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The Graduate Record Examination is designed by Educational Testing Service (ETS). There are two types of GRE- GRE Subject Test and GRE General Test. Students applying for MS programs in USA usually writes GRE General Test (a computer based exam). Here we will be discussing the updated GRE syllabus for Computer based general test. The test measures verbal, quantitative and analytical writing skills you have developed in the course of your academic career.

Exam Pattern

The GRE General Test will have five sections and occasionally there may be a sixth section.

• one Analytical writing section with two 30 minute task (Total 1 hour).
• two 20 question Verbal Ability section (30 minutes each).
• two 20 question Quantitative Ability Section (35 minutes each).

Occasionally there may be

• an additional third verbal or quantitative section.

What is GRE marking scheme?

There is no negative marking for a wrong answer, so answer every question. In computer based general test after you have completed your first quantitative or verbal section the computer program assess your performance and based on that adjusts the difficulty level of your second quantitative or verbal section. In short higher the score in first section higher the difficulty level of the second section. This is good since higher difficulty level question carry more marks.

On both verbal and quantitative sections the total marks is the number of questions you have answered correctly, adjusted for the difficulty level of those questions. Score for both quantitative and verbal  lies between 130 and 170. In analytical writing section the maximum score in 6. To get into a good university you should have a score above 160 in quantitative section, above 155  in verbal section  and above 3.0/6.0 in analytical writing section. Don’t apply for masters with a score below 300 (quantitative + verbal).

How frequently can you take exam?

There is no fixed date for the exam, however you can take the GRE only once every 21 days, up to five times within any continuous rolling 12-month period. Find Test Centers and Dates: https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/register/

What are the three sections in GRE?

Analytical Writing

The analytical writing portion of GRE consist of two parts:

• Write an essay presenting your point on an issue (30 minutes).
• Write an essay analysing the reasoning in an argument (30 minutes).

Issue Task

In the issue task you will be given a topic which is  a one to two sentence quotation commenting on an generic issue. You have to analyse the statement and write an essay either supporting, refuting or qualifying the views expressed. You have to properly organise and articulate your essay, include relevant examples and should be able to identify certain implications in the question statement. Practise issue task by writing essays on various relevant topics. Before attending the exam you have to practise a minimum of 15 issue questions.

Argument Task

You are asked to criticize the reasoning of an argument given in a brief passage. You have to point out the strengths and weakness of the argument. This section tests your ability to evaluate the soundness of a statement and your ability to convince your point. have to identify and access all the elements of the argument, properly organise and articulate your points, include relevant examples and should be able to identify certain implications in the question statement.

Quantitative Section

Quantitative section consist of two maths section with 20 questions each. You can score more that 160 in this section if you have scored above 85% in 10th standard. Quantitative Section typically consist of three types of questions.

• Comparison question: These questions ask you to compare between two quantities A and B and mark whether A is greater/ B is greater/ A and B are equal/ impossible to determine. These type of questions can be as easy as comparing  3*(4+8) and (3+4)*8.
• Discrete Quantitative Questions: These sections ask you to solve a simple question and mark answers. In some question you may have to numerically enter answer.
• Data Interpretation: In these type of questions you will be given a simple representation of data and you have to answer questions based on this data. The data representation may be charts, tables or graphs.

Verbal section

There are two verbal sections each with 20 questions. Questions in each section falls into two basic types: 10 discrete short answer type and 10 critical reading questions.
Discrete short answer type questions: These are fill inthe blanks questions, you have to choose the best way to complete a short passage or a sentence. In questions where you have to fill a sentence there will be two correct answers with similar meaning out of the 5 options, you have to choose both these choices to get full marks for the question- this is called sentence equivalence questions. In questions where you have to complete a blank with a single answer option is called text completion question. In text completion questions you have one, two or three blanks and you are asked to find only one answer per blank.
Critical Reading Questions: These type of questions test your ability to understand and interpret what you read. You will be given a passage and based on that passage you have to answer the questions.