GRE
(www.gre.org)

Description of General Test

The General Test measures analytical writing, verbal, and quantitative skills that have been acquired over a long period of time and that are not related to any specific field of study.

The analytical writing section tests your critical thinking and analytical writing skills. It assesses your ability to articulate and support complex ideas, analyze an argument, and sustain a focused and coherent discussion. It does not assess specific content knowledge.

The verbal section measures your ability to analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it, to analyze relationships among component parts of sentences, to recognize relationships between words and concepts, and to reason with words in solving problems. There is a balance of passages across different subject matter areas: humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

The quantitative section measures your basic mathematical skills, your understanding of elementary mathematical concepts, and your ability to reason quantitatively and solve problems in a quantitative setting. There is a balance of questions requiring arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis. These are content areas usually studied in high school.

Descriptions of the Subject Tests

The GRE Subject Tests are designed to help graduate school admission committees and fellowship sponsors assess the qualifications of applicants in specific fields of study. The tests also provide students with an assessment of their own qualifications.

Scores on the tests are intended to indicate students' knowledge of the subject matter emphasized in many undergraduate programs as preparation for graduate study. Since past achievement is usually a good indicator of future performance, the scores are helpful in predicting students' success in graduate study. Because the tests are standardized, the test scores permit comparison of students from different institutions with different undergraduate programs. For some Subject Tests, subscores are provided in addition to the total score; these subscores indicate the strengths and weaknesses of individual student's preparation, and they may help students plan their future studies.

Subject Tests are currently available in 8 disciplines.

When you register for a Subject Test, you will be sent a free Subject Test Practice Book that describes the test in detail. The book also includes test-taking strategies, content specifications, a full-length test and answer key, and information to help you understand the scores you earn.