GRE Verbal Reasoning Tips

To attempt General GRE test, candidate must polish his / her verbal reasoning skills which includes analyzing and evaluating written material and synthesizing it further. It assesses candidate’s ability to analyze relationship among component parts of sentences and recognize relationship among words and concepts.

There are three types of questions in verbal reasoning section:

• Reading Comprehension- This section includes understanding meaning of individual words and sentences, meaning of paragraphs and larger bodies of text. It also comprises of distinguishing major and minor points, summarizing passages, inferring conclusions, reading between the lines and analyzing the text as a whole. There will be 10 passages to perform all the given tasks. Passages can be based on various feilds such as physical sciences, biological sciences, business, humanities, social sciences and everyday topics related to both academic and nonacademic. The passages can be as short as a single paragraph and some can also include multiple paragraphs.
• Text Completion- A good reader must absorb the given information and acquire the ability to comprehend, analyze and interpret the given information with good reasoning skills. Similarly, a candidate must perform these functions when a particular passage is provided to him / her and answer the questions or fill in the blanks accordingly.
• The questions will be from a passage of one to five sentences out of which three or more blanks will be given to fill. Partially correct answers will not be marked. Candidate must get a sense of the passage before answering the questions and he / she must first attempt the questions that seem easy. Candidate must try to get sense of the words or phrases that seem to complete the sentence and then act accordingly while choosing the correct answer.
• Sentence Equivalence- This part of the test analyzes the candidate’s ability to complete the given passage with the help of partial information. Sentence Equivalence questions consist of a single sentence with just one blank, and they ask you to find two choices that lead to a complete, coherent sentence while producing sentences that mean the same thing. There will be six answer choices for one blank in single sentence. Candidate will need to wisely choose two from the six given choices.

GRE Quantitative Reasoning Tips

Quantitative reasoning helps to assess candidate’s ability to perform basic mathematical functions, understand elementary mathematical concepts and solve problems using the quantitative mathematics. It is assessed on the basis of four criterias:

• Arithmetic- Topics for arithmetic include:
• Properties and types of integers, such as divisibility, factorization, prime numbers, remainders and odd and even integers; arithmetic operations, exponents and roots.
• Concepts such as estimation, percent, ratio, rate, absolute value, the number line, decimal representation and sequences of numbers.
• Algebra- Topics for algebra include:
• Operations with exponents
• Factoring and simplifying algebraic expressions
• Relations, functions, equations and inequalities
• Solving linear and quadratic equations and inequalities
• Solving simultaneous equations and inequalities
• Setting up equations to solve word problems
• Coordinate geometry, including graphs of functions, equations and inequalities, intercepts and slopes of lines.
• Geometry- Topics for geometry include:
• Parallel and perpendicular lines
• Circles
• Triangles — including isosceles, equilateral and 30°-60°-90° triangles
• Quadrilaterals, other polygons, congruent and similar figures, three-dimensional figures, area, perimeter, volume, the Pythagorean Theorem and angle measurement in degrees.
• Data Analysis- Topics under this include:
• Basic descriptive statistics, such as mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, interquartile range, quartiles and percentiles
• Interpretation of data in tables and graphs, such as line graphs, bar graphs, circle graphs, boxplots, scatterplots and frequency distributions
• Elementary probability, such as probabilities of compound events and independent events; conditional probability; random variables and probability distributions, including normal distributions and counting methods, such as combinations, permutations and Venn diagrams.

GRE Analytical Writing (GRE AWA) Tips

Analytical writing includes two separately timed analytical writing sections- Analyze an Issue and Analyze an Argument. Candidate shall exercise his / her comprehension and analytical skills in this section of the test. In the first section, candidate will have to read and analyze the passage to prepare his / her own arguments on the basis of the articulation of the facts. However, in the second section, candidate shall check the soundness of the facts put forward by the author in the passage. Here are the details to both the sections of Analytical Writing section of GRE test:

• Analyze an Issue- In this section, candidate is required to think and analyze various topics. Candidate exercises his / her abilities to comprehend, write and present the topic and various perspectives through which it can be analyzed. Candidate should be precise in his / her presentation of arguments and must avoid presentation of vague ideas in his / her writing script. It is important to state the position of your standing point on the basis of the passage and write your agreements and disagreements accordingly. The task should be performed within the time span of 30 minutes.
• Analyze an Argument- In this task, candidate is required to logically analyze the soundness of the arguments put forward by the author of the essay and their implications and assumptions in it. Candidate in this section is not required to either agree or disagree with the arguments. Also, presentation of candidate’s opinion is not required for this section. Candidate must look for specific quotes or arguments put in by the author. This will enhance the quality of the answer provided by the candidate.
• Part 3: Candidate is asked a question on the topic given in Part 2. Here, a candidate gets an opportunity to discuss more abstract ideas and issue with the examiner. This part lasts for 4-5 minutes.