The GRE has long been a benchmark for graduate school admissions, and with its latest iteration, ETS has presented us with a revamped test format. Here’s my comprehensive review after taking the new shorter GRE mock exam.

Breakdown of the Exam

The New Shorter GRE exam began with the Issue Essay section, spanning 30 minutes, serving as both an icebreaker and a primer for the sections that followed. It truly set the tone, allowing me to ease into the testing environment.

Subsequently, I started the first Verbal section, which was well designed with a compact set of 12 questions to be tackled in 18 minutes. Within this section, there were more vocab based questions (7 questions) than passages (5 questions). All passages were short passage, which was a big relief. Previously on the old GRE, there used to be a very long passage in the first section that was really hard to read under time pressure.

As I transitioned to the Quant section, I found another set of 12 questions that I had to do in 21 minutes. The variety was evident: quantitative comparison questions, data analysis prompts, and multiple-choice questions, including one that demanded multiple answers and a numeric entry. One thing I found was that ETS has not reduced the number of data analysis questions in the new GRE. On the old GRE there were 3 data interpretation questions and on the new GRE there are also 3 data interpretation questions. 

The pace picked up with the second Verbal section — 15 questions this time, spread across 23 minutes. Here, the text completions and sentence equivalence questions were fewer in number (7 questions in total), interspersed with short reading passages (8 questions).

Finally, the second Quant section had 15 questions to be solved in 26 minutes, with a diverse mix of question types that kept me engaged till the very end. Again this section had 3 data interpretation questions just like in the old GRE.

Here is a quick summary of the breakdown of the new Shorter GRE exam.

Essay Section

Issue Essay (30 minutes): This section kickstarts the exam and offers a good warm-up for what’s to come.

Verbal Section 1

Duration: 18 minutes

Questions: 12 in total, averaging 1.5 minutes per question.

Vocabulary-based: 7 questions

• 1 single blank text completion
• 1 double blank text completion
• 1 triple blank text completion
• 4 sentence equivalence questions

Passages: 5 questions

• 1 argument passage with 1 question
• 1 small reading passage with 1 question
• 1 small reading passage with 3 questions

Quant Section 1

Duration: 21 minutes

Questions: 12 in total, averaging 1.75 minutes per question.

• 4 quantitative comparison questions
• 3 data analysis questions
• 3 MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions)
• 1 MACQ (Multiple Answer Choice Question)
• 1 numeric entry

Verbal Section 2

Duration: 23 minutes

Questions: 15 in total, averaging 1.53 minutes per question.

Vocabulary-based: 7 questions

• 1 single blank text completion
• 1 double blank text completion
• 2 triple blank text completion
• 3 sentence equivalence questions

Passages: 8 questions

• 1 argument passage with 1 question
• 3 small reading passages (1 with 2 questions, 1 with 2 questions, 1 with 3 questions)

Quant Section 2

Duration: 26 minutes

Questions: 15 in total, averaging 1.73 minutes per question.

• 5 quantitative comparison questions
• 3 data analysis questions
• 7 MCQs
• 2 MACQ
• 1 numeric entry

My Observations during the Exam:

A Less Exhausting Experience

One of the immediate positives I observed was the decreased mental strain as compared to the old GRE. The pacing felt more natural, which helped me maintain focus and reduce the usual test-taking stress.

No Long Passages

A significant change is the omission of long reading passages in the verbal section, which traditionally were mentally taxing and demanded extensive preparatory reading habits. This made the verbal section more manageable and less draining.

No Experimental Section

The absence of the experimental section is a sigh of relief. It not only shortens the duration but also removes the guessing game about which section might be the ungraded one.

No Change in Scoring Methodology

The scoring scale remains unchanged, providing a sense of familiarity. Like its predecessor, each question within a section weighs equally, meaning an easier question has the same value as a more challenging one. Moreover, the adaptive nature of the test remains, where a better performance in the first section results in a more challenging subsequent section.

Quantitative Continuity

On the quantitative front, there’s no difference in content. This means that the preparation strategy remains largely the same, except for the verbal section where focus shifts from long passages to understanding the intricacies and nuances of shorter texts. Moreover, the data interpretation is now 20-25% of your GRE quantitative sections, which previosuly used to be 15% on the old GRE.

Same Old Questions in the Mock

A minor let-down was that the free mock exam by ETS reused questions from the old GRE power-prep mocks. While the format has changed, it would be beneficial for test-takers to have access to new questions to better understand the test’s dynamics.

Preparing for the New GRE

In the realm of Quant, the new GRE remains remarkably consistent with its predecessor. All the topics that were a staple in the older version continue to be tested. As a result, the preparation strategy for this section remains largely unaltered. Test-takers can confidently rely on their prep materials from the old GRE, ensuring they have a thorough grasp on every topic.

However, fortunately, the Verbal section is now much going to be a bit less challenging in terms of reading passages. Gone are the days when prospective test-takers would invest months into cultivating an extensive reading habit, diving deep into lengthy passages in preparation for the GRE long passages. The new format pivots towards shorter passages. These passages, while brief, are dense with meaning and nuances. To excel in the Verbal section now, candidates should shift their focus towards understanding the intricacies of these short passages. This involves grasping the core argument, identifying subtle shifts in tone or perspective, and answering questions with a keen eye for detail. Instead of endurance, the new GRE verbal preparation requires precision and a meticulous approach.

You can read my blog post on how to prepare for the New Shorter GRE where I go at length and suggest all the various prep materials and resources you need for a thorough preparation.