There are two major phases of GRE preparation. The first phase is the learning phase, in which you systematically learn and practice GRE topics, concepts, skills, and strategies. This phase should make up the bulk of your prep. The second phase is the practice-test phase, in which you sit for full-length, official GRE practice testsin the weeks leading up to your exam.

MANY students move on from the learning phase to the practice-test phase before they’re actually ready to. They may have set an unrealistic deadline for their GRE preparation, or they may be preparing in a disorganized fashion. Either way, they need more time to master concepts, learn to apply strategies, build up their speed, and so on, before they can perform well on full-length practice tests.

If you don’t have evidence that you consistently perform well on practice questions in all of the topics you need to learn for GRE Verbal — for example, evidence of consistent high accuracy on timed, mixed-problem practice sets — then don’t be surprised if your Verbal performance on mock tests is underwhelming. Chances are, you need to spend some more time with your study materials.

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep