How to Prepare for the GRE in Nigeria: A 12 Week Study Plan That Works

Most of the GRE candidates I meet are not short of intelligence. They are short of time. They are working, or finishing a degree, or both, and they have bought three books they have not opened. What they need is not more material. It is a plan that tells them what to do this week, and permission to ignore everything else.

Know the test you are preparing for

The second section of Verbal and of Quant adapts to how you did in the first. Do well in section one and section two gets harder, which is where the high scores live. That is why a strong start in each section matters more than people think, and why we practise first sections under strict timing.

Many older books still describe the longer test with two essays. If yours does, use it for practice questions but ignore its section timings.

Set your target score before you start

Make a list of the programmes you are applying to and note the average or minimum GRE scores they publish. Your target is a little above the highest of those. Many competitive master's programmes sit around 310 to 320 combined, while top programmes and some funded places expect more. A clear number changes how you study: a candidate aiming for 305 and one aiming for 325 should not be spending their weeks the same way.

The 12 week GRE study plan

This assumes about 10 to 15 hours a week: an hour or so on weekdays and a longer block on Saturday. Adjust the balance toward whichever section your diagnostic shows is weaker.

Book your test date before week 1, ideally for the end of week 12. A real date on the calendar is what keeps a plan moving.

Quant: where most Nigerian candidates gain the most

Quant is usually the faster section to improve, and for many candidates it is where the biggest jump in score comes from. The maths itself is mostly secondary school level. What makes it hard is the speed, the wording and the traps.

Our Quant classes are led by Tayo, our mathematics lecturer, and his first lesson is always the same: stop solving everything the long way. Many GRE questions, especially quantitative comparisons, can be answered by testing simple numbers, estimating, or seeing that the two sides are equal without calculating either.

• Learn the on screen calculator, then use it less. It is slow. Use it for ugly arithmetic, not for things you can do in your head.
• Read the question twice. "Which of the following could be true" and "must be true" are different questions, and that difference costs people marks every day.
• Keep an error log. For each miss, write why: concept gap, careless slip or timing. After a few weeks the pattern tells you exactly what to study.

Verbal without memorising the dictionary

Vocabulary matters, but trying to memorise thousands of words is how people burn out by week five. Aim for a few hundred high frequency GRE words, learned in context, a small set every day. Flashcards on your phone during your commute are enough.

The bigger gains come from strategy. In text completion and sentence equivalence, predict the missing word in your own words before you look at the options. In reading comprehension, read for the author's point and structure, not every detail, then go back to the passage for the answer. Reading a serious article every day, from a quality international newspaper or magazine, builds the stamina the long passages need.

The essay

You write one Issue essay in 30 minutes, taking a position on a statement and defending it. Graders want a clear position, well chosen examples and organised paragraphs. A simple structure works: an introduction with your position, two or three body paragraphs each built around one example, and a short conclusion. Write one essay a week from week 2, under time. Our classes include instant essay scoring, so you can write and get feedback as often as you like.

Practice tests: how many and how to use them

Four to six full length tests across the 12 weeks is a good number. Start with the free official POWERPREP tests from ETS, which are the closest thing to the real exam, and use the others in between.

The review matters more than the test. Spend as long going through a test as you spent sitting it: every wrong answer, every guess and every question that took too long. That is where your next 5 points come from.

Which materials to use

One of the most common searches we see is where to buy GRE textbooks and prep material in Lagos. If you register for the GRE through Mafit, you do not need to buy any. Registration includes free study materials, among them the Official Guide, Kaplan, Barron's, Princeton Review and McGraw-Hill, shared Magoosh access, up to 9 full length practice tests and a free one on one tutor.

Whatever you use, start with official ETS material, because it shows you real questions, and use the other books for extra practice in your weak areas. Two good resources used properly beat six used halfway.

Studying around a job

• Protect one long block a week. Saturday morning is when most of our working candidates do their full tests.
• Use small pockets. Vocabulary on the bus, one Quant set at lunch. Twenty minutes a day adds up.
• Plan for power cuts. Keep your phone and laptop charged the night before a study block, and download practice material for offline use.
• Tell people. Family and colleagues give you more room when they know your test date.

Ready to start your 12 weeks?

Book your date on our GRE registration page and your free classes begin. Not sure when to sit? Our guide on when the next GRE exam is in Nigeria shows how to pick a date that leaves room for a retake.

Common questions