The Graduate Record Examinations – GRE – is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement to master’s and doctoral degree programs, demanded by graduate schools in the United States, Canada and few in other countries.

The Verbal Reasoning Measure

The Verbal Reasoning measure of the GRE General Test assesses your ability to analyze and evaluate written contents and synthesize the obtained information, analyze the cohesiveness among component of the sentences, and recognize relationships among words and concepts.

Verbal Reasoning Question Types

The Verbal Reasoning contains three types of questions:

• Reading Comprehension
• Text Completion
• Sentence Equivalence

 

Reading Comprehension Questions

Reading Comprehension questions are designed to test a wide range of abilities that are required in order to read and understand the kinds of prose commonly encountered in graduate school. Those abilities include:

• Understanding the meaning of individual words and sentences
• Comprehending the meaning of paragraphs and larger bodies of text
• Distinguishing between minor and major ideas
• Summarizing a passage
• Drawing conclusions – inference, deduction, implication, pragmatism – from the provided information
• Reasoning from incomplete data to infer missing information
• Understanding the structure of a text in terms and the cohesion (how the parts relate to one another)
• Identifying the author’s assumptions and perspective
• Analyzing a text and correctly identifying the devised conclusions.
• Identifying strengths and weaknesses of a position
• Developing and considering alternative explanations

As this list implies, reading and understanding a piece of text requires far more than a passive understanding of the words and sentences it contains; it requires active engagement with the text, asking questions, formulating and evaluating hypotheses and reflecting on the relationship of the particular text to other texts and information.

Each Reading Comprehension question is based on a passage that may range in length from one paragraph to several paragraphs. The test contains approximately 10 passages, the majority of which are one paragraph in length and only one or two of which are several paragraphs long. Passages are drawn from the physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, business, arts and humanities and everyday topics and are based on material found in books and periodicals, both academic and nonacademic.

Typically, about half of the questions on the test will be based on passages, and the number of questions based on a given passage can range from one to six. Questions can cover any of the topics listed above, from the meaning of a particular word to assessing evidence that might support or weaken points made in the passage. Many, but not all, of the questions are standard multiple-choice questions, in which you are required to select a single correct answer; others ask you to select multiple correct answers; and still others ask you to select a sentence from the passage.

Text Completion Questions

• Introduction

 

Skilled readers do not simply absorb the information presented on the page; instead, they maintain a constant attitude of interpretation and evaluation, reasoning from what they have read so far to create a picture of the whole and revising that picture as they go. Text Completion questions test this ability by omitting crucial words from short passages and asking the test taker to use the remaining information in the passage as a basis for selecting words or short phrases to fill the blanks and create a coherent, meaningful whole.

Question Structure

• Passage composed of one to five sentences
• One to three blanks
• Three answer choices per blank (five answer choices in the case of a single blank)
• The answer choices for different blanks function independently; i.e., selecting one answer choice for one blank does not affect what answer choices you can select for another blank
• Single correct answer, consisting of one choice for each blank; no credit for partially correct answers

 

Tips for Answering

Do not merely try to consider each possible combination of answers; doing so will take too long and is open to error. Instead, try to analyze the passage in the following way:

• Read through the passage to get an overall sense of it.
• Identify words or phrases that seem particularly significant, either because they emphasize the structure of the passage (words like althoughor moreover) or because they are central to understanding what the passage is about.
• Do not seek the correct answer in the beginning: use your skills of elimination strategy applicable to multiple-choice tests.
• Try to fill in the blanks with words or phrases that seem to complete the sentence, then see if similar words are offered among the answer choices.
• Do not assume that the first blank is the one that should be filled first; perhaps one of the other blanks is easier to fill first. Select your choice for that blank, and then see whether you can complete another blank. If none of the choices for the other blank seem to make sense, go back and reconsider your first selection.
• When you have made your selection for each blank, check to make sure the passage is logically, grammatically and stylistically coherent.

