90 Day GRE Study Plan (Verbal Focused)

Note: This is not the newest version of this study schedule.
If you’re just starting your

GRE prep, head here to see the revised version. (June 2015)
Good luck on the GRE! If you have any feedback, please leave us a comment on the
Magoosh GRE Blog 90 Day GRE Study Plan (Verbal Focused) post. ☺
OK, you are starting more or less from scratch, and you want to prepare for the GRE in 90 days.
You need a strategic plan to organize yourself. I designed four different versions of the 90 Day
Plan, and I need you to start with a little self-diagnosis. Which sounds most like you?
● 90 Day GRE Study Plan for Beginners: Help! Math and verbal both scare the living
bejeebers out of me! I need all the help and support I can get! Help!
● 90 Day GRE Study Plan (Math Focused): I have a natural affinity with the verbal, but the
math is far less intuitive for me. I would like to focus more there.
● 90 Day GRE Study Plan (Verbal Focused): Me a math nerd. Me think all math easy.
Me have big verbal problems. One day, me will talk good.
● 90 Day GRE Study Plan for Advanced Students: I actually feel reasonably comfortable
with math & verbal; if I took the test today, I’d get around 310-320 combined score. I’m
interested in refining my understanding and getting into the 320s region in the next
twelve weeks.
Essential Materials:
● Magoosh GRE Prep

● ETS’s Official Guide to the GRE book (+ our free video explanations)
● ETS’s PowerPrep Software
○ If you would prefer to take the practice test on paper, you can print out ETS’s
practice test PDF (with video explanations here). Take note that the Powerprep
software and the paper-based test have overlapping material, so it won’t be of
much help to do both, unless you space them out far enough so that you won’t
recognize the questions and answers! I recommend using the Powerprep
software if you can, since taking the test on a computer is a better simulation of
exam day conditions.
● Magoosh’s online GRE Flash cards. They’re free and you can use them on the web, on
your iPhone/iPad or Android.
● Reading material: this may be any non-fiction scholarly book, history and social science
preferable. You may also choose one of the recommended magazines: Scientific
American, Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, National Geographic, The Economist, or
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The New York Times (a Sunday subscription is a great idea!). You are reading (a) to
build your reading comprehension skills, (b) to refine your understanding of grammar
and usage, and (c) to expand your vocabulary.
● a journal or notebook (yes, a physical hard copy item)
● Notecards
Supplemental/Optional Materials:
Any of the steps listed in the schedule for the materials below are purely for extra practice, so
they are to be done as optional tasks if you have extra time.
● Nova’s GRE Math Prep Course: there is essentially no instruction in this book and the
explanations are horrible: we only recommend this as a bank of challenging math
problems.
● Volumes 7 & 8 of the Manhattan GRE books. It’s an eight-volume set, so if you want
extra math practice, feel free to buy some of the other volumes. Volumes 7 & 8 are used
in this plan. One other purpose of getting these books is to get the code in the back, to
register and get access to six GRE tests online.
● McGraw-Hill’s Conquering the New GRE Math: this book is for those struggling with the
very basics of math, folks who are sheer panic over almost anything mathematical. If
you are following this plan, you’re probably pretty confident in your math skills, so I’d
recommend this book only if you’re really desperate for some extra practice material.
● Quizlet.com: gives you online access to flashcards, making it easier, say, to quiz yourself
on your mobile device
● Vocabulary.com: provides conversational example sentences and a flood of example
sentences
● Word Dynamo (Dictionary.com): gives you little quizzes & games to add some variety to
vocab learning
● Magoosh iPhone/Android app, for mobile lesson viewing
A note on learning GRE vocabulary:
First of all, it’s important not only to learn the literal dictionary definition (the denotation), but also
to understand the metaphorical use of the word in context (the connotation). For example, the
word “opaque” literally means “not transparent”, but metaphorically it can means “hard to
understand” or, describing a person, it can mean “thick-headed, stupid.” Ultimately, you should
strive to learn both the denotation and the connotation of each word.
Daily review of vocab is vital. I wrote this schedule recommending the Magoosh’s GRE
Flashcards, but DO NOT limit yourself to just these words. AS YOU READ and find more words
you don’t know, look them up, make flash cards (including context), and make your own
flashcard decks. You could have one pile for words whose denotation you are trying to master,
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another containing words for which you know the denotation but not the connotation, and a
“done” stack that gets reviewed only rarely.
A note on the prep books:
Don’t write in any of the test prep books, because for any of them, after a period of time you
may want to go back and do a problem again that you haven’t seen for a while. You can only
start it fresh if the page is free of your marks.
A note on repeating material:
This schedule is fairly intensive, and if you follow it to a T, you will run out of practice questions
or certain question types from the bank of 1000+ Magoosh questions. That's okay. Toward the
end of your study, switch from practicing to "unanswered" questions to "incorrect" questions. If
there are not enough "incorrect" questions of a given type, simply choose "answered and
unanswered." Review is vital if you want to really learn the information. Our students who make
the largest score improvements often have answered every Magoosh question more than once.
Before we begin:
This 90-day plan is demands a manageable pace that must be followed diligently so things don’t
get out of hand. It’s designed to have you improve as much as you can improve in a three
month period. I have designed twelve weeks, assuming 1-2 hours for each of the five
weekdays, and one 4-5 stint on the weekend (“Day Six”). If you would prefer to work on both
weekend days, and free up some weeknight time, feel free to make those changes. Note: Many
folks find that each day’s assignments take 1-2 hours, although times to complete them will vary
for different students
Also, as much as possible, get enough sleep during this month. REM sleep plays an important
role in encoding long term memory, and in an eight hour period of sleep, the last hour has the
most REM. If you are getting 7 hours/night instead of 8 hours/night, you are depriving your
brain of one of its most powerful systems for learning and remembering. Caffeine and energy
drinks will keep you feeling awake if you don’t get enough sleep, but they don’t do bupkis to
replace the lost opportunity to encode more information into long term memory.
Week One, Day One
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1) Go to http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/about/content/, and read about the content
of the GRE. Click on and read each sub-heading link.
2) In the Official Guide Guide,

