Have you ever gotten a gift? Let’s say someone gifted you a wallet or a purse, nothing special, right? But if the same wallet had your name engraved, you would be able to relate more to that gift. Again, watching Netflix, I like that feature, which gives recommendations based on what you have been watching; you are likely to watch those recommended shows. Both examples have one thing in common, and that is personalization.

Personalization, whether related to gifts, marketing, content, clothes, or jewelry, matters because it is something you can relate to, is understandable, and is tailored to your needs and wants. The same is the case when it comes to preparing for the GRE – there is a lot of generic content out there for GRE prep, but what is missing is personalized content.

Let’s say you are an engineer and are like that high school kid who can do long division off the top of his head – chances are you don’t know the difference b/w “stationary” and “stationery”. In this scenario, you don’t need to spend time on your Quantitative skills; instead, you need to get those Shakespeare novels out. On the other hand, you could be like that spelling bee champion kid but have no clue what an acute triangle is. Or, for all we know, you could be in between the above two and need a completely different study plan. This is the reason why you need personalized prep for the GRE. You need something that identifies your weaknesses and addresses them by providing feedback and recommendations on improving – just a GRE test prep book or an academy with a generalized course won’t cut it.

When it comes to GRE prep, customization is not only for content or concepts or questions but also for things like timing, stamina, and practice. You might be great at Data interpretation questions but it might be taking you those extra few seconds to solve it because you have been doing it through a wrong technique or just haven’t practiced much. A personalized tool would be able to point that out for you. You might even have been making just silly mistakes like I used to:

3*3=6

or

3+2=6

or

y^2=2y (if your first thought was that this is right, you need to work way too hard)

Again, only something customized will identify these small details.

There is even a medical or psychological explanation for why personalization works. According to a study by the University of Texas, the two main reasons are “desire for control” and “information overload.”; Personalization lets you think that since you are dealing with something specific for you and not something generic, giving you the sense of control, and customized content makes you feel that you have avoided the information overload, which results from having to study unnecessary material that you already know. That is the exact case for GRE prep: right now, the issue isn’t of less information but rather information overload, and knowing what information to absorb and what to discard based on your needs makes all the difference in the world.

So, instead of going after a generic course at your university or tuition center which has 100 students to entertain, it is better to get a personalized tutor or a mentor that will work with you throughout that journey of GRE prep. One such place to get a mentor or a personal coach with tons of experience in GRE prep is the Scholar Den Website, where you can also take practice tests that will help identify your weak areas and resources to improve them.

Read on: Study hacks for the GRE preparation