Sentence Equivalence Questions

• Introduction

 

Like Text Completion questions, Sentence Equivalence questions test the ability to reach a conclusion about how a passage should be completed on the basis of partial information, but to a greater extent they focus on the meaning of the completed whole. Sentence Equivalence questions consist of a single sentence with just one blank, and they ask you to find two choices that lead to a complete, coherent sentence while producing sentences that mean the same thing.

Question Structure

• Consists of:
  • a single sentence
  • one blank
  • six answer choices
• Requires you to select twoof the answer choices; no credit for partially correct answers.

 

Tips for Answering

Do not simply look among the answer choices for two words that mean the same thing. This can be misleading for two reasons. First, the answer choices may contain pairs of words that mean the same thing but do not fit coherently into the sentence. Second, the pair of words that do constitute the correct answer may not mean exactly the same thing, since all that matters is that the resultant sentences mean the same thing.

• Read the sentence to get an overall sense of it.
• Identify words or phrases that seem particularly significant, either because they emphasize the structure of the sentence (words like althoughor moreover) or because they are central to understanding what the sentence is about.
• Try to fill in the blank with a word that seems appropriate to you and then see if two similar words are offered among the answer choices. If you find some word that is similar to what you are expecting but cannot find a second one, do not become fixated on your interpretation; instead, see whether there are other words among the answer choices that can be used to fill the blank coherently.
• When you have selected your pair of answer choices, check to make sure that each one produces a sentence that is logically, grammatically and stylistically coherent, and that the two sentences mean the same thing.

 

 

Overview of the Quantitative Reasoning Measure

The Quantitative Reasoning measure of the GRE^® General Test assesses:

• basic mathematical skills
• understanding of elementary mathematical concepts
• ability to reason quantitatively and to model and solve problems with quantitative methods

Some of the Quantitative Reasoning questions are posed in real-life settings, while others are posed in purely mathematical settings. Many of the questions are “word problems,” which must be translated and modeled mathematically. The skills, concepts and abilities are assessed in the four content areas below.

• Arithmetictopics include properties and types of integers, such as divisibility, factorization, prime numbers, remainders and odd and even integers; arithmetic operations, exponents and roots; and concepts such as estimation, percent, ratio, rate, absolute value, the number line, decimal representation and sequences of numbers.
• Algebratopics include operations with exponents; factoring and simplifying algebraic expressions; relations, functions, equations and inequalities; solving linear and quadratic equations and inequalities; solving simultaneous equations and inequalities; setting up equations to solve word problems; and coordinate geometry, including graphs of functions, equations and inequalities, intercepts and slopes of lines.
• Geometrytopics include parallel and perpendicular lines, circles, triangles — including isosceles, equilateral and 30°-60°-90° triangles — quadrilaterals, other polygons, congruent and similar figures, three-dimensional figures, area, perimeter, volume, the Pythagorean theorem and angle measurement in degrees. The ability to construct proofs is not tested.
• Data analysistopics include basic descriptive statistics, such as mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, interquartile range, quartiles and percentiles; interpretation of data in tables and graphs, such as line graphs, bar graphs, circle graphs, boxplots, scatterplots and frequency distributions; elementary probability, such as probabilities of compound events and independent events; conditional probability; random variables and probability distributions, including normal distributions; and counting methods, such as combinations, permutations and Venn diagrams. These topics are typically taught in high school algebra courses or introductory statistics courses. Inferential statistics is not tested.

The content in these areas includes high school mathematics and statistics at a level that is generally no higher than a second course in algebra; it does not include trigonometry, calculus or other higher-level mathematics..

The mathematical symbols, terminology and conventions used in the Quantitative Reasoning measure are those that are standard at the high school level. For example, the positive direction of a number line is to the right, distances are nonnegative and prime numbers are greater than 1. Whenever nonstandard notation is used in a question, it is explicitly introduced in the question.

