GRE General Test Content - ETS

skip to main content skip to footer

The GRE® General Test

One test for graduate, business and law school

Test Content

The GRE General Test closely reflects the kind of thinking you’ll do in today's demanding graduate school programs, including business and law. It measures your verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills — skills that have been developed over a long period of time and aren’t related to a specific field of study but are important for all.

Verbal Reasoning

The Verbal Reasoning section measures your ability to:

• analyze and draw conclusions from discourse; reason from incomplete data; identify author's assumptions and/or perspective; understand multiple levels of meaning, such as literal, figurative and author's intent
• select important points; distinguish major from minor or irrelevant points; summarize text; understand the structure of a text
• understand the meaning of individual words, sentences and entire texts; understand relationships among words and among concepts

Take a closer look at the Verbal Reasoning section.

Quantitative Reasoning

The Quantitative Reasoning section measures your ability to:

• understand, interpret and analyze quantitative information
• solve problems using mathematical models
• apply basic skills and elementary concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis

Take a closer look at the Quantitative Reasoning section.

Analytical Writing

The Analytical Writing section measures your ability to:

• articulate complex ideas clearly and effectively
• support ideas with relevant reasons and examples
• sustain a well-focused, coherent discussion
• control the elements of standard written English

It requires you to provide focused responses based on the tasks presented, so you can accurately demonstrate your skill in directly responding to a task.

Take a closer look at the Analytical Writing section.

Modified versions of Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning questions

The test you take may include questions that are modified versions of published questions or of questions you’ve already seen on the test. Some modifications are substantial; others are less apparent.

Even if a question appears to be similar to a question you’ve already seen, it may in fact be different and have a different answer. Pay careful attention to the wording of each question.

Test structure

Learn more about the test sections and their timing.