About the GRE General Test

• The GRE measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills 
• the analytical writing measure assesses the ability to articulate and support complex ideas 
• the verbal reasoning measure your ability to analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it 
• the quantitative reasoning measure assesses your basic mathematical skills and your understanding of the elementary mathematical concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis  
• test runtime 2 hours and 40minutes - computer  
• 3 hours and 30 minutes - paper test 
• before taking the general test it is important to become familiar with the  content of each of the measures. 
• the analytical writing measure of the computer-delivered general test uses an elementary word processing software developed by ETS so that individuals familiar with a specific commercial word processing software do not have an advantage or disadvantage. 
• this software contains the following functionality insert text, delete text, cut and paste, and undo the previous action tools such as a spelling checker and a grammar checker are not available 
• save a few minutes at the end of each timed task to check for obvious errors. 
• for verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning sections some require , on or multiple answers and some require a numeric answer 
• your verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning scores will be determined by the number of questions you answer correctly. Nothing is subtracted from a score if you answer a question incorrectly 
• ANSWER EVERY QUESTION 
• no question carries greater weight than any other 
• scratch paper 
• you will receive a supply of scratch paper before you begin the test. you can replenish your supply of scratch paper as necessary through the test by asking the test administrator 
• breaks 
• there is a ten minute break following the third section and one minute breaks between the other test sections
• you may not go back to an earlier section of the test after the supervisor announces " please stop work" the supervisor is authorized to dismiss you from the center for doing so 
• a calculator will be provided at the test center for use during the quantitative reasoning sections 
• for the analytical writing measure, each essay receives a score from at least one trained reader, using six- point holistic scale
• holistic scoring readers are trained to assign scores base on the overall quality of an essay om response to the assigned task 
• the essay is then scored by e-rater, a computerized program developed by ETS that is capable of identifying essay features related to writing proficiency 
• 0-6 score scale 
• ETS  reserves the right to cancel test scores of any test taker when an essay response includes any of the following 
• text that is usually similar to that found in one or more other GRE essay responses 
• quoting or paraphrasing, without attribution, language that appears in any published or unpublished sources, including sources from the internet and/ or sources provided by any third party 
• unacknowledgment use of work that has been produced through collaboration with others without citation of the contribution of others 
• Essays submitted as work of the test taker that appear to have been borrowed in whole or in part from elsewhere or prepared by another person 
• for the verbal and quantitative reasoning measures of the computer delivered test a raw score is computed. The raw score is the number of questions you answered correctly. The raw score then is converted to a scaled score through a process known as equating. The equating process accounts for minor variations in difficulty from test to test as well as the differences introduced by the section-level adaptation 
• So a scaled score for a particular measure reflects the same level of performance regardless of which second section was selected when the test was taken 

verbal reasoning an quantitative reasoning 

• two step process 
• first a raw score is computed for each measure. the raw score for each measure is the number of questions answered correctly in the two sections for that measure 
• it is then converted to scaled scores through a process known as equating. the equating account for minor variations in difficulty among the different test additions 

score reporting 

• three scores are reported on the general test 
• a verbal reasoning score reported on a 130-170 score scale in 1 point increments 
• a quantitative reasoning score reported on a 130-170 score scale, in 1 point increments 
• an analytical writing score reported on a 0-6 score scale, in half point increments

the score select option 

• after test day you can send scores from the most recent, all, or any specific test administration 

score reporting time frames 

• scores from computer delivered GRE General Test Administrations are reported approximately 10 to 15 days after the test date 
• scores from paper delivered administrations are reported within six weeks after the test date