For every student aspiring to study in America, procuring the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) score is one of the most important steps. Students are required to hard focus on their GRE scores because it is the touchstone for admissions of foreign students who come from different educational backgrounds to America. GRE scores may also fetch you scholarships and various kinds of financial aid. So in case you are looking forward to taking up the GRE, make sure you get the hang of the new format.  Here is a quick analysis of the revised format :

An Overview:

• The new computer-based test will enable students to analyse the entire section of the test as they are now allowed to examine, mark, review and tag questions.
• You can now enhance your average score as it will facilitate students to choose ‘their’ questions (answer the easy ones first).
• You can also edit answers within each section of the test.
• An on-screen calculator will be provided for the mathematical testing ability section, where students can put in numeric entries on the screen itself.

Verbal Section:

• You can focus on the key idea of a passage by highlighting sentences in the reading comprehension.
• One of the notable changes in the new GRE system is that there will be a greater focus on the vocabulary with reference to the context rather than the usage of vocabulary in isolation. The appropriate usage of a word with respect to the context will test skills that will have implications in the corporate world.
• Accounting to the reduced emphasis on individual vocabulary, in the new Text Completion section students will now need to interpret the meaning of what the author tries to indicate rather than individual words. Thus evaluation is strictly based on your interpretation.
• These changes are made so as to test the set of skills that is required for candidates opting for studies at the postgraduate level and even for MBA programmes or business studies.

Scoring Pattern:

Carefully note that both the verbal and quantitative reasoning sections will be scored on a 130-170 scale, with 1 point increments, unlike the previous 200-800 scale with 10 point increments.


These changes were put forth to refine the selection process and to pick the cream of the crop. This revised, more user-friendly GRE format has taken effect from August 1, 2011.