When I probed why she had procrastinated despite clearly meaning to study, she guessed that the reason might have been a mix of cluelessness about how to prepare and busyness at work.

I gave her two specific assignments from the Official Guide, one each for Verbal and Quant, to be done within a week. Having a clear idea of exactly what to do in the coming days seemed to reassure her: her voice perceptibly relaxed. When she submitted her work report, I used it to determine the milestones that she should study towards and helped her create a study plan. Thus, her prep finally started.

If you too have been feeling similarly overwhelmed – fumbling around the ‘Start’ line for some time, unable to figure out a clear path forward – then this article is for you. I hope to hold your hand and guide you through the early phase of your prep in a step-by-step manner.

This is a practical guide; you may read through it once, but afterwards, do return to the beginning and actually complete the suggested steps. At some points, I will send you to other links. Follow those links, do as advised, then come back to this article and proceed.

The guide is organized as follows:

This article is written with the assumption that you are new to the GRE and know nothing about the test except that you need to take it. Please skip the steps you have already done.

Step 1. Get the official resources

Now that you are getting serious about preparing for the GRE, make your start official by getting the official books.

ETS (abbreviation of Educational Testing Service, the non-profit organization that creates and administers the GRE) has published three books:

The Official Guide to the GRE General Test (abbreviated as “OG” henceforth in this article),
Official GRE Quantitative Reasoning Practice Questions, Volume 1 (abbreviated as “OG-QR”)
Official GRE Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions (“OG-VR”)

Make these books the bedrock of your prep. Read, eat and digest these books; strive to know them inside-out. You have used these books well if, by the end of your prep, they are falling apart, their pages are dog-eared, and you can reconstruct the contents of most pages from memory, with your eyes closed.

ETS offers a bundle of these three books, labelled ‘Official GRE® Super Power Pack.’ The price of this bundle is usually less than the sum of the prices of the three individual books. So, if you haven’t got one or more official books already and if the bundle is available at your bookstore of choice, then you may want to buy the bundle.

If you are a pen-and-paper person like me, then you may prefer the physical books. Otherwise, e-books may be fine.

A note about the editions of the OG

On August 1, 2011, a significantly revised version of the GRE was launched; many old question-types were done away with, and many new question-types were introduced. But since then, there has been no change in the test pattern, except for the introduction of the at-home option during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 1^st edition of the OG that conformed to the revised format came out in 2010, around a year before the new GRE became live.

The 2^nd edition came out in 2012. It had only two changes with respect to the 1^st edition:

a different book cover, and
the addition of a paper-based full-length test. The 1^st edition of the OG had ended at Chapter 8, which was titled ‘Authentic GRE Practice Test.’ In the 2^nd edition, the title of Chapter 8 was changed to ‘GRE Practice Test 1’ and there was also now a Chapter 9, which was titled ‘GRE Practice Test 2.’ The 2^nd edition ended at Chapter 9.

The 3^rd edition, which came out in 2017, is the latest edition available in the market. The only thing that changed from the 2^nd edition was the book cover.

So, if you already have an earlier edition of the OG or can get it cheaper than the 3^rd edition, there is no need to buy the latest edition.

For the OG-QR, the first edition came out in 2014 and the second came out in 2017. These two editions are practically identical. See the image below. Chapter 7, which is the last chapter to have unique practice questions in this book, starts at page number 139 in both editions. All earlier chapters too have the same page numbers in both editions. The pagination only becomes different in the Appendices, but then, the content of appendices A and B is also available at other places – in the OG and on the ETS website.

Therefore, there is no need to buy Edition 2 of the OG-QR if you already have Edition 1.

The OG-VR too has two editions: the first came out in 2014 and the second in 2017. But these two editions are exactly the same. Getting either one will be fine.

Now that you have the primary prep resources in place, it is time to read about the test.

Step 2. Learn about the GRE

Chapter 1 of the OG is an introduction to the GRE. Read it carefully and take notes about the parts you deem to be important.

As you will most probably be taking the computer-based test, you may skip those parts of Chapter 1 that pertain to the Paper-based test.

Step 3. Get familiar with the quant and verbal sections

Go to Chapter 3 of the OG and read it carefully. This chapter is a well-written introduction to the Verbal Reasoning measure. It not only walks you through the different types of questions that make up the GRE Verbal sections but also shares excellent tips for answering each question type. It contains 8 sample questions (3 Reading Comprehension questions, 3 Text Completion questions, 2 Sentence Equivalence questions) accompanied by answer explanations.

