The Graduate Record Examination® (GRE®) is divided into sections that assess an individual’s analytical writing, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning abilities. The analytical writing section consists of two writing tasks that must be completed in an essay format and are timed separately. Text completion, sentence equivalent, and reading comprehension questions were to be included in the verbal reasoning section following changes that were to be implemented in August 2011. Quantitative comparison, numeric entry, and multiple-choice questions were to be included in the quantitative reasoning section, which was also to be changed in August 2011.
The test’s verbal reasoning section assesses a person’s ability to analyze and evaluate written materials. completion of text GRE® questions require the examinee to select the most appropriate words or phrases to fill in the gaps in a short passage. There could be several omissions in each passage.
In sentence equivalent questions, the examinee must choose from a list of words which can best be used to fill in a blank in a sentence. Only one blank will be present in each sentence. In reading comprehension questions, the examinee must select the best possible response to a question about a brief passage. Each passage will be followed by a number of questions.
The quantitative reasoning section of the GRE® tests a person’s basic math skills and ability to reason quantitatively. Quantitative analysis GRE® questions ask the examinee to choose between two quantities or formulas and determine which is greater, whether they are equal, or whether they cannot be determined based on the information provided. Multiple-choice quantitative questions ask the examinee to choose the best answer from a list of possible answers to a question or formula. Some multiple-choice questions require only one response, while others require several.
Entering a number GRE® questions require the examinee to enter an integer, decimal, or fractional answer to a mathematical equation. Along with multiple choice and numeric entry questions, graphs or tables may be presented. These can serve as a source of background information.
The GRE® analytical writing section consists of two writing tasks. Each task gives the examinee a single prompt to respond to in the form of an essay. An “analyze an issue” task will be one of the prompts, which will present a claim and require the examinee to discuss how much he or she agrees or disagrees with it. The other writing task will be a “analyze an argument” task, in which the examinee will be given a brief argument and asked to discuss how logically sound it is by critically analyzing the reasoning and evidence used.