We are in progress of reformatting the page for visual appearance, however the information on the page is accurate.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE® )

Congratulations, you have decided to take the responsibility to navigate graduate school! Have you thought about applying to a stipend funded program, or to a capstone program? Are you planning on applying to your Alma-mater, or are you applying to a different university? Are you planning on attempting a Master’s, or Doctoral degree? Are you planning on applying to a professional school? Will you remain dedicated to the program regardless of your finances? Are you willing to sacrifice everything to graduate? 

These are a few questions you should have solid answers to, because as a former faculty member, we don’t want you to waste your time or life pursuing a graduate degree that you will not complete, waste grant money, and fill a spot when another person will complete the program! In stipend funded programs your training is funded via grant money and it’s considered on-the-job experience, so take the opportunity seriously! You will be living on minimal amounts of cash, this is a serious decision! Stipend programs are extremely competitive and your academic credentials better be eye catching. Your GRE® score will be vital, therefore make the time to study properly! 

Welcome to the GRE® Examination

The GRE® provides faculty members additional information to support your undergraduate credentials to determine if you have the skills to be successful in completing a graduate program.  Graduate programs are advanced study programs in which you acquire / develop advanced skills though working alongside a mentoring faculty member. Some graduate programs fund graduate student’s work via stipends supported through the faculty members grant award(s). Not every program is funded through stipend programs and applicants to stipend programs are very competitive making the GRE® score that much more important! 

You will be faced with navigating three sections: Analytical Writing, Verbal Reasoning, and Quantitative Reasoning. The Quantitative section is the most unusual and is formatted unlike the course exams you have grown accustom to. It’s algebra, but you better understand mathematical application! Don’t believe the verbal section is simply memorizing complicated words because if you have neglected your vocabulary – well – it’s too late.  The GRE® is utilized by a broad spectrum of graduate programs. A few programs have traditionally been recognized to utilize specialized exams, but the GRE®  has become an alternate exam for Business and Law schools. 

The GRE® test is offered worldwide throughout the year via computer or paper based formats. 

The Heart of the GRE®

Analytical Writing

Evaluates your ability to:

  • clearly and effectively express complex ideas.
  • support ideas with pertinent reasons and examples.
  • investigate claims and evidence provided.
  • convey a coherent discussion
  • command the elements of standard written English

Verbal Reasoning

Evaluates your ability to:

  • read dialog to analyze and draw conclusions; utilize incomplete data to formulate solutions; identify author’s perspective; identify literal and figurative meaning, identify author’s intent!  
  • identify important points; major from minor or irrelevant points; summarize and understand the structure of a text! 
  • identify the meanings of words, relationships among words and concepts

Quantitative Reasoning

Evaluates your ability to:

  • interpret and analyze quantitative information
  • use mathematical models to identify solutions
  • apply basic skills and elementary concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis

The Heart of the GRE® Questions

Analytical Writing

The Analytical writing portion of the exam is formatted to assess your ability to analyze an issue and an argument. The issue will be based upon a quotation of general interest. The argument will be based on a short passage that presents a situation. You will be given 30 minutes for each writing sample. 

Analyze An Issue:

You must analyze the issue according to the specific instructions while using examples drawn from such areas as your reading, experience, observations, and/or academic studies to support your point of view. 

Your essay will be evaluated for its overall quality, based on how well you: Respond to the specific task instructions; Consider the complexities of the issue; Organize, develop, and express your ideas; Support your ideas with relevant reasons and/or examples; Control the elements of written English. 

Analyze An Argument.

You will read a short passage that presents an argument and its specific instructions to respond to the passage. 

You should NOT present your own views on the subject. You should respond accordingly to the instructions. It is necessary to support your stance with relevant reasons and/or examples. 

You will be evaluated for overall quality based on how well you: Respond to task instructions; Identify and analyze features of the argument; Organize, develop, and express your thoughts; Use relevant reasons or examples; Control the elements of written English. 

