GRE Sections Overview
The GRE consists of five sections: one Analytical Writing section, two Verbal Reasoning sections, and two Quantitative Reasoning sections. The exam is 1 hour and 58 minutes in length and may be taken at an approved test center or remotely from home. There are no breaks given during the exam.
| GRE Section | Number of Questions | Amount of Time |
| Analytical Writing | 1 | 30 minutes |
| Verbal Reasoning #1 | 12 | 18 |
| Verbal Reasoning #2 | 15 | 23 |
| Quantitative Reasoning #1 | 12 | 21 |
| Quantitative Reasoning #2 | 15 | 26 |
Analytical Writing
The Analytical Writing section is always the first section of the GRE to be completed. It consists of one “Analyze an Issue” task, where test-takers are asked to write an essay analyzing a given issue. Possible issues that test-takers may be asked to write about are available on the ETS website and can easily be found by entering “GRE Analyze an Issue prompts” into a search engine. These lists are the best resource for students who are trying to learn about the sort of writing tasks that they will be required to perform during their test.
ETS also provides detailed information about how your essays will be scored, with a rationale provided for each scoring level in addition to numerous example essays of differing quality. The essays are judged holistically, so it is important both to write a lengthy essay and to structure it well to clearly and efficiently convey the complex interpretations of the provided material.
Verbal Reasoning
After the Analytical Writing section, two of the remaining sections are Verbal Reasoning. These sections assess a student’s ability to perform the following:
- Analyze and evalute written material
- Synthesize information from written material
- Analyze relationships among component parts of sentences
- Recognize relationships among words and concepts
There are 12 questions in the first Verbal Reasoning section and 15 questions in the second Verbal Reasoning section for a total of 27 questions. Test-takers have 18 minutes to complete the first section and 23 minutes to complete the second second, which means a total of 41 minutes is spent on Verbal Reasoning questions.
The Analytical Writing and Verbal Reasoning sections are the main attributes that set the GRE apart from other graduate tests, most notably the GMAT. While the GMAT requires efficient recall and deployment of grammar and spelling rules, the GRE is more comprehensive about its evaluation of English comprehension. If you are adept at learning new languages or have a diverse undergraduate or professional background, then the GRE is an excellent opportunity to showcase your reasoning abilities.
The Verbal Reasoning sections contain three question types: Reading Comprehension, Text Completion, and Sentence Equivalence. Reading comprehension questions present a passage of text and then ask several analytical questions about it. This is fairly similar to the “reading comprehension” passages of other standardized tests, except that the reading material may be much more challenging than what you are used to reading for entertainment, since it is designed to mimic the level of material that you will be expected to digest as a graduate student.
The Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions are both different methods of evaluating vocabulary knowledge. Text completion passages are 1-5 sentences long with 1-3 blanks and either three or five answer choices (five if there is only one blank). Students must select the correct answer for every blank or get the entire question wrong, as there is no partial credit.
Sentence Equivalence questions present a sentence with a single blank and a list of vocabulary words. Students must select two vocabulary words that complete the sentence in an equivalent way. It does not matter whether both selections are “synonymous” (and it would be foolish to answer only based on which two words mean the same thing). What matters here is that the completed sentence is “equivalent” with both words. These questions require more understanding than merely memorizing vocabulary lists as you must also understand sentence structure and be able to think creatively.
Quantitative Reasoning
After the Analytical Writing section, two of the remaining sections will be Quantitative Reasoning. These sections assess how well a student can perform the following:
- Utilize basic mathematical skills
- Understand elementary mathematical concepts
- Reason quanitatively
- Model and solve problems using quantitative methods
There are 12 questions in the first Quantitative Reasoning section and 15 questions in the second Quantitative Reasoning section for a total of 27 questions. Test-takers have 21 minutes to complete the first section and 26 minutes to complete the second, which means that 47 minutes of the GRE are spent on Quantitative Reasoning questions.
The Quantitative Reasoning sections of the GRE are generally regarded as less difficult than those of the GMAT, because they test less specific professional knowledge, allow for more personal time management, and because they allow the use of a calculator.
The Quantatative Analysis sections have four question types: Quantitative Comparison questions, Multiple Choice (select one answer), Multiple Choice (select one or more answers), and Numeric Entry questions. For quantitative comparisons, students must evaluate which of two quantities is greater (or whether they are equal, or whether it is impossible to determine their relationship). These questions are somewhat similar to “data sufficiency” questions on the GMAT, except that in addition to deciding whether the data are sufficient you must also indicate the relationship between the magnitudes of the two quantities. Numeric Entry questions present a text box, into which you must enter the specific value of the correct answer.
The Multiple Choice questions are self-explanitory, but you must be careful to distinguish between questions that have a single correct answer and questions that may have multiple correct answers. The best way to practice making this distinction is to take computer-based practice tests and become comfortable with the computer testing system. Multiple Choice questions that only allow a single answer will have a “bubble” format, where the answer changes if you select a different bubble. Multiple Choice questions that allow multiple answers will have a “checkbox” format that allows you to make multiple selections.
Computer Adaptation
Whether you take the GRE at a test center or at home, the exam is computer adaptive at the section level for Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections. This means that how you perform on your first Verbal Reasoning or Quantitative Reasoning section will determine the difficulty level of your second Verbal Reasoning or Quantitative Reasoning section. Students who perform well on their first section will “level up” to a more difficult second section, while students who perfrom poorly on their first section will receive less challenging questions on their second section.
While it might seem as if you would want to answer less challenging questions, test prep experts recommend doing your best on the first Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections since the difficulty of your test is taken into account during the computation of your “scaled score,” which falls in a range of 130-170. The Analytical Writing task is not adaptive, but it also does not factor into your GRE total score. Computer adaptive testing provides a more individualized testing experience while also making cheating virtually impossible, thus better helping you showcase your unique knowledge and abilities to prospective higher education programs.