![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/10\/your-gre-study-calendar-chelsey-cooley.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Studying for the GRE on your own? Load up your GRE study calendar right now\u2014it\u2019s time to get organized. <\/span><\/p>\n Start by filling in your <\/span>test date<\/b>. Not sure when you\u2019ll take the test? Just pick a date that\u2019s in the right ballpark. Plan to spend the two days before your test relaxing, mentally preparing for test day, and doing some light, easy review problems. <\/span><\/p>\n Next, mark down any travel or commitments you have coming up. Be realistic about what will and won\u2019t affect your ability to study. You don\u2019t want your whole plan to revolve around studying hard during your beach trip, only to realize once you get there that it\u2019s not going to happen. <\/span><\/p>\n Count backwards from your test date by about one week, and choose a day for your <\/span>dress rehearsal<\/b>. This is your last practice test, so choose a day when you\u2019ll be able to give it your full attention. On dress rehearsal day, do everything exactly how you\u2019ll do it on test day: timing, scratchwork, breaks, everything. <\/span><\/p>\n Next, count backwards another two weeks. <\/span>You should take and review a GRE practice test about every 14 days\u2014and no more often than every 10 days<\/span><\/a>. Since the GRE is a long test, for many of us, that\u2019ll mean taking a practice test every other weekend. <\/span>Put these practice tests on your GRE study calendar now<\/b>. Also, give yourself <\/span>at least three hours<\/b> (ideally, over two study sessions) to review each test. <\/span><\/p>\n Think of your GRE studying as coming in three phases. <\/span>Early in your studies<\/b>, you\u2019ll be spending most of your time learning content. <\/span>Close to test day<\/b>, you\u2019ll be spending most of your time practicing problem-solving and staying sharp with what you already know. <\/span>In the middle<\/b>, you\u2019ll be doing both of those things\u2014brushing up on a few topics, but also practicing your problem-solving skills. <\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you might have on your calendar right now, if you\u2019re starting it on August 25:<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t get overwhelmed: start by only filling in the first two weeks of your GRE study calendar. Your needs and goals will change as you take practice tests and learn more about your performance.<\/p>\n Start by analyzing your most recent GRE practice test. Your goal is to find the areas that are currently <\/span>high-value<\/b> for you. That means: <\/span><\/p>\n Choose about 3-5 focus areas to start with. That seems like a lot, but it\u2019s actually better for your brain in the long run if you jump around between topics, rather than just working on one until you\u2019re exhausted. <\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you might do to study each of these areas: <\/span><\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to do every one of these things for every single topic you study! Use what works best for you. <\/span><\/p>\n Unless you only have a short time to study on a particular day, try to include two different topics. You should also go back to previous topics on later days. That\u2019s called interleaving, and it helps promote memory formation. <\/span><\/p>\n On top of that, dedicate at least one day each week to reviewing <\/span>your problem log<\/span><\/a> and redoing problems you missed in the past. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Okay! Now we\u2019re ready to zoom in on the first two weeks of our example GRE study calendar. Suppose that this student was much stronger on Verbal than on Quant, but also missed a lot of Reading Comprehension problems. In Quant, she did pretty well on word problems, but found that she\u2019d forgotten the basic algebra and geometry rules.<\/span><\/p>\n This student is starting her first week, once she finishes reviewing her practice test, by brushing up on the rules for Algebra, Reading Comprehension, and Geometry. As the second week starts, she mixes in more GRE problems on the topics she was weak on. She also builds in two review sessions before her second practice test. Importantly, she takes two days completely away from studying.<\/span><\/p>\n Your GRE study calendar will look different, depending on your own strengths and weaknesses and how much time you have before test day. But, you should use the same general ideas from this example: mix up your studies across different days, build in a lot of time for review (and use it!), and be realistic about days you won\u2019t be able to study. The more you plan your studying ahead of time, the less stressed you\u2019ll be when it comes time to actually sit down and do the work.<\/span><\/p>\n Your GRE trial class is the first session of our regular GRE course\u2014you’ll be attending right along with the students enrolled in that course. You’ll learn what’s on the GRE<\/a> and how the GRE is scored<\/a>, including the implications for how to get ready to take the test. You’ll also learn about Quantitative Comparisons<\/a> (the often-baffling Quant question type that was invented for the GRE) and how to study vocabulary and meaning in complex sentence structures\u2014the most critical skill for the Verbal section of the exam.<\/span><\/p>\n If you like the teacher and course structure, you can join the class; if you don’t or aren’t ready yet, no worries. The trial is no-strings-attached \/ no credit card is required.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Studying for the GRE on your own? Load up your GRE study calendar right now\u2014it\u2019s time to get organized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[474284,921840,6,7,733451,733445],"tags":[1362593],"yst_prominent_words":[1363757,1363756,1363755,1362627,1362663,1363536,1362677,1363751,1362672,1362668,1363092,1362961,1362669,1362625,1363753,1363754,1363022,1363752,1362628,1363202],"class_list":["post-12008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-studiers","category-gre-prep-2","category-gre-strategies","category-how-to-study","category-life-hacks","category-study-tips-2","tag-gre-study-calendar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12008"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12997,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12008\/revisions\/12997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12008"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}GRE Studying: The Big Picture<\/b><\/h4>\n
![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/10\/cc-80-image-1.png\")
<\/p>\nFilling in the Gaps with Your GRE Study Calendar<\/b><\/h4>\n
\n
\n
![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/10\/cc-80-image-2.png\")
<\/p>\nWhat Happens in a GRE Trial Class<\/a>?<\/b><\/h4>\n