● Read Chapter 1, “Introducing the GRE revised General Test”
● Read Chapter 2, “GRE Analytic Writing” (just the descriptions of the question, not
all the sample material)
● Read the introductory few pages of Chapter 3, “GRE Verbal Reasoning”
(everything up to the sample questions)
● Read the introductory few pages of Chapter 5, “GRE Quantitative Reasoning”
(everything up to the sample questions)
3) In the Official Guide Guide, start skimming the GRE Math Review. Do the first two
exercise sets (Arithmetic & Algebra) and correct your work right away.
4) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Overview”, the first three videos in that
section
Week One, Day Two
1) Finish skimming the GRE Math Review in the Official Guide. Do the last two exercise
sets it contains (Geometry & Data Analysis) and check your work right away. If most of
that material is obvious to you, and most of the questions easy, then this plan is the right
plan for you. If more than a couple topics in the Math Review are difficult/confusing for
you, consider whether this plan is the best for you.
2) Download and start reading the Magoosh GRE eBook. Continue reading whenever you
have the time over the course of the next two weeks.

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Overview”, the last three videos in that
section
● NOTE: As you finish each section of lesson videos, take the practice quiz at the
end of the set.
● NOTE: I am not assigning you any math videos. You may want to watch a
couple of the strategy summary videos at the ends of sections, simply to verify
that you understand everything covered. As you feel you need brush up on
anything mathematical, feel free to dip into those videos.
4) In Magoosh, set up a practice session by clicking on the “Practice” link in the header. For
Math, check off all of the subjects that you’re comfortable practicing, set the difficulty to
“adaptive”, the question pool to “unanswered”, the number of questions, the time to “no
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limit”, and the mode to “practice mode”. You are not entering a practice time beforehand,
but keep a pace of 90 seconds per question, or 15 minutes for 10 questions. Also, notice
you are doing all the topics from the get-go, whether you have already studied these or
not. This means you will make some mistakes at the beginning: see this post on a
productive attitude toward making mistakes.
● Narrow your practice to just that subjects you’ve studied so far. You’ll widen the
scope of your practice over the course of your studies.
● Do the following problems:
○ 10 Multiple choice math questions
Notice you are doing all topics from the get-go, whether you have already studied these or not.
This means that you will make some mistakes at the beginning: see this post on a productive
attitude toward making mistakes. If, after a week or so of practice, you find that there is simply
too much new material for you, then narrow your studies to those topics you're more actively
studying plus one or two that you're unfamiliar with. You should be constantly challenged. If you
do narrow the topics of study, expand back to as wide a scope as possible as quickly as
possible.
For each Magoosh problem, after you submit your answer, on the next page which tells you
whether you were right or wrong, there’s a video solution and below that a text summary. If you
got the question right, skim the text summary to verify you got it right for the right reason. If you
got the question wrong, watch the video, taking notes in your journal about any concept or any
aspect of the question type that was unclear to you.
Week One, Day Three

