There are many tips and tricks for doing well on the GRE, but the best way to prepare is to practice sample questions. Below are some sample questions to try (FYI, answers are at the bottom of the page), as well as links to other sources of practice questions.
This section of the GRE tests your ability to do critical thinking and writing.
You will be given two writing tasks. The first presents you with an opinion on a general topic or issue and requires you to argue your own opinion on that topic. The other asks you to evaluate someone else’s argument on a topic.
Sample: Issue Analysis
Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.
Note that you aren't required to have any special knowledge of the topic. And the position you take isn't as important as how you argue it. You're simply being tested on your ability to formulate, articulate, and defend or critique an argument.
The best way to prepare for this portion of the exam is to do practice and work at finishing your writing within the allotted time.
Analytical Writing Tip: The GRE Program has released the entire pool of issue and argument topics from which they select the questions for this section. You can access the pools as well as some additional tips here. Make sure that you read the instructions carefully, as they may not be the same for each task.
This section contains reading comprehension, text completion, and sentence equivalence questions. (Examples are below with the answers at the bottom of the page.)
Sample: Sentence Completion
Sentence completion questions can contain two to three blanks for you to fill in. This sample contains two. Note that these aren't word pairs. You're choosing one word from the first column to complete Blank 1 and one word from the second column to complete Blank 2.
Vain and prone to violence, Caravaggio could not handle success: the more his (1)__________ as an artist increased, the more (2)__________ his life became.
|
Blank (1) Options |
Blank (2) Options |
|
A. temperance |
D. tumultuous |
|
B. notoriety |
E. providential |
|
C. eminence |
F. dispassionate |
Sample: Sentence Equivalence
Sentence equivalence questions look like sentence completion questions, except that they contain one blank, which you fill with two out of the six possible answers. The two words must give the sentence the same overall meaning, and there's no partial credit. You must get both words right to get the point for the question.
Although it does contain some pioneering ideas, one would hardly characterize the work as __________.
Verbal Tip #1: Practice careful reading. The test creators specialize in making up really attractive wrong answers, but each question contains clues to the answer. Careful reading will help you make the best choice.
Verbal Tip #2: Remember that this is a timed test. Make the most of your time by getting the easy questions out of the way first, reserving more time for the ones you're less certain of.
Verbal Tip #3: If you need to guess, make educated guesses by eliminating the obvious wrong answers first.
This third section of the GRE tests your ability to compare two quantities (A and B). Note that in each question, you'll be given the exact same four answer choices, so get to know the choices well.
Quantitative Sample 1:
|
Quantity A |
Quantity B |
|
54% of 360 |
150 |
(A) Quantity A is greater.
(B) Quantity B is greater.
(C) The two quantities are equal.
(D) The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
Quantitative Sample 2:
|
Quantity A |
Quantity B |
(A) Quantity A is greater.
(B) Quantity B is greater.
(C) The two quantities are equal.
(D) The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
Quantitative Tip #1: Don’t do unnecessary math. If it's not an algebraic question, see if you can get to the answer by estimating or by transforming or simplifying the question. In sample #1, for example, you reach the right answer without actually calculating 54 percent of 360.
Quantitative Tip #2: If you need to determine a variable, plug in simple or round numbers to make calculations easier.
Quantitative Tip #3: Don’t choose D if you know that you can determine the real value of the quantities by plugging in numbers. That isn’t possible in sample #2, so D may be a valid choice.
Practice really is the best preparation for the GRE, so do as many sample questions as you can. Below are some other sources for sample questions. The best sources are the ones that provide explanations for the answers and contain tips for specific types of questions. Also, when you're ready, take a few practice tests from start to finish.
The ETS website contains a number of free tips, tricks, and sample questions for each section. They also have an entire practice test for when you’re ready to practice taking the whole test at one time.
Kaplan also provides free practice questions and tests, as does McGraw-Hill.
If you're searching the internet for other free sample questions, make sure that the sites you're using have been updated relatively recently. The GRE test makers revise the test periodically, so an older site may have outdated information on the types of questions you'll encounter.
Finally, here are the answers to the sample questions we provided above:
Sentence completion sample: C and D.
Sentence equivalence sample: 3 and 6
Quantitative sample 1: A
Quantitative sample 2: D
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