All You Need To Know About The GRE Structure

Sections:

GRE aims at evaluating an applicant on three distinct skills.

• Quantitative Analysis: This section aims at evaluating your ability to understand, analyse and interpret quantitative information, use mathematics to solve problems and use basic concepts of arithmetics, algebra, geometry to analyse data.

• Verbal Reasoning: This section is considered quite difficult as it tests your ability to understand discourse, analyse and evaluate the author’s perspective and argument, and test your overall verbal reasoning skills on multiple levels. Because of the complexity of the discourse, you will be required to read between the lines, identify missing data and incorrect assumptions, have a strong vocabulary and understand the overall structure of the text. 
• Analytical Writing: This section tests your written communication skills, i.e. your ability to express your ideas in a structured format using standard English, using good vocabulary, and providing relevant examples.

Structure:

The GRE exam can be taken as a Computer-Delivered Test, or a Paper-delivered Test. For both test delivery methods, each section is divided into two sub-sections, but the number of questions and time allotted per section varies. The exam is structured as follows:

Computer-Delivered Test:

Apart from the 3 sections, an unidentified, unscored–meaning this is not counted as part of your GRE score–section may be included after the Analytical Writing section. Also, an unscored identified research section might appear instead of the unidentified section at the end of the test. These extra sections are included only in the Computer-Delivered Test.

Paper-Delivered Test:

Scoring:

That’s all for now. In our next article, we will go in depth with each of the sections and give you an idea of what kind of questions will be asked, what you can do to prepare and more. If you have taken GRE before, or have any suggestions, write to us in the comments below. 

If you are planning on studying abroad, perhaps you’re also planning on taking GMAT. You’ll find this article on the GMAT structure helpful. If you want to know more about the individual sections of GMAT, then click here.