● In Verbal: under “Sentence Equivalence”, the first three videos in that section
2) Download the Magoosh Complete Guide to GRE Vocabulary

● Read carefully the section “Making Words Stick,” about learning vocabulary, and
the section “Vocabulary in Context: Articles from Magazines and Newspapers.”
Skim the rest of the book to get a sense of the layout and style. As you build
vocab through this plan, periodically go back to this book to verify your
understanding and to make connections to other words. The more ways you
have of remembering a word, the more likely you are to remember it!
3) In Magoosh, set up a practice session by clicking on the “Practice” link in the header. For
Math, check off all of the subjects that you’re comfortable practicing, set the difficulty to
“adaptive”, the question pool to “unanswered”, the number of questions, the time to “no
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limit”, and the mode to “practice mode”. You are not entering a practice time beforehand,
but keep a pace of 90 seconds per question, or 15 minutes for 10 questions.
● Narrow your practice to just that subjects you’ve studied so far. You’ll widen the
scope of your practice over the course of your studies.
● Do the following problems:
○ 10 Multiple choice math questions
Week One, Day Four

● In Verbal: under “Sentence Equivalence”, the last three videos in that section
2) In Magoosh, do the following problems

● 10 Multiple choice math questions
Week One, Day Five

● In Verbal: under “Reading Comprehension”, the first four videos in that section
● In Verbal: under “Paragraph Argument”, the first three videos in that section

● 10 Quantitative comparison math questions
● 5 Paragraph argument verbal questions
● 3 Reading comprehension verbal questions
Week One, Day Six

a) In AWA: all ten videos
b) In Verbal: under “Paragraph Argument”, the last six videos in that section
c) In Verbal: under “Vocabulary”, all ten videos
2) Today, you are going to write two essays, half an hour each. You will write two Issue
essays and two Argument essays.
a) For topics, go to the ETS GRE Issue Pool and the ETS GRE Argument Pool.
Figure out a way to pick topics at random (maybe you print the lists, cut it into
slips of paper, and choose some at random). Write the essays in a word
processing program.
b) Now that you have these essays, what do you do with them? If you have a friend
or mentor who is a gifted writer, see if they would read the essays for you and
critique them. If they are willing, you can show them the assessment criteria in
the Official Guide Guide, and ask them to follow it. If you can’t convince anyone
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else to read it, you may try posting them on some GRE forum, and see whether
an expert there will critique your essay. Failing either of these options, at least
you can set the essays aside, and in a couple days re-read them with the Official
Guide’s rubric beside you.
Week Two, Day One

● In Verbal: under “Reading Comprehension”, up to “Difficult Passage – I”
● In Verbal: in “Vocabulary”, the first two videos
● In Math: under “Data Interpretation”, all four videos
● (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays
○ Read Chapter 1
2) In Magoosh’s GRE Flashcards, master 20 words (a bit less than half a deck).
3) Read three good-sized articles from your chosen source of challenging reading (e.g. The
Economist, New York Times, etc.), noting grammatical structures. Look up, and create a
flash card for, any words you don’t know.

