Study Plans and Resources
Transcript
In this video, I am just gonna quickly talk about our Magoosh study schedules, because they can be very important to your GRE prep. And the reason I say that is that oftentimes there isn't that much structure when one embarks on a solo journey through a GRE prep course. Even Magoosh, with our available lessons, because there are a lot of them, can feel a bit hard to organize into a realistic timeline if you don't take a moment to consider the best way for you to organize the structure of your prep.
For instance, do you feel committed to doing each lesson sequentially? Or do you feel like you'll skip a lesson here or there if you feel that you are super solid on the content? Or maybe it's a lesson on a high level, rarely tested math concept, which is just not a priority for your prep goals? Or maybe you just wanna do a few practice questions related to a lesson for a review?
All of those paths and many more are available to you. We've tried to make our product as flexible as possible, so students who have very different amounts of time that they can apply to test prep can create a custom schedule to best suit their various needs. However, that flexibility can feel a bit overwhelming to students who are just starting or even returning to the wide world of test preparation.
So a great way to figure out how to get started and how to rein in all that material available to you through Magoosh is to follow one of the study schedules available through your dashboard. Through your dashboard, you'll be presented with a few schedule options, and following a study schedule will take the guesswork out of the structure of your preparation timeline.
When you first log into your dashboard, you'll be prompted to select one of the four study schedules. One-Month Beginner, One-Month Advanced, Three-Month Beginner, Three-Month Advanced. Of course, choosing a schedule is not mandatory, but choosing a schedule can help reduce the stress level associated with planning and elevate accountability in terms of sticking to a structured timeline.
Now you might be wondering, well, which is the best schedule for me? There isn't a one size fits all answer here. A lot depends on you and your answers to the following questions. How much time do you have to prepare? How familiar are you with the GRE test? And what is your score goal?
For example, if you only have three to five weeks and the GRE Is totally new to you and you really don't need the highest of scores to feel competitive when you apply to your chosen programs, then the One-Month-Beginner schedule is likely your best bet. It will focus on the most essential lessons that a beginner would need to navigate the exam and has been designed to take no more than around two and a half hours for any given day.
In fact, all of our schedules try to keep the daily allotment of prep to around two and a half hours. Does that mean you are limited to just the lessons within that schedule? Heck no, you have access to all Magoosh's lessons, even the ones not included in any of the given schedules. That means you have the freedom to be proactive in supplementing with additional lessons and practice.
Any time you struggle with a question type or recognize a particular weakness, you can devote some of the designated practice and review time to watching recommended lessons and/or make note of a question type that will require additional review. Now if you're already pretty familiar with the GRE and really don't need to spend time with the introductory lessons, but definitely need practice with high level concepts, since you are aiming for a top score.
Then the One-Month Advanced schedule might be what you need. If you have more time to invest, then one of the three-month schedules might be a better fit for you. The Three-Month Beginner will cover the general strategies, all the frequently tested topics, and most of the less frequently tested content and question types.
The Three-Month Advanced will cover almost everything, but it will forego some of the introductory lessons and math and verbal foundational lessons to dig into those higher level less frequently tested topics. Here's what you'll see. From this screenshot, you can see that the current selection is the One-Month Beginner plan.
So let's say you start out with this one, but later decide it's not the ideal schedule or lesson mix for you. Maybe, it turns out, you remember all that foundational math stuff and wanna skip over it and get to the harder topics. Well, you can always make a change to something that will work better for you. If you click Change Plan, you'll see a list of all the other schedule options.
So, to wrap up, I encourage you, even if you're on the fence about whether to follow these study schedules or not, to consider where you're at in terms of how much time you have, your GRE familiarity, and your score goals. And then dig into the daily breakdowns of some of the study schedules to see if it makes sense for you to follow one of them. Finally, just in case you'd really like to see other study schedule options beyond the four listed on your dashboard, including a one week or six month offering, there are options available through our blog.
