There are hundreds of concepts you need to master to improve your GRE score. Because you don’t know which concepts will be tested on exam day, you have to be knowledgeable about them all. Additionally, if you’ve been studying for the GRE for any length of time, you likely understand that it takes understanding multiple concepts and using multiple skills in tandem to answer any one GRE question.

So, identifying any knowledge or skill gaps you have is a must for improving your score. The more gaps you close, the more concepts and skills you’ll be able to employ when faced with any category of GRE question.

With that in mind, let’s discuss how to identify your knowledge and skill gaps.

Pinpoint Specific Weaknesses

Identifying gaps in knowledge or skills can be somewhat tricky, especially if you’re missing questions that involve applying multiple concepts in one problem. You have to break down the question into its component steps to identify your weak area. For example, a rate-time-distance question may require you to do all of the following:

• Interpret the given information
• Recall and apply one or more formulas
• Create an equation
• Solve a system of equations involving fractions

So, let’s say you encounter an average rate question. What would happen if you knew the formula but made a mistake in dividing fractions as you calculated the average rate (step 4)? You would not correctly answer the question! Perhaps this is a sign that you have issues working with fractions, which is a common problem among GRE students who haven’t done much math since high school. Difficulties with fractions can negatively impact your ability to answer many GRE quant questions, and working with fractions is just one skill.

Now, perhaps you’ve noticed that you frequently miss rate-time-distance questions or can solve only the easiest of such questions when doing mixed problem sets or taking practice tests. However, what you haven’t realized is that you don’t simply “have trouble with rate-time-distance questions.” The real issue is that you’re not well-versed in handling calculations involving fractions.

If you were to shore up that skill, rate-time-distance questions would become one of your strongest areas in Quant. The trick is to pinpoint this specific weakness, so you can address the root cause of your missing certain question types.

Pinpointing weaknesses is essential in the Verbal arena as well. For example, you might encounter a particular Sentence Equivalence question and recall that you must find two answer choices that are similar in meaning (a synonym pair). You identify two synonym pairs among the answer choices, and you find that when either pair is used, the two sentences created convey the same meaning.

You answer the question with what you feel is the best answer, and then you later discover that your answer was incorrect. You double-check the meanings of all the words and verify that your vocabulary knowledge was spot-on. So, what happened?

Well, when you carefully reread the question in its entirety, you realize that you overlooked the contrast word “despite,” which clarifies that the two synonym words you chose made no sense and the other synonym pair was correct. The takeaway here is that, even though you missed a vocabulary question, it was not the word meanings but a context clue that tripped you up. After pinpointing this weakness, you can spend additional time reviewing the real reason for your incorrect answer: contrast/agreement words.

Keep an Error Log

Keeping a detailed error log is the easiest way to pinpoint your knowledge and skill gaps and ensure you’re systematically addressing them. Keeping a detailed error log means tracking which types of questions you get wrong and why you got them wrong. For example, when analyzing a Quant question you answered incorrectly, you might ask yourself the following:

• Did I fully understand the content upon which the question is based?
• Was there a particular formula I needed but was unaware of?
• Did I forget how to perform a certain mathematical technique (ex., solving a quadratic equation)?
• Did I misinterpret the question or fail to recognize key clues in the question?
• Did I fall for a trap answer, and if so, why?

Each time you identify a gap in your math knowledge or skills, you get another step closer to your GRE score goal. So, when analyzing the results of practice tests, be sure that you carefully review each question you answered incorrectly and identify exactly what went wrong. Doing so will allow you to pick up on troubling patterns and weak points that you might otherwise misidentify or not recognize at all.

Analyze Your Practice Test Results

Particularly when reviewing your practice test results, you must use every question you see to analyze your strengths and weaknesses thoroughly. Each practice test has only 40 quant and 40 verbal questions. So, don’t take any question for granted.

It’s important to be honest with yourself when reviewing wrong answers. For example, did you answer a question on cylinders correctly because of a lucky guess? If so, take the time to revisit cylinders and the topics in questions you didn’t answer correctly. Remember, while some guesses may go your way on test day, you can’t count on being able to “fool” the GRE.

If you skimp on the necessary work of finding and fixing any gaps in your knowledge or skills between practice tests, you shouldn’t expect your score to increase from one test to the next. Also, don’t be surprised if you need 4 or 5 days to fully review a practice test and study the material corresponding to your weak areas.