The GRE General Test is currently a computer-based test offered at centers in the US and in most other countries.
In China and in some other parts of the Far East a paper-version of the GRE is administered. In both the computer and paper-based tests the questions types are the same.
The GRE General Test has three main divisions: Analytical Writing; Verbal Reasoning; Quantitative reasoning.
Analytical Writing
The analytical writing section has two essay writing tasks: the Issue and the Argument. The Issue task presents two topics of which the candidate must select one on which to write an essay presenting the writer's position on the topic. The candidate is required to support his or her point of view with examples and reasoning. The time allotted for this task is 45 minutes.
The Argument task presents a statement of a position. The candidate is required to analyze the logic of the given position and suggest how and where the reasoning may be faulty or require improvement. The student is given 30 minutes for this essay.
The scoring for the Analytical Writing section is on a scale of 0-6. Each essay is scored by a human reader and then by a computer program called the e-rater. If the human and e-rater scores differ, the score is sent to a second reader. The final score is the average of the two human scores (to the nearest half mark). If the there is no disparity between the first human score and that of the e-rater, that score is taken.
Verbal Reasoning
The verbal reasoning section contains four types of question: analogies; antonyms; sentence completion; critical reading (comprehension). All questions are multiple choice.
The verbal reasoning section of the GRE is often said to be a test of vocabulary. However, the comprehension questions require good reading and reasoning skills.
Quantitative Reasoning
The quantitative reasoning section has two types of multiple choice questions: quantitative comparisons and problem solving. Follow the links to explore these types of math question. A student taking the test might find one or two math questions that are not multiple-choice; these questions require the answer to be typed in a box.
The level of math knowledge should be within the grasp of a 10th Grade student. Some of the questions involve data interpretation. No calculators are allowed.
GRE Scores
The maximum score for the test is 1600: verbal and quantitative sections are each worth 800 points.
The student can get the results at the test center immediately after the GRE-CAT. This is not an official score as the results of the writing section come later. The writing mark (on 6) is reported along with the score, but is not included in the score for the other sections.
What is a good GRE score?
A good GRE score is one that gets you into the graduate program of your choice. You can check the median score of last year's intake to put an actual number to the score that any particular program requires. (The range of GRE score might actually give you a better idea of your chances for admission.)
GRE score is certainly an important factor in admissions: your application might not be considered if you don't pass a certain cut-off level. As a rough guide, a score of 600 on the verbal section is the 85 percentile, whereas 600 on the quantitative section is only the 50 percentile. (The percentile rank indicates the percentage of people taking the test who performed worse than you).
The mean score on verbal is of the order of 460, and the mean score on quant is of the order of 580. So it should be obvious that 600 on verbal might impress an admissions officer, but you would need above 700 on quant to impress anyone. Putting these two numbers together, we get a score of 1300: this is definitely 'good'. However, for a highly competitive program a 1400+ score would be nearer the mark.
Do note that an 'unbalanced' score - with a very high percentile in one area and a low percentile in the other - is not as impressive as a balanced score.
The score on the analytical writing section needs to be 4.5 and above to qualify as 'good'.