● 3 Data interpretation questions
Week Two, Day Two

● In Verbal: under “Reading Comprehension”, the last four videos in that section
● In Verbal: in “Vocabulary”, the next two videos
2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays

● Read Chapter 2, up to and including Principle #3. Take notes in your journal on
any concept or perspective or strategy that’s new to you.
3) In Magoosh’s GRE Flashcards, master 20 more words (a bit less than half a deck).
4) Read three good-sized articles from your chosen source of challenging reading (e.g.
The Economist, New York Times, etc.), noting grammatical structures. Look up, and
create a flash card for, any words you don’t know.
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● 10 Text completion verbal questions
● 10 Sentence equivalence verbal questions
Week Two, Day Three

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – No Shifts”, all four videos in that section
● In Verbal: in “Vocabulary”, the next two videos

● Read to the end of Chapter 2, but don’t do the Problem Set today. Take notes in
your journal on any concept or perspective or strategy that’s new to you.
Spend 10-30 minutes reviewing previous decks.
● Read your chosen reading material (one chapter, or a few articles). Look up,
and create a flash card for, any words you don’t know.

Week Two, Day Four

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Sentence Shifts”, the first three videos in that
section
● In Verbal: in “Vocabulary”, the next three videos

● Do the “Chapter 2 Problem Set.”. Read the full explanation of the answers. Take
notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or strategy that’s new to you.
4) Read your chosen reading material (one chapter, or a few articles). Look up, and create
a flash card for, any words you don’t know.

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Week Two, Day Five

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Sentence Shifts”, up to “Multiple Shifts”
● In Verbal: in “Vocabulary”, the remaining videos

● Read Chapter 3 and do the “Chapter 3 Problem Set.” Read the full explanation
of the answers. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or
strategy that’s new to you.

Week Two, Day Six
1) Today, you are going to write two essays, half an hour each. You will write one Issue
essay and one Argument essay.
2) For topics, go back to the topics from the ETS Issue Pool & Argument Pool. Again,
choose topics at random. Write the essays in Word.
3) When done, share the essays with a trusted friend/mentor, or post in the GMAT forum,
or set aside and critique it yourself with the Official Guide Guide rubric in a few days.
4) In the Official Guide:

● do the Verbal Reasoning Practice Sets 1-6
● do the Quantitative Reasoning Practice Sets 1-4
● Treat this as a mock GRE. You might even combine it with the two essays, and
do consecutive batches 2-3 set without interruption, to simulate more effectively a
real GRE. Set a timer for the time limits. Here are the time limits to observe:
○ Official Guide Guide Verbal Reasoning Set 1 = 9 minutes
○ Official Guide Guide Quantitative Reasoning Set 1 = 22 minutes
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● After you are done, check all your answers. For any question you got right, skim
the explanation to verify that you got it right for the right reason. For any question
you got wrong, read the explanation thorough, taking notes in your journal on any
concepts you didn’t understand and anything about the question format that
psyched you out. If you still can’t make sense of the question after reading the
explanation, email us at Magoosh.
5) If you are doing much better than expected on Verbal, or much worse than expected on
Math, this might be a good time to consider whether you should switch to another
version of the 3-month plan (see explanations of them at the top).
Week Three, Day One

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Sentence Shifts”, the last three videos in that
section

● Read Chapter 4 and do the “Chapter 4 Problem Set.” Read the full explanation
of the answers. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or

Week Three, Day Two

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Double Blanks”, the first three videos in that
section
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● Read Chapter 5, but don’t do the Problem Set today. Take notes in your journal
on any concept or perspective or strategy that’s new to you.

Week Three, Day Three

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Double Blanks”, the last two videos in that
section
● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Triple Blanks”, the first video in that section

● Do the “Chapter 5 Problem Set.” Read the full explanation of the answers. Read
Chapter 6. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or strategy
that’s new to you.

Week Three, Day Four

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Triple Blanks”, up to “One Sentence Triple
Blanks”
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● Read Chapter 7 through the entire discussion of all the questions accompanying
the “Model Short Passage Revisited.” Take notes in your journal on any concept
or perspective or strategy that’s new to you.

Week Three, Day Five

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Triple Blanks”, the last three videos in that
section

● In Ch. 7, read the “Model Long Passage Revisited” and the following pages of
questions & explanations pertaining to it. Take notes in your journal on any
concept or perspective or strategy that’s new to you.

