The GRE General Test, required by many graduate schools, veterinary schools, and various other health professional schools, is considered a good predictor of your success in a graduate program. It is designed not to test specific knowledge in any subject but rather uses writing, reading, and math questions to test your ability to think logically and to problem-solve in complex and nuanced ways.
It is a timed test broken down into six sections:
- One Analytical Writing section (1 question and 30 minutes to write an essay response)
- Two Verbal sections (12 questions in 18 minutes; then 15 questions in 23 minutes)
- Two Quantitative sections (12 questions in 21 minutes; then 15 questions in 26 minutes)
The GRE General Test is also unique because it is a Multistage Test (MST), which means that the difficulty level of the second section of each subject will be determined by the test taker’s performance on the first section.
Scores are broken down into three different section scores:
- Verbal (130–170 scale in 1-point increments)
- Quantitative (130–170 scale in 1-point increments)
- Analytical Writing (6-point scale in half-point increments)
Advantages of the New Revised GRE
- Preview and review capabilities within a section
- A “mark and review” feature to tag questions, so you can skip and return later
- The ability to change/edit answers within a section
- An on-screen calculator for the Quantitative Reasoning section
- New answer formats, including tasks such as numeric entry and highlighting a sentence in a passage to answer a question
** Be sure to visit your prospective schools’ websites to check application and scholarship deadlines as well as score/GPA expectations.
For general information (such as the following) about the GRE, visit ETS.org.
In September 2023, ETS (the makers of the GRE) rolled out a new, shorter format of the GRE. This table summarizes the main changes:
|
|
Current GRE Format
(started Sept. 2023)
|
Old GRE Format
(before Sept. 2023)
|
|
Analytical Writing
|
1 essay task
|
30 minutes
|
2 essay tasks
|
60 minutes
|
|
Quantitative Reasoning
|
27 questions
|
47 minutes
|
40 questions
|
70 minutes
|
|
Verbal Reasoning
|
27 questions
|
41 minutes
|
40 questions
|
60 minutes
|
|
Unscored Section
|
None
|
1 section, verbal or quant
|
|
Scheduled Break
|
None
|
10 minutes, half way through
|
|
Total
|
1 hour, 58 minutes
|
3 hours, 45 minutes
|
Schedule your GRE at the following testing sites.
Lindon (0900)
Prometric Testing Center
350 South 400 West
Suite 200
Lindon, Utah 84042
United States of America
801-226-2095
Salt Lake City (5343)
University of Utah
201 South 1460 East
490 Student Services Building
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
United States of America
801-581-7310
Logan (7730)
Utah State University
University Inn 115
118 Old Main Hill
Logan, Utah 84322
United States of America
435-797-1004
Find information about BYU Graduate Studies.
