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GRE Format

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The GRE is an internationally conducted test that is accepted across many institutions across the world. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it is the Graduate Record Exam or GRE for short and is conducted by Educational Testing Services or ETS for short.

The GRE is mostly taken by people who wish to study their postgraduate degrees or PHDs. Although a growing trend has emerged where MBA applicants are opting to take the GRE instead of the GMAT. This trend can mostly be attributed to two reasons:

  • A growing number of MBA colleges are accepting the GRE scores for the admissions process
  • It is easier to score well on the GRE than the GMAT.

What is tested?

There are primarily 3 types of sections on the GRE:

  • Analytical Writing Assessment or AWA
  • Quantitative Reasoning
  • Verbal Reasoning
GRE Sections
AWA 2 tasks 60 minutes
Quantitative Reasoning 2 sections, 20 Questions Each 70 minutes
Verbal Reasoning 2 sections, 20 Questions Each 60 minutes
Unscored 1 section, 20 Questions 30 or 35 minutes

 

AWA

This section tests your ability to:

  • Critically analyse complex ideas
  • Effectively verify claims and corresponding evidence
  • Coherently communicate thoughts with reasons and examples
  • Effectively use grammar and standard elements of English

Quantitative Reasoning

There are two types of questions in this section:

  • Problem Solving
  • Data Interpretation

The syllabus for the GRE quant section is basic school level math.

GRE Quant Syllabus  
·         Number Properties ·         Statistics
·         Fractions, Decimals & Percentages ·         Algebra
·         Speed, Rate & Time ·         Word Problems
·         Geometry ·         Data Analysis

The GRE quant syllabus is comprised mostly of basic concepts of the above topics. While the concepts in and end of themselves are simple, the difficulty level of the questions varies.

Verbal Reasoning

There are there types of questions in this section:

  • Reading Comprehension
  • Text Completion
  • Sentence Equivalence

The main objective of this section is to test your reading ability and your vocabulary. There are about 4,000 words and their definitions that need to be learnt in order to ace this text completion and sentence equivalence question types. However, for the reading comprehension question types, it is important to pay attention to the passage and read the questions carefully.

GRE Reading Comprehension

GMAT vs GRE

Test Tips

Of late a lot of people who wish to study at top management and B-schools are unsure as to which test to take; The GMAT or The GRE?

This is mostly because over the last few years, more and more top business schools are accepting the GRE as well as the GMAT as one of the competitive exams that are needed to be taken in order to be eligible for admission.

As a result of this trend, the GMAC (the guys who conduct the GMAT), have made changes to the exam to make it more lucrative as an option for B-school aspirers. Now, for anyone who is well acquainted with both the GMAT and the GRE, up until the recent change, would have agreed upon the fact that the GRE is an easier exam to take.

But the new changes to the GMAT is aimed to tackle the issue of it being historically a harder test to take. For instance, the total time for the entire GMAT exam is now half an hour less than what it used to be, making it fifteen minutes shorter than the current GRE. To accommodate this shortening of the exam duration, the GMAC reduced the number of questions in the quant and verbal sections.

In its new format, the GMAT is starting to look like the more ideal choice to score the best that one can.

However, the question still remains, which should you as a B-school aspirant take?

The answer is simple, it depends on three things:

If you feel that you are more mentally agile and have higher intelligence, the GMAT might be a better bet.

If time is a constraint, then again, the GMAT is an easier exam to study for.

If you are the type of person who relies on your intelligence rather than working hard, then again, the GMAT is a better-suited option for you.

 

Having said that, it is important to know that the GMAT while has been made easier than it was or rather less challenging than it was, is still a harder exam to take. Meaning, the difficulty level of the questions that you would find on the GMAT are tougher than what you would likely find on the GRE.

gmat vs greAlso, there is the added vocabulary section that you need to study for the GRE. Four thousand words. Let that sink in. Now, for those of us who are native English speakers, that number becomes smaller because a lot of those words and their meanings would be familiar, and that number could be anywhere between twelve hundred to two thousand, depending on your command over the English language. But those of us that are in different countries or situations where our repertoire of words is inadequate then again, the GMAT is a more suitable option.

All in all, based on everything I’ve said above, it would sound like the GMAT is the most obvious choice, but that is not the case for everyone.

For those of us, who are unsure or uncertain of what course they want to get in, but are only certain about studying further, then the GRE should be your go to. It is a far more versatile exam, with a lot more colleges and universities accepting it in the application process. It also allows you the option of applying for a masters degree in the management sciences, like accounting or finance.

As someone who trains people for both the GMAT and the GRE, I would like to point out that the GMAT is easier to study for but the GRE is easier to take.