Overview

The GRE® General Test

For more than 60 years, the GRE® General Test has been the gold-standard admissions assessment for graduate study. As more and more business schools look to diversify the candidate pool for their MBA and graduate management programs, they're turning to the GRE General Test.

The GRE General Test measures skills students acquire over a long period of time — skills that influence a student's academic success. These skills, which are valued by business schools, include:

verbal reasoning

quantitative reasoning

critical thinking

analytical writing

Similar to other graduate admissions exams, the GRE General Test contains questions presented in a business context and does not presume advanced knowledge in any specific content area, including business.

The test is offered in computer-based and paper-based formats through more than 1,000 test centers in over 165 countries. The computer-based General Test is an adaptive test, providing uniformly precise scoring of a test taker's abilities.

Who takes the test?

More than 600,000 prospective graduate school applicants from roughly 230 countries take the GRE General Test annually. Applicants come from varying educational backgrounds and countries, and the GRE General Test provides the only common measure for comparing their qualifications.

Who accepts the test?

The GRE General Test is accepted at more than 3,100 graduate, business and professional schools, as well as departments and divisions within these schools.

Admissions and fellowship panels use GRE® scores to supplement undergraduate records and other criteria for graduate study. Scores provide common measures for comparing applicants' qualifications and evaluating grades and recommendations.