A little background about me:

I scored 336 on my first shot (V166 V170,) and spent about 20 days on studying for it. However, I started with a good foundation. I had a 2390/2400 SAT so I was very well familiarized with the standardized test tricks. I also had very intense workload at Dartmouth, whose academic rigor absolutely prepared me for the GRE very well. I scored 320+ on my first mock test after I reviewed the vocabulary — in other words, it took me nothing but memorizing a few words to get myself at around 320.

People at different levels or from different backgrounds require different strategies and time investment to reach that 320 goal. Regardless, the 20 days I spent got me 15+ points further. I can’t tell you how to reach 320 without knowing much about your background and needs, but I can tell you how to utilize a shorter time period to make some good progress:


Focus. The famous 80/20 Rule states that roughly 80% of your outcomes come from 20% of your inputs.[1] This applies to GRE as well. There will be areas on GRE where you can most quickly improve. When the time is limited, you need to focus on those areas to make the most progress. Take a few mock tests and find those spots, and work on them relentlessly.

Make mistakes. Don’t worry about them at all. It is a good thing to find yourself making mistakes when you’re practicing than you do on the real test. When you practice, you want to expose all the possible ways you make mistakes, and then find ways to avoid them. The reality is, aside from the vocabulary, GRE hardly covers anything that esoteric. In many cases, it’s the silly mistakes you make that really keeps you from getting your dream score. Learning how to avoid those mistakes can allow you to improve quickly. You just need to identify them first, by making them.

Analyze. Don’t just practice questions after questions. Think about them. Find patterns, find how you get them wrong, and find quicker ways to solve these questions. At the end of the day, it’s not the quantity of questions that you practiced on that matters the most, it’s how you treat them. Don’t just focus on getting the questions right, focus on how to get better.

Consolidate. After you’ve practiced, made mistakes, and analyzed them, now it’s time to consolidate your takeaways. Make yourself a list of actions you can take during the actual test to help yourself perform better. This could include double checking your zeros, or being more alarmed of particular words, or things you tend to forget or overlook. Take a good look at them before you take the test.


Many of my friends have asked me how I got the score I have. Frankly this is it. Now I’m building Gregory to help people do these things automatically. I’d be happy to hear any thoughts/feedback on it.