Week Three, Day Six
1) Today, you are going to write four essays, half an hour each. You will write two Issue
essays and two Argument essays.
2) For topics, go back to the topics from the ETS Issue Pool & Argument Pool. Again,
choose topics at random. Write the essays in Word.
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3) When done, share the essays with a trusted friend/mentor, or post ina GRE forum, or set
aside and critique it yourself with the Official Guide Guide rubric in a few days.
You have already seen all the Magoosh Verbal videos at this point. In a few weeks, we will
watch them a second time.
Week Four, Day One
1) (Optional) In the NOVA’s GRE Prep Course book

● Do Problem Set A “Substitution” & Problem Set B “Substitution, Quantitative
comparisons”. Check your answers as soon as you finish.
● NOTE: The Math in the NOVA’S book is very challenging, and therefore serves
well as practice for the mathematically ambitious students preparing for the GRE.
The explanations in the NOVA’S book are not that good, and there are flaws in
the answer key. If you get one of these questions wrong, check for any mistake,
but if you can’t find one, you may be correct.
● The problem sets throughout the book, denoted by capital letters, are in
alphabetical order and are found mostly at the ends of sections.
● Also, do all the Nova questions timed. Count the number of problems in a
problem set, multiply that number by 1.75, and round to the nearest whole
number: that’s the number of minutes you should give yourself for the problem
set.

● Do Chapter 8 Problem Set, Passage A. When you are done, read thoroughly the
solutions. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or strategy

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Week Four, Day Two

● Do Problem Set C “Substitution” & Problem Set D “Defined Functions.” Check
your answers as soon as you finish.

● Do Chapter 8 Problem Set, Passage B. When you are done, read thoroughly the

Week Four, Day Three

● Do Problem Set E “Number Theory,” #1-20. Check your answers as soon as you
finish.

● Do Chapter 8 Problem Set, Passage C. When you are done, read thoroughly the
solutions on. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or strategy

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Week Four, Day Four

● Do Problem Set E “Number Theory,” #21-39. Check your answers as soon as
you finish.

● Do Chapter 8 Problem Set, Passage D. When you are done, read thoroughly the

Week Four, Day Five

● Do Problem Set F, “Quantitative comparisons.” Check your answers as soon as
you finish.

● Do Chapter 8 Problem Set, Passage E. When you are done, read thoroughly the

● 5 Numeric entry math questions
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Week Four, Day Six
1) Today, you are going to take the first hard copy practice GRE at the back of the Official
Guide.
● For the two essay questions, write the essays in a word processing program.
These essays you will either share with a trusted friend or mentor, or post in the
online forums asking for feedback, or critique later with the Official Guide Guide
rubric.
● As much as possible, try to mimic the GRE conditions. Give yourself relatively
short breaks in between sections. Only eat the kinds of snacks that you are
planning to bring to the real GRE. Note how your sleep the night before affects
your work. Note how what you had for dinner the previous night and what you
had to eat earlier that day affects your energy level and concentration. Write any
observations in your journal.
Week Five, Day One

● Do Problem Set G, “Hard Quantitative comparisons,” Problem Set H “Hard
Quantitative comparisons,”, and Problem Set I “Geometry” #1-6.
Check your answers as soon as you finish.

● Do Chapter 8 Problem Set, Passage F. When you are done, read thoroughly the

Week Five, Day Two
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● Do Problem Set I, “Geometry,” #7-31. Check your answers as soon as you
finish.

● Do Chapter 8 Problem Set, Passage G. When you are done, read thoroughly the

Week Five, Day Three

finish.

● Start reading Chapter 9. Read up to and including the discussion of the first
question type, “Strengthen the Conclusion.” Take notes in your journal on any

Week Five, Day Four
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finish.

● Finish reading Chapter 9, but you don’t have to do the Problem Set today. Take

Week Five, Day Five

finish.

● In Ch. 9, do “ASP Practice Problems.” Read the full explanation of the answers.
Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or strategy that’s new to
you.

Week Five, Day Six
1) Today, you are going to take a full-length practice test. To start a test in Magoosh, click
the practice button at the top of your dashboard and select “Practice Test.” Take the
whole test, and then read & watch the explanations, taking notes on whatever you got
wrong.
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Week Six, Day One

● Do Problem Set J, “Geometry,” Problem Set K “Coordinate Geometry,” and
Problem Set L
2) “Elimination Strategies.” Check your answers as soon as you finish.

