My Comments on GRE
by: Aslan NoorghasemiSept. 30, 2021
The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is owned and administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS). The test was established in 1936 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. According to ETS, the GRE aims to measure verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing, and critical thinking skills that have been acquired over a long period of learning. (Wikipedia)
I took the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) exam and scored V:155/170, Q:164/170, W:4.5/6 in total on Sept. 20, 2021. I chose AvaTalk Language Institution, located in Urmia, as my test center. It is about two hours away from my city, Tabriz.
My GRE scores:
- Verbal Reasoning: 155/170
- Quantitative Reasoning: 164/170
- Analytical Writing: 4.5/6
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The Exam Structure
This exam includes three main sections: It starts with the writing section named as Analytical Writing including two tasks, then continues with either a Verbal (Reading) task or a Quantative Reasoning (Math) task by alternating between them for the next 5 tasks. One of these 5 sections will be used for statistics purposes and won't be included in the final score, but the test taker won't know which one. The whole exam takes less than 4 hours.
• Analytical Writing:
The exam starts with this part and includes two tasks that they take 30 minutes each:
- "Analyze an Issue" task
- "Analyze an Argument" task
In my opinion, the best way to practice for this section is by reading proper texts, such as the Sapiens book by Yuval Noah Harari (see the Verbal Reasoning section guide in this article) and getting familiar with Topic Pools. To help you prepare for the Analytical Writing measure, the GRE Program has published the entire pool of tasks from which your test tasks will be selected. You might find it helpful to review the Issue and Argument pools:
- "Analyze an Issue" Topic Pool
- "Analyze an Argument" Topic Pool
• Quantitative Reasoning:
Based on my experience and background in mathematics, the Quantative Reasoning section was quite easy. For a non-native, the only tricky part is knowing the context specific words in topics of mathematics such as algebra and geometry.
• Verbal Reasoning:
For a non-native test taker like me, the most demanding part of the exam was the Verbal Reasoning. The level of language and the vocabulary used in this section is high. One cannot prepare for this section over night as it requires a vast knowledge of language. I recommend reading a few books in english with a high level of language. For the purpose of this exam, I think the Sapiens book by Yuval Noah Harari is an awesome choice because it covers various contexts (socialogy, archealogy, etc.) with a sophisticated level of language. If one gets familar with such texts, they won't face difficulties in the exam. Although some words list appears in internet that are suggested for this exam, I don't recommend this approach as one cannot efficiently learn the definitions of the words out of the context.
GRE vs. TOEFL
I've also taken TOEFL exam a few months ago (Blog)
I've heard many people asking this question: How do these two tests compare to one another? Does taking one actually help taking the other one?
I need to mention these two exams are complementary to each other. Only non-natives take the TOEFL exam, but many natives along non-natives take GRE for their graduate study purposes. I summarize the important points here:
• TOEFL has speaking section, GRE does not.
• GRE includes mathematics, TOEFL does not.
• The writing part is last part of TOEFL; however, GRE starts with this part.
• The second task of writing part in both GRE and TOEFL is quite similar. The first task, on the other hand, differ.
• Verbal Reasoning part in GRE is significantly harder than the reading part in TOEFL.
• The exam software and the UI for both of them is almost identical.
• Less mock exams are available. However, with every registeration comes two full mock exam for free! Use them wisely. In my opinion, take one of them at the beginning the journey to familiarize yourself with the overall structure of the actual exam, and take the second one 1-2 days before the exam to get yourself ready for experiencing the exam feeling.
Conclusion
This exam was a delightful experience for me as it helped my english knowledge to flourish and grow further. The important point is that I've learnt about various topics along the way. If your are willing to take this exam, I wish you a wonderful journey!
