In this article, we have featured How Hard Is The GRE? When individuals are thinking about attending graduate school and taking the requisite admissions exam, the first question that generally comes to their minds is “how difficult is the GRE?”
Because it has such a significant bearing on the admissions decision, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is typically the first item that students who are considering graduate school worries about.
However, this is a tough subject to discuss due to the fact that the concept of “difficulty” is based on a number of different aspects, such as the structure, duration, time, and content of the examination.
To put it another way, in order to ascertain the degree of difficulty of the GRE, you must first evaluate your own capabilities and limitations. This article discusses the difficulty of the GRE, including what factors contribute to the test’s challenging nature as well as strategies for overcoming those factors.
Is the GRE a Tough Test?
If you ask different people, you’ll get different answers about how difficult the GRE is. The GRE is significantly more difficult than other standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT, which are frequently taken by high school students.
This is due to the fact that the GRE contains more difficult math problems and reading passages, as well as vocabulary that is intended for students with higher-level reasoning.
However, many students report that they found the GRE to be easier than other exams required for graduate school entry, such as the LSAT and the MCAT.
Why Is the GRE Such a Challenging Exam?
Students frequently judge the difficulty of an examination based on their own capabilities and areas for improvement.
For instance, if you have a hard time grasping mathematical concepts, you might discover that this section of the GRE is more challenging than other sections. The GRE can be challenging for certain people due to a number of other variables as well.
The phrasing of GRE questions: If you want to do well on the GRE, part of the preparation you need to do is to learn how to deal with questions that have complex wording.
For example, if you want to ace the quantitative reasoning portion of the GRE, you might have to depend more on logic than analysis to get to the bottom of the question.
This is due to the fact that the terminology may be confusing, which will require you to apply logic in order to discover the kind of answer that is required.
The Writing Component: Some students, when attempting to answer the question “is the GRE test difficult?” will refer to the challenging writing section.
The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is the only exam for graduate school that asks applicants to write not one but two essays.
However, the purpose of the two essays is not just to evaluate your writing style but also to evaluate your capacity for analysis and argumentation.
The first prompt for your essay will ask you to advocate a stance and then provide evidence to support that argument. In the second essay portion of the GRE, you will be required to evaluate an argument by describing its flaws and potential dangers.
First and foremost, a Demanding Vocabulary
The vocabulary section of the GRE is known to be one of the test’s more challenging parts. A full half of the Verbal Reasoning part is dedicated to testing your familiarity with a range of words that are very uncommon and advanced.
Throughout the entirety of this level, you will be prompted to choose individual words or groups of words to complete various statements.
Even if you did well on vocabulary questions on the SAT or ACT, the GRE features more difficult vocabulary, so it is possible that you will still need to complete some review before taking the test.
ESL students who are not as fluent in the English language are the ones who are most impacted by this.
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Factor 2: Solid mathematical knowledge is required
The vast majority of students who take either the SAT or the ACT do so while they are still enrolled in high school and most likely enrolled in regular math classes.
On the other hand, it may have been many years since some persons who take the GRE have attended a math class or been required to apply their geometry knowledge in real-world situations.
You might also have a natural aversion to mathematics and have mistakenly believed that completing your undergraduate mathematics requirements was the end of your involvement with the subject.
Either of these circumstances can make the GRE more difficult for you because it’s possible that you’ll need to cover a lot of territory in order to get your mathematical skills up to the level they should be.
Because you will be tested on algebra, geometry, data tables, and graphs, as well as fundamental statistics, in the Quantitative Reasoning section of the GRE, you will need to have a thorough understanding of each of these subject areas if you want to do well on that portion of the exam.
People who have never felt comfortable with mathematics and those who haven’t recently taken a math class or used a lot of arithmetic, such as those who major in humanities, are the ones who are going to struggle the most with this.
How to Overcome It: Using prep materials to strengthen your knowledge of GRE math is an excellent method to overcome this challenge.
You can become better familiar with the arithmetic that will be assessed on the GRE by using one of the many preparation books that are available. If you want more in-depth information on a subject, you can enhance what you already know about it with extra resources, such as math videos from Khan Academy.
Conclusion:
If your scores are already at or above the scores you need, then you will want to do some studying to make sure that you don’t get an unpleasant surprise on Test Day.
Even if your results are already at or above the scores you need, studying is still recommended. On the other hand, it’s possible that you won’t need to devote a significant amount of time to prepare.
If, on the other hand, there is a sizable gap between the results you achieved on your practice tests and the scores you need for the real test, then you will need to put in a lot of effort in order to get the scores you want.
In this regard, the GRE is considered a “challenging” test; however, this is solely due to the fact that you are not yet prepared to take it. If you put in the effort to practice, the test will be much simpler.