● (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays
3) Read approximately the first quarter of Chapter 10, a long chapter; stop at any
convenient stopping point. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or

Week Six, Day Two

● Do Problem Set M, “Inequalities.” Check your answers as soon as you finish.

● Read approximately another quarter of Chapter 10, stopping at any convenient
stopping point. At this point, you should be about halfway through Ch. 10. Take
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Week Six, Day Three

● Do Problem Set N, “Fractions & Decimals.” Check your answers as soon as you
finish.

● Read approximately another quarter of Chapter 10, stopping at any convenient
stopping point. At this point, you should be about 75% through Ch. 10. Take

Week Six, Day Four

● Do Problem Set O “Equations.” Check your answers as soon as you finish.

● Finish reading Chapter 10. Take notes in your journal on any concept or
perspective or strategy that’s new to you.
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Week Six, Day Five

● Do Problem Set P “Averages,” and #1-5 of Problem Set Q “Ratios & Proportions.”
Check your answers as soon as you finish.

● Read the introductory pages to Appendix A, everything before the vocab list.
Skim that vocab list. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or

● 5 Multiple answer math questions
Week Six, Day Six
wrong.
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The beginning of this week is the halfway point in the three-month plan, so for the next three
weeks, you watch each of the Magoosh verbal videos a second time.
Week Seven, Day One

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Overview”, all six videos in that section
2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 8: Text Completion & Sentence Equivalence

● Read Chapter 1.

Week Seven, Day Two

● In Verbal: under ”Sentence Equivalence”, all six videos in that section

● Start reading Chapter 2. Read through the section on “Pivot Words.” Do the
“Drill: Sentence Analysis (Clues, Pivots, Fill-Ins).” Read the full explanation of the
answers. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or strategy
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Week Seven, Day Three

● In Verbal: under “Reading Comprehension”, the first four videos in that section

● In Ch. 2, read the section on “Double and Triple Blank Text Completions,” and do
the “Drill: Sentence Analysis with Multiple Blanks.” Read the full explanation of
the answers. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or

Week Seven, Day Four

● In Verbal: under “Reading Comprehension”, up to “Difficult Passages – I”

● In Ch. 2, read the section “Traps to Avoid During Elimination,” and do the “Drill:
Easy Questions.” Read the full explanation of the answers. Take notes in your
journal on any concept or perspective or strategy that’s new to you.
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Week Seven, Day Five

● In Verbal: under “Reading Comprehension”, the last four videos in that section

● In Ch. 2, do the “Drill: Medium Questions.” Read the full explanation of the

Week Seven, Day Six
wrong.
Week Eight, Day One

● In Verbal: under “Paragraph Argument”, the first five videos in that section
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● In Ch. 2, do the “Drill: Hard Questions.” Read the full explanation of the answers.
Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or strategy that’s new to
you.

Week Eight, Day Two

● In Verbal: under “Paragraph Argument”, the last four videos in that section

● Begin reading Chapter 3. Read the first few pages up to the first drill, and do the
“Drill: Sentence Analysis.” Read the full explanation of the answers. Then read
the sections up to the second drill, and do the “Drill: Answer Choice Analysis.”
Read the full explanation of the answers. Take notes in your journal on any

Week Eight, Day Three
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● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – No Shift”, all four videos in that section

● In Ch. 3, read the final content sections, and do the “Drill: 20 Easy Questions.”
Read the full explanation of the answers. Take notes in your journal on any

Week Eight, Day Four

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Sentence Shift”, the first three videos in that
section

● In Ch. 3, do the “Drill: 20 Medium Questions.” Read the full explanation of the

Week Eight, Day Five

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Sentence Shift”, up to “Multiple Shifts”
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● In Ch. 3, do the “Drill: 20 Hard Questions.” Read the full explanation of the

6) 5 Multiple choice math questions
7) 10 Numeric entry math questions
8) 5 Paragraph argument verbal questions
Week Eight, Day Six
1) Today, you are going to take the second hard copy practice GRE at the back of the
Official Guide.
Week Nine, Day One

