How to Study for the GRE (Graduate Record Examination)

Upon graduating from college, all students who are planning on attending graduate school must take the GRE or Graduate Record Examination. There are variations of the GRE depending on what you may be going to graduate school for (psychology, biology, etc.) but there are some general steps that you can take in order to better prepare for the GRE, no matter what subject test you are taking.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. The GRE tests your verbal reasoning skills. This is basically a comprehensive test of your understanding of complex words, sentences and written comprehension. There are many different online GRE study tests that provide a list of likely vocabulary words and examples that should be at least overviewed before taking the test.

2. Another portion of the GRE evaluates your ability to both write, and understand analytical writing. If you have strong writing skills, this part of the test should go smoothly, if you don't it's time to pull out the old English books from your previous courses college.

3. The third component of the GRE tests your quantitive reasoning; aka math skills. The GRE exam will test your capacity in basic math skills, and pose a number of math problems in the form of "story problems" in which reason is key. Again, there are a lot of online GRE study guides that can greatly improve your chances of scoring well o the Graduate Records Examination.

4. Check at your college for more GRE study resources; especially within whatever specific GRE subject test you are taking (for example, look for study groups within the psychology department if that is the test you are signed up to take).

5. The website under "Additional Resources Below" offers free GRE test preparation materials. Use the practice GRE in order to brush up on academic skills and gain confidence for the real GRE.

Resources

• Free GRE General Test Preparation Materials