GRE blog
Study advice from the EMPOWER Test Prep team: how to plan your prep, what to expect on Test Day, and how to choose a course.
Your Verbal and Quant Training Should Not COMPETE
Pouring every hour into your weak GRE section can quietly drag down your strong one. Here's how to build weeks where both scores climb together.
Test Day Is Over. Now What?
Your GRE is over and you have a score. Use the next few days to pick one door: done, applying, or a smarter retake. Here's how to choose well.
PROVE the Answer or Don't Pick It
On GRE Verbal, an answer that sounds right is just a guess. Learn to point to the exact words that prove it, and watch your speed go up too.
Morning or Afternoon? Pick a Test Time That Matches Your Training
Studying every night but booked a morning GRE? Here's how to pick a test time that fits your training, and how to retrain when it doesn't.
Volume and Surface Area: Stop Memorizing Formulas You Can BUILD
Blanked on the cylinder formula mid-section? Learn the two ideas that let you rebuild every volume and surface area formula in seconds.
Paraphrase EVERY Sentence
You reread GRE Verbal sentences far more than you think. One slow, annoying habit fixes it, and it makes you faster, not slower.
Sequences and Patterns: Find the CYCLE
That GRE question about the 100th term looks brutal. It isn't. Write out a few terms, spot the repeat, and the rest is just counting.
Year End Audit: Grade Your OWN Study Habits
Before you set a 2026 GRE goal, grade how you actually studied this year. Seven blunt questions show what to keep, what you skipped and what to fix.
The Argument Essay Is Gone. Its Skills Are NOT.
The GRE cut the Argument essay, but the skill it trained still decides Verbal points. Here is how to keep the eye that catches weak arguments sharp.
Absolute Value: Think DISTANCE, Not Rules
Memorized absolute value rules crack under the GRE clock. One number line sketch solves most of these questions faster, and here is how to draw it.
Your GRE Score Is ONE Part of Your Application
Chasing three more GRE points while your essays sit blank is a bad trade. Here's how to give the score its due and finish the rest of your application.
Explain Your Work Out Loud
Got a GRE question right? Now explain WHY out loud in plain words. If you can't, you got lucky, and luck won't show up on Test Day.
Phone Down: Train With ZERO Interruptions
The GRE gives you 1 hour 58 minutes with no break. Every quick phone check trains your brain to quit. Here's how to train for the real thing.
Circles: The Radius Unlocks EVERYTHING
Area, arcs, sectors, even a square stuck inside a circle: on the GRE they all come back to one number. Find the radius FIRST and the work shrinks.
Wrong Answer Choices Follow PATTERNS. Learn Them.
GRE wrong answers are built the same few ways every time. Learn the five Verbal traps and three Quant traps and you'll cut bad choices in seconds.
Review a Practice Test the RIGHT Way
Checking only your misses wastes most of a GRE practice test. Here is how to review all 54 questions so the next test goes better.
Remainders Made SIMPLE
Remainder questions on the GRE look like theory. They are really pattern questions, and a short list of small numbers cracks them in seconds.
Sleep Is a Study Tool. Treat It Like One.
Late night cramming feels heroic, but a tired brain makes the exact silly mistakes you're trying to fix. Here's how to protect your sleep before the GRE.
Weighted Averages: The Shortcut Hiding in Mixture Problems
Mixture problems look like two lines of algebra. Most are weighted averages you can solve on a number line in about 30 seconds. Here's how.
Fall Applicants: Get the GRE DONE Before the Essays Start
Doing GRE prep and application essays at the same time usually wrecks both. Here's why to finish the test first, and a backward calendar to do it.
Quadratics and Factoring: Learn the Patterns COLD
Three factoring patterns show up on GRE Quant again and again. Learn to spot them in seconds, dodge the two-root trap, and skip algebra you never needed.
Just Graduated? Train While Your Study Habits Are FRESH
Just graduated? Your study habit is at its peak right now, and a full time job will drain it fast. Here's how to train for the GRE before the window closes.
Old Practice Tests and the New GRE: How to Use Them
Your old GRE practice tests still have real value, but their scores don't. Here's how to turn that old stack into training for today's shorter test.
Fewer Questions, Less Room for Silly Mistakes
The shorter GRE gives you only 54 scored questions, so one careless slip costs more. Here's how notes on paper protect your score, and how to train them.
Build an Issue Essay Template BEFORE Test Day
You get one 30 minute Issue essay on the GRE. Build its structure now, so on Test Day your brain only has to work on ideas.
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