Every year, from India, thousands of aspirants move to different countries in pursuit of higher education. They may have to take different tests to apply to the universities they wish to get admission into.

To pursue a master's programme in engineering/management, these aspirants are required to take tests like the GREŽ test (GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATIONSŽ test) or the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). Apart from this they may also be required to take TOEFLŽ iBT (TEST OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGETM).

Of all countries, the most sought after and popular is The United States of America - The land of unlimited opportunities. Securing admission into a good university of one's choice for an MS here is certainly not an easy task.

What is the GREŽ test ?

GREŽ test stands for GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATIONSŽ. There are two types of GREŽ tests: (1) GREŽ General test, and
(2) GREŽ Subject test.


The GREŽ General Test is required by many graduate and professional schools in the U.S and is an important criterion for admission to their graduate programmes. Applicants must submit their GREŽ scores together with certain other records/requirements as part of the process of admission to graduate schools.

The GREŽ is administered by Educational Testing Services (ETS). ETS is responsible for conducting the GREŽ test under the guidance of the college education board of the U.S.

What is a GREŽ - CAT (Computer Adaptive Test)?

The GREŽ Test is a CAT (Computer Adaptive Test). This means that the computer adapts the level of the questions to the test-taker's ability. Initially questions of medium difficulty level are administered to test – taker. If he / she answers these questions correctly, a more difficult question is given. Otherwise, an easier question is administered. So, at every stage, the computer tailors the test to the examinee's level. In this examination, the score depends both on the number of questions attempted and the number of correct responses.

Test Pattern

The GREŽ general test comprises an analytical writing section, one verbal ability section and one quantitative ability section. Besides these, there could be an additional experimental section which may be either a verbal or a quantitative section. Sometimes, ETS may also give an identifiable research section.

Analytical Writing Section

In this section, a candidate has to respond to two types of essays:

(i) Issue task

(ii) ArgumentTask

One Issue essay has to be typed in 45 minutes. As of now ETS gives two issue topics and a candidate has to type out his response to one of these two topics. In an Issue Essay a topic of general intellectual interest is given and a candidate has to respond by expressing his opinion on the given issue and back it up with valid reasons.

Sample Issue topic :- The application of sciences has proved to be more often a curse than a boon, and it is a threat to a good standard of living.

Besides this, one Argument essay has to be typed in 30 minutes. ETS gives only one argument topic and the candidate has no choice for this type of essay. In an Argument essay, a candidate will examine the logical soundness of an argument and critique it.

Sample Argument topic:- The chairman of the Baleroti car manufacturing company asserted the following in his memo.

"An analysis of our past performance reveals that we did not fare as well as our competitors because we have stuck to outdated designs. However, the encouraging news is that many people across the country would be getting driving licenses very soon and we should be able to increase our market share by selling to these people. Hence, we should stop manufacturing our old-fashioned cars and focus on manufacturing trendy cars. To add teeth to our marketing effort we should now switchover to the Juvenile Ad agency, which successfully marketed a leading cola."

Please note that the ISSUE and the ARGUMENT topics given here as sample topics are not an exact replica of what ETS stipulates in its pool of topics. However, these sample topics are on the lines of ETS topics. For the actual ETS pool of topics please refer to the ETS website.

Verbal Section

Number of Questions = 30

Time allowed = 30 minutes

• You must be ready with one test date and also another, backup date in case a slot is unavailable on the date of your choice.
• You will need a valid international MasterCard or Visa card number and its expiry date.
• If you do not possess any of these cards you can borrow someone else's card.

• The date of the test
• Exact time of your alloted slot
• Your test confirmation number
• Your ID number (required for future queries, if any)

• Credit card
• VISA, Master Card, or American Express (Discover and JCB cards may also be used for services ordered directly from ETS - GREŽ test).
• Money order / certified check
• U.S. postal Money order
• International Money order
• UNESCO Coupons

1. In verbal section each question has five answer choices and you must select one choice as your answer.
2. In the quantitative ability section each problem solving and data interpretation question has five answer choices. However, quantitative comparison questions have only 4 answer choices.
3. Only one question appears at a time. To move to the next question, you have to mark an answer to the question that is currently on your screen.
4. Once you have confirmed your answer to a question you can't go back to a question and change your answer.
5. The questions are graded into 5 categories ranging from the easy to the hard category.
6. More points are awarded for getting the harder questions right.
7. You are penalised for not completing the test. Hence, your score depends on your accuracy, the difficulty level of the questions and the number of questions you attempted. At the beginning of the test, every candidate gets a question of average difficulty level (level 2 or 3)
8. Questions in the verbal and the quantitative sections need not always be administered in groups. For example, if the first question that appears in the verbal section is an antonym, then you need not necessarily get a series of questions on antonyms alone. Two questions on antonyms may be followed by one question on analogies, followed by one on sentence completion. In other words, questions can appear in any particular order. Similarly, in the quantitative section, one question on problem solving may be followed by one question on quantitative comparison. This may be followed by one question on problem solving. Hence, the type of question that will come next cannot be predicted.