Get ready for GRE Verbal.
GRE, or Graduate Record Examinations, is a test required by many US graduate schools as a part of the application process. GRE is administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS). Currently there are two types of GRE: GRE General Test and GRE Subject Test.
GRE Subject Tests cover:
- Biochemistry
- Cell
- Molecular Biology
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Computer Science
- Literature in English
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Psychology
It is required by some graduate programs, but we will focus here on the GREŽ General Test (we will refer to it here simply as GRE).
According to ETS, GRE "measures critical thinking, analytical writing, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning skills that have been acquired over a long period of time and that are not related to any specific field of study."
GRE consists of three grades sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytical Writing. Although admission policies vary from school to school, the Verbal and Quantitative scores are considered the most important.
How to get a better score on GRE Verbal.
Even though GRE Verbal is composed of several parts (such as reading comprehension, analogies and antonyms), it is basically a vocabulary test. If you have an extensive vocabulary, you will do well. It's as simple as that. There are hundreds of thousands of words in the English language and only a relatively small part of them are used in everyday life, in movies or on TV. Therefore, don't be surprised if you open a GRE practice test and see some words that you never imagined existed in English. Some of those words are rarely used and you will probably never need them in the graduate school, unless you are interested in writing a thesis on obscure English vocabulary.
Still, if the graduate school of your choice wants you take a GRE, it's probably in your interest to improve your odds of getting a good GRE Verbal score.