Attempt these questions sincerely; this means: no mere reading of the questions followed by glancing over the explanations and thinking that you ‘get it.’ Sit on your work desk, take a pen and paper, and write down your answers before you go through the explanations.

After you have read Chapter 3 on your own, you may also like to go through this video guide by the ETS about how to prepare for verbal. The presenter goes through the same content as Chapter 3, with a few additional details.

You should have a fair idea about the GRE verbal section by now. Your next task will be to study Chapter 5 of the OG. This chapter introduces the quant reasoning section. Once again, pay special attention to the tips shared for answering the different question types. This chapter has 26 sample questions, with the question-type-wise numbers as follows:

Quantitative Comparison: 9
Multiple-choice – Select One Answer Choice: 5
Multiple-choice – Select One or More Answer Choices: 4
Numeric Entry: 5
Data Interpretation Sets: 3

As with the verbal introduction chapter, I advise you to make a serious attempt of these 26 questions.

When studying Chapter 5 at present, ignore the last section, which is titled ‘Mathematics Conventions for the Quantitative Reasoning Measure of the GRE revised General Test.’ Read this part later, once you get into serious prep mode.

Once you are done with Chapter 5, you may find it useful to go through this video walkthrough by ETS with much the same content.

Step 4: Determine your start score

A straightforward way to do this is to take one of the two free official mocks, which are called PowerPrep 1 and PowerPrep 2, to get your starting baseline. Once you make an account on the ETS website, you will be all set to take the mock.

However, as there are only seven official mocks, you may want to use them as judiciously as possible. If you do not feel like spending an official mock just to estimate your starting score, here are two alternative ideas:

Idea 1: Take Mixed Practice Set 1 each for verbal and quant, under timed conditions. These sets are equivalent to a medium difficulty section of a paper-based test.

The Mixed Practice Set 1 for verbal can be found in Chapter 6 of OG-VR. Give yourself a time limit of 35 minutes for this set.
The Mixed Practice Set 1 for quant can be found in Chapter 7 of OG-QR. Give yourself a time limit of 40 minutes for this set.

Now, follow this link and look up the quant and verbal tables for medium difficulty level, to map your accuracy in these sets to scaled quant and verbal scores.

Idea 2: In the Official Guide, solve, under timed conditions:

Chapter 4, Sets 3 and 4. Set 3 has 8 medium difficulty Sentence Equivalence and Text Completion questions, while Set 4 has 9 medium difficulty Reading Comprehension questions. Allot yourself 24 minutes to do these two sets.
Chapter 6, Set 2. This set has 14 medium difficulty quant questions. Give yourself 22 minutes to do them.

Now, follow this link and look up the quant and verbal tables for medium difficulty level, to map your accuracy in these sets to scaled quant and verbal scores.

Step 5. Determine your goal score

From Step 4, you have estimated your starting quant and verbal ability level. Now, get an estimate of your goal score. This could be equal to or higher than the average GRE score for your dream school. You may also find it useful to talk to an admissions consultant to know what a good score for someone with your work and education background would be.

Step 6. Determine your prep timeline and daily prep goals

I will create a prep schedule for a hypothetical person named John. You may follow the same template to create your own prep schedule.

Say John’s starting ability level is Q157 and V155 and goal score is Q167 and V162. Let’s also assume that he wants to meet a September 15 Round 1 deadline. When should he start his preparation? How much time will GRE prep take? How can he know if he is on track to meet his goal? When should he take the test? Let’s see.

John desires an improvement of:

10-points in Quant (Q157 to Q167)
7-points in Verbal (V155 to V162)

As a rule-of-thumb, for 1-point improvement, expect to put in about 10 hours of fully focused and efficient prep.

By ‘fully focused’, I mean that you do not answer the phone or check the mail or mind-wander in this time, and
By ‘efficient’, I mean that this study time is used to practice your weak areas and not on the topics/question-types you can already do well.

This estimation heuristic is only a rough guesstimate; nevertheless, it is useful because it’ll give you some idea of how much prep time you need when at present you have no idea at all.

By applying the above rule to John’s example, we find that the number of fully focused and efficient study hours that he requires is:

10*10 = 100 for quant and
7*10 = 70 for verbal, and therefore
100 + 70 = 170 overall (excluding AWA-specific prep but including mock-taking and mock-analysis).

Now John should estimate the average study time that he can put in per week, given his other personal and professional commitments. Let’s say that this number is 17 hours per week. Of these,

(100/170)*17= 10 hours per week should go to quant, and
the remaining 7 hours per week should go to verbal.

