GRE® (Graduate Record Exam)
GRE®
is widely the Mandatory Entrance test for MS, MA and
Doctorate programs in the US and a few schools in
the UK and Germany. The GRE® score is valid for
five years, however most of the universities insist
on the scores from a recently taken GRE® and prefer
scores which are not more than 2-3 years old. The
Verbal Section of GRE® has recently been ammended, with more emphasis given on Verbal Reasoning & Contexual Usage Of Vocabulary, as against Anotonyms & Synonyms namely sentence Equivalence & Text Completion. Similarly, a wide range
of Reading Comprehensions- taken on the screen makes
the Test formidable. The Analytical Writing Section
constitutes Two Critical essays. The Mathematical
Section constitutes Number Systems, Arithmatic &
Algebra, Geometry and Components Of Data Sufficiency.
GRE® is scored out of 340 with sectional weightage
of 170 for each component. The Analytical Section
is graded on a scale of 0-6.
Test Format: Computer-based GRE General Test Content and Structure
The computer-based GRE® General Test is composed of Analytical Writing, Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections. The Analytical Writing section is always first. In addition, one unidentified unscored section may be included and can appear in any position in the test after the Analytical Writing section. Questions in the unscored section are being tested for possible use in future tests, and answers will not count toward your scores. An identified research section that is not scored may also be included, and if so, it is always at the end of the test. The Verbal and Quantitative sections, including the unidentified unscored section, may appear in any order. Treat each section presented during your test as if it counts. Total testing time is three hours, not including the research section. The directions at the beginning of each section specify the total number of questions in the section and the time allowed for the section.
Computer-based GRE® revised General Test Content and Structure
The overall testing time for the computer-based GRE® revised General Test is about three hours and 45 minutes. There are six sections with a 10-minute break following the third section.
Structure of the Computer-based Test
Measure | Number of Questions | Allotted Time |
Analytical Writing (One section with two separately timed tasks) | One "Analyze an Issue" task and one "Analyze an Argument" task | 30 minutes per task |
Verbal Reasoning (Two sections) | Approximately 20 questions per section | 30 minutes per section |
Quantitative Reasoning (Two sections) | Approximately 20 questions per section | 35 minutes per section |
Unscored¹ | Varies | Varies |
Research² | Varies | Varies |
(Source: Official GRE website - www.ets.org/gre)