It’s a nightmare scenario for any GRE student: You study for months for your exam, hit your score goal on your practice tests, and figure that you’re ready to sit for the GRE, only to see a lower score on the actual GRE test than the scores you earned on your practice tests.

Once the initial shock wears off, you’re left asking yourself: Where did I go wrong? 🤔

Seeing a score drop on test day is an unwelcome surprise for any student, but it’s actually pretty common. In this article, we’ll look at the 10 most common GRE mistakes that can lead to a score drop from practice tests to the real deal, and how to make sure you don’t fall victim to “score shock” on the big day. Whether you’ve already experienced a surprisingly low GRE score or you’re hoping to avoid one, troubleshooting key aspects of your game plan will help you ensure that you don’t set yourself up for a rude awakening when test day rolls around.

👉 Issue #1: Not Taking Practice Tests Under Realistic Conditions

If you expect to get an accurate picture of your GRE skills when you take a practice test, the conditions under which you take that test need to mimic actual GRE test conditions as closely as possible.

If you skip the Analytical Writing section, peek at your notes during Quant, take a 15-minute break instead of a 10-minute one, or do anything else that you could not do on test day, you may not get an accurate practice test score. Without accurate practice test scores, you may not realize that your GRE score is not improving and that you’re not actually ready to sit for the real GRE. So, you must follow realistic test-day conditions whenever you take an official practice GRE exam.

Here are some tips for creating a realistic GRE experience during your practice tests:

• If possible, take your practice test at the time of day that you will take your actual GRE. If you work or go to school full-time and plan to take your actual GRE exam on the weekend, then take your practice test on Saturday or Sunday morning, when your mind is fresh. It would not be a great idea to come home after working all day and sit down to take a practice GRE.
• Go to a quiet location outside of your home, such as a private study room at the library or a closed office at a coworking space, to take your practice test (unless you’re taking the online GRE because of the COVID-19 pandemic; in that case, taking practice tests at home, in the same room where you’ll take the actual GRE exam, is a good idea).
• Turn your cell phone off and put it out of view
• Do not skip any sections of the exam. Yes, that means you must do the two Analytical Writing tasks as well as all four Quant and Verbal sections
• Do not take any additional breaks or do anything you cannot do on test day (such as pause the exam to cook dinner). Use only the online calculator provided.
• Do your scratch work with paper and pencils similar to those provided at GRE test centers. If you are taking the at-home GRE, then use the exact same whiteboard or clear sheet protector that you plan to use while taking that test.

Remember, unless you adhere closely to actual GRE testing conditions when you take a practice test, the practice test will not be an accurate gauge of your ability to hit your score goal. If you repeatedly pause the test, eat lunch while you’re testing, or exceed the allotted time for a section, your score will not be representative of your GRE readiness.

Do you really want to waste the precious hours you have to spend on each practice test, and the limited number of official practice tests available, by relaxing the rules of the test? The results will be not only receiving an inaccurate score, but also missing out on the valuable training for the rigors of test day that a practice exam provides.

Issue #1 Takeaway💡
❎ Problem: You’re not taking official practice tests under realistic test-day conditions.
✅ Solution: Simulate a testing environment as much as possible and follow all of the GRE rules each time you take an official practice test.

👉 Issue #2: Not Taking All 5 Official Practice Tests

Suppose that your GRE score goal is 330+. You take the two free, official ETS practice exams from ets.org. You score 330 and 335 on those exams, so you figure that you are ready to sit for the GRE. Needless to say, you’re shocked when you score 315 on test day. How could this happen?

Many GRE test-takers make the mistake of taking just a few of the available official practice tests and assuming that the average score from those tests is a true representation of their current GRE skills. The thing they don’t realize is that their sample size is too small.

ETS (Educational Testing Service, the GRE test-maker) offers five full-length practice exams: two free POWERPREP exams and three paid POWERPREP PLUS exams.

There is a reason why the Target Test Prep study plan recommends that every GRE student take all five of those exams prior to taking the actual GRE exam. You want to have a substantial enough sample size of data to get an accurate idea of whether you’re truly prepared to reach your target GRE score.

So, bite the bullet and purchase the three paid exams — at $39.95 a pop, they’re well worth it. If, after taking all five official practice GREs, your average score is 330+ (or whatever your target score is), then you have an excellent shot at reaching your score goal on test day.

Issue #2 Takeaway💡
❎ Problem: You took only a few official practice exams.
✅ Solution: Complete all 5 of the full-length, official ETS practice exams, so you can get an accurate gauge of your readiness to hit your score goal.

👉 Issue #3: Relying on Unofficial Practice Tests

When you take full-length practice tests that are not those provided by ETS, you run the risk of getting inaccurate scores. So, should you never take any practice GREs from any companies other than ETS? I wouldn’t quite say that. But if you need to get the most accurate score possible, you’re probably better off taking an official practice GRE.

Additionally, you should be somewhat wary of comparing practice test scores from different sources. For instance, say that you took two practice GRE tests, one from GRE Prep Company A and one from GRE Prep Company B, scoring 325 and 330, respectively.

Then, you took two official practice GREs from ETS and scored 310 and 315. Does this mean that your score has taken a nosedive? Maybe, but maybe not. There could be inherent differences between the tests from Companies A and B and the official tests. Your official GRE practice test scores could very well be more accurate. However, knowing that for sure is next-to-impossible, since the tests are from three different sources.

