GRE Syllabus

GRE is an aptitude test to evaluate the candidates on their intellectual ability acquired over a period. The GRE General Test, according to ETS, “features question types that closely reflect the kind of thinking and the skills you need to succeed in today’s demanding graduate school programs.”

The test is designed in such a way to allow you to skip questions within a section, return and change the answers. It allows you the flexibility to choose which questions within a section you want to answer first.

Now, let us take a closer look at the various sections in the GRE General Test

Verbal Reasoning section

This section comprises

(1) Reading Comprehension

(2) Text Completion 

(3) Sentence Equivalence

Reading comprehension

Reading Comprehension questions appear in sets; Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions are independent.

You will find three types of Reading Comprehension questions. The first is Multiple-choice Questions with five answer choices of which you must select one.

The second type is Multiple-choice Questions in which you have to select one or more answer choices: Out of three answer choices you will be asked to select all that are correct; one, two or all three of the answer choices may be correct. To gain credit for these questions, you must select all the correct answers and only those; there is no credit for partially correct answers.

The third is Select-in-Passage. You are asked to select the sentence in the passage that meets a certain description. To select a sentence, click on any word in the sentence or select the sentence with the keyboard. In longer passages, the question will usually apply to only one or two specified paragraphs; you will not be able to select a sentence elsewhere in the passage.

A balance is maintained among reading comprehension passages across three different subject matter areas, namely, humanities, social sciences (including business) and natural sciences. The passages range in length from one paragraph to four or five paragraphs.

Quantitative Reasoning

The Quantitative Reasoning section has four types of questions, namely, (1) Quantitative Comparison Questions (2) Multiple-choice Questions (Select One Answer Choice) (3) Multiple-choice Questions (Select One or More Answer Choices) (4) Numeric Entry Questions

Each question appears either independently as a discrete question or as part of a set of questions called a Data Interpretation set. All of the questions in a Data Interpretation set are based on the same data presented in tables, graphs or other displays of data.

In Quantitative Comparison Questions, you are asked to compare two quantities — Quantity A and Quantity B — and then determine which of four statements describes the comparison.

In Multiple-choice Questions, you are asked to select the correct answer from among five choices. The third type has Multiple-choice Questions with one or more answer choices. A question may or may not specify the number of choices to select.

In Numeric Entry Questions, you are asked either to enter the answer as an integer or a decimal in a single answer box or to enter it as a fraction in two separate boxes — one for the numerator and one for the denominator. In the computer-delivered test, the computer mouse and keyboard are used to enter the answer.

In Data Interpretation Sets, the questions are grouped together and refer to the same table, graph or other data presentation. You are asked to interpret or analyze the given data. The types of questions may be Multiple-choice (both types) or Numeric Entry.

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