In a recent survey of GRE test takers, individuals from around the world shared their personal study habits and preferences about their test preparation. Their answers provide insight to the hundreds of thousands of individuals currently readying themselves to take the GRE ® revised General Test during the peak testing season, in pursuit of master’s, MBA, specialized master’s in business and doctoral programs.
While test takers in India shared many consistent practices with counterparts in the United States, China and other regions in the world, there were some noteworthy differences about study habits.
The survey revealed that the most common length of time students around the world, including those from India, spend preparing for the test, is about one month to less than three months. In India, nearly eight out of 10 respondents said they used the free POWERPREP ® II Software, which includes two simulated tests. This usage is higher than the 70 percent in China and more dramatic than the worldwide average of 50 percent. Similarly, India test takers showed a high preference for online study groups. Forty percent reported that group study was a part of their preparation, compared to the global average of 21 percent. Around the world, however, test preparation duration was fairly consistent. Globally, test takers reported that slightly more than one-third of them spent less than one month preparing and only about six percent said that they spent six months or longer preparing for the test.
“Some test takers will feel ready fairly quickly and want to test right away to meet admissions deadlines,” says Dawn Piacentino, Director of communication and services for the GRE Program at ETS. “Most test takers will take the test once, but if an individual wants to try to do better, there is a backup plan to help them show their best. The ScoreSelect ® option, available only with GRE tests, lets test takers decide — on test day or anytime up to five years — which of their scores to send to schools. This option gives test takers a lot of confidence from the start.”
Survey respondents cited using flash cards and reading books as some of the most popular preparation tools, with nearly 40 percent globally reporting flash cards were part of their study protocol. The trend is similar amongst Indian students.
“Even with the array of prep options, it’s interesting to see that students like tried-and-true flash cards for randomly quizzing themselves on how to best answer different types of questions,” said Piacentino.
Home outranked all other locations as the favorite place to study everywhere around the world, including India, where over 80 percent of students prepared at home. However, differences emerged around favorite time of day to prepare. Chinese students led the group with the most “early risers” while test takers in India reported the greatest number of people interested in late, late study, at about 29 percent. In addition, test takers in India and China were nearly three times more likely to prepare with friends than were U.S. test takers. Friends, however, were the universal winner, ranking highest as favorite study-buddy choice among global test takers. About 10 percent of U.S. respondents reported that their favorite study buddy was their dog or cat.
Fruit edged out all other options as the favorite GRE study snack around the world. The top five GRE study snack list is:
1. Fruit
2. Nuts, seeds or corn nuts
3. Chocolate
4. Potato chips
5. Cookies
Indians revealed they also have a great fondness of potato chips, compared to the rest of the world, with close to 32 percent of Indian respondents citing it as their favorite study time snack. Indians also appear to love ice cream more than their American counterparts, with over 9 percent citing it as their favorite study snack, compared with 4.5 percent of U.S. test takers.
“We conducted this survey so that GRE test takers could tell us more about how they like to prepare for the GRE revised General Test,” said Piacentino. “More than 18,000 individuals from over 150 countries responded and shared not only their study habits but how they celebrated after taking the test. We plan to post more insights from this survey on the official GRE revised General Test page on Facebook®. After all, it is a popular time for students everywhere to be taking the GRE revised General Test to apply to graduate or business school.”