Top 10 Pacing Tips for the GRE

The Revised GRE contains one essay: the Issue. This should be the easiest section because you can review prompts ahead of time and plan out your essay structure . A high level of organization is essential to a better score on the AWA.

The  GRE allows you to skip around freely within each section – use this ability to skip harder questions and come back to them later once you’ve answered the easier ones first.

Don’t simply go straight to the answer choices. It will help you eliminate, and the best graduate schools want students who can think critically and trust their own judgments.

Always be aware of how many questions you have left! The first GRE Quant section has 12 questions in 21 minutes; the second Quant section has 15 questions in 26 minutes.

The first Verbal section has 12 questions in 18 minutes; the second verbal section has 15 questions in 23 minutes.

Keep track of where you are in a section at all times.

Don’t rush through the beginning 4-5 questions, but move quickly past the easy ones, saving the majority of your time for the harder test questions.

If you finish a GRE section early, go back and check your work! Don’t second-guess yourself to the extreme, but re-check your work on the medium-hard level test questions.

Know what you will do if you find yourself (1) stressing out over a particularly challenging question, (2) finding yourself falling behind in a section, or (3) losing confidence in your abilities. Write down and imagine your own “worst-case scenario” and describe what you will do if it occurs on GRE Test Day.

For challenging GRE test questions, don’t give up if you don’t know how to solve. Examine the answer choices, and don’t be afraid to make an educated guess on 2-3 GRE test questions if necessary. You likely will have a very strong instinct that 1-2 choices will NOT be correct. Use POE to increase your chances of GRE success.

If you have adequately prepared for the GRE, you should already be intimately familiar with the direction for each question type. Don’t waste valuable time re-reading them on test day.

Be prepared to take the GRE in one sitting.