These aren't as up to date for the changes made to the GRE in September of 2023 as the schedules in the dashboard are. But they are still available resources for students to check out, even if only to use as a starting off point to build their own custom schedules.
Read full transcriptFor instance, do you feel committed to doing each lesson sequentially? Or do you feel like you'll skip a lesson here or there if you feel that you are super solid on the content? Or maybe it's a lesson on a high level, rarely tested math concept, which is just not a priority for your prep goals? Or maybe you just wanna do a few practice questions related to a lesson for a review?
All of those paths and many more are available to you. We've tried to make our product as flexible as possible, so students who have very different amounts of time that they can apply to test prep can create a custom schedule to best suit their various needs. However, that flexibility can feel a bit overwhelming to students who are just starting or even returning to the wide world of test preparation.
So a great way to figure out how to get started and how to rein in all that material available to you through Magoosh is to follow one of the study schedules available through your dashboard. Through your dashboard, you'll be presented with a few schedule options, and following a study schedule will take the guesswork out of the structure of your preparation timeline.
When you first log into your dashboard, you'll be prompted to select one of the four study schedules. One-Month Beginner, One-Month Advanced, Three-Month Beginner, Three-Month Advanced. Of course, choosing a schedule is not mandatory, but choosing a schedule can help reduce the stress level associated with planning and elevate accountability in terms of sticking to a structured timeline.
Now you might be wondering, well, which is the best schedule for me? There isn't a one size fits all answer here. A lot depends on you and your answers to the following questions. How much time do you have to prepare? How familiar are you with the GRE test? And what is your score goal?
For example, if you only have three to five weeks and the GRE Is totally new to you and you really don't need the highest of scores to feel competitive when you apply to your chosen programs, then the One-Month-Beginner schedule is likely your best bet. It will focus on the most essential lessons that a beginner would need to navigate the exam and has been designed to take no more than around two and a half hours for any given day.
In fact, all of our schedules try to keep the daily allotment of prep to around two and a half hours. Does that mean you are limited to just the lessons within that schedule? Heck no, you have access to all Magoosh's lessons, even the ones not included in any of the given schedules. That means you have the freedom to be proactive in supplementing with additional lessons and practice.
Any time you struggle with a question type or recognize a particular weakness, you can devote some of the designated practice and review time to watching recommended lessons and/or make note of a question type that will require additional review. Now if you're already pretty familiar with the GRE and really don't need to spend time with the introductory lessons, but definitely need practice with high level concepts, since you are aiming for a top score.
Then the One-Month Advanced schedule might be what you need. If you have more time to invest, then one of the three-month schedules might be a better fit for you. The Three-Month Beginner will cover the general strategies, all the frequently tested topics, and most of the less frequently tested content and question types.
The Three-Month Advanced will cover almost everything, but it will forego some of the introductory lessons and math and verbal foundational lessons to dig into those higher level less frequently tested topics. Here's what you'll see. From this screenshot, you can see that the current selection is the One-Month Beginner plan.
So let's say you start out with this one, but later decide it's not the ideal schedule or lesson mix for you. Maybe, it turns out, you remember all that foundational math stuff and wanna skip over it and get to the harder topics. Well, you can always make a change to something that will work better for you. If you click Change Plan, you'll see a list of all the other schedule options.
So, to wrap up, I encourage you, even if you're on the fence about whether to follow these study schedules or not, to consider where you're at in terms of how much time you have, your GRE familiarity, and your score goals. And then dig into the daily breakdowns of some of the study schedules to see if it makes sense for you to follow one of them. Finally, just in case you'd really like to see other study schedule options beyond the four listed on your dashboard, including a one week or six month offering, there are options available through our blog.
These aren't as up to date for the changes made to the GRE in September of 2023 as the schedules in the dashboard are. But they are still available resources for students to check out, even if only to use as a starting off point to build their own custom schedules.
