1. What is the GRE Test

The Graduate Record Examination is a standardised test that measures verbal, mathematical and analytical skills. It is intended to help graduate schools including business schools, assess the potential of applicants for advanced study. More than 2300 universities in the US require GRE scores from each applicant. The GRE tests those fundamental skills that are conducive to success in graduate study - reasoning and comprehension included - and does not require any subject-specific theoretical study. (This is true only for the General GRE test and not the GRE Subject test, which is required by certain universities. In this section we mean the General GRE test whenever we refer to the GRE)

Its design is test-taker friendly and lets an examinee skip questions within a section, go back and change answers and have the flexibility to choose which question within a section to answer first.The test measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills that have been developed over a ling period of time and are not related to a specific field of study but are important for all.Each of the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning scores are reported on a 130-170 score scale, in one-point increments whereas the Analytical Writing score is reported on a 0-6 score scale, in half-point increments.If no questions are answered for a specific measure, then a No Score(NS) is registered for that measure.

However, the GRE is only one of several parameters that graduate schools look at to determine the selection of an applicant. A high score alone does not translate into an admission offer from a great school. But the test can be looked upon as the first major hurdle to be cleared in the process of getting admission into a graduate school of your choice.

2. Who administers the GRE?

The GRE is developed and administered by the US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) under the direction of the Graduate Record Examination Board, a non-profit organisation of graduate schools worldwide. This implies that ETS sets the questions, conducts the test, and sends each examinee the score report. For the conduct of the test, ETS has appointed Prometric Services, which in turn appoints Testing Agencies in various countries, which act as franchisees for ETS. In Greece these agencies are the Professional Services Centre which administers the test at one centre in Athens and the US Educational Foundation which administers the test in one centre in Thessaloniki.

3. When is the GRE held?

All year round. Unlike other exams offered at set dates and times, the GRE can be taken at the date and time of your choice. The test is administered twice a day, 3, 4 or 5 days a week (from Monday to Friday), and on certain Saturdays. September to December is the high season for the GRE, so in case that you intend to take the test during this period you need to register at least 2-3 weeks in advance to make certain that you will be tested on the date you prefer. Otherwise, registering at least 5 days in advance is highly recommended. The test lasts three and a half hours approximately and the test centres offer two test in the morning and afternoon.

4. Eligibility and Feess

Anyone and everyone is eligible for taking the GRE - there are no restrictions based on age or qualifications. The test scores are valid for five years, i.e., most universities accept scores up to five years old. But it is always better if your scores are recent (not older than 3 years).

Test fees for the GRE may vary according to the country in which you take the test. In Greece the current fee is US $205, payable at the time of registration. Alternatively the fees can be paid through a US Dollar denominated draft, payable to ETS - GRE Such a draft is usually available at the main branches of most banks (which have a foreign exchange counter) in most of the big cities for a nominal charge. The payment is usually made online through a credit card which has global acceptance. The credit card need not necessarily be yours - you can use a credit card belonging to your father, another relative, or a friend.

5. How to Apply

Obtain the GRE Information Bulletin available free of charge at the Professional Services Centre and other private educational locations. The Test Scheduling Form comes with the bulletin. There are two ways you can register for the computer-delivered GRE General Test outside the United States: online or by phone.

Online Registration

• You need to create or have an ETS Account to register online. Register at least two business days before your preferred test date.
• American Express^®, MasterCard^® or Visa^® credit/debit cards are accepted. PayPal and voucher numbers are also accepted.
• If you are paying with a money order, you will need to request a GRE General Test Authorization Voucher by mail

Phone Registration

• Call the appropriate Regional Registration Center (RRC) at least two business days before your preferred test date.
• American Express^®, MasterCard^® or Visa^® credit/debit cards are accepted. PayPal and voucher numbers are also accepted.
• If you are paying with a money order, you will need to request a GRE General Test Authorization Voucher by mail

ETS reserves the right to add or delete payment options at its own discretion and without notice.

Requesting a GRE General Test Authorization Voucher by Mail

You will need to request a GRE General Test Authorization Voucher by mail if you are paying with a money order. Once you receive your authorization voucher, you will be able to register online or by phone.

• Complete the Computer-delivered GRE General Test Authorization Voucher Request Form and mail with a money order with the appropriate payment to the address printed on the form. Allow up to three weeks for processing and mail delivery.
• When you receive your authorization voucher, you can register online or call the appropriate Regional Registration Center (RRC) to schedule an appointment.
• An appointment to test must be made prior to the expiration date on the authorization voucher.
• If you lose your authorization voucher, contact ETS Only one replacement will be issued.

