Wondering how long to study for the GRE? Should you prepare for two hours or for two months?
The GRE can be scary because you are aware that studying is necessary to achieve a high score, but what does it truly entail?
You may maximize your GRE score and prevent time wastage by studying too much if you know how long to dedicate to preparation.
You simply cannot cram information to pass the GRE. Since the GRE is primarily a test of patterns rather than facts, you will need enough practice time if you want to improve your score. We advise you to dedicate 4 to 12 weeks to your GRE study.
How long should you study for the GRE? When should you start? How do you make a study schedule? All of these questions and more are answered in this article.
How Long Do People Usually Study for It?
The duration of time spent preparing for the GRE varies greatly among individuals.
The average person, however, studies for the GRE for one to three months, putting in a few hours per week.
This suggests that the amount of time needed to prepare for the GRE could be anywhere from eight hours (studying for two hours each week for four weeks) and 120 hours (studying for ten hours a week for 12 weeks).
That’s a large range, and it also ignores the various GRE preparation methods used by individuals.
People can take practice exams, research the various exam components, glance over old class notes, purchase and study a GRE prep book, or a mix of the aforementioned.
As a result, there is a huge range in how long people spend studying for the GRE and how they do it.
How much time should be spent studying for the GRE? Discover how to create a customized study schedule by reading on.
How to Decide Your Study Hours?
The number of hours you should spend studying to increase your score by a specific number of points is estimated below.
These figures show how much study time is required to increase your GRE score by that many pts on BOTH parts.
Consequently, you may improve your score by around 2.5 points for each section in 40 hours (5 points total).
- 5 points = 40 hours
- 10 points = 80 hours
- 15 points = 120 hours
These are only extremely basic generalizations. You might require more or less time depending on your particular situation; we’ll go into greater detail below.
If you want to raise your score by more than 30 points, be aware that it will probably be challenging and time-consuming.
The content and abilities required to increase your GRE score by that much are difficult to acquire. The GRE examines knowledge that you have acquired over the course of more than ten years of schooling.
You might want to consider hiring a tutor to assist with your studying if you want to significantly raise your GRE score.
If you’re looking for a good online program to prepare for GRE, don’t forget to check this prep program.
Steps to Make A Study Program
Now that you know how much time to dedicate to studying for the GRE, you can achieve the score you desire.
Even while it may seem like there are many steps, they are easy to complete, and after you’re done, you’ll have a personalized GRE study program.
Step 1: How Many Hours Do You Need?
If you haven’t already, follow the above instructions to determine how many hours you should spend studying overall based on how much you want to raise your score.
Keep in mind that every 40 hours of preparation will increase your score by around 5 points.
Therefore, 80 hours of study would be required if you wanted to raise your score by 10 points.
Step 2: Make Adjustments
Depending on your situation, you might need to adjust the overall amount of hours you need to spend studying.
If you’ve already done a lot of studying, you might want to extend your study period by another 10 to 20 hours because it will likely take you longer to make any real progress.
The more studying you’ve done already, the more difficult it will be to improve your grade.
Any subject’s first few hours of study are always the most fruitful since you’ll find the “low-hanging fruit” there: equations you were misreading, thoughtless errors you were making, a specific question type you had never encountered, etc.
Consider your pace of learning new material as well. Do you have the ability to absorb knowledge the first time you encounter it, or does it take repeated exposure for it to truly take?
If you learn quickly, you might want to decrease the amount of hours you need to spend studying by roughly 10–25%, whereas if you typically take longer to master new subjects, you could want to increase the time by 10–25%.
The quality of your study materials will also influence how quickly you improve.
You won’t advance as much if you’re using poor teaching materials or unrealistic practice problems.
You’ll be far more effective if you pair lessons that teach you excellent tactics with the best practical questions available.
Step 3: How Many Hours Can You Dedicate Weekly?
Determine how many hours you can devote to GRE preparation each week.
When selecting this amount, make sure to be realistic since if you overshoot, you risk becoming burned out and disappointed, which could cause you to perform poorly on the exam or give up on your study plan altogether.
To some extent, you’ll need to study for fewer total weeks if you can squeeze in more study time each week.
Don’t imagine that studying for 40 hours straight over a weekend has the same impact as doing so over several weeks.
You’ll likely exhaust yourself and stop remembering knowledge if you try to cram a lot of studying into one day.
Similar to the previous example, if you spread out your studying over a lengthy period of time and just study for an hour or two once every two weeks or so, you’ll likely forget what you studied in the starting by the time of the GRE.
Conclusion: How Long To Study For the GRE?
Before taking the GRE, some people prepare for months while others don’t do anything at all.
You must, however, be aware of how long you should study in order to achieve your highest score.
You’ll be able to determine how many points you need to raise in order to reach your target scores after researching the typical GRE scores for the colleges you’re considering and taking a practice test.
To fine-tune how long you should spend studying for the GRE, consider your schedule, upcoming deadlines for school, your study speed, and how much you’ve previously studied.
Once you’ve determined how long you should study for, creating a study timetable will help you keep track of your progress and achieve your objectives.