How I Scored 335 on the GRE in 2 Months (as a Non-Native English Speaker)

I scored 335 on the GRE with just two months of prep, no coaching, while working full-time. English is my second language. Here's exactly what I did.

I made a video breaking down my full process. You can watch it here if you prefer that format:

But if you want the full written version with all the details, keep reading. I'll walk through my exact timeline, resources, strategy, and the mistakes I'd fix if I did it again.

My Score Breakdown

Both my Verbal and Quant scores landed above the 90th percentile. Here's how I got there in just two months.

Phase 1: Foundation

The first two weeks were about building raw volume and getting comfortable with how the GRE actually works. I had never seen the test before, so everything was new.

Vocabulary: 200 words per day

This sounds insane, and it kind of is. But here's the thing. I used a cycling method where I'd review 200 words each day without trying to memorize them perfectly. I was just exposing myself to them over and over. The words that keep tripping you up naturally get more attention each round.

By the end of week two, I had cycled through roughly 1,000 unique words multiple times.

Verbal practice: 2 sets per day

I did two verbal practice sets daily. For example, to mimic Section 1, I'd spend 18 minutes on 7 Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, plus 2 Reading Comprehension passages. One with 2 questions and another with 3. The goal wasn't to get them all right. It was to learn the format, understand how ETS writes questions, and start recognizing patterns in wrong answers.

Quant: 10–20 questions per day

Quant was my stronger area, so I spent less time on it early on. I worked through 10 to 20 questions daily, mixing easy and medium difficulty. The focus here was speed and consistency, not difficulty.

The goal of Phase 1 isn't to be good. It's to be familiar. You're loading the map into your brain so that later phases have something to work with.

Phase 2: Reflection

This is where the real learning happened. Phase 2 was all about looking back at everything I got wrong in Phase 1 and asking why.

Reviewing every mistake

I went through every single question I'd gotten wrong or guessed on. I didn't just read the answer explanation. I wrote down why I got it wrong in my own words. Was it a vocabulary gap? A logic trap? Did I misread the question? Was I rushing?

Categorizing errors into patterns

After a few days of this, clear patterns emerged. My biggest verbal weaknesses were:

• Confusing words with similar spellings (like "tortuous" vs "torturous")
• Falling for answer choices that felt right but weren't supported by the text
• Running out of time on reading comprehension because I was re-reading passages

For quant, my errors were almost always careless. Things like getting the right answer but misreading the question, overlooking a qualifying condition, or mixing up "is" with "is not." Small things, but they add up.

Leveling up quant

Since my quant fundamentals were solid, I shifted to hard questions only. This pushed me from "getting most right" to "getting nearly all right under time pressure."

Phase 2 is unglamorous. You're staring at your failures. But this is the phase that actually moves your score.

Phase 3: Test Mode

The last four weeks were about simulating the real thing and locking in my performance.

Analytical Writing prep

I'll be honest, I didn't start writing prep until this phase. I used AI to generate a robust essay template for the Issue, then modified it to fit my own voice and reasoning style. This gave me a structure I could rely on so I wasn't starting from scratch on test day.

I wrote 5 full practice essays in the week leading up to exam day, timing each one at 30 minutes. The templates meant I could focus my mental energy on the actual arguments rather than formatting.

Mock tests

I took 2 full-length mock tests using the official ETS PowerPrep software (with both timed and untimed options). These are the closest thing to the real exam, and they're free. My mock score was 330. Not quite 335, but close enough that I felt good going in. Important Tip: Ensure you take the test in timed mode to get the score report. If you take the untimed version, the system will not calculate your scores.

Final review

The last week was light. I reviewed my error log one more time, did a few easy practice sets to stay sharp, and made sure I knew the test-day logistics (ID, check-in time, what to bring).

My Biggest Mistakes

If I could go back and redo my prep, here's what I'd change:

The single best piece of advice I can give: start documenting and reviewing your mistakes early. Don't wait for a dedicated "review phase." Every wrong answer is data. Learn from it immediately.