About the GRE General Test Preparing for the Test Preparation for the test will depend on the amount of time you have available and your personal preferences for how to prepare. At a minimum, before you take the GRE ® General Test, you should know what to expect from the test, including the administra tive procedures, types of questions and directions, approximate number of questions, and amount of time for each section. The administrative procedures include registration and appointment scheduling, date, time, test center location, cost, score-reporting procedures, and availability of special testing arrangements.
You can find out about the administrative proce dures for the General Test in the GRE ® Information Bulletin , which is available at www.ets.org/gre/bulletinandforms . Before taking the General Test, it is important to become familiar with the content of each of the measures. In this publication, you’ll find information specific to each measure of the test. You can use this information to understand the type of material on which you’ll be tested and the question types within each measure.
It is also important to spend some time preparing for the Analytical Writing section by reviewing the skills measured, scoring guides and score level descriptions, sample topics, scored sample essay responses, and reader commentary. Test-taking Strategies for the Computer-delivered Test Analytical Writing Section The Analytical Writing measure of the computer-delivered General Test uses an ele mentary word processor developed by ETS so that individuals familiar with a specific commercial word processing software do not have an advantage or disadvantage. This software contains the following functionality: insert text, delete text, cut and paste, and undo the previous action.
Tools such as a spelling checker and grammar checker are not available in the ETS software, in large part to maintain fairness with those examin ees who must handwrite their essays at paper-delivered administrations. It is important to budget your time. Within the 30-minute time limit for each task, you’ll need to allow sufficient time to think about the topic, plan a response, and com pose your essay. Although GRE readers understand the time constraints under which you write and will consider your response a first draft, you will still want to produce the best possible example of your writing. Save a few minutes at the end of each timed task to check for obvious errors.
Although an occasional typographical, spelling, or grammatical error will not affect your score, severe or persistent errors will detract from the overall effectiveness of your writing and lower your score. Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning Sections The questions in the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning measures are pre sented in a variety of formats. Some require you to select a single answer choice; others require you to select one or more answer choices, and yet others require you to enter a numeric answer. Make sure when answering a question that you understand what 4