GRE: Your Gateway to Excellence in Overseas

Education

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is a standardized examination that is taken

by all candidates deciding to apply for graduate school in USA. The test is
conducted by Education Testing Service (ETS). The GRE test is classified into two
types the GRE General test and the GRE Subject test. Most graduate, business or
professional schools ask for their applicants to take the GRE General test as a
measure of their proficiency and to Benchmark them against other candidates.
Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Analytical Writing Skills are the
subjects measured by the General GRE Tests. These subjects are general in nature
and not related to any specific field. The GRE Subject test however, apart from
testing the candidate in the general subjects also tests the candidate in a specific
subject of his choice. The GRE Subject test is taken by students who wish to pursue
advanced studies in the subject of their choice. For example, a student who intends
to do his MS with a major in Economics would need to take the GRE Subject test for
Economics. Many top Universities accept scores for GRE General Test, but highly
recommend that their candidates take the GRE Subject test. Taking the GRE Subject
test, even when it is not a mandatory requirement is highly recommended as it can
give one the edge over other candidates.

Admission selection panels in colleges and universities use the GRE test scores as a
supplementary measure to a candidates undergraduate transcripts and other
records in order to evaluate his/her eligibility for their post graduate and Doctoral
programs. As many graduate schools have students coming from different
educational backgrounds and different undergraduate schools, it becomes difficult
for the college to conduct a fair evaluation. The GRE test scores serve as a common
benchmark for comparing the applicants. The advantage of a GRE for students is
that, even though they were unable to gain high percentage of marks in their
undergraduate study, owing to various reasons, they can still hope to enter a
college of their choice by getting a good score in the GRE. Although GRE scores are
not the only criteria of admission, they are one of the most crucial and most
colleges assign maximum weightage to GRE scores when considering a students
application. However the weight assigned to GRE scores is the prerogative of the
colleges and the individual departments within the colleges and thus may differ
from program to program. Some graduate programs also assign different
weightages to different sections of the GRE test scores. For example a graduate
program in Mathematics or Statistics would assign more weightage to the
Quantitative ability sections, whereas a graduate program in literature would assign
more weightage to the Verbal reasoning section. GRE test scores are also used by
Colleges and universities to evaluate and select deserving candidates for various
scholarships and fellowships offered by the school. Universities generally do not
reveal the cut off scores for admission to their programs, but most students who are
accepted into the top Ivy League colleges, tend to have an average score of 160
overall and between 145-170 in the quantitative and verbal sections.
The GRE test is offered both as a paper and pencil test and a computer based test.
The computer based test can be taken at any time of the year, at any of the
Prometric test centers, located around the world. However when deciding on a test
date, it is important to keep in mind the application deadline for the colleges one is
applying to and take the test well in time to receive the test scores before the
application deadline date. Also one needs to plan for the eventuality of having to
take a retest. A candidate needs to wait for 21 days to take a retest for GRE. The
candidate needs to take into consideration not only application deadlines at the
college of his choice, but also the average daily amount of time he can spend in
preparing for the test and his study style in determining the test date for GRE
General or Subject tests. We understand that as a recent undergraduate student
many of these aspects can be confusing and it would be difficult to take a decision
regarding the date and type of test you should be taking. We at Global Tree, one of
the best consultancies in overseas education are here to help you round the clock.
Get in touch with us for more information and tailor made solutions on how you can
ace the GRE test and get into the college of your choice.