Study Plans The study plans provided here are meant to be used as advice as you prepare for the GRE. Keep in mind that you may need to slighltly adjust these study plans to meet your exact needs. As a general rule, you want to allow yourself as much preparation time as possible. The GRE is not a test of memorization, and so to do well, you need to practice as much as you can over several weeks, preferably over several months. Memorization is NOT a practical study tactic for the GRE, and so your goal should be to become very familiar with the GRE format, the question types, and the overall structure of the test. Choose one of the study plans and stick with it! Depending on which plan you choose, the "overview" section of that plan will suggest approximately how many hours you should spend each day or week in preparing for the GRE.