The GRE Test - The Graduate Record Examination

About the GRE

Planning on going to graduate school?Then you definitely need to prepare for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). The GRE is a requirement of most graduate programs in the United States and Canada.

The exam measures your verbal and mathematical reasoning skills. The test is composed of 3 scored sections:

Analytical Writing

Analytical Writing Section
Length	75 minutes
Format	Typed Essay
# Questions	2
Question Types	Present Your Perspective on an Issue (45 minutes) Analyze an Argument (30 minutes)
Topics Tested	Analysis of an Issue Analysis of an Argument

The GRE always begins with the Analytical Writing Section.In this section, you must write two separate essays. E.T.S. (the test maker) calls the first essay Present your Perspective on an Issue (the Issue essay). The second of the two essays is Analyze an Argument (the Argument essay).

You get 45 minutes to complete the Issue essay, which always comes first, and 30 minutes to complete the Argument essay. For both essays, you must analyze a topic and compose your essay using a basic word processing program. However, because the two essays require you to complete different tasks, it is important to read the directions for each essay.

For the Issue essay, you are given a choice of two topics, each of which expresses a given opinion or idea about something. In your essay, you must express your own view, indicating whether you agree or disagree with the statement. It doesn’t matter which side you take. What matters is how well you support your view with relevant examples and clear arguments.

For the Argument essay, you must critique the persuasiveness and logic of an argument. Whether you agree or disagree with the argument doesn’t matter. Again, what matters is that you support your position with convincing arguments and examples.

Verbal

Verbal Section
Length	60 minutes
Format	Multiple Choice
# Questions	38
Question Types	Reading Comprehension Sentence Completion Analogies Antonyms
Topics Tested	Vocabulary Verbal Reasoning Logical Reasoning Reading

The GRE Verbal section contains 30 questions and lasts 30 minutes. All questions are multiple choice. The Verbal section contains four question types.

Reading Comprehension questions require you to understand the topic, scope, purpose, and structure of academic passages drawn from the arts and sciences.
Sentence Completion questions require you to select a word or pair of words that “fill in the blanks” to produce a grammatically and logically correct sentence.
Analogy questions present you with a pair of words, whose relationship you must analyze. You then select the answer choice that contains a pair of words with the same relationship as the words in the question stem.
For Antonym questions, you must determine the meaning of a word and then select the answer choice that contains the word or phrase closest to the opposite meaning.

Quantitative

Quantitative Section
Length	60 minutes
Format	Multiple Choice
# Questions	30
Question Types	Problem Solving Quantitative Comparison Data Interpretation (Graphs)
Topics Tested	Arithmetic Algebra Word problems Geometry Data Interpretation

The GRE Quantitative section contains three question types.

Problem Solving questions are regular math problems with five answer choices.
Data Interpretation questions require you to interpret quantitative information from graphs and charts and then answer questions relating to that information.
For Quantitative Comparison questions, you must evaluate two values to determine whether one is greater, whether the two values are equal, or whether the relationship cannot be determined from the information provided in the question.

GRE Quantitative questions test a limited range of basic mathematical concepts, such as:

Arithmetic, such as number properties, fractions, averages, ratios and rates, and probability.
Basic algebra
Basic geometry, including lines, triangles, polygons, and circles.
Bata Interpretation and interpretation, through graphs and charts.

Mastering the GRE Quantitative section requires practice. Many test takers who are great at math score poorly on the GRE, not because they’re not good at math, but because they don’t know how to apply their math knowledge to the types of questions that appear on the test.

The Computer Adaptive Test (CAT)

A few years ago, Educational Testing Service (E.T.S.) phased out the old paper-based versions of the GRE and GMAT and replaced them with computer-based versions. Instead of taking a three to four hour paper-based test with several Verbal and Quantitative sections per test, test takers now get only one crack at each section. Whether you take the GRE or GMAT, you get only one chance to prove your Verbal and Quantitative skills. If you take the GRE, 30 questions will determine your Verbal score and 28 questions will determine your Quantitative score—period. On the GMAT, you get 41 Verbal questions and 37 Quantitative questions to prove you belong in graduate business school. That leaves little room for error.

How can so few questions reliably indicate your Verbal and Quantitative abilities? Educational Testing Service’s answer to this question is the Computer Adaptive Test (CAT). A CAT is designed to determine your test taking abilities using fewer questions than paper-based tests. Essentially, a CAT bases your score on the number of questions you answer (correctly or incorrectly) and the difficulty level of each question.

