After almost 20 years of helping people earn top GRE scores, I've seen the same pattern again and again: the early stages of preparing for the test are often misunderstood.

Here are 20 challenges that show up again and again when students first start prep:

1. Not Knowing Where to Start

Many students know they need to study but have no clear idea of what to study first, in what order to study the material, or how to sequence their studying so they’re building from fundamentals to harder questions.

2. Underestimating the GRE

At first glance, the GRE can look like basic math, reading, and vocabulary. But the test is not just checking whether you "know" certain topics. It's testing whether you can reason clearly, avoid traps, make decisions under time pressure, and apply concepts flexibly.

3. Mistaking Familiarity for Mastery

A student may read a lesson, understand the explanation, and think, "I've got this." But understanding something while reading it is very different from solving a fresh question in a timed, mixed set on your own. That gap surprises many beginners.

4. Weak Quant Foundations

Many students have forgotten key math concepts or never fully mastered them in the first place. Algebra, number properties, rates, ratios, percents, exponents, roots, inequalities, and word problems often need to be rebuilt carefully.

5. Overconfidence in Math Ability

Some students were good at math in school, so they assume GRE Quant will be easy. Then they discover that GRE Quant is less about pure math skills and more about precise reasoning, setup, and execution.

6. Trying to "Hack" the Test Too Early

Strategy matters, but strategy works best layered onto genuine skill. Beginners often look for shortcuts, tricks, or timing hacks before they've built the underlying Quant and Verbal ability needed to use those strategies effectively.

7. Poor Timing Habits

Beginners often make one of two mistakes: they either rush and make careless errors, or they spend far too long trying to force a solution on one question.

8. Not Knowing How to Review Mistakes

Reading an explanation is not the same as learning from a mistake. Strong review means figuring out exactly why the error happened: concept gap, process issue, misread, trap answer, timing decision, or careless execution.

9. Jumping Into Practice Too Early

Practice questions are important, but they are not a substitute for learning. If you do hundreds of questions before building the underlying skills for accurately answering them, you may just reinforce bad habits.

10. Burning Through Official Questions

Official questions can be valuable, but they are limited. Many students use them too early or too randomly, without having the tools or structure to get full value from them.

11. Not Having a Structured Study Plan

Without a plan, GRE prep quickly becomes scattered: some Quant one day, some Verbal the next, a few random practice sets, then a practice test. That type of prep usually does not produce consistent improvement.

12. Inconsistent Study Schedule

The GRE rewards consistency. Studying intensely for two days and then disappearing for a week usually does not build durable skills.

13. Not Knowing What Score Improvement Requires

Many students underestimate how much work is required to move from their baseline scores to competitive ones. Moving up a few points per section and moving up 10+ points per section are very different projects.

14. Getting Discouraged by Early Scores

Initial practice tests can feel brutal. But a low starting score doesn’t define your ceiling. It usually just shows how much structure and skill-building are needed.

15. Frequent Careless Errors

Careless errors are not always random. They often come from weak process: skipping steps, writing too little down, rushing, solving the wrong question, or failing to check constraints.

16. Approaching Verbal by Feel

Many students treat Verbal as instinctive. They pick what "sounds right" or "feels plausible." That approach quickly breaks down. GRE Verbal requires precise, repeatable reasoning and rewards disciplined study rather than instinct.

17. Struggling With Quantitative Comparison

Quantitative Comparison is unfamiliar to many students at first because instead of solving for a single answer, they have to compare two quantities. The issue is often not math ability. It's learning to recognize when a relationship can change depending on the values involved.

18. Underestimating the Vocabulary Demands of Verbal

Students often underestimate how much sustained vocabulary work the Verbal section requires. Instead of chipping away at GRE vocab little by little, consistently and systematically each day, they study vocab in sporadic cram sessions that don’t result in much knowledge retention over the long term.

19. Tracking Performance Too Broadly

Saying "I'm bad at Quant" is not useful for improvement. A stronger diagnosis is: "I'm missing overlapping sets, weighted averages, inequalities, and indeterminate Quantitative Comparison questions." Specific weaknesses are fixable.

20. Expecting Progress Too Quickly

GRE improvement is usually not linear. You build concepts, practice them, make mistakes, review, refine your process, and then gradually become more consistent. The students who improve the most are often the ones who respect that process rather than trying to shortcut it.

The big takeaway: early GRE struggles are normal. But they need to be handled correctly.

At the beginning, the goal is not to rush through material or prove that your skills are already strong. The goal is to build the skills, habits, and systems that make top performance possible.

When students understand that, prep becomes more focused, more diagnosable, and much more productive.