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Graduate Record Examinations (GRE): US graduate admissions test

Standardized test for US graduate school admissions. The GRE was developed by the Carnegie Foundation in the late 1930s and taken over by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in 1949. Like the SAT, the GRE's methodology descends directly from the Army Alpha. The GRE General Test is administered ~500,000 times annually and remains a major component of US graduate school admissions decisions.

Read About the Test

About the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE)

The Carnegie Foundation began developing a graduate-school admissions test in the late 1930s as part of broader efforts to bring objective measurement to higher education. The early GRE (introduced 1939) was administered by individual graduate schools to applicants. In 1949 the Educational Testing Service (ETS, newly founded to consolidate national testing operations) took over the GRE and standardized it nationally.

The 1949 GRE General Test had three sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytical Reasoning. Methodologically it descended directly from the Army Alpha and the ACE Psychological Examination (1925) - both Carl Brigham and the GRE developers had served on the Army psychological program. The GRE Subject Tests in specific disciplines (mathematics, psychology, biology, etc.) were developed throughout the 1950s.

The GRE has gone through major revisions in 1981 (analytical section restructured), 2002 (analytical reasoning replaced with analytical writing), and 2011 (current revised GRE format, item-types updated, scoring rescaled to 130-170 per section). The Subject Tests have been gradually phased out (only six Subject Tests remained as of 2024). The GRE General Test remains the dominant US graduate admissions test, although a growing number of programs are dropping the requirement.

Like the SAT, the GRE has been the subject of extensive research on cultural fairness, predictive validity, and admissions implications. The GRE's predictive validity for graduate school success is modest (correlations around 0.3-0.4 with first-year graduate GPA) - meaningful but far from deterministic.

Copyright note: GRE items are copyrighted (ETS).

The 3 subtests

#1
Verbal Reasoning Reading comprehension, sentence completion, sentence equivalence, text completion.
Copyrighted
#2
Quantitative Reasoning Quantitative comparisons, multiple choice (single + multiple answer), numeric entry.
Copyrighted
#3
Analytical Writing Two essay tasks: 'Analyze an Issue' and 'Analyze an Argument.' Scored 0-6.
Copyrighted

Sample Items (Illustrative)

Items are presented as multiple-choice questions, numeric entry, or essay prompts. Verbal and Quantitative sections are scored based on correct answers, while Analytical Writing is scored on a scale of 0-6 based on clarity, coherence, and argumentation.

Sample 1 · Verbal Reasoning
Select the word that best completes the following sentence: 'The scientist's theory was met with _____ by her peers, who were skeptical of her unconventional methods.'
Example response: skepticism
Sample 2 · Quantitative Reasoning
If a train travels 60 miles in 1.5 hours, what is its average speed in miles per hour?
Example response: 40
Sample 3 · Analytical Writing
Analyze an Issue: 'In a democracy, the public's right to know should always outweigh the government's need for secrecy.' Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with this statement, providing reasons and examples to support your position.
Example response: A well-structured essay that presents a clear position, supports it with logical reasoning and examples, and considers counterarguments.

These are illustrative samples, not actual items from the protected test.

Source

All test materials and historical content on this page are transcribed from:

Carnegie Foundation / ETS (1949). Graduate Record Examinations (GRE).

GRE items are under ETS copyright. We document the test's history.

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Historical test materials are obsolete and are not valid modern IQ assessments. This page is preserved for educational, research, and historiographic purposes.

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