Are you thinking about go to graduate school? If so, do you know what a GRE is? If you said no, then you are not alone. I had no clue I even needed to take one. I thought the only thing we needed to do was apply and hope we get in but guess not. If you are just like me the following will help. I will explain exactly what this mystical test is, what is on it, and how to prepare for it.
The GRE stands for the Graduate Record Examination. It typically costs ranges from $150 to $205 depending on the type of test. Many graduate schools look at this test score to see if you would be a good fit for them. Essentially, it is like the SAT. However, the Education Testing Service (ETS) is the organization that offers the GRE instead of the College Board. There are two different types of exams offered: the general test and the subject test. You do not need to take both to get into a graduate school, but if applying to a specific type of graduate program such as biology you might want to take the GRE Biology subject test. This way students will have better odds in making it into the program. To continue, the specific GRE Subject tests has six different areas of study that include: biology, chemistry, literature in English, mathematics, physics, and psychology. The GRE Subject test is designed to focus on how much a person knows about that subject. Meanwhile, the GRE General test is to test critical thinking in multiple areas of study.
The GRE General test is typically the test that most students use when applying, so we’ll dive deeper into what that test looks like. Generally, it takes about three hours and 45 minutes long with a 10-minute break after the third section. Just like the SAT, there are multiple sections with different time limits. The first is the analytical writing section that has two separate tasks which is allotted 30 minutes each. Next, is the verbal reasoning with two sections each having 20 questions and 30 minutes allowed for both. Then there is the quantitative reasoning section that is identical to the verbal reasoning section. The last two sections are unscored and research that has a varying amount of questions and time limits, but these sections do not count toward the overall scoring of the test. These sections, however, can be shown to the school’s students apply too. Furthermore, scoring is different from the SAT. Scores vary from each section from the verbal and quantitative scores ranging from 130-170. Writing scores go from 0 to 6. The subject tests vary on the score. The passing score is up to the school in which you are applying to, so students will want to get the best score you can.
This test is not something you study for one weekend and be able to do well on. It requires time and a lot of it. It is said that students who are in their undergraduate years the exam is easier to study for than those who are not. However, this does not imply that studying is not required. The suggested study time is two or even three months before their set date of the test. The ETS provides students with resources to help study for the exam such as online practice exams and free math review documents. For the subject tests, there is a specific online practice book for each. Also, for the general test there are a list of essay prompts that students can prepare themselves for the analytical writing section. Overall, this exam is important to know about when looking into applying to specific graduate programs. I hope this
gave some insight into maybe the next four years of your life!
Written by LeAnne H., a Rutgers—Camden Undergraduate Student and Raptor Ambassador.