Fall Applicants: Get the GRE DONE Before the Essays Start

It's 10:40 on a Tuesday night. You have a Quant set open in one tab and a half-written 'Why this program' essay in the other. You do three questions. You rewrite one sentence of the essay. You do two more questions and miss both. You go to bed feeling busy and wake up with nothing finished. I watch people do this every single fall, and here's my blunt verdict: trying to train for the GRE and write your application essays at the same time is a TERRIBLE IDEA. It usually wrecks both. The good news is that it's completely fixable, and the fix is simple. Finish the test first.

Two big jobs, one tired brain

Stop reading for a second and answer this honestly. How many truly free, focused evenings do you have between now and your first deadline? Not 'I could probably squeeze something in' evenings. Real ones. I'll bet that number is SMALLER than you think once you take out work, family, the commute and the nights you're just wiped.

Now split those evenings between two jobs that need completely different kinds of thinking. GRE training is reps on a clock: short, sharp, repeatable work. Essay writing is slow: you think, draft, walk away, come back, cut. When you jam both into the same night, you get the worst of each. Your GRE work turns into scattered practice with no real review, and your essays turn into rushed drafts written by someone who just spent an hour on geometry.

Why the GRE goes FIRST

1. Your score shapes your school list

You can't build a smart list of programs until you know your score. Writing a beautiful essay for a school that turns out to be a poor fit for your numbers is wasted time. Get the score, then aim. Your score is one piece of your application, not the whole thing, but it's the piece that's easiest to lock down early.

2. The GRE is a predictable, trainable test

The GRE is standardized. The sections, the timing and the question types are known ahead of time, so you can train for every situation you'll face. Essays don't work that way. That makes the test the perfect thing to knock out in a focused block. It rewards concentrated training, and it punishes 'a little bit here and there.'

3. You leave room for a second try

If your first official score lands where you want it, great. If it doesn't, you want time to train and test again without panic. That's exactly why we tell people to take the GRE early enough to take it twice. And if you finished school recently, don't burn the advantage you already have: train while your study habits are fresh.

What you're actually training for

Since September 22, 2023, the GRE General Test has been shorter. Here's the whole thing, straight from ETS's GRE General Test page:

That adds up to 1 hour 58 minutes. The Argument essay is gone. There's no unscored section and no scheduled break, so you're working straight through. Verbal and Quant are each scored from 130 to 170, and writing is scored from 0 to 6. You can test at a test center or at home.

Notice something: 'average pace' is an AVERAGE. Some questions take 30 seconds. Some take 3 minutes. Your job isn't to hit the average on every question. Your job is to use the fastest reliable method on each one. That takes training, and training takes focus.

That habit of testing values, then trying to break your own result, doesn't show up because you read about it once. It shows up after reps. Reps need focused weeks, not leftover minutes between essay drafts.

The 5 mistakes I see fall applicants make

1. 'I'll do a little of both every night.' This feels responsible. It's actually how you stay half-done on two things for months. INSTEAD: give the GRE its own block of weeks. Essays wait their turn.
2. Booking the test 'when I feel ready.' You will never feel ready. That date drifts right into essay season. INSTEAD: pick an official date now and build your training backward from it.
3. Cramming practice tests to 'speed up.' A practice test is a measuring device. It tells you roughly where you are. It doesn't make you better. INSTEAD: take one full-length test a week at most, like ETS's free POWERPREP practice tests, and spend real time reviewing WHAT YOU DID on every miss.
4. Skipping Issue essay practice because 'I'm writing essays anyway.' Your application essays are personal and rewritten many times. The Issue essay is a 30-minute argument written once, on the clock. Different skill. INSTEAD: write a few timed 30-minute Issue essays during your GRE block.
5. Practicing in short bursts for a test with no break. The test runs almost two hours straight. If you only ever practice in 20-minute chunks, the second Quant section will feel brutal. INSTEAD: do your full practice tests in one sitting, start to finish, no phone.

Build the backward calendar

Say your first deadline is 16 weeks from today. Here's one way to slice it:

• Weeks 1 to 6: GRE training only. Take your first official test at the end of week 6.
• Weeks 7 to 10: your buffer. If the score is where you want it, this becomes a head start on essays. If it isn't, this is your time to train and test again.
• Weeks 11 to 16: essays get your full attention. Your score is locked, so your list is set.

Your numbers will be different. The logic won't. Also leave time for official scores to reach your schools, and check ETS for current timing on that.

What about the essay ideas that pop into your head during GRE weeks? Keep one notes file. When a story hits you, jot two lines and close it. That's a parking lot, not a second project.

Your move today

Here's the forced choice: what do you want MORE, the comfort of starting your essays this week or a GRE score that actually fits the programs you want? You can't have both on the same nights.

So do this before you go to bed tonight. Find your earliest deadline. Count the weeks. Pick your official test date and write down your three blocks. Then close the essay tab and open a Quant set.