Study notes · Study plan · 8 weeks
The 8-week plan: the standard build
Eight weeks at roughly 10 hours per week is the sweet spot for most test-takers: long enough to rebuild foundations and learn strategy, short enough to hold motivation. The plan works for either exam; swap in the section names that apply to yours.
The schedule is an editorial recommendation, not a measured result. What is checked against GMAC and ETS is the practice material it sends you to. The byline is a masthead name, explained in full on who writes this, and the sourcing rules are set out on the standards page.
This plan is the backbone of the study system at GMAT GRE Prep. Every task links to a guide or drill on this site, plus the official free practice tests from GMAC and ETS.
Week by week
| Week | Focus | Key tasks |
|---|---|---|
| W1 | Baseline and setup | Take one official practice test cold (mba.com or ETS POWERPREP). Record section scores. Read the exam guide for your test (GMAT orGRE). Build an error log spreadsheet. |
| W2 | Quant foundations | Arithmetic and algebra review with the formula sheet. Ten untimed practice questions daily, every solution read. Milestone: 80% accuracy on easy and medium quant, untimed. |
| W3 | Verbal foundations | Read the verbal guide. GRE students: start 20 minutes of daily vocabulary. GMAT students: one critical reasoning set daily. Keep the quant error log warm with 5 questions a day. |
| W4 | Weak-spot repair | Sort your error log by topic and attack the two biggest buckets. GMAT students addData Insights sets; GRE students write twopractice essays. Milestone: second official practice test. Target: halfway from baseline to goal. |
| W5 | Timed sets | Move to timed practice: 10-question sets at exam pace (2 minutes per question). Review every question the same day. One full section under test conditions. |
| W6 | Full practice tests | Third official practice test, full dress rehearsal: timed, one sitting, test-day start hour. Review over two days. Milestone: within 30 points (GMAT) or 6 points per section (GRE) of your goal. |
| W7 | Polish and pacing | Fourth practice test midweek. Drill only what the last two tests flagged. Practice guessing strategy: when to cut losses at the 3-minute mark. |
| W8 | Taper and test day | Light review only: error log, formula sheet, vocabulary. No new material after Wednesday. Day before the test: nothing. Sleep, logistics, documents ready. |
Rules that make the plan work
- The error log is the plan. Every missed question gets a line: topic, why you missed it, what you will do differently. Review it weekly.
- Official material for tests, this site for drills. GMAC and ETS practice tests are the only reliable score predictors. Use them at the milestone weeks, not randomly.
- Never skip the review. Ten questions reviewed deeply beat thirty questions checked for right or wrong.
- Miss a day, do not double up. Slide the schedule; cramming two sessions into one just hides fatigue errors.
If your week 4 score is not at least halfway from baseline to goal, do not push harder; reschedule the test by two weeks. A postponed test is a fee. A wasted attempt is a fee plus a score on your record.