Depending on your current level of familiarity with the GRE, you may or may not know that it is somewhat similar to the SAT. Identical question types, essays, and even some particular question formats appear on both tests, leading many students to believe that a good SAT performance will translate directly to the GRE.

But although students who perform well on the SAT do have a better chance of scoring well on the GRE, this perspective can be very counterproductive. Generally, students who approach their GRE prep with this kind of mindset are doing themselves a disservice by not treating the GRE as its own unique test with its own unique challenges. The biggest reason being is that in the minds of some, the GRE doesn’t require much preparation because “it’s just like the SAT which wasn’t even that hard.” People will study for the MCAT, DAT, or LSAT for almost a year (or even more) before taking the exam because most of the material requires the test-taker to know how to take the test.

These strategies aren’t explicitly taught at school—they have to invest in taking time to practice these strategies on their own if they want to do well. What future GRE test-takers don’t realize is that this is the same for the GRE! They can’t expect their high school test-taking abilities to suffice, or depend solely on what they learned while preparing for the SAT to miraculously get them a high score on the GRE. There’s a reason why the SAT is taken before going to college and the GRE is taken before going to grad school—in high school, you learn how to solve the problems that show up on the SAT step by step, while in college, you practice applying test-taking strategies. Ultimately what all these exams are trying to test is how much you’ve learned about strategic problem-solving even when all the steps haven’t been laid out perfectly for you. So, what then, needs to be done in order to not have a brain hemorrhage while taking the exam?

The answer is simple: start studying now, and approach the GRE as if you have never seen it before. Students taking the GRE should generally invest just as much in studying as students taking the MCAT or LSAT – don’t wait until the last minute to get started! Especially with the revised format of the GRE, you’re going to need all the preparation time you can get, so take advantage of all the help Barron’s offers and take control of your grad school destiny – today!