GRE General Test Overview
Learn everything your need to know about the GRE General Test, including new content, question breakdown by topic, and scoring scale, and see how these changes will impact you and your chances for admission to graduate school.
Verbal Reasoning Section
Verbal Reasoning questions appear in several formats, each discussed in detail in the corresponding sections. About half of the measure requires reading and answering questions on those passages. The other half requires reading, interpreting, and completing existing sentences, groups of sentences, or paragraphs.
The GRE Verbal Reasoning section tests your ability to:
- Analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it
- Analyze relationships among parts of sentences
- Recognize relationships among words and concepts
Quantitative Reasoning Section
Some Quantitative Reasoning questions are posed in real-life settings, while others are posed in purely mathematical settings. Many questions are "word problems," which must be translated and modeled mathematically.
The GRE Quantitative Reasoning section tests your ability to:
- Understand, interpret, and analyze quantitative information
- Solve problems using mathematical models
- Apply basic skills and elementary concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis
Analytical Writing Section
The Analytical Writing section measure consists of two separately timed analytical writing tasks: the "Analyze an Issue" task and the "Analyze an Argument" task. These two 30-minute tasks are complementary. The Issue task requires you to construct your argument, while the Argument task requires you to evaluate someone else's argument.
The GRE Analytical Writing section tests your ability to:
- Articulate complex ideas clearly and effectively
- Analyze relationships among parts of sentences
- Support ideas with relevant reasons and examples
- Examine claims and accompanying evidence and sustain a well-focused, coherent discussion