At this point, I have a question for you. At the end of a week, will John have made the same progress in quant for the two scenarios presented below? In both scenarios, he meets his weekly goal of 10 hours of quant study.

On Monday, he studied quant for 10 hours and then did not study at all from Tuesday to Sunday.
From Monday to Saturday, he studied quant for 80 minutes daily, and on Sunday, he put in 2 hours.

My take is that he will learn more and better in the second scenario. A binge of 10 hours may feel good (“This proves my seriousness towards my dreams!”), but as elaborated in a separate article, binges make your study rhythm irregular and decrease your likelihood of sticking to the prep plan. Regular study sessions of moderate duration are the surest – and also the most pleasant – way to a good GRE score.

Therefore, your study sessions should not only be ‘focused’ and ‘efficient’ but also ‘daily.’

Study every day, even if you can only manage 5 minutes because the day was oh so impossibly busy. Try to have no zero-study days and minimize binges. To the extent possible, try to reduce the variability (standard deviation) of your daily study duration. times. A 10-hour-week for which your daily study hours were (1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 1.3, 2.2) is likely to be way more effective than a week that looked like (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 10).

That said, let’s get back to our planning exercise.

John can also now guesstimate the date by which he must start his prep to achieve his goal score by the R1 deadlines.

Simple math will tell him that if he needs about 170 prep-hours and can put in 17 prep-hours per week, then he will need about 10 weeks to be ready. He will do well, however, to also keep in mind that ‘man makes plans and God laughs,’ and leave room in his schedule for unexpected hiccups. If his calculations show a figure of 10 weeks, it will be prudent to overestimate the required time and think of perhaps a 12 or 14 weeks’ timeline.

As John plans to apply to graduate programs this very year, there is a further margin that he should keep: if his first attempt of the GRE does not go well, he will need to retake the test, which is not allowed till 3 weeks after the first attempt; further, his first choice of retake date and time may not be available at his preferred test center; in busy season, the only dates available for a retake may be 4 to 5 weeks after his first attempt date. To accommodate all these uncertainties, John may further pad up his timeline by perhaps 5 weeks.

Let’s now translate all these estimated numbers into milestone dates for John’s prep journey.

To meet a September 15 application deadline, while leaving comfortable room for a retake if needed, John should aim to take his first GRE by (September 15 minus 5 weeks equals) August 8.

Further, if he chooses to go by an overestimated prep-timeline of 14 weeks, then, August 8 minus 14 weeks equals May 2.

So, the outcome of this planning exercise is that John now knows that to comfortably meet his September 15 deadline, he should:

start preparing no later than May 2
prepare at a steady rate of 17 hours per week (17, in total = 10, for quant + 7, for verbal)
aim to take the GRE around August 8.

In the best-case scenario:

John will finish prep in perhaps 8 weeks (or less! Remember that we are only talking in rough estimates throughout this planning exercise; the rule of 10 hours for 1-point improvement in scaled score is only a crude heuristic, not an inviolable truth), and
His first take of the GRE itself will go gloriously well.

This means that having started his GRE prep on May 2, he will wave a hearty goodbye to the test just 8 weeks later, on July 2. That’s a merry outcome and now he will have more than two months – and peace of mind – to prepare the rest of his applications.

However, if things do not go as per the best-case scenario, if the universe seems determined to conspire against John’s Higher Ed plans, that is when he will feel grateful for all the margins that we added to his prep timeline. He will be glad to have started soon enough to still finish in time in spite of all the obstacles that came his way.

What is the use of all this planning?

The Q167-V162 that John needs is an output goal.

To paraphrase James Clear from Atomic Habits, John’s test score will be a lagging measure of his prep system. One does not rise to the level of one’s goals; one falls to the level of one’s system.

The value of our planning exercise is that it gives John a prep system based on input goals – he must study for so many hours and minutes every day for so many days. These input goals are within his reach. He cannot be sure that he will indeed reach his dream score, but he can make sure that he meets his study-time commitment every day, and if he keeps doing this day after day after day, he will find himself arrived at his cherished score.

To read more about the value of setting input-based goals for your GRE prep, follow this link.

Step 7. Know about all sources of official questions

Please follow this link for a detailed walkthrough of 1094 official questions that you should aim to master during the course of your prep.

Conclusion

With these seven steps done, you have completed the prelim prep. Congratulations! You are now past the Start Line. I’m working on articles that detail how you can prepare for quant and verbal. In the meantime, you may message me on LinkedIn if you need any guidance on the same.