Certification Overview
Whether you are planning to go to graduate school, including business or law — or just exploring your options — you are taking an important step toward your future. It is a smart move to show schools your best and with the GRE General Test, you can!
The GRE General Test helps you do your best on test day. With the GRE General Test, you decide which scores to send to schools. If you feel you didn’t do your best on test day, that’s okay. You can retake the test and then send only the scores you want schools to see. It’s all part of the ScoreSelect® option, only available with GRE tests.
The GRE General Test features question types that closely reflect the kind of thinking you’ll do in graduate or business school.
Verbal Reasoning — Measures the ability to analyze and draw conclusions from discourse and reason from incomplete data, understand multiple levels of meaning, such as literal, figurative and author’s intent, and summarize text and distinguish major from minor points, understand the meanings of words, sentences and entire texts, and understand relationships among words and among concepts. There is an emphasis on complex verbal reasoning skills.
Quantitative Reasoning — Measures the ability to understand, interpret and analyze quantitative information, solve problems using mathematical models, and apply the basic concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis. There is an emphasis on quantitative reasoning skills.
Analytical Writing — Measures critical thinking and analytical writing skills, including the ability to articulate and support complex ideas with relevant reasons and examples, and examine claims and accompanying evidence. There is an emphasis on analytical writing skills.
Prospective graduate and business school applicants from all around the world who are interested in pursuing a master’s, MBA, specialized master’s in business, J.D. degree, or doctoral degree take the GRE General Test. Applicants come from varying educational and cultural backgrounds and the GRE General Test provides schools with a common measure for comparing candidates’ qualifications.
GRE scores are used by admissions or fellowship panels to supplement your undergraduate records, recommendation letters and other qualifications for graduate-level study.
The GRE General Test is available at more than 1,000 test centers in more than 160 countries. In most regions of the world, the computer-delivered test is available on a continuous basis throughout the year. In Kenya, Mainland China; Hong Kong, China; Taiwan, China; and Korea, the computer-delivered test is available up to three times per month. In areas of the world where computer-delivered testing is not available, the paper-delivered test is available up to three times a year in October, November and February.
Your official GRE® score report contains your:
Contact information (name, phone number and email)
Date of birth
Gender
Intended graduate major
Test date(s)
GRE test score(s) and the associated percentile ranks
Authorized score recipients or fellowship sponsors and the scores reported to those institutions
Cumulative record of scores reported within the last five years
Official score reports sent to the institutions you designate include your:
Contact information (name, address, phone number, email)
Intended graduate major
GRE test score(s) and the associated percentile ranks
Score reports sent to institutions will not include any information concerning the other score recipients you have chosen. Additionally, institution score reports include only the scores that you selected to send to them using the ScoreSelect® option. There will be no special indication if you have taken additional GRE tests