In a CAT, your performance on each question determines how difficult the next question will be. The test always begins by assuming that you are an average test taker. No matter who you are, you begin each section of the GRE or GMAT with a question of average difficulty (in GRE and GMAT terms, this means a question worth a score of 500 points that about half of all test takers will answer correctly). If you get that first question right, then the test assumes that you are somewhat above average, and your score increases (to 580 points, to be exact). On the other hand, if you get that first question wrong, then the test assumes that you are somewhat below average, and your score decreases (to 420 points). Each time you get a question right, your score increases and the next question becomes slightly more difficult. When you get a question wrong, your score decreases and the next question becomes slightly easier.

As you progress throughout each section, your score goes up and down in this way as you answer questions correctly and incorrectly, until you finish the section. The difficulty level of the final question of each section equals your score. However, one important note of caution: if you fail to finish a section, there is a major penalty for every question left unanswered. Nothing will ruin your GRE or GMAT score more quickly than failing to finish a section.

An interesting quirk in the scoring system of the CAT is that questions at the beginning of a section count more toward your final score than questions at the end of each section, so it is important to work carefully on the first 10 to 15 questions of each section.
Your GRE Score
As soon as you complete the GRE, you will have the option of either canceling your scores (in which case neither you nor anyone else will ever know how you did on the test) or accepting your results. If you accept your test results, you will see your Verbal and Quantitative scaled scores immediately. However, you must wait a few weeks before receiving your results on the Analytical Writing Section by mail, as a real person actually grades the essays.

Scores you will see on your GRE score report:
- Overall scaled GRE Verbal score (200-800 points)
  Overall GRE Verbal and Quantitative Scores Your performance on the Verbal and Quantitative sections results in two separate scaled scores ranging from a minimum of 200 to a maximum of 800 points, reported in 10 point increments.
- Overall scaled GRE Quantitative score (200-800 points)
  Overall GRE Verbal and Quantitative Scores Your performance on the Verbal and Quantitative sections results in two separate scaled scores ranging from a minimum of 200 to a maximum of 800 points, reported in 10 point increments.
- Scaled Analytical Writing score (1.0-6.0 points)
  Your performance on the GRE Analytical Writing Section results in a scaled score ranging from 1.0 -6.0 points, which is reported in 0.5 point increments (possible Analytical Writing scores are 4.0, 4.5, or 5.0 points, for example). This score is calculated and reported separately from your overall GRE score.
- GRE percentile scores (1-99)
  Because the GRE is graded on a preset curve, you will also receive corresponding percentile scores for all three sections of the test. Your percentile score ranges from 1-99 and represents the percentage of all test takers who scored lower than you on that section of the test. For example, a scaled Verbal score of 670 corresponds to the 97th percentile, indicating that the test taker scored higher than 97 percent of all other test takers on that section of the test. On the other hand, a scaled Quantitative score of 670 corresponds to the 80th percentile, indicating that the test taker scored higher than 80 percent of all other test takers on that section.
  
  You might have noticed that the same scaled scores on the Verbal and Quantitative sections do not correspond to the same percentile scores. That’s because test takers tend to score higher as a group on the GRE Quantitative section than on the Verbal section. As a result, a test taker who gets a scaled score of 700 on the Verbal section ranks in the 99th percentile, whereas a test taker who gets a scaled score of 700 on the Quantitative section ranks in the 89th percentile.
What your GRE score means to Graduate Schools

Although many factors (such as your undergraduate major, grade point average, and the college or university you attended) play a role in graduate school admissions decisions, your performance on the GRE is an important part of the admissions puzzle. In addition, many graduate programs rely on GRE scores when making decisions about how much financial aid to award accepted applicants.

However, graduate programs often vary widely in how they use GRE scores when making admission decisions. For example, if you are applying to a master’s degree program in English Literature or History, your score on the Verbal section of the GRE is likely to be more important than your score on the Quantitative section. On the other hand, if you are applying to a Ph.D. program in chemistry or engineering, your GRE Quantitative score will probably be more important.
How to Register for the GRE

Registering for the GRE is fairly straightforward. Although you can register by mail or over the telephone, the easiest way to register for the test is online at the GRE website. The current registration fee is $130, which is most easily paid by credit card, although the test maker will also accept money orders, certified checks, and personal checks.

An important note about registering for the GRE: you may only register for the test once every 30 days, up to 5 times per 12 month period. But be aware that taking the GRE several times and hoping to get lucky is a very bad idea, as many graduate programs take the average of all your scores, and not the top score. Therefore, you are much better off being very well prepared before taking the test, taking the test only once, and achieving a high score.

To be directed to the official GRE registration website, click here.