GRE syllabus: school mathematics and vocabulary in context

Quantitative Reasoning: what is in scope

• Arithmetic — integers, divisibility, factorisation, primes, percentages, ratios, rates, absolute value, powers and roots.
• Algebra — expressions, linear and quadratic equations and inequalities, functions, coordinate geometry, simultaneous equations.
• Geometry — lines, angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, circles, area, volume, the Pythagorean theorem. No proofs.
• Data analysis — mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, probability, distributions, and reading charts and tables.

That is the whole of it, and an Indian student who has done class 10 mathematics has met every topic. The difficulty is not the content; it is that questions are built so the direct method is slow and a shortcut exists.

There is an on-screen calculator. Reaching for it is usually the signal that you have missed the structure of the question.

Quantitative: what to actually practise

1. Quantitative comparison. Decide whether A is bigger, B is bigger, they are equal, or it cannot be determined. Test a positive, a negative, a fraction between 0 and 1, and zero where allowed. "Cannot be determined" is a real answer and students choose it far less often than it is true.
2. Plugging in your own numbers, when the answers are in terms of variables. Avoid 0 and 1, and avoid numbers already in the question.
3. Working backwards from the options, when the question wants a specific value. Start with the middle option.
4. Data interpretation. Read the axis labels, the units and the footnote before the question. Most wrong answers here are right arithmetic on the wrong quantity.

Verbal Reasoning: vocabulary, but not a word list

Text completion and sentence equivalence are decided by the sentence, not by the word. Every such sentence carries a signal — *although*, *despite*, *yet*, *far from*, a semicolon — that tells you whether the blank agrees with something or contradicts it. Read for that direction, put your own plain word in the blank, and only then look at the options.

• Learn words in families of meaning rather than alphabetically. Sentence equivalence is built on near-synonym pairs.
• Learn the roots that pay — *bene/mal*, *loqu*, *ver*, *greg*, *cred*, *magn*, *pug*.
• Learn each word in a sentence you wrote. A word you cannot use is a word you do not have.
• Three hundred well-known words beat a thousand half-known ones.

For reading comprehension, read for structure — the author's position, whose view is being reported, where the passage turns — and answer from the text. Select-all-that-apply items have no partial credit, so treat each option as its own true-or-false question.

Analytical Writing: one task, one shape

One Analyze an Issue task in thirty minutes. A structure that reliably reaches 4.5 to 5:

1. Introduction — restate the issue, state your position, name your two grounds.
2. Concession — the strongest case against you, stated fairly, then why it does not overturn your position.
3. Two body paragraphs — one ground each: claim, specific example, then the sentence saying why the example supports the claim.
4. Conclusion — what follows if you are right.

Examples must be specific — a named policy, a company, a historical episode. "Many studies show" is worth nothing. Budget five minutes to plan, twenty to write, five to re-read.

A six-week shape

1. Weeks 1–2 — diagnose and cover. One full-length practice test, then the item types of your weaker measure until the instructions are automatic.
2. Weeks 3–4 — technique. Quantitative comparison and plugging in; vocabulary in families; one Issue plan a day, without writing the essay.
3. Week 5 — pace. Timed sections, strictly two-pass, using the review screen.
4. Week 6 — full length twice, then time spent on why each wrong answer was wrong.