Taking the GRE for Business School? Train Like It Matters.

Every week I hear some version of the same plan: "I'm applying to business school, but I'm taking the GRE instead of the GMAT because it's the EASY way in. I'll do a few weeks of practice and knock it out."

Here's the problem with that plan. Your GRE score doesn't go into a special pile marked "took the easy test." It lands on the same desk, in front of the same admissions readers, next to every other applicant's file. Those readers want the same thing from you that they want from everyone else: proof that you can handle a hard, numbers heavy program. The test you picked doesn't change the question they're asking. It only changes how you answer it.

So if you chose the GRE because it fits your strengths better, good. That's a smart, strategic choice. If you chose it because you think it lets you skip the training, THAT is a bad bet. It's also a fixable one.

Know the event you're training for

You can't train for an event you haven't looked at. Here's the GRE General Test as it stands right now, laid out on ETS's sections and question types page:

• About 3 hours 45 minutes in total, taken at a test center.
• Analytical Writing: an Issue essay and an Argument essay, 30 minutes each, scored 0 to 6.
• Two Verbal sections, 20 questions in 30 minutes each.
• Two Quant sections, 20 questions in 35 minutes each.
• One unscored section that looks exactly like the others. You won't know which one it is.
• A 10 minute break after the third section.
• Verbal and Quant each scored from 130 to 170.

Two details matter more than most people think.

First, the test is adaptive section by section. That means how well you do on your first Quant section decides how hard your second Quant section will be. The same goes for Verbal. A sloppy first section doesn't just cost you points there. It can limit what the second section lets you earn.

Second, that unscored section is a ghost. Since you can't spot it, you have to treat EVERY section like it counts, including the one that shows up after you're three hours in and tired. That's a stamina problem, and stamina gets trained, not wished for.

Then there's ScoreSelect, the option that lets you send schools only the scores you pick (ETS explains it on the scores page). Some people hear that and think, "Great, I'll take it casually, and if it goes badly, I'll just hide it and try again." Stop and think about what that really costs you. Another test date. Another few weeks. Maybe a missed deadline. ScoreSelect is a safety net. It is NOT a training plan.

Quant is not a math test

If you're heading to business school, expect your Quant score to get a hard look. That scares a lot of people who haven't done math since high school. It shouldn't. GRE Quant uses math as the gauge, but what it really tests is how you THINK. The people who score well aren't the ones who remember the most formulas. They're the ones who use tactics: test values, test the answers, and write everything down.

Here's what that looks like on a Quantitative Comparison question. That's a GRE question type where you get two quantities, A and B, and you decide how they relate. You don't solve for an answer. You compare.

And on a regular multiple choice question, the answers are a gift. Use them.

Yes, you get an on-screen calculator. Use it for ugly arithmetic. It will not tell you which number to type in, and it will not catch the trap in that second question. Your notes on paper do that.

The mistakes I see every week (and what to do INSTEAD)

1. Treating it like the "easy" test. If you think the test is soft, you'll train soft, and you'll get the score that soft training EARNS.

   INSTEAD: Pick a target score, write it down, and build a real weekly schedule around it. Don't just copy a school's number, either. Remember that a school's AVERAGE GRE score is not a cutoff. Some admits scored above it and some scored below it.

2. Doing the math in your head. It feels fast. It isn't. You re-read the question, lose a negative sign, and burn time fixing it.

   INSTEAD: Write down every number, every step, every answer you've crossed off. On every practice question, not just the hard ones.

3. Taking practice tests every day. A practice test is a measuring device. It tells you roughly where you are. It does NOT make you a better test taker.

   INSTEAD: One full, timed practice test per week, at most. ETS's free POWERPREP tests are the real thing, so don't waste them. Spend the rest of the week reviewing and redoing questions.

4. Skipping the essays and the full length in practice. Then on test day you sit for almost four hours for the first time, and your last sections fall apart.

   INSTEAD: Take your practice tests in full, essays included, with the break where it really falls. You have to train for the FULL event.

5. Blaming the clock. Twenty Quant questions in 35 minutes works out to about 1 minute 45 seconds each, on AVERAGE. Some questions take 30 seconds. Some take 3 minutes. A "pacing problem" is almost always caused by something else: re-reading, head math, or the long way to the answer.

   INSTEAD: Use the fact that you can skip, mark and come back inside a section. Take the gettable questions first, and when you review, find the CAUSE of every slow question.

Notice something about that list? None of it is about hard questions. The points most people lose are on questions they COULD have gotten. That's good news, because those are the easiest points to win back.

Your move today

Here's your challenge. Get a blank sheet of paper and do 10 Quantitative Comparison questions, untimed. On every single one, test at least two different kinds of numbers and write every step down. Then look at your sheet.

I'll bet at least one of those questions changed its answer when you tried a second kind of number. That's a point you would have dropped on test day. Now go find the next one.