GRE - Some Basic Information

The GRE or Graduate Record Exam is required for admission to most U.S., Canadian, and UK graduate schools. Most students attend graduate business school for pursuing an Master degree. In addition, GRE can also be used for admission to PhD program.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is a standardized test conducted by Educational Testing Service, ETS, US. The scores of these tests are used as one of the most important parameters by US Universities, colleges while selecting students to their graduate program of study. The GRE General Test aims to assess a student's Analytical writing ability, verbal skills and quantitative skills. As this is a General Test, the test does not relate to any specific field of study.In another way, It simply tests the "mental intelligence" as well as the ability to make decision under time pressure of one.So as it can be taken as an IQ exam whose validity is for five years. After five years, you will need to re-take the test.

The GRE® General Test measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing skills that have been acquired over a long period of time (not related to any specific field of study).

The verbal section (score 800) measures your ability to: analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it, analyze relationships among component parts of sentences, recognize relationships between words and concepts, and reason with words in answering the questions.

The quantitative section (score 800) measures your basic mathematical skills, your understanding of elementary mathematical concepts, and your ability to reason quantitatively and solve problems in a quantitative setting. There is a balance among questions requiring arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis.

The analytical writing section(score 6) measures your ability to: articulate complex ideas clearly and effectively, examine claims and accompanying evidence, support ideas with relevant reasons and examples, sustain a well-focused, coherent discussion, and control the elements of standard written English.

In the GRE, the verbal and math sections are adaptive. The test is for a total duration of up to 3 hours and 15 minutes including the Analytical Writing Section, a pretest section and a research section.

In any computer adaptive test, each section of the test will begin by presenting a question of medium difficulty. If your answer to the question is correct, the next question will be of higher difficulty. If your answer is incorrect, the next question will be of lower difficulty. However, the computer does not always generate a greater difficulty question every time you answer one correctly or a lower difficulty question for every wrong answer. It bases its decision on a number of factors. The final score in the examination is calculated based on various parameters, including, the difficulty level of the questions to which you responded correctly, and the variety of question types answered etc.

And at last , The best way to tackle the exam is to get familiar with the test format and question type. Spend two or three weeks to understand the test by taking a sample test. Then, buy or download more practice tests to practice, practice and practice.

Note: The GRE Subject Tests are intended to measure your knowledge of specific subject matter. Subject Tests are available in eight disciplines: biochemistry, cell and molecular biology; biology; chemistry; computer science; literature in English; mathematics; physics; and psychology.