What is GRE?

The full form of GRE is Graduate Record Examinations. GRE is a General Test, one of the world’s largest assessment program for graduation courses and it is conducted by the Educational Testing Services (ETS). GRE is also accepted for Post-Graduation/Master’s and Doctorate degrees. GRE is also acceptable to hundreds of business schools throughout the world besides the GMAT score. Thousands of students apply for this exam every year and this exam is conducted in the centers set up by the ETS.

GRE Home Test

Since the Pandemic has started ETS has launched its GRE Home Test facility wherein every applicant can appear in the exam from their home only rather than going to a test center. Keeping in mind the safety of the students this home version of examination was started by the ETS. Students can safely apply for the GRE while sitting at home. The test can be given from the home computer only provided the test will be monitored by the Human Proctor online though ProctorU.
The Indian students whose passports are not yet ready can use their Aadhar Card as their ID card to apply for this examination from 1st of July 2021 announced by the ETS.

Validity of GRE Exam

GRE exam is conducting several times a year. Interested students can apply for it through the ETS official website. The main question for many students was when they should apply for the GRE test and how long its score is counted valid to apply for foreign universities admissions? The exam score is valid till five years. So, if you have appeared in the exam this year then you can show it for college admissions in foreign universities up till the next five years.

Eligibility
ETS has not prescribed any age limit or educational qualification as criteria to appear in the examination. Any individual can appear in the examination provided the person should carry a valid Passport or identity proof as acceptable to the ETS to appear in the examination.
The exam is applied by thousands of applicants every year who want to pursue their higher education in the foreign universities.

Types of GRE Test

  • GRE Subject Test
  • GRE General Test

There are two types of GRE exams. First is GRE subject test and the other is the GRE General Test. In subject test students can opt for any particular subject to apply like GRE in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Literature (English), Physics and Psychology, Biochemistry etc. The objective of the subjective test is to evaluate the knowledge and perspective of the applicant in that particular subject. The GRE subject test is applied to apply for admissions in specialized courses in particular subjects and areas whereas the General test is given to apply for any course not particular to any specialized area. Suppose if you are applying for Masters in Physics in any foreign university then the GRE Physics will evaluate your knowledge in Physics.

GRE General test is not a subjective test but in GRE General your analytical skills and quantitative skills and verbal knowledge is tested through the GRE general test. Quantitative test is basically a mathematical test that assess your mathematical problem-solving skills. GRE score to qualify for the admission differs from school to school and university to university. In subjective tests the qualifying scores are higher than the qualifying scores are required in General exams. But every university can set their standards and score required to qualify for admission in that university.

GRE Mandatory or not?
The GRE exam is not mandatory however most of the universities ask for GRE score to assess your subjective and general intelligence knowledge before admitting you to their university. The foreign universities evaluate the students on other criterion also like the Letter of Recommendation, Statement of Purposes, scores of other exams like IELTS/TOEFS, PTE, LSAT, GMAT etc. So, the exam is not mandatory per se but when any university ask your GRE score then automatically it becomes a sort of mandatory exam. So, there are quite a few exams that students should apply for before applying for studying abroad. GRE is one such exam along with others like IELTS & TOEFL. So, in other way round or indirectly it becomes a kind of mandatory exam. If you are interested to study abroad or want to pursue your masters/doctorate program then in other way round it is mandatory that you should be ready with your GRE score to apply in the foreign universities for higher studies in Master’s/doctorate programs.

How to Register
Visit ETS website to apply for the GRE Exam. The link of the official website is given here wherein you will find all the details about the GRE exam. Click here to now more about the GRE exam https://www.ets.org/.

Patter of GRE Exam
The GRE General exam has three sections:

  • Analytical Writing:
  • Verbal Reasoning:
  • Quantitative Reasoning:
  • Unscored
  • Research

The exam is conducted in two modes the paper based and computer-based test. In computer-based test there are two additional sections unscored and research. Analytical writing is always the first exam whereas the other exams vary especially the unscored and the Research part.
Paper based exam is conducted two-three times a year but computer-based exam is conducted several times a year that you can register through ETS official website. The link of the official website of ETS is given here https://www.ets.org/.

GRE Exam Fees
The registration fee for the Indian students is $213 UD Dollars. ETS can also reduce the fees of the students who come from the economic weaker sections or facing any financial hardships. The registration fee for GRE Subject Test is $150 US Dollars worldwide.

GRE Cancellation Fees/ Change of center/ subject or date of examination
Applicant can apply for the change of their center, subject and the reschedule the exam date 4 days prior to the date of examination. Applicant can avail this facility for rescheduling the examination, change of subject and center by paying additional $50 US Dollar fee. Applicant must apply four days before the exams or the dates as notified by the ETS otherwise the fee will be forfeited by the ETS.

Scoring in GRE Test
The GRE scoring scale has 340 points which are further divided into two part 170 mars each for verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning. The analytical writing ranges from 0 to 6 points. The total marks are allotted between 260 to 340. But in each subject like verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning it is scored between 130 to 170 as given below:

  • Verbal Reasoning score range: 130–170
  • Quantitative Reasoning score range: 130–170
  • Analytical Writing score range: 0–6

Duration of GRE Exam
The duration of GRE General Test is 3 hours 45 minutes and the duration of GRE subject test is 2 hours 50 minutes.