Aaah, I have registered for GRE - the Graduate Record Examination on ze 9th of May! As I was floundering in the initial stages, guided only by intuition and Arjun [which isn’t too much], I thought if I come up with a good strategy, some good references online, any sort of help in general to approach, tackle and manage your study plan for GRE, I would post it, just in case it would help someone down the lane.

So, what have I found out about the GRE?

First of all, you should completely understand the GRE - its scoring system, the way the test is broken up, what they intend to test, why are they doing what they are doing in a particular way. I will give a briefer as to what I have understood about the GRE here

What is GRE?
Warning: It’ll be redundant data for the good majority of the people storming[ok vain hope I know ;-) but hey :-D ] in here, but just in case.
The Graduate Record Examination is a test conducted by ETS - Educational Testing Services, based in Princeton, New Jersey across the world for students/people aspiring to do their graduate studies. It tests the person’s ability in verbal, math and analytical sections.

Why is it so general?
IOW, I wanna do my course in Computer Engineering specializing in distributed Image Processing, why should I be tested on Analytical Writing or for that matter, verbal ability? Why am I not being tested for my ability to weave magic using CG?

A very valid question. However, you have to realise that the GRE can be taken by any person who has had an undergraduate education for 3 or more years. This essentially includes all people who have done their Baccalaureates ranging from Commerce to Computer Science, English literature to oceanology. It is also taken by people to apply to a wide range of Masters courses, which will be further varied and specialised than their Baccalaureate. So, it only makes sense that people should be judged on their ability to reason, rather than highly specialised domain knowledge, which can be judged fairly well by their performance during their undergraduation.

What are the various sections in GRE?
There are totally 5 sections in the current GRE format [as on the one registered for May ‘06]. There are 2 sections each of Verbal and Quantitative Ability. Then there are 2 analytical essay writing sections.
Analytical Writing - 2 sections - An issue essay [45 minutes] and an argument essay [30 minutes]
Verbal Ability  - 1 sections - 30 questions per session, 30 minutes per session
Quantitative Ability - 1 sections - 28 questions per session, 30 minutes per session
Special unscored section - 30-45 minutes, depending on whether it’s verbal or quant [Note that this could be either section 3, 4 or 5]

So, the total testing time should be between 3-4 hours.

The intricacies of the test procedure, I will probably write about after attending the test. :-D!

Can we get to know the question types in GRE?
Of course, one of the best aspects of GRE is that they are completely transparent, removing any chance of loopholes to be present as far as the question ambiguity is concerned. Also, once they let out the details, well everyone is on a level playing field aren’t they, completely removing all doubts of question format leaking out and what not, something that plagues other tests [Remember All India Medical test paper leaks :-D ]

As I don’t have the time/patience to completely type out the format, I will provide a link, where in the sections are detailed out properly with the general question types mentioned!

Present your perspective on an issue - aka the Issue Essay
Analyze an argument - aka the Argument Essay
Verbal Ability Section - Check out how the questions are intermingled
Quantitative Ability Section - Check out how the questions are intermingled here

Also note: The number of type of questions are pretty much followed, for e.g. There will be 6 Sentence Completion Questions [SC from now on], 9 Analogy Questions, 7 Antonym Questions, 8 Reading Comprehension Questions in the Verbal section. They rarely break this pattern!

Computer Based Testing vs. Paper Based Testing
Why is it that they have two types of tests? Which one should I take? Well, Computer Based Testing is the new way by which ETS now delivers the GRE. However, since they have not setup shop in every nook and corner of the globe from where GRE tests are taken, they also provide the test-taker the option to take the paper-test.

Which is better? I don’t think I am at a position to answer that. However, I can assure you that the process for both are followed in most of the places. The only advantage of the CBT is that the scores will be known to you immediately.

I heard that the Computer Based Test is Adaptive! What does that mean?
The computer based test has an on-screen interface and questions are chosen from a database that ETS has already set. It’s an ADAPTIVE test, i.e. it adapts to your response - right/wrong, and also the history that you have maintained. IOW, the test will try to hone in on your score from the broad spectrum [200-800] for a particular section.

There are some VERY important things to be considered here.