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Sentence Shift”, the last three videos in that
section

● Read Chapter Four. Take notes in your journal on any concept or perspective or
3) In Magoosh’s GRE Flashcards, master 20 more words

(a bit less than half a deck). Spend 10-30 minutes reviewing previous decks.
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Week Nine, Day Two

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Double Blanks”, the first three videos in that
section

● Read Chapter 5. Make flash cards for any idioms that are unfamiliar to you, and
drill these with your vocabulary flash cards over the next few weeks. Do the “Drill:
Decoding Idioms.” Grade your work using the key, and go back to the chapter to
figure out any you got wrong. Take notes in your journal on any concept or
perspective or strategy that’s new to you.

Week Nine, Day Three

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Double Blanks”, the last two videos in that
section
● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Triple Blanks”, the first video in that section

● In Appendix A, read through the “Root List: Part I.” Make flash cards for any
roots that are unfamiliar to you, and drill these with your vocabulary flash cards
over the next few weeks.
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4) Read Your chosen reading material (one chapter, or a few articles). Look up, and

Week Nine, Day Four

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Triple Blanks”, up to “One Sentence Triple
Blank”

● In Appendix A, read the “Part II: Prefixes.” Make flashcards for any prefix roots
that are unfamiliar to you, and drill these with your vocabulary flash cards over
the next few weeks.

Week Nine, Day Five

● In Verbal: under “Text Completion – Triple Blanks”, the last three video in that
section

● In Appendix A, read the “Part III: Suffixes.”Make flash cards for any suffix roots
that are unfamiliar to you, and drill these with your vocabulary flash cards over
the next few weeks.
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Week Nine, Day Six
1) Today, you will take another practice test. You have three choices:
● A practice test within Magoosh. At this point, you will likely see some repeat
questions because there may not be enough of a given question type (easy
geometry questions, for example) create test sections with correct proportions of
easy/medium/difficult questions, depending on your performance and how the
test adapts to you.
● Repeat an official paper test from the back of the GRE Official Guide.
● Use another source if you have it. We highly recommend the 6 online practice
tests that come with any one of the Manhattan GRE book series.
At this point, you have seen all of the Magoosh verbal videos twice (except the “Vocabulary”
videos — watch them again as need be, but you probably have the hang of learning vocab by
this point!).
Week Ten, Day One

● Do Problem Set Q, “Ratios & Proportions,” #6-30. Check your answers as soon
as you finish.
2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE re-read any section and redo any drill/test in the Manhattan
GRE books.
● In Magoosh’s GRE Flashcards, master 20 more words (a bit less than half a
deck). Spend 10-30 minutes reviewing previous decks.
30

Week Ten, Day Two

● Do Problem Set R, “Exponents & Roots” and Problem Set S, “Factoring.” Check
your answers as soon as you finish.
2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE

● Re-read any section and redo any drill/test in the Manhattan GRE books.

Week Ten, Day Three

● Do Problem Set T, “Algebraic Expressions” and #1-11 of Problem Set U,
“Percents.” Check your answers as soon as you finish.

31
Week Ten, Day Four

● Do Problem Set U, “Percents,” #12-31. Check your answers as soon as you
finish.


Week Ten, Day Five

● Do Problem Set V, “Graphs.” Check your answers as soon as you finish.


Week Ten, Day Six
1) Today, you will take another practice test. You have three choices:
32
● A practice test within Magoosh. At this point, you will likely see some repeat
questions because there may not be enough of a given question type (easy
geometry questions, for example) create test sections with correct proportions of
easy/medium/difficult questions, depending on your performance and how the
test adapts to you.
● Repeat an official paper test from the back of the GRE Official Guide.
● Use another source if you have it. We highly recommend the 6 online practice
tests that come with any one of the Manhattan GRE book series.
Week Eleven, Day One

● Do #1-22 of Problem Set W, “Word Problems.” Check your answers as soon as
you finish.


Week Eleven, Day Two
33
● Do Problem Set W, “Word Problems,” #23-32″ and Problem Set X, “Sequences &
Series.” Check your answers as soon as you finish.


Week Eleven, Day Three

● Do Problem Set Y, “Counting.” Check your answers as soon as you finish.


