Your first session focuses on understanding your baseline skills and goals. Your tutor will likely review your diagnostic test results (or administer one), discuss your target score and graduate program requirements, and identify which sections need the most attention. This initial assessment helps create a personalized study plan tailored to your strengths and challenges, whether you're strongest in quantitative or verbal reasoning.

Timing is one of the biggest challenges on the GRE, and personalized instruction helps you develop section-specific strategies. Your tutor can teach you which question types to tackle first, how to recognize when to move on from difficult problems, and how to allocate your 3 hours and 45 minutes across the verbal, quantitative, and writing sections. Practice with timed drills and full-length tests under realistic conditions builds the stamina and confidence you need on test day.

Students often find the quantitative reasoning section most challenging, especially those without recent math experience—but verbal reasoning and analytical writing present their own obstacles. The good news is that a tutor can pinpoint your specific weak spots, whether it's data interpretation, reading comprehension, or essay structure, and focus your preparation accordingly. Understanding the question formats and practicing retrieval-based strategies (like flashcards for vocabulary) makes a real difference in performance.

Most students benefit from 8-12 weeks of preparation, meeting with a tutor 1-2 times per week combined with independent practice. Your timeline depends on your starting score, target score, and program deadlines—some students need more intensive prep, while others need less. Your tutor will help you create a realistic schedule that balances thorough review of content and strategies with plenty of full-length practice tests to build confidence.

Absolutely. Test anxiety often stems from unfamiliar question formats, uncertainty about timing, or gaps in content knowledge—all things personalized tutoring addresses directly. By working through challenging problems, taking multiple practice tests, and developing proven test-taking strategies, you build genuine confidence rather than just hoping for the best. Your tutor can also teach you specific techniques to manage stress on test day and keep your mind focused when the pressure is on.

Practice tests are essential—they show you exactly how you perform under timed, realistic conditions and reveal patterns in your mistakes. The official GRE offers free PowerPrep practice tests that closely mirror the actual exam, and your tutor will use these strategically throughout your prep to track progress and adjust your study plan. Taking full-length practice tests every 2-3 weeks helps you build stamina, refine your pacing, and identify which content areas still need work.

Look for tutors with strong quantitative and verbal backgrounds, proven GRE teaching experience, and ideally their own high GRE scores (160+ on each section). The best tutors understand not just the content but the test's unique format and question logic, and they can explain complex concepts clearly. Varsity Tutors connects you with expert tutors for students in Charleston who have the subject knowledge and teaching skills to help you reach your goals.