After you’ve received your diploma for your bachelor’s degree, you may begin to wonder what’s next. While most may jump right into the world of employment, others also like to continue with their studies. The latter wants to update their knowledge and skills even more by proceeding with Graduate School.
For those who choose to tread on this path, one of the very first challenges to overcome is the GRE (Graduate School Exam) test, which is the entrance exam for graduate school. Like any academic exam, this can make or break your choices of universities to take your master’s degree in. Hence, the need for you to score high in this exam.
By following these tips, you can make this endeavor an easier one to achieve:
1. Create And Stick To A Study Schedule
You’re an adult that have completed four years in college. This should imply that you’re a lot more responsible when it comes to time management. Because the first essential thing to do in order to have a high score on your GRE is to have proper time management.
To start, have a study schedule that’s realistic for you – one that works to your preference, which means there’s enough time for you to rest, eat your meals, and socialize. After you’ve created a study schedule, stick to it and focus on studying.
Start applying it immediately the next day, and don’t wait until later. Else, you’ll be creating the negative habit of delaying your study even more. Your study schedule is going to work as a class schedule does. It gives you that idea not to distract yourself during the hours that you’re supposed to be studying.
2. Get To Know More About The GRE Test
Because this is going to be your first time taking the test, it’s expected that you won’t know so much about it. Everything that you may have heard about the test is limited information.
It works to your advantage to get to know more about the GRE test. Specifically, getting to know the GRE standards expected of the universities and the course that you’re aiming to apply. For instance, the requirements for medical school might be different from the standards in law school.
That way, come exam day, you already know what to expect. There won’t be any unpleasant surprises that are only going to make you more anxious.
3. Answer Practice Problems
As you study for the GRE, allocate a time every day or every other day to answer practice problems. Even half an hour a day is already more than enough.
When you do this, you’re giving yourself a feel of how it’s going to be during the final exam day. Who knows, some of the questions that you tried answering in the practice test may be repeated on your GRE. -You can also make use of learning software like examPAL to help boost your GRE study preparation. If you want to learn more about examPAL just head over to https://examgenius.org/exampal-gre-review.
If you’re familiar with the exam’s possible questions, this will help you gain confidence when answering the actual exam. Also, if you’re somewhat familiar with the questions, you’ll have more time to focus on problems that are potentially going to be more difficult than others. This kind of strategy increases your chances of answering more questions correctly.
As you answer practice problems, time yourself as well. On average, if you want to complete all the numbers, you’ll only have less than two minutes to solve every problem. This means that you’ve got to work on your speed, too. If you start relatively slow, keep timing yourself, until you reach the target of completing each number in less than two minutes.
4. Take A Diagnostic Exam
A diagnostic exam is usually available for you to take. Unlike a practice test, this is like the real deal since it gives you the opportunity to see your grade.
Through this exam, you’ll be able to gauge as to how well (or how bad) you perform during the exam. When your scores are low, don’t take it negatively as you’ve still got a lot of time to improve. This way, you’re able to create a starting point as to where you need to improve more.
A diagnostic exam enables you to focus more of your time and energy on subjects that are your weaknesses than your strengths – you’re ready to be more efficient with your study time.
5. Go Back To The Basics
As you study the subjects required, don’t forget to go back to the basics. When you’ve graduated from college, this means that you already learned so much, knowledge-wise. But, this overload of information could also mean that you may have forgotten some of the basics. Brush up on these topics. Surprisingly, there could be numerous GRE questions that also touch on these highly-neglected topics.
Conclusion
Doing well in your GRE is not just an overnight effort. It takes months of hard work and preparation. But, with the right techniques, it’s going to be doable and manageable.
Passing (and acing) the GRE test doesn’t have to be an impossible task for you to achieve. Take one piece of advice at a time. Come exam time, you’ll be at your best.