Week Eleven, Day Four

● Do Problem Set Z, “Probability & Statistics.” Check your answers as soon as you
finish.
34

Week Eleven, Day Five

● Do #1-22 of Problem Set AA, “Permutations & Combinations.” Check your
answers as soon as you finish.


Week Eleven, Day Six
1) Today, you are going to take the first practice GRE available through the GRE
PowerPrep software.
35
Week Twelve, Day One
● Do Problem Set AA, “Permutations & Combinations,” #23-43. Check your
answers as soon as you finish.
3) In Magoosh’s GRE Flashcards, spend 30 minutes reviewing previous decks.
● 10 Multiple answer math questions
Week Twelve, Day Two

● Do Problem Set BB, “Functions.” Check your answers as soon as you finish.


Week Twelve, Day Three

● Do Problem Set CC, “Miscellaneous Problems.” Check your answers as soon as
you finish.
36

Week Twelve, Day Four

● Do the Diagnostic/Review Test, #1-15. Check your answers as soon as you
finish.

● Watch any 3-4 videos for an additional time


Week Twelve, Day Five

● Do the Diagnostic/Review Test, #16-30. Check your answers as soon as you
finish.

● Watch any 3-4 videos for an additional time
37

● 10 Numeric entry math questions
Week Twelve, Day Six
1) Today, you are going to take the second practice GRE available through the GRE
PowerPrep software.
● At the end, copy the essays you wrote into a Word doc, and as before, these you
will share with a trusted friend or mentor, or post in the online forums asking for
feedback, or critique later with the Official Guide Guide rubric.
Concentrated Review
1) At this point, if you have been following the schedule, you should have done every
question in both Magoosh at least once. For whatever days remain before the test, keep
up work on GRE math and verbal. Some suggestions for what to do:
2) Through selecting question type & difficulty on the “Dashboard”, do Magoosh problems
over again, and see how you do a second time.
3) Keep watching for an additional time 3-4 Magoosh lesson videos as needed, on
whatever topics you feel you need to review
4) Keep reading your challenging material, to build vocabulary and acclimate your ear to
eloquent style.
5) Keep drilling your vocab cards.
6) (Optional) As needed, re-read any section of the Manhattan GRE books or re-do any
problems from the NOVA’S book.
38
Day before the test:
1) No GRE preparation all day

2) Eat a large, healthy, leisurely dinner – no alcohol!
3) Go to bed earlier than usual.
Day of test:
1) ABSOLUTELY NO LAST MINUTE GRE PREPARATION!

2) Eat a large breakfast, full of protein
3) Do relaxing, fun activities to pass time until the test
Bring to the test:
1) A liter of water
2) Healthy energy-packed snacks (nuts, protein bar, etc.)
3) On breaks, make sure to get up, move & stretch – moving & stretching the large
muscles of the body (legs & torso) will get oxygen flowing throughout, which will help
keep you awake and keep you thinking clearly.
Pay less & test higher. Click here for more information.
39

90 Day GRE Study Plan (Verbal Focused)

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Note: This is not the newest version of this study schedule.

If you’re just starting your

● Magoosh GRE Prep

A note on learning GRE vocabulary:

A note on the prep books:

A note on repeating material:

Week One, Day One

2) In the Official Guide Guide,

4) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

Week One, Day Two

3) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

Week One, Day Three

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) Download the Magoosh ​Complete Guide to GRE Vocabulary

Week One, Day Four

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week One, Day Five

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week One, Day Six

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

Week Two, Day One

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

4) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week Two, Day Two

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE ​Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays

5) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week Two, Day Three

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays

4) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week Two, Day Four

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE ​Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays

5) In Magoosh, do the following problems

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays

5) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week Two, Day Six

4) In the Official Guide:

Week Three, Day One

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays

5) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week Three, Day Two

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

5) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week Three, Day Three

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays

5) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week Three, Day Four

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

5) In Magoosh, do the following problems

Week Three, Day Five

1) In Magoosh, watch the following videos

2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays

2) Download the Magoosh Complete Guide to GRE Vocabulary

2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays

2) (Optional) Manhattan GRE Volume 7: Reading Comprehension & Essays