Beginning today students can take the shorter GRE for admissions to graduate, business, and law programs and schools. From September 22, 2023, the testing time for the GRE General Test will be reduced by half.
The shorter GRE testing time has been cut in half and is now under two hours compared to almost four hours previously. As the most efficient graduate admissions test, the shorter GRE is part of ETS’s continued commitment to optimizing the testing experience for students, while maintaining the validity and reliability of GRE scores that are depended on by institutions around the world.
Analytical Writing: 1 section, 1 essay task – 30 minutes
Quantitative Reasoning: 2 sections, 27 questions – total 47 minutes
Verbal Reasoning: 2 sections, 27 questions – total 41 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Official GRE scores will be delivered to test takers even faster than before, in just 8-10 days post-examination.
Major Changes in the GRE Test
Removal of the ‘Analyze an Argument task’ in the Analytical Writing section
Reduced number of questions in the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections
Removal of the unscored section
Be less than 2 hours long, making it the shortest test of general skills for admission to graduate and professional programs
Have 46 fewer Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning questions, helping reduce test-taking fatigue!
Have only one Analytical Writing essay (versus two in the current version)!
Speaking on these changes Sachin Jain, Country Manager, ETS India & South Asia, says, “The shorter GRE provides a better test-taking experience, while continuing to be the most valid and reliable assessment of graduate-level readiness.
GRE’s widespread acceptance across graduate and professional programs, including STEM, business and law, is a testimony of being an objective measure of cognitive skills that are the foundation of success across fields of study and profession.
We are confident that GRE test takers from India, one of the largest populations of GRE test takers in the world, will welcome a significantly better experience with the shorter GRE when showcasing their graduate-readiness to admissions professionals at higher education institutions around the globe.”
The score scales will remain consistent, ensuring that graduate programs can easily compare performance across individuals who test before and after September 2023. The shorter GRE is also section-level adaptive, allowing test takers to answer questions in the order that they choose and to change their answers as often as they need to.
More than 1300 business schools in 94 countries accept GRE scores for MBA and other professional graduate programs, showcasing GRE’s position as a universal test for pursuing graduate and professional studies across disciplines.
Additionally, GRE scores are valid for a period of five years which provides students with flexibility to explore their graduate and professional school options. The GRE continues to be the most widely accepted test across graduate and professional school admissions around the world.
(Press Release)