Test Content
The GRE® General Test is a computer-delivered test that 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. Get a look at the structure of the GRE General Test.
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: Analytical Writing, Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning.
Analytical Writing
The Analytical Writing section measures your ability to:
- articulate complex ideas clearly and effectively
- support ideas with relevant reasons and examples
- examine claims and accompanying evidence
- sustain a well-focused, coherent discussion
- control the elements of standard written English
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.
Take a closer look at the Analytical Writing section, including sample questions, scored sample essay responses, rater commentary, tips and more.
Verbal Reasoning
The Verbal Reasoning section measures your ability to:
- analyze and draw conclusions from discourse; reason from incomplete data; identify author’s assumptions and/or perspective; understand multiple levels of meaning, such as literal, figurative and author’s intent
- select important points; distinguish major from minor or irrelevant points; summarize text; understand the structure of a text
- understand the meaning of individual words, sentences and entire texts; understand relationships among words and among concepts
Get a quick view of the Verbal Reasoning question types.
Take a closer look at the Verbal Reasoning section, including sample questions with explanations, tips and more.
Quantitative Reasoning
The Quantitative Reasoning section measures 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
The Quantitative Reasoning section includes an on-screen calculator.
Get a quick view of the Quantitative Reasoning question types.
Take a closer look at the Quantitative Reasoning section, including sample questions with explanations, tips and more.
Modified Versions of Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning Questions
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.
GRE® General Test Structure
The overall testing time for the GRE® General Test is about three hours and 45 minutes. There are six sections with a 10-minute break following the third section.
| 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 |
| Unscored¹ | Varies | Varies |
| Research² | Varies | Varies |
1 An unidentified unscored section that does not count toward your score may be included and may appear in any order after the Analytical Writing section. Questions in the unscored section are being tried out either for possible use in future tests or to ensure that scores on new editions of the test are comparable to scores from earlier editions.
2 An identified research section that does not count toward your score may be included in place of the unscored section. The research section will always appear at the end of the test. Questions in this section are included for ETS research purposes.
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.
Section-level Adaptation
The Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections are section-level adaptive. The first operational section of each measure (i.e., Verbal and Quantitative) is of average difficulty. The difficulty level of the second section of each of the measures depends on your overall performance on the first section of that measure. For example, if for the Quantitative Reasoning measure, you do very well on the first section, the second section of the Quantitative Reasoning measure will be at a higher level of difficulty. The scoring for the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning measures takes into consideration the total number of questions answered correctly across the two sections, as well as the difficulty level of the sections.
Test Design Features
The advanced adaptive design of the GRE General Test allows you to freely move forward and backward throughout an entire section. Specific features include:
- Preview and review capabilities within a section
- “Mark” and “Review” features to tag questions, so you can skip them and return later if you have time remaining in the section
- The ability to change/edit answers within a section
- An on-screen calculator for the Quantitative Reasoning section
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