With a lot of determination, the GRE-tips to crack GRE will not be so difficult. It is not impossible to score very high grades in the GRE test. But one needs to keep in mind that he who fails to prepare, prepares to fail. Therefore, if you are an applicant for the GRE test, you need to prepare yourself to work by a schedule. Below are a few tips that will help you ace your GRE.
Table of Contents
Tips to crack GRE
For easier understanding, I will be classifying these tips into the following;
- General Tips
- Tips for acing the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) section
- Tips for acing the Verbal Reasoning (VR) section
- Tips for acing the Analytical Writing section
General Tips
- Start preparing a few months before the exam; It is wise to prepare for the GRE at least 4-6 months prior to the exam. This will ensure adequate preparation for it.
- Take Mock tests; you can find a few mock tests online which you can take. This will give you a precursory look at how the mock exam is structured and set. But you should be careful as not all mock tests online are genuine, they may not truly reflect what the GRE is like.
- Identify your strengths and weaknesses; after taking mock tests, you can then assess yourself and identify your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you work on the areas you are not so good at. But do not ignore your strengths and focus on your weaknesses alone. You cannot afford to take anything for granted when it comes to the GRE.
- Have a positive mindset; A positive mindset is very essential to the success of anything. Although the GRE syllabus and preparation material may look discouraging, you have the ability to simplify it. Break down the syllabus. This is where the main work lies.
- Draw up a timetable; A timetable will help you organize your time. It will also help you distribute your focus on all important areas proportionally.
- Select study materials; Pick out study materials that aid you in preparing for the GRE! Among your study material, make sure the GRE preparation kit provided by the ETS is part of it. You can also download the official GRE preparation application from the ETS website.
- Rest; it may seem like sleeping, or taking a break to watch a movie or take a stroll is a waste of time at this crucial period. But it is very essential to get some rest as the brain gets exhausted at some point. Besides, all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. Once you rest and go back to work afterwards, you will feel refreshed and assimilate more.
Tips for acing the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) section
Recent studies show that this is the section that is easiest to get your highest score points. It is a set of 28 questions to be answered in 45 minutes. In order to get the highest score possible, you need to take the following into consideration;
- Practice; as they say, Practice makes perfect. Practice GRE level questions and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Keep working on your strengths, but work harder on your weaknesses.
- Study the official guide; the official guide, as the name implies, will guide you on what the QR section will look like. This will give you an insight on what to focus on.
- Time Management; While you are working on accuracy, you also need to work on your time management. You cannot afford to spend all the time allocated to your exam on just a few questions.
- Take note of areas covered in the section; once you acquaint yourself with the various areas covered in the section, you will know what to expect. E.g. learning formulas for geometry, algebra, etc.
- Use of calculator; this will help you calculate your work faster, rather than taking time to calculate on paper.
- Do not be intimidated; Word problems and geometry seem to be the most intimidating part of this section to many applicants. All you need to focus on is breaking down the words into numbers, or the shapes and numbers to fit a formula; then you can proceed to solve. Ensure you carefully study the question before breaking it down so as not to miss out on anything important.
Tips for acing the Verbal Reasoning section
This section is divided into; Text Completion, Reading comprehension and Sentence equivalence. The time allotted to this section is 30 minutes for 30 questions. You will need to consider the following tips;
- Develop your vocabulary; Learn new words, and practice a lot. This will help in simplifying this section of the GRE. Your ability to understand words will help a great dealing with this section. For this, you could install the ‘Memrise’ app on your phone or PC.
- Please read the questions before the passage; With regards to the reading comprehension section, it is advisable to read the questions before the passage. This will help you identify the answers to the questions with ease.
- Practice; It is always necessary to practice. You can only get better with practice.
- For the text completion section, ensure you read the entire text in order to understand its general meaning and implications. This will help you understand what the blank spaces are meant to be filled with.
- Get yourself familiar with homonyms, antonyms and synonyms
- With regards to Sentence Completion, build your answers upon the blank with the maximum context.
Tips for acing the Analytical writing section
- Focus on clarity of content
- Identify and analyze the most important part of the question and ensure your answers are built upon it
- Avoid ambiguity
- Use a good command of English. Make use of Figures of speech, synonyms, etc
- Avoid using complicated grammar unnecessarily
- Put every idea in a new paragraph
- Avoid Tautology
- Revise your answers before submitting.
Conclusion
From the above, you can see that the GRE-tips to crack GRE are not so difficult after all. A positive mindset is very important. It will further help in simplifying your preparation process. An exam is not all about how intelligent you are, but how intelligently you prepare yourself. How well you understand a question and how fast you answer it is very important as well. I hope you find these tips simple and helpful.
