How would you define the GRE in your own words?

Answer 1

In a very real sense, the GRE is actually not one exam, but is really a battery of 3 different exams that just happen to be administered in one sitting. It consists of a Quantitative Reasoning Exam, a Verbal Reasoning Exam, and an Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA). As of late 2023, the exam has been revised to contain a smaller number of questions overall, thus allowing it to be completed in a much shorter time.

Let's break down each section:

(a)   A Quantitative Reasoning Exam (aka the Quant section):

----There are 2 modules, consisting of both multiple choice and free-response questions, testing BOTH your ability to problem-solve AND your ability to logically reason using math concepts spanning basic arithmetic, algebra 1 geometry, some algebra 2, and basic statistics.

----Many of the multiple choice questions will use a standard multiple choice format which - alongside the free-response questions - will mostly test straight-forward problem-solving skills. However, there will ALSO be a special type of multiple choice question format known as "Quantitative Comparison". Handling the latter type of question, in particular, calls more for reasoning than for anything else, and students who rely on more "brute force" approaches like testing numbers or straight problem-solving will be sorely tried for time without learning better methods.

----This section is, along with the Analytical Writing portion of the exam, the easiest to improve as it depends mostly on mastery of content. It is very easy to use a diagnostic GRE to see the Quant topics you need to learn, and learning this content will rapidly translate to improvement on this section.

----Your performance on the first Quant module will determine the difficulty of the second module. Your performance on both sections will be used to compute a single score on a scale of 130 – 170. When added to your Verbal score, it makes up ½ of your main GRE score.

(b)  A Verbal Reasoning Exam (aka the Verbal section)

----There are 2 modules, consisting of questions that each belong to 1 of 3 broad classes of Verbal Reasoning tasks: Sentence Completion, Reading Comprehension, & Logical Reasoning. All 3 types of task will test in different ways your ability to analyze and comprehend complex written information as well as engage in critical reasoning about what is presented. Sentence Completion tasks will also test your vocabulary.

----The formats of the questions will vary from standard multiple choice, to selecting a sentence, to having to choose an exact combination of choices out of the ones presented (no other combination of choices will receive credit).

----Your success on this section will depend enormously on (a) your vocabulary and (b) your mastery of key strategies for each of the 3 broad classes of tasks as well as specific tactics for individual question types in each of the 3 classes. This section takes longer to improve than the Quant section does given that it tests very little learnable content (beyond the vocabulary words you can learn) and depends far more on how well you've honed your technique. Be sure to give yourself enough time to practice!

----Your performance on the first Verbal module will determine the difficulty of the second Verbal module. Your performance on both sections will be used to compute a single score on a scale of 130 – 170. When added to your Quant score, it makes up ½ of your main GRE score.

(c)   An Analytical Writing Assessment (aka the AWA):

----There is only 1 module, the first one you will see when you take the GRE exam. IN THE PAST, there were 2 essay tasks on this section, but as of late 2023 onwards there is only 1.

----On the AWA, you will be presented with a prompt outlining a debatable issue. You must then take a position on that issue and argue for it in an essay response.

----You will receive a grade on a scale of 1 - 6 for how well you (among other things) defend and develop that position and for how well-organized and structured your response is.

---- Since you have only half an hour to generate your response, you would be wise to have an essay strategy or "template" to use to generate a solid response rapidly. The good news is that ALL of the essay prompts you could possibly see on test day are available on the ETS website. This means that you can develop an opinion for ALL of them, so that you will be prepared to argue for ANYTHING on test day!

----Your AWA score is NOT considered part of your main GRE score, and it is widely considered the least important of the 3 sub-exams comprising the GRE for admissions purposes. That said, there is no reason to score anything less than a 4 out of 6, since failing to score a 4 or higher can raise doubts as to your writing ability among members of an admissions committee. Since it is also the very first module you will see on the exam, knowing you did poorly can cast a pall over your mood for the rest of the exam, so it is well worth having an essay strategy in place to prevent such a thing from happening.

Clearly, there is a LOT to consider when preparing for the GRE, and you only have so much official material from the test-maker to work with, so there is no room for wasting time on books/courses that don't work. Read through my profile and then reach out to learn more about how I can help you prepare for the GRE!