About the GRE General Test

Most applicants to graduate programs take the GRE General Test. 

A The exam is offered at testing centers throughout the United States and the world. 

A There are three sections Analytical Writing, Verbal, and Quantitative. 

Q Why do I have to take the GRE General Test A Graduate programs require you to take the GRE General Test to assess your logical and critical reasoning skills. 

In the United States and in most countries of the world, the GRE is now administered as a computer-based test (CBT), also called a computer-adaptive test (CAT). You make an appointment to go to a testing center, where you take the exam. You may either choose a center from the list in the GRE Registration Bulletin, or ETS will assign you to the nearest location. The exam is offered during the first three weeks of every month, year-round. 

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The Analytical Writing section was added to the GRE General Test in 2002. There are always two tasks, one in which you are required to write about your perspective on a particular topic, and one in which you need to critique a given argument. You will spend 75 minutes on this two-part task, the first section to be presented on the exam. 

At the end of your CBT/CAT GRE General Test, you will have the opportunity to block your scores. If you choose to do so, your exam will never be scored, but ETS will report that you took the exam and chose not to have your scores reported. If you decide you want to see your scores for the test, you will be able to immediately see your unofficial scores for the Verbal and Quantitative sections only. However, once you choose to look at your scores, they will become part of your official GRE record. The Analytical Writing section will not be scored by the computer, so it takes longer to receive your scores. Within about two weeks, complete scores are mailed to you and to your chosen recipients. 

You have this book, which will give you a solid foundation of knowledge about the GRE. You may also want to use GRE Practicing to Take the General Test, the best source for retired GRE questions. You will also want to assemble some other study tools and dedicate them to your GRE preparations, such as ... 

No matter how confident you are about your writing, it is essential to seriously prepare for the Analytical Writing section of the GRE. The Analytical Writing section of the exam is always the first part of the General Test. It is 75 minutes long and given in two parts, which may appear in any order. The two parts are as follows ... 

Neither task tests your objective knowledge in a particular area or course of study. The prompts are meant to test how well you can both create and analyze persuasive arguments about topics of general interest. In fact, the topics are chosen specifically so that GRE test takers, no matter what field of study they plan to pursue or what special interests they have, can address the topic with no trouble. For the Issue task, you... 

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