Your first session focuses on assessment and goal-setting. Expect to take a diagnostic practice test or review your recent GRE attempts to identify patterns in your mistakes—whether you're losing points to careless errors, conceptual gaps, or time management issues. Your tutor will then create a personalized study plan with realistic timelines and target score benchmarks, so you know exactly what to work on each week.

The quantitative reasoning section challenges many test-takers, especially those who haven't done math in years, but the verbal section trips up just as many—it requires both vocabulary knowledge and the ability to read dense academic passages quickly and accurately. The analytical writing section is often overlooked in prep but can be a confidence-builder if practiced with feedback. A tutor can diagnose which section is your biggest obstacle and prioritize accordingly, rather than spending equal time on all three.

Most students benefit from 8-12 weeks of consistent preparation, dedicating 5-10 hours per week depending on their target score and starting baseline. If you're aiming for a competitive score for graduate programs at UW-Madison or similar institutions, you may need the full 12 weeks; if you're already scoring in your target range, 6-8 weeks of targeted work often suffices. A tutor can assess your current level and recommend a realistic timeline during your first session.

Test anxiety often stems from uncertainty about question formats, pacing pressure, or past test-taking experiences. Working with a tutor helps you build confidence through repeated exposure to authentic GRE questions under timed conditions—this familiarity reduces anxiety significantly. Your tutor can also teach you specific strategies like the "flag and move" technique for difficult questions, which keeps you from getting stuck and losing time on easier questions you'd normally answer correctly.

Practice tests are essential—they reveal your actual pacing issues, question type weaknesses, and stress responses in ways that untimed practice can't. Experts recommend taking at least 4-6 full-length practice tests throughout your prep, spaced strategically so you can review mistakes between attempts. A tutor can help you interpret your practice test results, identifying whether you're missing questions due to conceptual gaps, careless errors, or time pressure, then adjust your study plan accordingly.

Look for tutors with strong GRE scores themselves (typically 160+ on each section), experience helping multiple students improve their scores, and familiarity with the current GRE format and question types. Beyond credentials, the best tutors understand test-taking psychology—they can explain not just why an answer is correct, but why test-takers commonly choose wrong answers. Varsity Tutors connects you with expert tutors who have proven track records helping students reach their target scores.

Madison's strong academic community—with UW-Madison and other universities drawing graduate students—means there's solid demand for GRE prep, and personalized tutoring is often more effective than group classes or self-study apps because it adapts to your unique challenges. Whether you need help with the quantitative section before applying to engineering programs or the verbal section for humanities graduate programs, connecting with a tutor who understands your specific goals makes a measurable difference in your preparation.