In addition to conventions, there are some important assumptions about numbers and figures that are listed in the Quantitative Reasoning section directions:

• All numbers used are real numbers.
• All figures are assumed to lie in a plane unless otherwise indicated.
• Geometric figures, such as lines, circles, triangles, and quadrilaterals, are not necessarily drawn to scale. That is, you should notassume that quantities such as lengths and angle measures are as they appear in a figure. You should assume, however, that lines shown as straight are actually straight, points on a line are in the order shown, and more generally, all geometric objects are in the relative positions shown. For questions with geometric figures, you should base your answers on geometric reasoning, not on estimating or comparing quantities by sight or by measurement.
• Coordinate systems, such as xy-planes and number lines, are drawn to scale; therefore, you can read, estimate, or compare quantities in such figures by sight or by measurement.
• Graphical data presentations, such as bar graphs, circle graphs, and line graphs, are drawn to scale; therefore, you can read, estimate, or compare data values by sight or by measurement.

 

 

Overview of the Analytical Writing Measure

The Analytical Writings test your critical thinking and analytical skills. It assesses your ability to articulate and support or criticize complex ideas, construct and evaluate arguments, and sustain a focused and coherent discussion. It does not assess specific content knowledge.

The Analytical Writing measure consists of two separately timed analytical writing tasks:

• a 30-minute “Analyze an Issue” task
• a 30-minute “Analyze an Argument” task

 

The Issue task presents an opinion on an issue of general interest followed by specific instructions on how to respond to that issue. You are required to evaluate the issue, consider its complexities and develop an argument with reasons and examples to support your views.

The Argument task requires you to evaluate a given argument according to specific instructions. You will need to consider the logical soundness of the argument rather than agree or disagree with the position it presents.

The two tasks are complementary in that one requires you to construct your own argument by taking a position and providing evidence supporting your views on an issue, and the other requires you to evaluate someone else’s argument by assessing its claims and evaluating the evidence it provides.

Individuals taking the computer-delivered test will use a basic word processor developed by ETS. The basic word processor contains the following functionalities: insert text, delete text, cut-and-paste and undo the previous action. Tools such as a spell checker and grammar checker are not available.

Preparing for the Analytical Writing Measure

Everyone — even the most practiced and confident of writers — should spend some time preparing for the Analytical Writing measure before arriving at the test center. It is important to understand the skills measured and how the tasks are scored. It is also useful to review the scoring guides, sample topics, scored sample essay responses and rater commentary for each task.

The tasks in the Analytical Writing measure relate to a broad range of subjects — from the fine arts and humanities to the social and physical sciences — but no task requires knowledge of specific content. In fact, each task has been tested by actual GRE® test takers to ensure that it possesses several important characteristics, including the following:

• GRE test takers, regardless of their field of study or special interests, understood the task and could easily respond to it.
• The task elicited the kinds of complex thinking and persuasive writing that university faculty consider important for success in graduate school.
• The responses were varied in content and in the way the writers developed their ideas.

Published Topic Pools for the Analytical Writing Measure

To help you prepare for the Analytical Writing measure, the GRE Program has published the entire pool of tasks from which your test tasks will be selected. You might find it helpful to review the Issue and Argument pools:

 

• Pool of Issue Topics

https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool

 

• Pool of Argument Topics

https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/argument/pool

 

Test-taking Strategies for the Analytical Writing Measure

• Before taking the GRE® General Test, review the strategies, sample topics, essay responses and rater commentary for each task contained in this section. Also review the scoring guides for each task. This will give you a deeper understanding of how raters evaluate essays and the elements they’re looking for in an essay.
• It is important to budget your time. Within the 30-minute time limit for the Issue task, you will need to allow sufficient time to consider the issue and the specific instructions, plan a response and compose your essay. Within the 30-minute time limit for the Argument task, you will need to allow sufficient time to consider the argument and the specific instructions, plan a response and compose your essay. Although the GRE raters who score your essays understand the time constraints under which you write and will consider your response a first draft, you still want it to be the best possible example of your writing that you can produce under the testing conditions.
• Save a few minutes at the end of each timed task to check for obvious errors. Although an occasional spelling or grammatical error will not affect your score, serious and persistent errors will detract from the overall effectiveness of your writing and lower your score accordingly.

 

Note: some contents on this page are credited to ETS – GRE webpage.