If you're reading this, you're most likely writing your semester exams and I am positive that many of you are gearing up towards attempting the GRE, to pursue your Master's abroad. In my experience, students usually take the GRE in the even semester and that is why I am writing this today. Even if you are a first-year student, what I write below will be very useful to you, in fact a lot useful as you have a lot of time to arm yourself with the know-how of cracking the GRE. 

After my first job at Infosys and prior to me starting my entrepreneurial journey, I was a GRE trainer and I used to train students for the verbal. Based on that experience of mine, I can definitively say that GRE Prep shouldn't be started prep as prep for an exam. It should be a journey rather. When it comes to the Quant, it is just about doing as many practice tests as possible if you are weak at math but if you are already good at math, it is very easy to crack as going by the Indian standards of math, the GRE math is very simple.

Then comes the verbal and in my experience, it is all about reading books and not just books, reading whatever you comes your way to build your vocabulary right from the beginning. Vocabulary can be improved in different ways, one needs to choose what suits him/her and I personally suggest usage of words in sentences is very important. I used to read The Hindu newspaper from my second standard and I used to write down the words I didn't know and learn their meanings before attempting to use them in my own sentences. I used to find it tough to do when I was a child but I am definitely reaping the benefits now. 

When it comes to improving the vocabulary, as I said earlier, framing own sentences using those words and trying to find new words from a thesaurus will help. Other techniques like root words, one word substitutions can be learnt from Norman Lewis's word power made easy.

Just remember, GRE prep is a marathon, not a 100 metre sprint. Approach it like that and ace it.