6. What is a Section-Adaptive Test?

The Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning measures are section-level adaptive. This means the computer selects the second operation section of a measure based on the performance on the first section.Within each section all question contribute equally o the final score.For each of the two measures a raw score is computed.The raw score is the number of questions answered correctly.The Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning raw scores are the converted to scaled scores through a process known as equating.The equating process accounts for minor variations in difficulty among the different test editions.Thus, a given scaled score for a particular measure reflects the same level of performance regardless of which edition of the test that was taken.

Moreove, the GRE General Test provides the Score Select option, which means you can take a GRE test now or again in the future,and only send schools your best set of scores.

7. Content and structure of the GRE

1 An unidentified unscored section that does not count toward your score may be included and may appear in any order after the Analytical Writing section. Questions in the unscored section are being tried out either for possible use in future tests or to ensure that scores on new editions of the test are comparable to scores from earlier editions.

2 An identified research section that does not count toward your score may be included in place of the unscored section. The research section will always appear at the end of the test. Questions in this section are included for ETS research purposes.

There is a 10-minute break after the two essays and the third (verbal or Quantitative Reasoning) section and before the remaining sections.

8. Analytical Writing

The Analytical Writing section requires you to type two short essays. The first is the Issue task, in which you need to analyse the issue presented and explain your views on it.

The second essay is Analysis of an Argument, in which a given argument has to be critically analysed and evaluated. For the Argument task, you are required to critique the logic of the given argument without expressing personal opinion.

The primary emphasis in scoring both essays in the analytical writing section is on your critical thinking and analytical writing skills rather than on grammar and mechanics.

This implies that a concise essay with well-reasoned points written in simple English will be looked upon more favourably than an essay which falls short on the analytical aspects, even though it is high on writing skills.

A single score is reported for your performance on the analytical writing section. During the scoring process, your essay responses on the analytical writing section will be reviewed by ETS essay-similarity-detection software and by experienced essay readers.

The essay score is the average of scores from a trained human reader and the E-rater, a sophisticated computer programm, using a 6-point holistic scale. The scale reflects the overall quality of an essay in response to the assigned task.

If the two assigned scores differ by more than one point on the scale, the discrepancy is adjudicated by a third GRE reader. Otherwise, the scores from the two readings of an essay are averaged and rounded up to the nearest half-point interval (e.g., 4.0, 4.5).

An NS (No Score) is reported if you do not write a response for either of the two tasks in the analytical writing section. If you write an essay for only one of the two tasks, you will receive a score of zero on the task for which no response was provided.

9. Quantitative Reasoning Section

This section measures-the test taker's ability to understand quantitative information, interpret and analyze information, solve problems using mathematical models and apply basic mathematical skills and elementary mathematical concepts of arithmetic,algebra, geometry and data analysis

The Quantitative Reasoning section contains four types of questions:
Quantitative Comparison questions
Multiple-choice Questions, Select One Answer Choice
Multiple-choice Questions, Select One or More Answer Choices
Numeric Entry Questions

Each question appears either independently as a discrete question or as part of a set of questions called a Data Interpretation set. All of the questions in a Data Interpretation set are based on the same data presented in tables, graphs or other displays of data.

10. Verbal Reasoning Section

GRE's Verbal Section examines how to:
Analyze and draw conclusions from discourse; reason from incomplete data; identify author's assumptions and/or perspective; understand multiple levels of meaning such as literal, figurative and author's intent
Select important points; distinguish major from minor or relevant points; summarize text; understand the structure of a text.
Understand the meanings of words, sentences and entire texts; understand relationships among words and among concepts.
The Verbal Reasoning section of the GRE contains three types of questions: Reading Comprehension, Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence.
Reading Comprehension questions appear in sets; Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions are independent.

11. Reporting the Score

ETS sends score reports to you and to up to 4 institutions of your choice, the cost of which is built into the fee you pay, approximately 10 to 15 days after you take the test. These institutions must be designated on test day. However, you have to allow sufficient time for mail delivery from Princeton, New Jersey, USA. For reporting to each additional university ETS charges you $27, payable by an international credit card or a dollar denominated draft.

12. The Scoring Pattern in the GRE

The GRE results include four different scores: a total score, and separate scores for Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical Writing Assessment sections. The total score is reported out of 340 and the sectional scores are out of 170. The Writing Assessment section is scored separately on a scale 0-6.