You should have the GRE completed at LEAST a month or two before the school’s deadline for all admission requirements to be received (for whatever semester you want to start). So, I would take careful note of when your schools admission deadlines are. The reason why is because it takes an average of 3 weeks after you test for you and your school to receive your final scores. However, you do get to see your verbal and quantitative scores right after you test since it is computerized…it is the analytical (writing section) that needs to be graded.

Really, the earlier you take it the better so the school can give you the proper admission type (I only got provisional admission until my scores are received). However, some schools won’t admit you at all until they receive your scores. Also, it helps to take it early in case you don’t do as weIl as you liked and you can have time to re-test (up to 5 times in 1 year). More importantly, take it when you feel ready.

Where you take it is mainly up to you. When you register on the ets site, it gives you a list of choices to pick from based on the state that your in. Many are colleges, and others are only testing centers. If you think your college gives the test (my doesn’t) then you may be able to register directly with them instead (I’m not sure about that though).

They say the GRE is mainly things you should have been learning all along. I am far from being the smartest guy around and I feel confident enough to do “ok” on it. Here is what I’ve been doing:

1) I bought the “Barron’s Key to the GRE” online for like $8.00 and it is a very useful book to prepare with. I highly recommend it.

2) Go to www.mygretutor.com. On this website, you can register and create a free account and it has some review sections. Also, once you get your free account, you get 4 free practice tests that are timed and strongly resemble the real exam. I am also finding those really helpful.

3) ETS also sends you some type of study guide after registering, but this won’t help me too much since it takes a couple weeks to get it and I won’t have a lot of time before I take it.

Don’t feel bad for not knowing the information, I just decided at the last minute to go to grad school and never looked into all of this until a few weeks ago. Good luck to you Katherine 🙂