![\"Manhattan](\"\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2017\/02\/2-8-17-blog-1.png\")
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Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Here\u2019s one surprising way to speed up your GRE studies: <\/span>quiz yourself<\/b>. Now, that doesn\u2019t mean that you have to take a lot of practice tests<\/a>. Think smaller. To reap the benefits of the \u201ctesting effect,\u201d give yourself frequent, small quizzes on whichever topics you\u2019ve studied lately. Here\u2019s how and why it works.<\/span><\/p>\n In recent decades, a number of studies have looked at simple ways to improve learning. One phenomenon revealed by these studies is known as the <\/span>testing effect<\/span><\/i>. To uncover the testing effect, researchers typically split students into two or more groups: some students take a number of quizzes throughout a class, while others are tested rarely or not at all. When it comes time for the final exam, students who have been tested more frequently show a significantly higher level of performance, even though both groups studied the same material. <\/span><\/p>\n Start thinking of the GRE as your \u201cfinal exam,\u201d and leverage the testing effect to improve your grade. Don\u2019t just study by reading or watching videos. Incorporate a timed quiz at the beginning or end of every study session, then grade yourself. <\/span><\/p>\n Picture all the times you\u2019ve taken quizzes in school. First, knowing that there would be a quiz meant you were really held accountable for the material. Despite your best intentions, if you\u2019re studying on your own, it can be hard to make yourself <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> understand a tough or boring topic. Knowing that there\u2019s a quiz coming afterwards will help. <\/span><\/p>\n Also, your brain <\/span>loves <\/span><\/i>missing quiz questions (even if it sometimes doesn\u2019t feel that way.) The absolute best way to learn GRE strategy is by making mistakes. You can read or talk about the content of the test, but you won\u2019t really know what mistakes to watch out for unless you\u2019ve made a few. Success is nice, but failure is great for learning. Quizzing yourself frequently gives you a lot of low-stakes opportunities to make mistakes and learn from them. Plus, there are few things more motivating for a lifelong student than seeing that red \u201cx\u201d next to a problem. <\/span><\/p>\n For the next week, try incorporating one or two short, timed quizzes of 3-5 questions into every single study session. There are two great ways to find relevant questions for these quizzes. First, if you\u2019re studying with the Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides<\/a>, every guide contains \u201ccheck your skills\u201d problems and end-of-chapter problem sets. Second, the 5lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems<\/a> is divided into chapters based on content areas. If you\u2019re learning about a particular topic and you want to check your work, pick a few problems from the matching chapter, set your timer, and get to work. If you miss a problem or two, that\u2019s great \u2013 review them carefully and come back to them in a later study session.<\/span><\/p>\n To really step things up, do some questions <\/span>before<\/span><\/i> you study a topic. If you start learning about coordinate geometry by trying a couple of coordinate geometry problems, then when you start reading the chapter, you\u2019ll <\/span>already know what you need to learn about<\/span><\/i>. You won\u2019t just be blindly trying to take in the information \u2013 instead, you\u2019ll have a framework for which problems you don\u2019t know how to solve yet. It doesn\u2019t matter if you miss every single problem on your first try! You can always try them again later. <\/span><\/p>\n One of the hardest things about studying for the GRE is the time commitment it involves. Luckily, there\u2019s been a lot of research done on ways to study effectively. If you study efficiently and thoughtfully, you\u2019ll be able to get a surprising amount of work done in less time than you might think. The testing effect gives you one great way to make this happen.\u00a0?<\/span><\/p>\n Want more guidance from our GRE gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free! We\u2019re not kidding. <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Chelsey Cooley<\/a> Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. Here\u2019s one surprising way to speed up your GRE studies: quiz yourself. Now, that doesn\u2019t mean that you have to take a lot of practice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[474284,921840,6,7,449765,733451,733445],"tags":[1362350,1362352,1362351],"yst_prominent_words":[1362712,1362713,1362708,1362722,1362716,1362720,1362627,1362718,1362710,1362721,1362717,1362711,1362706,1362672,1362715,1362709,1362705,1362714,1362707,1362719],"class_list":["post-9930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-studiers","category-gre-prep-2","category-gre-strategies","category-how-to-study","category-learning-science","category-life-hacks","category-study-tips-2","tag-learning-science","tag-learning-science-and-the-gre","tag-the-testing-effect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9930","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\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9930"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12232,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9930\/revisions\/12232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9930"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhat is the testing effect?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Why does it work?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
How can you make the testing effect work for you?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\n![\"Chelsey](\"\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2015\/11\/chelsey-cooley-150x150.jpg\" "\\"Chelsey")
<\/a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington.<\/strong>\u00a0Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master\u2019s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170\/170 on the GRE.\u00a0Check out Chelsey\u2019s upcoming GRE prep offerings here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"