About the GRE General Test:
The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test measures skills that have been developed over a long period of time and are not necessarily related to any particular field of study. The test is composed of analytical writing, verbal, and quantitative sections. It is similar to the SAT, except it is scored on a special scale and the test is taken on a computer at Testing Center.
Analytical Writing Section - 75 min. total:
The Analytical writing section consists of 2 writing tasks, and you must word process your response on the computer.
1) Present your perspective on an issue - 45 min.
You will be able to choose 1 of 2 essay topics given. This section tests your critical thinking and analytical writing skills. It assesses your ability to articulate and support complex ideas, analyze an argument, and sustain a focused and coherent discussion. It does not assess specific content knowledge, and there is no single best way to respond. The complete pool of topics for the analytical writing measure is published on the GRE Web site at http://www.gre.org/pracmats.html
2) Analyze an argument - 30 min.
The Argument task does not offer a choice of topics; the computer will present you with a single topic. This section tests your ability to analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it, analyze relationships among component parts of sentences, and recognize relationships between words and concepts. There is a balance among the passages across different subject matter areas, such as the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities.
Verbal Section - 30 min. & 30 questions:
This section tests your ability to analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it, analyze relationships among component parts of sentences, and recognize relationships between words and concepts. There is a balance among the passages across different subject matter areas, such as the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities.
Quantitative Section - 45 min. & 28 questions:
This section tests your basic mathematical skills and your understanding of elementary mathematical concepts, as well as your ability to reason quantitatively and solve problems in a quantitative setting. There is a balance among the questions requiring arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis. These are content areas usually studied in high school.
How the Verbal and Quantitative Section works:
The verbal and quantitative sections of the General Test are adaptive tests; that is, they are tailored to your performance level and provide precise information about your abilities used fewer test questions than traditional paper-based tests.
At the start of the test, you are presented with test questions of middle difficulty. As you answer each question, the computer scores that question and uses that information, as well as your response to any preceding questions and information about the test design, to determine which question is presented next. As long as you respond correctly to each question, questions of increased difficulty typically will be presented. When you enter incorrect responses, the computer typically will present you with questions of lesser difficulty. Your next question will be the one that best reflects both your previous performance and the requirements of the test design. This means that different test takers will be given different questions.
Because the computer scores each question before selecting the next one, you must answer each question when it is presented. For this reason, once you answer a question and move on to another, you cannot go back and change your answer. The computer has already incorporated both your answer and the requirements of the test design into its selection of the next question for you.
Each computer-based test section meets pre-established specifications, including the types of questions asked and the subject matter presented. The statistical characteristics of the questions answered correctly and incorrectly, including the difficulty levels, are taken into account in the calculation of scores. Therefore, it is appropriate to compare scores of different test takers even though they received different questions.
How the GRE is scored:
A verbal score reported on a 200-800 score
scale, in 10-point increments
A quantitative score reported on a 200-800
score scale, in 10-point increments
An analytical writing score reported on
a 0-6 score scale, in half-point increments
The above information was taken from the ETS GRE website: http://ets.org/gre
How to prepare for the GRE:
Some people just aren't disciplined enough to grab a GRE practice book, sit down, and start studying on their own. So what ends up happening is that a lot of people take a GRE prep class with Princeton Review, Berkeley Review, Kaplan, etc. Check out which GRE prep class suits you best. It helps if you take the GRE within 2 weeks of finishing the prep class. Some people like studying on their own, and that helps too if you dedicate time to it. Flashcards, reading the newspaper often, and drilling from GRE books (i.e. Barron's) will all help you score higher.
