Why is GRE considered tough?

In order to understand why GRE is considered tough we need to know what it is all about. Students usually have this misconception that GRE is tough and it cannot be cleared that easily. Let’s see if that’s true.

What is GRE?

The Graduate Record Examination, or GRE, is a crucial part of the admission process for graduate or business schools. An worldwide multiple-choice exam known as the GRE is usually required for admission to MBA and graduate programmes.
The GRE was developed and made available by test creator ETS so that graduate and business schools may compare candidates’ credentials and preparation for graduate-level academic work. Graduate admissions committees and business school admissions committees look at your GRE score, academic record, and supporting documents to assess if you are ready for the demands of graduate academic study.

GRE eligibility requirements

The Graduate Record Examination is required for admission to the majority of graduate programmes at universities around the world. Candidates who wish to take the GRE must have successfully completed their undergraduate studies. The exam is open to students of any age or qualification. However, it should be noted that not all universities and programmes require a GRE score for their Graduate Program. It is entirely up to the university whether or not a candidate must take the GRE.

Now let us see the paper pattern

Analytical Writing

Verbal Analysis

quantitative reasoning
The following sections produce these scores:

Section of the Analytical Writing Assessment

part on verbal reasoning

parts on quantitative reasoning

Additionally, one of the following sections will be visible to you:

Unscored (may be either Verbal Reasoning or Quantitative Reasoning) (may be either Verbal Reasoning or Quantitative Reasoning)

Research (used for ETS research goals) (used for ETS research purposes)

Each section of the verbal and quantitative reasoning tests is graded on a scale from 130 to 170. The average verbal reasoning score is 151, and the average quantitative reasoning score is 153. The Analytical Writing Assessment has a scale from 0 to 6 with half-point increments, and the median score is 4.0.

GRE Sections	Computer-based GRE Pattern
	No. of Sections	Duration
Analytical Writing	1 section- two tasks	60 minutes
Verbal Reasoning	2 section- 40 questions	60 minutes
Quantitative Reasoning	2 section- 40 questions	70 minutes
Unscored	Varies	Varies
Research	Varies	Varies

Factors that make GRE appear tough

The GRE is considered difficult because it requires students to think critically and is not as straightforward as other exams you may have taken previously.

Finally, students will discover that the GRE is a little more difficult than the SAT or ACT, but it may be more manageable once they learn the tricks to solving its problems.

The difficulty level is determined by your current vocabulary knowledge and critical thinking skills.

Challenging Vocabulary

The GRE’s vocabulary is one of its more difficult aspects. The Verbal Reasoning section tests your knowledge of some pretty obscure and sophisticated vocabulary for nearly half of the time. You will be asked to choose words or groups of words to fill in the blanks in sentences throughout this section. Even if you performed well on vocab questions on the SAT or ACT, the GRE has more difficult vocabulary, so you’ll probably need to do some review.
Solid math skills are required

The majority of people who take the SAT or ACT do so while still in high school and probably taking regular math classes. However, for some people taking the GRE, it may have been years since they last took a math class or had to use their geometry skills. Or you may have always disliked math and assumed that once you completed your undergrad math requirements, you were done with it. A strong understanding of arithmetic topics is necessary for the GRE’s math section. The quantitative reasoning section of the GRE covers ideas like fundamental statistics, graphs, data tables, geometry, and algebra, which for many people makes it challenging. To succeed, you need to be well-versed in certain mathematical ideas. Spend enough time reviewing these ideas if you haven’t taken a math course in a while so that the GRE isn’t as challenging as you might think.

Any of these scenarios can make the GRE more difficult because you may have to cover a lot of ground to get your math skills up to par. The GRE Quantitative Reasoning section tests algebra, geometry, data tables and graphs, and basic statistics, so you’ll need to be well-versed in all of these areas to do well on the exam.

Question Wording Tricks

The GRE makes itself even more difficult by wording questions in ways that require more logic and analysis to find the correct answer, in addition to testing your knowledge of multiple areas of math. This is especially true in the section on Quantitative Reasoning. Even though the math test isn’t particularly difficult, the wording frequently makes it more difficult than the quantitative sections of the SAT and ACT.

How is the GRE made more difficult as a result of this? This can be a particularly frustrating aspect of the exam because you may know all of the content required to perform well, but you are tripped up by the wording of the questions, either not understanding what is being asked or being duped into selecting an incorrect answer.

Time constraint

The GRE, like most standardized tests, does not give you much time to answer each question. You’ll have 30 minutes to write each essay and an average of one minute and 30 seconds to respond to each verbal question and one minute and 45 seconds to respond to each math question. That means you’ll have to keep track of the time throughout the test.

How difficult is the GRE under time constraints? Even if you know everything you need to know to ace the GRE, you won’t get a high score if you can’t answer many questions due to time constraints. To answer all of the questions, you’ll need to work quickly and efficiently throughout the test.

Difficult Writing Section

The GRE Analytical Writing section requires you to write two essays, which is more than most standardized tests require: The first prompt will ask you to take a position on an issue and back it up with evidence, while the second will ask you to critique the flaws in a given argument. Each essay will take 30 minutes to complete.

Many people are intimidated by the Analytical Writing section because you cannot simply select option “A” and hope for the best. You’ll have an hour to write two complete essays.

Adaptive Format and Computerized Test

Although the SAT and ACT are still administered on paper and pencil, almost everyone who takes the GRE does so on a computer. Some people may be confused because they aren’t used to seeing questions and answers on a screen and prefer to be able to hold and write directly on the test. This may necessitate a change in your test-taking strategies, such as scribbling notes in the margins or crossing out answers you’ve eliminated.Why does this affect how difficult the GRE is? That first section has a lot riding on it. The harder questions carry more weight than the easier questions on the GRE. You could answer the same number of questions correctly as another test taker, but if your second section was easier and their second section was harder, their score would be higher.

No exam is difficult if you prepare well for it and have confidence that you can clear it. All you need is zeal and determination.