Here’s what the best students do to study for the GRE

Whenever you do practice GRE problems, you should spend significantly more time reviewing each problem than you spent doing it. Many students have asked me this very reasonable question, though: “What am I supposed to actually do when I review?” Here’s the answer. This review process will help you squeeze more out of every problem you do. 

Revisit your solution.

Once you’ve finished a timed problem set, don’t check your answers immediately. Instead, revisit each problem and your own solution. Are you satisfied with your answer, and with how quickly you arrived there? If not, redo the problem, spending as much time as you need. Try solving it in different ways, until you find one that feels right.

If you still just can’t figure it out, then before you do anything else, decide what you’d need to know in order to come up with a solution. Is there a vocabulary word you can’t define? A geometry rule you can’t remember? In that case, feel free to look up the facts you need and keep trying. Are you struggling to translate the words into equations, or to identify the conclusion of the argument? Make a note of any skills you need to improve.

If you do understand the problem after a second attempt, ask yourself two questions:

1. Why did you get it wrong the first time?
2. How would you approach the problem if you saw it again? Generalize from your failure on this problem, to success on different problems you’ll see in the future.

Next, work from the right answer.  

Now it’s time to look at the official answer. Don’t read the explanation, though — just peek at the answer itself. If it fits what you’ve come up with, you can move on to the next step. If it doesn’t match, or if you didn’t come up with a satisfying solution on your own, you’ve got more work to do.

Redo the problem again, looking for a solution path that would lead you to the correct answer. If you find yourself saying “Oh, that makes sense,” you’ve taught yourself how to do that problem correctly next time! If you’re still flummoxed, read on…

Finish up with a complete solution.

This is the step where you check the official explanation for the first time. If you found a solution on your own, you’re looking for different perspectives on the problem, or clever ways to save time while solving it. If you didn’t, then read just enough of the explanation to give yourself a hint. Reading the whole explanation is a last resort — if you have to do this, the problem is probably too tough to bother with right now!

If the explanation doesn’t help you, Google the first few words of the problem. Many problems have been thoroughly discussed by instructors and students online.   

Finally, record what you’ve learned.

Take notes about GRE problems as you review them. These notes can be as simple or as elaborate as you like, but here’s what really matters:

1. Are you going to do the problem again later?
2. What can you take from this problem that would help you on other problems?

When you’re answering that second question, be as general as you can. Great takeaways are ones that tell you how to react to a specific clue in the problem: “When I see this, I’ll do this.” Suppose that you missed a two-blank Text Completion problem because you didn’t notice that the phrase “instead of” reversed the meaning of part of the sentence. Don’t just write down “look for ‘instead of'” in your notes. Instead, record a general lesson like this: “When I see a two-blank Text Completion problem, look for words and phrases that tell me whether the blanks are similar, or opposites.” You might even go on from there to brainstorm a list of those critical words and phrases. 

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