Description of the General Test

The General test measures verbal, quantitative, and analytical skills that have been acquired over a long period of time and that are not related to any specific field of study. The verbal measure tests your ability to analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it, analyze relationships among component parts of sentences, and recognize relationships between words and concepts. The quantitative measure tests your basic mathematical skills and your understanding of elementary mathematical concepts, as well as your ability to reason quantitatively and solve problems in a quantitative setting. The analytical measure tests your ability to understand structured sets of relationships, deduce new information from sets of relationships, analyze and evaluate arguments, identify central issues and hypotheses, draw sound inferences, and identify plausible causal explanations.

Because students have wide-ranging backgrounds, interests and skills, the verbal sections of the General Test use questions from diverse areas of experience. The areas tested range from the activities of daily life to broad categories of academic interest, such as the sciences, social studies, and the humanities. The content areas included in the quantitative sections of the test are arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis. Questions in the analytical sections measure reasoning skills developed in virtually all fields of study.

WHAT KINDS OF QUESTIONS ARE ON THE TEST?

The GRE includes, verbal, mathematics, and analytical questions. Each question type includes a variety of testing styles. Here's an overview of questions:

Verbal Questions

• Sentence Completions.  Sentence completion questions ask you to choose a word or words that fill in the blanks in a given sentence.

• Analogies.  Analogy questions present a pair of words that have some logical relationship. Then the choices present other pairs of words. You have to choose the pair that has the&came of relationship as the first pair.

• Reading Comprehension.  Reading comprehension questions relate to a passage that is provide for you to read. The  passage can be about almost anything, and the questions about it test how well you understood the passage and the information in it.

• Antonyms.  Antonym question present a single vocabulary word. You must pick the answer choice that is mos nearly opposite in meaning to the given word.

Mathematics Question

• Quantitative Comparisons.  Quantitative comparison questions test your skills in comparing information and in estimating. You'll see two quantities, one in Column A and one in Column B. The task is to compare the two quantities and decide if one is greater than the other \,if they are equal, or if no comparison is possible.

• Problem Solving.  Problem-solving questions present multiple-choice problems in arithmetic, basic algebra, and elementary geometry. The task is to solve the problems and choose the correct answer from among five answer choices.

• Graphs.  Graph questions present mathematical information in pictorial form Each graph is followed by questions about it.

How does the Computer-Based General Test Work?

At the start of the test, you are presented with test questions of middle difficulty. As you answer each question, the computer scores that question and uses that information, as well as your responses to any preceding questions and information about the test design, to determine which question is presented next. As long as you respond correctly to each question, questions of increased difficulty typically will be presented. When you enter incorrect responses, the computer typically will present you with questions of lesser difficultly. Your next question will be the one that best reflects both your previous performance and the requirements of the test design. This means that different test takers will be given different questions.

Because the computer scores each questions before selecting the new one, you must answer each question when it is presented. For this reason, once you answer a question and move on to another, you cannot go back and change your answer. The computer has already incorporated both your answer and the requirements of the test design into its selection of the next question for you.

Each computer-based test section meets pre-established specifications, including the type of questions asked and the subject matter presented. The statistical characteristics of the questions answered correctly and incorrectly, including the difficulty levels, are taken into account in the calculation of the score. Therefore, it is appropriate to compare scores of different test takers even though they received different questions.

The Sections

The GRE computer-adaptive test (CAT) consists of three second section, with different amounts of time allotted for you to complete each section:

Verbal

Time                    30 minutes   Format                 30 Questions                              Question types include: Analogies, sentence com-                               pletion, antonyms, and reading comprehension   Content                Tests Vocabulary, verbal reasoning skills, and the                                 ability to read with understanding and insight

QUANTITATIVE

Time                    45 minutes   Format                 28 questions                               Question types include: Problem  solving quantita-                               tive comparison, and graph problems   Content                Test   basic   mathematical skills,  ability  to  under-                               stand mathematical concepts, and quantitative rea-                               soning skills