GRE Test Preparation for the Procrastinator

Just so that we're clear -- the GRE is not a test you should try to cram for. There is simply too much to study to try to cram all in your brain in a week. If you have time to study for the GRE, start NOW. Stop telling yourself you'll start GRE test prep tomorrow.

For those whose tomorrows have come and gone and have found themselves with only a week (or less) until test day, there are still a few things you can do to raise your GRE score.

Before We Begin

However, before we go on, we just want to again stress how important it is to not procrastinate. If you give yourself a month or more to prepare for the GRE you will achieve a higher GRE score than if you were to try to cram the last week.

Scenario: One Week Until the GRE, Haven't Started GRE Prep

Step 1: Take a GRE Practice Test

The first thing you should do is take a GRE practice test. Hopefully you didn't throw away the GRE PowerPrep CD-ROM that ETS sent you. It has a practice GRE computer-adaptive that is very close to the real thing. If you can't find the disc, you can download PowerPrep from the GRE website.

Taking a GRE practice test will give you an idea of what to expect on test day. When you finish the GRE practice test, pay less attention to your final score, and more attention to the problems that you missed. What kind of problems did you mostly miss? Whatever you missed the most is what you will need to work on the hardest.

Step 2: Focus on GRE Test Strategies

Study and practice StudyBeans GRE Test Strategies. You can find more strategies in popular GRE test prep books. We recommend the Kaplan GRE book. A good test stratagem will help you get through the easier problems quicker and answer more difficult problems correctly.

Step 3: Study GRE Vocabulary and do Practice Math Problems

If you need to improve your GRE Verbal score, study GRE vocabulary words.

To improve your GRE Quantitative score, do as many practice problems as you can. Pay special attention to your mistakes. Learn from them. It's very important that you know why you made a mistake so you won't make the same mistake on the real GRE.

As for the GRE Analytical Writing section, there's not much you can do to improve in just a week. The best you can do is write a few practice essays to get used to the timing.

Scenario: One day Until the GRE, Haven't Started GRE Prep

Take some GRE practice tests to figure out at what pace you should answer questions and study a high frequency GRE word list that you can find in any popular GRE prep book. Other than that, pretty much all you can do is get a good night's sleep and hope you do well. Remember to think posistively.