The GRE^® revised General Test

The GRE general test is meant to measure your overall academic ability and is the standard exam for admission to non-business schools. However, an increasing number of business schools are accepting scores from the GRE exam. Also, not all graduate schools or programs require the GRE. Some schools and programs also require various subject tests, so check with your choice of schools to make sure which exam(s) you need to take. The GRE general exam does NOT test you on any specific facts or pieces of knowledge that you may have learned in any one class.

GRE Scores

For the quantitative and verbal reasoning assesments of the GRE revised General test, the scores range from 130 to 170 points. For the analytic writing section, scores range from 0.0 to 6.0, in half-point increments. There are two verbal and two math sections on the GRE revised General test. The first of both sections is not computer adaptive, but the difficulty of questions that you'll be given for the second section is dependent on how well you did on the first section. The essay section of the GRE is composed on the computer, but both writing tasks are graded by trained readers.

GRE Registration

Registration for the GRE exam is straight-forward. Exam centers are located throughout the world, and most locations are open seven days a week. Registration for the GRE revised General Test is first-come, first-serve, so you want to register as soon as possible for your preferred date and venue.

GRE revised General Test Format

In all cases the Analytical Writing section is the first section of the exam, followed by a 10 minute break. After the break, there are 6 sections: two verbal, two math, an unscored section, and a research section. The research section is always the last section, while the other sections can appear in any order. Therefore, you won’t be able to tell which section is unscored, so you must be sure to do your best on all sections:

Analytic Writing	2 essays, 30 minutes each The writing section of the GRE is meant to measure your analytical reasoning, organization, and analysis skills. The two essays include an issue essay and an argument essay. There are no right or wrong answers to the essay questions, and the essays will be read and scored by 2 (and possibly 3) readers. For more information about the essay section, and for writing tips, go to the essay tutorial section.
Break	10 minutes
Verbal Reasoning	Two sections each with 20 questions, 30 minutes for each section Each section includes a mix of reading comprehension question, text completion, and sentence equivalence questions. Reading comprehension questions are either single answer, multiple answers, or select in passage, while text completion questions will have either one, two, or three blanks. For more information on each of these question types, please see that tutorial section.
Quantitative Reasoning	Two sections each with 20 questions, 35 minutes for each section Each quantitative reasoning section (also common called the "Math GRE sections") contains a mix of multiple choice, quantitative analysis, and user input questions. For more information about the quantitative reasoning questions, proceed to the appropriate tutorial.
Unscored Section*	An experimental section that will either be a math or a verbal section may also be included on the exam. You will know if you were given a math or verbal experimental section because you will have two of those sections during the test, but you won’t know which of two identical sections will be experimental. The experimental section does not count toward your score, and is used by ETS to try out new questions for possible use in future exams.

*In the above example, the unscored section is the last section, but the order of the sections can be any of several combinations. For example, your exam may be math-verbal-math-verbal-unscored, or verbal-math-unscored-math-verbal, etc.