What to Expect on the Revised GRE

The Revised GRE General Test that debuted on August 1, 2011, features significant changes in format, scoring, and content. However, the most important change you'll see is the complete paradigm shift in the exam's design: The old GRE was a Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT), in which testers saw only one question at a time and had to answer it before moving on. The Revised GRE is a Multi-Stage Test (MST), which means you can navigate through sections, skipping and returning to questions and/or changing responses as you see fit.

Implications of the Changes to the GRE Exam

Like a CAT, a Multi-Stage Test (MST) adapts to your performance. The big difference is that while a CAT test serves questions one at a time, an MST exam selects questions in groups, or stages. Each of the two Math sections on the Revised GRE is effectively a separate stage in determining your Math score; likewise for the two Verbal sections. So for the Revised GRE, it is critical to perform well section by section rather than question by question. In fact, performance on the first Math section determines the difficulty level of the second, just like the old GRE determined the difficulty level of each successive question. Thus, though the Revised GRE's MST design minimizes the importance of any individual question, it is essentially scored in a similar fashion to the old GRE: you'll receive a scaled score based on the number of questions completed, the number of questions answered correctly, and the difficulty level of the questions presented.

The ability to navigate freely throughout an entire section, skipping questions on the first pass and/or editing responses, has substantial implications for test-taking strategy. You'll need a systematic game plan for managing a whole section in a way that accounts for your individual strengths and weaknesses. Performing well on the entire first sections of both the Math and the Verbal is key. We're proud to state that The Princeton Review is the first national test prep company to offer a comprehensive course preparing for this new, and different, version of the test. We're also the first to use  Adaptology , an advanced teaching method that combines our techniques with the technology used in the multi-stage computer adaptive GRE. This approach will give you an edge in understanding the concepts tested on the Revised GRE.

Revised GRE: Table of "Fascinating Facts"