Verbal Reasoning

Lets get to the heart of the verbal matter, we are not thesauruses! If you have not been developing your vocabulary since childhood then the verbal section will be challenging. You will have to rely on methods to leverage evidence, understand word roots, prefix, suffix, make word predictions, and select the best choice to complete the text completion questions. The GRE leverages words that are not used in everyday language. 

Accept this and learn how to analyze sentences, learn how words are constructed, and use these techniques to do the best you can with the verbal section. You will encounter reading comprehension, text completion, and sentence equivalent assessment. Below you will find examples of these three categories. 

Verbal Reasoning - Question Type Examples

Reading Comprehension

The sales can be increased by the presence of sunlight within a store, and it has been shown by the experience of the only Cloth Mart department store with a large skylight. The skylight allows sunlight into half of the store, reducing the need for artificial light. The rest of the store uses only artificial light. Since the store opened two years ago, the departments on the sunlit side have had substantially higher sales than the other departments.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

  1.  On particularly cloudy days, more artificial light is used to illuminate the part of the store under the skylight.
  2.  When the store is open at night, the departments in the part of the store under the skylight have sales that are no higher than those of the other departments.
  3. Many customers purchase items from departments in both parts of the store on a single shopping trip.
  4. Besides the skylight, there are several significant architectural differences between the two parts of the store.
  5. The departments in part of the store under the skylight are the departments that generally have the highest sales in other stores in the Cloth Mart chain.

*All Examples can be found in The Official Guide to the GRE General Test 3rd edition. 

Text Completion

In Joe’s initial works he made physical disease (i) ________factor in the action; from this, his early critics inferred that he had a predilection for focusing on (ii) ________subject matter.

            Blank (i)                     Blank (ii)

  1. a pivotal                1. recondite
  2. a nonexistent         2. uncomplicated
  3. an obscure             3. morbid

Sentence Equivalence

Britain is attractive to worldwide advertisers because it is _____ market, so there is no need to tailor advertisements for different parts of the country. 

  1. a global
  2. an uncomplicated
  3. a vast
  4. a homogeneous
  5. a uniform
  6. an immense

Quantitative Reasoning

The quantitative reasoning section assesses basic mathematics skills, elementary mathematical concepts, and ones ability to model and solve problems. Some reasoning questions are based on real-life settings while others are pure mathematical in nature. Many questions are word problems and one’s skills are assessed across the four content areas: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and Data analysis. The GRE Quantitative section has an unusual format; pay attention to the different formatted examples below. Some questions are comparison questions, some are scenario based, and some are straight forward. You should chose the answer that best fits the situation. 

Quantitative Reasoning - Example Questions

                                 x < y < z

Quantity A                                     Quantity B

 ( x + y + z) / 3                                       y

  1. Quantity A is greater.
  2. Quantity B is greater.
  3. The two quantities are equal.
  4. The relationship cannot be determined from the information given. 

The ratio of  3/4  to 2/3  is equal to the ratio of

  1. 1 to 8
  2. 8 to 1
  3. 8 to 3
  4. 8 to 9
  5. 9 to 8

If a graduating class of 472 students, 284 took algebra 1 and 242 took genetics. What is the greatest possible number of students that could have taken both algebra 1 and genetics? 

                        __________ students

 

If 1 / (23)  (53)  is expressed as a terminating decimal, how many nonzero digits will the decimal have?

  1. One
  2. Two
  3. Four
  4. Six
  5. Eleven

In a set of 48 positive Integers, 24 of the integers are less than 100. The rest are greater than 100. 

Quantity A                                    Quantity B

The median of the 48                           100 

  1. Quantity A is greater.
  2. Quantity B is greater.
  3. The two quantities are equal.
  4. The relationship cannot be determined from the information given. 

Three consecutive integers have a sum of 12. 

Quantity A                                    Quantity B

The least of the 3 integers                 – 24

  1. Quantity A is greater.
  2. Quantity B is greater.
  3. The two quantities are equal.
  4. The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.