If you’re like most students, when preparing for the GRE, you’ll learn a great deal of new content, strategies, and techniques. If you don’t regularly review what you’ve learned, you’re likely to forget things as your focus shifts. So, you need to review old content as you go, and there are a number of ways to do this efficiently.

For starters, consider taking notes as you study. Taking notes makes you a more active participant in your learning and gives you something to review at a later date. The simple act of writing down a concept or principle in your own words can make you think more clearly about the meaning of that concept, and thus it should stick better in your mind than it would if you were to simply read about it. We’ve all been victims of mindless reading — those times when we say to ourselves, “I just read two pages and I have no memory whatsoever of what I read.” Taking notes as you read can help you avoid this wasteful activity, increasing your focus and retention.

After you’ve taken notes, consider making flashcards so you can consistently and quickly review a concept and better retain the information. The great thing about flashcards is that you can use them anywhere. If you have ten minutes on the subway, run through your flashcards. Waiting in line at Starbucks, quiz yourself using your flashcards. Some students prefer “old-fashioned” paper flashcards, while others prefer the digital version. Whichever format you choose, be sure to flip through your flashcards often. To challenge yourself even more, shuffle the deck before each use. By reordering the cards each time you review them, you make the material unpredictable. You will have to work a bit harder, but your retention of the material will increase dramatically.

As you dive deeper into your prep, the number of flashcards you’re using will grow. So, to help yourself review efficiently, separate your flashcards into piles: one pile for concepts that you’ve mastered and another pile for concepts that you haven’t mastered. Clearly, you should flip through the “not mastered” pile more frequently than the “mastered” pile. However, don’t forget to revisit the concepts you’ve mastered every so often to make sure that those skills don’t become rusty.

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep