Absolutely, you can! As long as you don’t make the same mistakes as you did the first time around, you can certainly improve your score. However, you got to have a realistic expectation of how much you can improve.
Now there is no one magical way to tell how much score you can realistically improve. This greatly varies from one person to another.
Below are some questions that you need to ask yourself before retaking the GRE to improve your score.
In this Article
What’s your baseline score?
How much you can improve your GRE score depends on your baseline score, i.e., your current GRE score. Let’s say you took the GRE for the first time, and your score came out to 150 on Quant and 155 on Verbal. Since your score is closer to the average GRE score, you have more leeway to move up and improve your score.
On the contrary, if you already have a pretty good score like, say, 160 on Quant and 162 on Verbal, gaining any additional points will be exceedingly difficult. Not impossible, just difficult.
When you are already starting from a low score, you have more opportunities to significantly improve points. You can learn better vocabulary, better understand math concepts, make yourself faster via practice, learn new strategies, etc.
However, if you are already at the 90th percentile, any reasonable improvement you can make will require tons of practice and preparation. If you already know all the concepts and most of the vocabulary, it all boils down to more practice. You cannot learn new things, but you can get better at the things you already know and become apt at time management.
Can you spend more time studying?
Your study time plays a significant role if you are looking to improve your score. Let’s go by convention and say that for every 5 points you want to gain, you need to study 40 hours. So for 10 points, you would need to learn 80 hours on average.
Although this is not an exact formula, it shows you how crucial study time is for improvement. Once you have determined where your weaknesses lie, then you have to make a schedule.
- Allot yourself a fixed amount of time each day for study.
- Do it consistently.
- Consult better prep material.
- Solve official GRE practice tests.
- Build your vocabulary.
There is no shortage of ways to go about improving your score. It just requires time and effort.
My thumb rule is: for every 5 points improvement, you need to study 40 hours.
Can you study more effectively?
Most people don’t have the luxury of free time when they are already working, not to mention all the other day-to-day activities. It is better to do a smart study for 30 mins instead of 2 hours of average study in such a case.
Aimlessly solving practice questions for hours and keep getting incorrect answers is not smart. If you hope you will automatically get it along the way, then you are wrong. You may get lucky now and then, but that’s about it. Instead, figure out why you are getting wrong answers again and again. It might be that you lack a basic conceptual understanding of the topic at hand. Why not then use the time to brush up your concepts instead?
Moreover, not keeping track of your mistakes can also land you in trouble. It would be best if you always had a goal and an idea of where you want to go. Jot down the questions you get wrong and consult the study material again instead of simply ignoring it.
Furthermore, only when you have remedied the problem at the root level should you move onto practice tests. However, keep in mind that not all GRE practice tests are made alike. Please don’t make the mistake of practicing low-quality GRE tests as it will do more harm than good. You need a practice test that closely resembles the actual GRE. For this purpose, the official ETS GRE practice tests are the best. Once you are done with them, you can look up third party practice tests as well. Just make sure to read the reviews first.
In conclusion, whether or not you can improve your score depends on three main factors. Firstly, your starting score, that is, how much have you scored, to begin with. A score that is already closer to the top will be considerably more challenging to improve than a score closer to average or below.
Secondly, are you willing to, or are you able to increase your study time? There is no other way around it; you will have to study and study even more than the first time, depending on your goals. You will need to set a consistent daily schedule.
Thirdly, how effective is your way of studying? Are you aimlessly going through questions without a clear goal in mind? Do you keep getting wrong answers even when you practice hours on end? You will need to remedy the causes behind these problems and effectively study if you wish to improve your score.