The GRE® General Test features question types that closely reflect the kind of thinking you'll do — and the skills you need to succeed — in today's demanding graduate school programs, including business and law. The test-taker friendly design lets you skip questions within a section, go back and change answers and have the flexibility to choose which questions within a section you want to answer first.
The GRE General Test measures your verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills — skills that have been developed over a long period of time and are not related to a specific field of study but are important for all. Here's a look at content covered in the three test sections — Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning and Analytical Writing.
The Verbal Reasoning section measures your ability to:
Get a quick view of the Verbal Reasoning question types.
The Quantitative Reasoning section measures your ability to:
The Analytical Writing section measures your ability to:
The Analytical Writing section requires you to provide focused responses based on the tasks presented, so you can accurately demonstrate your skill in directly responding to a task.
Get a quick view of the Analytical Writing question types.
The test you take may include questions that are modified versions of published questions or of questions you have already seen on the test. Some modifications are substantial; others are less apparent.
Even if a question appears to be similar to a question you have already seen, it may in fact be different and have a different answer. Pay careful attention to the wording of each question.
Measure | Number of Questions | Allotted Time |
---|---|---|
Analytical Writing (One Section with two Separately Timed Tasks | One "Analyze an Issue" task and one " Analyze an Argument" task | 30 minutes per task |
Verbal Reasoning (Two Sections) |
20 questions per section | 30 minutes per section |
Quantitative Reasoning (Two Sections) |
20 questions per section | 35 minutes per section |
Unscored 1 | Varies | Varies |
Research 2 | Varies | Varies |
The Analytical Writing section will always be first. The Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning and unidentified/unscored sections may appear in any order; therefore, you should treat each section as if it counts toward your score.
The advanced adaptive design of the GRE General Test allows you to freely move forward and backward throughout an entire section. Specific features include:
To experience the test design features of the computer-delivered test, access the free POWERPREP Online practice tests.