The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is an admission requirement for many graduate schools in the United States and Canada. It can be taken by international students worldwide who wish to pursue a higher education degree for schools in these countries. There are more than 1,000 computer test centres where the GRE test can be taken, in more than 160 countries. The test can also be mailed by paper where there are no computer-based centres, so students do not need to travel to take the test, they can do so in the comfort of their home country.
The GRE was founded in 1936 by the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching. It is owned and administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The GRE tests the analytical writing, verbal reasoning, critical thinking and quantitative reasoning skills students have acquired after a long period of learning.
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In the year 2011, there was a GRE revision that changed it from a question-by-question exam to a section-by-section exam. This means the performance of the examinee on the first section determines the difficulty of the second section. Apart from the section-by-section change, the scoring scale was changed, but the question types remained the same. The GRE was computer-adaptive before the revision in 2011, but now, it is a multi-stage test in which allows the examinee to move back and forth between questions in a section and mark questions to answer later if there’s still time.
The revision of the GRE in 2011 also included test completion items, new reading question types that allow the selection of multiple answers. It reduced the emphasis on rote vocabulary knowledge and the elimination of antonyms and analogies.
Table of Contents
How many sections on GRE?
Well, the GRE consists of six sections, and these sections are grouped into three skills test sections. The three sections are; verbal reasoning section, Analytical writing section and quantitative reasoning section. For a better understanding of how many sections on GRE we’ll have to review this section-by-section.
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Verbal Reasoning Section
In the verbal reasoning section, there are two sub-sections. Each section has 20 questions which include four-sentence Equivalence, six text completion and ten critical reading questions. This section is to be completed in one hour.
This section measures your ability to understand and summarise a text, analyze and draw conclusions from disclosure, understand the relationship between words and concepts, understand the meanings of words, sentences and entire texts to get the author’s intent, perceptions and assumptions.
In this section, the software allows you to skip questions you have difficulty with and mark the questions you’d like to revisit later. You can also have a full view of all your questions and see those you’ve answered and not answered. The GRE score range for the verbal reasoning section is 130 to 170. The lowest you can score is 130 and the highest 170, aim for the highest.
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Quantitative Reasoning Section
This section has two subsections with 20 questions each and a time duration of 1 hour 10 minutes to finish all the questions in the quantitative reasoning section. The question types in this section of the GRE test include; Geometry, Algebra, Arithmetic and Data Analysis. This measures your ability to analyze quantitative information, solve problems using a mathematical model and apply necessary quantitative skills.
The Quant section is your high school mathematics. The questions in this section have various formats that require you to either select more than one answer, select a single solution or enter a numeric answer. There is also an on-screen calculator for you to use.
Questions in this section are section-level adaptive, which means, and the testing website has the ‘mark’ and ‘review’ features. These allow you the freedom to mark questions you’ll like to review later but during the time frame of the section. It also allows you to have a full view of your questions and identify the questions you marked for review.
Your score in the quantitative reasoning section is based on the number of questions you answer correctly. There is no subtraction of scores if you answer a question incorrectly or division of your score. What you write is what you get. The score range in this section is also 130 to 170.
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Analytical Writing Section
This is the essay writing section. It consists of two different essays. These two essay tasks are ‘ The issue tasks’ and ‘The Argument tasks’. In the issue tasks, the examiner selects a topic from a pool of issues, which have been made available. In the Argument tasks, the examinee will be given a list of facts and considerations and asked to write an essay that criticizes these arguments.
This section measures the test taker’s ability to sustain a logical discussion, backup ideas with pertinent reasons and examples, articulate complex ideas clearly and effectively also be consistent with the elements of standard written English. The time duration for this section completion is exactly One hour. The score range in this section is on a scale of 0- 6.
The software developed by ETS for the two tasks in this is an elementary word processor. This software is designed for the task takers to be familiar with, and it contains features such as; deleting, inserting text, undoing the previous action, scrolling, cut and paste.
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Experimental Section
The GRE test has an experimental section which can either be verbal or quantitative. This section doesn’t count towards the examinee score; it is used by ETS to gather data on future questions. The test-takers, however, have no idea that this is a dummy section because it appears identical to the scores section and is unidentified. Sometimes in place of the experimental section, and identified research section is given.
An aspirant asking ‘How many sections on GRE‘ is vital so further research can be done to know that every section of the GRE should be taken seriously and given the best effort. Also, it enables the test taker to prepare fully well and be familiar with the structure of the GRE test.
