If anyone of you has started studying from the official guide of the new revised GRE, you will notice a certain trend – word problems abound. There are a lot of inequalities, as well as a few probability and combinatorics questions. There is plenty of Statistics and but not a lot of geometry. Quantitative comparison questions are frequent as well, along with many questions on the time-consuming data interpretation.
In this post, I have used the official guide to develop an exhaustive list of topics and concepts tested on the GRE quantitative section. You will not see anything outside of these topics; neither would you see all of them.
You must note here that the Math skills required to do well on the GRE quantitative reasoning section are of a very basic level. No advanced mathematics topics such as differentiation or integration are tested, and all topics are within reach of a tenth-grade student. In general, the quantitative reasoning section on the GRE assesses:
- Basic Mathematical skills.
- Understanding of elementary mathematical concepts.
- Ability to reason quantitatively & to model and solve problems with quantitative methods.
The GRE tests the following areas:
Arithmetic
- PEMDAS/BODMAS
- Arithmetic Operations
- Number Lines
- Number Approximation & Estimation
- Prime Numbers & Factorization
- Factors and Multiples
- Remainders
- Odd & Even Integers
- Evenly Spaced Sets
- Exponents & roots
- Percentage & Ratios
- Direct & Inverse Proportionality
- Absolute Value & Modulus
- Fractions, Decimals & Digits
- Number sequences
Algebra
- Linear & Quadratic Equations
- Simultaneous Equations
- Functions & Special Symbol Formulas
- Inequalities
- Inequalities with Absolute Values
Geometry
- Parallel & perpendicular lines
- Circles
- Triangles, quadrilaterals and other polygons
- Congruent & similar figures
- Area, perimeter, volume
- Pythagorean theorem
- Angle measurement in degrees
- 3D geometry
- Coordinate Geometry
- Graphs of functions & Parabolas
Word problems
- Speed distance problems
- Work rate problems
- Age problems
- Mixture questions
- Venn diagrams
- Simple & compound interests
Data Interpretation
- Line graphs
- Bar graphs
- Histograms
- Circle graphs
- Box plots
- Scatter plots
- Frequency distributions
Statistics
- Mean
- Median
- Mode
- Range
- Percentiles
- Standard deviation
- Interquartile range
- Quartiles and percentiles
- Normal Distribution
Probability
- Probabilities of compound events and independent events
- Random variables
- Probability distributions
- Counting methods, such as combinations and permutations