GRE Format: Sections, Timing and Question Types

The current GRE General Test runs 1 hour and 58 minutes and contains 54 scored questions plus 1 essay across five sections. Effective September 22, 2023, ETS shortened the exam from its previous 3 hours 45 minutes by removing the "Analyze an Argument" essay, cutting each Verbal and Quantitative section from 20 questions to 12 or 15, removing the unscored and research sections, and eliminating the 10-minute midtest break.

The Analytical Writing section is always first. The two Verbal Reasoning sections and two Quantitative Reasoning sections follow in any order. You can skip questions within a section, return to questions you already answered, and change your answers before the section clock runs out.

The GRE is section-level adaptive, not question-level adaptive like the GMAT. The first section of each measure, Verbal and Quantitative, is of average difficulty. Your performance on that first section determines the difficulty of the second section of the same measure. If you answer most of the first Verbal section correctly, your second Verbal section will contain harder questions.

The scoring takes into account both the total number of questions answered correctly across the two sections and the difficulty level of the second section. A scaled score on the 130 to 170 scale reflects the same level of performance regardless of which second section was selected or when you tested, because ETS uses an equating process that accounts for minor variations in difficulty.

Each Verbal Reasoning section draws from three question types:

• Reading Comprehension passages of varying length followed by multiple-choice questions. Some require selecting a single answer, some require selecting one or more answers, and some ask you to select a sentence in the passage that serves a specific function.
• Text Completion questions present a passage with one, two, or three blanks. You choose the word or words that best complete the text from the given options.
• Sentence Equivalence questions present a single sentence with one blank and six answer choices. You select the two choices that produce sentences with the same meaning.

All Verbal questions are in the two adaptive sections that follow the Analytical Writing section.

Each Quantitative Reasoning section draws from four question types:

• Quantitative Comparison questions ask you to compare two quantities and determine which is greater, or whether the relationship cannot be determined.
• Multiple Choice (one answer) questions have a single correct answer from five options.
• Multiple Choice (one or more answers) questions require selecting all correct answers from the given options. No partial credit is given.
• Numeric Entry questions require you to type the answer as an integer or decimal.

An on-screen calculator is available for the Quantitative Reasoning sections. The math covers arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis at a high-school level.

Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning are each scored from 130 to 170 in 1-point increments. Analytical Writing is scored from 0 to 6 in half-point increments. Many programs and test-takers reference a combined Verbal plus Quantitative total from 260 to 340 for convenience, though ETS reports each measure separately and does not publish an official combined score.

The Verbal and Quant scores come from the number of correct answers across both sections of each measure, adjusted by the difficulty of the second section through equating. The Analytical Writing essay is scored by both a trained reader and the e-rater automated scoring engine, with the final score reflecting the overall quality of the response.