How are Scores Allotted for GRE Revised General Test?

GRE stands for Graduate Record Examination. It is a standardized eligibility test created and administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS). This test needs to be cleared in order to get admission in most of the graduate schools in USA. This exam is for testing your verbal and quantitative reasoning and analytical writing. GRE Subject Tests are taken when candidate wishes to do specialization in any field. You can take the GRE revised general tests as computer based test and paper based test. Mostly computer based tests are conducted. Paper based tests are conducted at places where it is not possible to conduct the computer based tests.

• GRE Revised General Test Score Scales

Three scores are reported on the GRE revised General Test:

• A Verbal Reasoning score is reported on a 130–170 score scale, in 1-point increments. The Verbal Reasoning section measures your ability to understand what you read and how you apply your reasoning skills in practice. It consists of 2 essays, with time limit of 30 minutes each.
• A Quantitative Reasoning score is reported on a 130–170 score scale, in 1-point increments. This section measures problem-solving ability, focusing on basic concepts of arithmetic and data analysis. Two sections each with 20 questions are in the test, 30 minutes for each section.
• An Analytical Writing score is reported on a 0–6 score scale, in half-point increments. This section measures critical thinking and analytical writing skills. Two sections each with 20 questions are asked in the test, 35 minutes for each section.

Any section in which you answer no questions at all will be reported as a No Score (NS).

• Computer based test:

In the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections of the computer-based GRE revised general test, the reported scores are based on the number of correct responses given to all the questions. This means the computer selects the second section based on your performance on the first section. All questions within each section, contribute equally to the final score. For each of the two sections, a raw score is computed. The raw score is the number of questions you answered correctly. The raw score is converted to a scaled score through a process known as equating. The equating process accounts for minor variations in difficulty by the section-level adaptation. Thus a given scaled score for a particular section reflects the same level of performance. For the Analytical Writing section, each essay receives a score from at least one trained reader, using a six-point holistic scale. Scores assigned are on the basis of the overall quality of an essay in response to the assigned task. The essay score is then reviewed by e-rater, a computerized program developed by ETS. If the human scores and e-rater score match than that human scores are considered else a second human score is obtained, and the final score is the average of the two human scores. The final scores on the two essays are then averaged and rounded to the nearest half-point interval on the 0–6 score scale.

• Paper based test:

In paper-based-test for Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning raw score is computed, raw score is then converted to a scaled score through equating just as above. For the Analytical Writing section, each essay receives a score from two trained readers, using a six-point holistic scale. If the two assigned scores differ by more than one point on the scale, the discrepancy is adjudicated by a third GRE reader. Otherwise, the two scores on each essay are averaged. The final scores on the two essays are then averaged and rounded to the nearest half-point interval on the 0–6 score scale.

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