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About the GRE:
The Graduate Record Examination test also known as GRE is an examination which is attempted by students for applying to masters and doctoral degree programs in most of the universities of the US, UK, Germany, and Canada. The exams are developed, administered and conducted by Educational Testing Services (ETS). GRE is the most popular exam which is written to pursue MS courses abroad by Indian students. The GRE is conducted either as the GRE General Test or the GRE Subject test.
The GRE Subject Test is usually taken to highlight subject strengths in a specific subject area, such as Math, English or Biology. A graduate program will actually require a GRE Subject test score in very rare instances. The subject test is required for usually applying to a graduation program at a top university. Examples of such universities can be seen at the University Of Notre Dame, which requires GRE Subject Tests for its graduate programs in Mathematics, Physics, and English. New York University also requires GRE Subject Tests for some of its programs, as do Yale and Stanford.
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About the GRE Subject Test:
The GRE Subject Tests are administered in a paper-delivered format. The total testing time is 2 hours and 50 minutes. There are no separately-timed sections In the subject tests.
The Subject Tests are described below:
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Mathematics
- English Literature
- Psychology
- Physics
Biology Test
Overview of content:
▪ The test consists of approximately 188 five-choice questions, a number of which are grouped in sets toward the end of the test and are based on descriptions of laboratory and field situations, diagrams or experimental results.
▪ The content of the test is organized into three major areas: cellular and molecular biology (33–34%), organismal biology (33–34%), and ecology and evolution (33–34%). In addition to the total score, a sub score in each of these subfield areas is reported.
Chemistry Test
Overview of content:
▪ The test consists of approximately 130 multiple-choice questions.
▪ A periodic table is printed in the test booklet as well as a table of information presenting various physical constants and a few conversion factors among SI units. Whenever necessary, additional values of physical constants are printed with the text of the question.
▪ Test questions are constructed to simplify mathematical manipulations. As a result, neither calculators nor tables of logarithms are needed. If the solution to a problem requires the use of logarithms, the necessary values are included with the question.
▪ The test is divided into 4 sections which are ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY (15%), INORGANIC CHEMISTRY (25%), ORGANIC CHEMISTRY (30%),PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY (30%).
Mathematics Test
Overview of content:
▪ The test consists of approximately 66 multiple-choice questions drawn from courses commonly offered at the undergraduate level.
▪ Approximately 50 percent of the questions involve calculus and its applications — subject matter that is assumed to be common to the backgrounds of almost all mathematics majors.
▪ About 25 percent of the questions in the test are in elementary algebra, linear algebra, abstract algebra, and number theory. The remaining questions deal with other areas of mathematics currently studied by undergraduates in many institutions.
English Literature Test
Overview of content:
▪ Each edition of the test consists of approximately 230 questions on poetry, drama, biography, the essay, the short story, the novel, criticism, literary theory and the history of the language.
▪ The test mentions about authors, works, genres and movements. The questions may be classified into two groups: factual and analytical.
▪ The questions may require a test taker to identify characteristics of literary or critical movements, to assign a literary work to the period in which it was written, to identify a writer or work described in a brief critical comment, or to determine the period or author of a work on the basis of the style and content of a short excerpt.
Psychology Test
Overview of content:
▪ The test consists of approximately 205 multiple-choice questions. Each question in the test has five options from which the test taker is to select the one option that is the correct or best answer to the question.
▪ The questions in the Psychology Test are drawn from the core of knowledge most commonly encountered in courses offered at the undergraduate level within the broadly defined field of psychology.
▪ Generally topics are covered from: Biological, Cognitive, Social, Developmental, Clinical Measurement and Methodology and Other; These are the subjects in which sub scores are added to total.
Physics Test
Overview of content:
▪ The test consists of approximately 100 five-choice questions, some of which are grouped in sets and based on such materials as diagrams, graphs, experimental data and descriptions of physical situations.
▪ The aim of the test is to determine the extent of the examinees’ grasp of fundamental principles and their ability to apply these principles in the solution of problems.
▪ Most test questions can be answered on the basis of a mastery of the first three years of undergraduate physics.
▪ The content covered will be : CLASSICAL MECHANICS (20%), ELECTROMAGNETISM (18%), OPTICS AND WAVE PHENOMENA (9%), THERMODYNAMICS AND STATISTICAL MECHANICS (10%), QUANTUM MECHANICS (12%), ATOMIC PHYSICS (10%), ATOMIC PHYSICS (10%), LABORATORY METHODS (6%), SPECIALIZED TOPICS (9%) – like nuclear and particle physics.
For more specific details and practice books of the GRE subject test you can visit the official website of ETS.