A simple way to avoid this confusion is to make sure that you always compare apples to apples. So, prioritize the 5 ETS practice exams — you may find, after taking those, that you actually don’t need to take more full-length practice tests prior to your GRE. If you feel that you absolutely must take more practice tests, then you can take some non-ETS tests. Just don’t be surprised (or stress yourself out) if the results vary from those of your official practice exams.

Issue #3 Takeaway💡
❎ Problem: Your scores are erratic because you’re taking practice tests from several different sources.
✅ Solution: Take the 5 official GRE practice tests provided by ETS before you consider taking mock GREs from any other source.

👉 Issue #4: Prepping With Materials Designed Around Questions From Official Practice Tests

Imagine that you have a high school English test during seventh period, and your friend Jamie takes the same test during second period. If, during third period, Jamie tells you what the test questions were, what are the chances that you’ll perform better on the test than you would without that information? In other words, what are the chances that your score will be inflated? Probably pretty high, right?

Unsurprisingly, this same effect occurs when test-takers prep for the GRE. Perhaps you’re using study materials designed by GRE Prep Company Z, which built its practice materials by drawing heavily from questions on official practice tests, rather than designing materials that focus on the skills, content, and knowledge required to earn a good GRE score.

Of course, researching official questions is necessary. That said, if the majority of the questions you practice with are simply models of questions on official practice tests, then you may not learn all that you need to and, as a result, you may receive practice test scores that, while strong, are not reliable indicators of GRE mastery. In other words, some prep materials can create the illusion of GRE mastery, an illusion that can be reinforced even when you take official practice tests.

Using study materials that focus heavily on content from official GRE questions may cause you to pick up on concepts and patterns that appear in some (perhaps very few) official materials, but does not guarantee that you will actually hone your ability to think critically, reason analytically, and analyze problems logically.

THOSE are the skills that are truly necessary to earn a good GRE score. In reality, you may be doing not much more than mastering the art of performing well on practice tests. That is a recipe for disaster on test day, when any lingering GRE weak spots you have will likely come to the fore.

To avoid a surprise low GRE score on test day, be sure to thoroughly research prep materials and select a GRE course that provides the depth you need to truly master the GRE, not just perform well on practice exams.

Issue #4 Takeaway💡
❎ Problem: You’re prepping with materials designed around official practice questions.
✅ Solution: Choose prep materials designed around the skills, content, and knowledge required for deep mastery of the GRE, not just pattern recognition in practice questions.

👉 Issue #5: Over-Relying on In-Test Tools

Maybe it’s nerves, maybe your pacing feels a little off, maybe you encounter a couple of really tough questions and the time starts to get away from you — for whatever reason, during your actual GRE, you find yourself relying heavily on in-test features of the test, such as the marking option or the Quant calculator, way more than you would during a practice GRE.

Both the onscreen calculator and the marking option (the option to flag a question to return to later) are useful tools that you should by all means strategically implement during your GRE, but like many tools, their overuse can backfire. In the case of the marking option, pulling up the status screen, identifying which questions you’ve marked, and returning to them can chip away at your time if you do it too often. Your optimal strategy, if possible, is to answer questions in the order they are presented to you. In the case of the calculator, because it’s pretty tedious to use, you need to be sure that you’re not using it at times when you should be either doing the math out by hand or recalling a key math concept to help you more easily solve the problem.

If you’ve taken all 5 official GRE practice exams, by the time you sit for your actual GRE, you should be pretty quick (and sparing) with your use of the marking option and have a solid strategy in place for what types of questions you need the calculator to solve and what types of questions you don’t. However, sometimes when test-takers hit some unexpected hurdles on test day, or the test isn’t going as smoothly as they’d hoped and the pressure is on, tools to make the test “easier” can seem like a ready solution.

Whatever the reason, if you felt the need to skip around within the test sections a lot more than you did on practice exams or use the calculator “just in case,” that could explain your score drop.

Issue #5 Takeaway💡
❎ Problem: Your strategic use of in-test tools such as the marking option and the onscreen calculator fell by the wayside on test day.
✅ Solution: Take note if you find yourself skipping around in sections or checking your work on the calculator more than you normally would, so you can take a deep breath, refocus, and stick to your test-taking strategy.

👉 Issue #6: Falling Back on Bad Habits
This is somewhat related to the issue we just discussed. When people find themselves in stressful situations such as taking the GRE, they often revert to old habits that they were able to keep at bay when the pressure wasn’t quite so great (for instance, during practice tests). Rushing through questions, worried about the questions to come, attempting math calculations in your head — these are just some of the old habits that may reemerge on test day. Even if you walk into the GRE with ultimate confidence in your skills, if you fall back into your comfort zone when the going gets tough, you could see a drop in your GRE score.

To ensure that bad habits don’t get the best of you on test day, first off, make sure that you’ve eliminated such habits well before you sit for your GRE. Each time you take a practice test, practice good habits: work methodically and efficiently through each problem, concentrate on just the question in front of you; don’t rely on mental math.

For a deep dive into all 10 strategies, view my full article on the top 10 causes of a low GRE score compared to your practice test scores.

Happy Studying!!

Warmest regards,

Scott