👋 Hello, my friends at GRE Prep Club!

You may have noticed that repetition is a theme running throughout this article. The fact is, humans learn through exposure and repetition, and the GRE is no exception. The more time you spend with a GRE topic and the more often you study it, the better versed in it you’ll become and the better you’ll remember it. So, as you prepare, it’s essential that you consistently re-expose yourself to the GRE content you’ve previously learned.

Say you learn about the addition rule of probabilities on day 1 of your GRE prep. It would not be wise to wait until day 60 to review this rule again. Instead, spend some time reviewing the addition rule of probabilities on day 3, day 8, and so on.

When you expose yourself to a topic over and over, you reactivate neural pathways to the part of your brain where that information is stored (and weaken competing pathways), making the information more easily accessible. That neural reactivation is crucial for keeping previously learned material fresh in your mind.

In short, repetition tells your brain, “Hey, this stuff is important!” Your brain is not designed to remember everything — or even most things. Can you imagine how overwhelming and energy-sapping it would be to remember every single sight, sound, taste, smell, and feeling you experienced each day? By design, your brain remembers only the most important stuff. So, you have to teach it what is important. Studying a topic multiple times, over multiple sittings, does just that.

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep