What is GRE?
GRE, which is the short form of Graduate Record Exam, conducted by the ETS or the Educational Testing Services, is a stepping stone to your graduate school or the first step towards the career of your choice. Very much like your SAT and ACT exams, GRE Exam is a criteria commonly needed for graduate school. Although the ETS does not bind the exam takers in any sort of Eligibility criteria apart from a valid passport verification, but the universities that accept the GRE scores do have a range of eligibility criteria which needs to be fulfilled with respect to experience, minimum age and qualification.The results of the GRE help the graduate schools to decide if the student is capable and has the potential to keep up with the graduate school programs. Nearly 3,00,000 students take the GRE test every year and this number is on the rise year after year.
Test structure of GRE:
GRE is an assessment broadly done to know some of the much-needed skills in a student, like
analytical writing, verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning. Let us have a look at the GRE format of each of these skills and understand what the student appearing for a GRE exam needs to do:
Analytical writing:
The analytical writing part in a GRE exam is basically of two parts,
- First where the student will be given a paragraph on a general issue, which they will have to read. After going through the paragraph they will be given a time limit of 45 minutes, within which they will have to address the topic of the paragraph as they deem fit supporting it with sound reasoning. This part of analytical writing can be done via a computer also.
- The second part of the essay also is a paragraph which the student will have to read through and analytically criticize the argument given. For this the student will be allocated a time limit of 30 minutes, within which they will have to critically analyze the reasoning stated in the argument provided and state whether the arguments are good or not. This type of analytical writing is not possible through computers hence should be hand-written only.
Verbal Reasoning:
The purpose of the verbal reasoning skill test is
- to understand the ability of the student and their aptitude at completing sentences,
- derive conclusions from the written material provided to them,
- understanding the core concepts between the words and incomplete sentences provided.
For this the GRE pattern for verbal reasoning skill has analogies, incomplete sentences, antonyms, questions based on comprehension reading etc. If this skill exam is attempted via a computer then there are 30 minutes allocated for answering 30 questions. Students can also perform a hand-written test which is comprised of two segments of 30 minutes each and had 38 questions in each segment.
Quantitative reasoning:
The GRE syllabus for Quantitative reasoning includes algebra, geometry, arithmetic, data analysis etc. This means the student has to be ready to perform some high school math while attempting for the quantitative reasoning GRE exam. The GRE score of the student for attempting quantitative reasoning will show off his ability at solving different math problems along with their analyzing ability at quantitative reasoning. The computer version of the skill test gives the student a time limit to answer 28 questions is 45 minutes. For the hand-written version there are two segments of 30 minutes each, each segment having 30 questions.
Scoring system of the GRE test
- Verbal Reasoning — 130 – 107 with a 1 point increment
- Quantitative Reasoning — 130-170 with a 1 point increment
- Analytical Writing — 0-6 with a half point increment
If any of the questions are left un-attempted, then it does not receive any points.
Following is a list of colleges in India as well as Mumbai that accept the GRE scores during admission. Let us have a look:
Top Colleges in India accepting GRE scores:
- Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
- Indian Institute of Management Raipur
- Amrita School of Business Coimbatore
- Indian School of Business Hyderabad Campus
Colleges from Mumbai that accept GRE scores:
- National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) Mumbai.
- University of Bombay
- Aegis School of Business, Navi Mumbai
The GRE exams are nothing to be overwhelmed about. These are based on very general and everyday topics which are easy to understand and attempt.
