The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is a pre-requisite for applying to the graduate and doctoral programs of most US universities in the arts, humanities, engineering and medicine. This exam is administered by ETS (Educational Testing Services, Inc.) a not-for-profit organization, based in Princeton, New Jersey, US.

In addition to an admission criterion, schools often use GRE scores to determine eligibility for merit-based grants and fellowships, as well as teaching and research assistantships. Many programs, especially those at large state schools, establish cutoff points for GRE scores to limit the application pool, while others use GRE scores to directly determine how much financial support you receive. Investing time and effort in preparing for the GRE today can help you get into the grad school of your choice and can greatly increase your chances of getting financial aid.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) consists of two separate tests:

• General Test
• Subject Test

The General Test is designed to provide graduate schools with common measures for comparing the qualifications of applicants.

The Subject Test, required by only some programs, measures knowledge of psychological concepts that are essential to graduate study; it also yields a score from 200-800.
The book, Graduate Study in Psychology, will tell you whether schools require the GRE as well as the minimum scores they require for admission.

Typical GRE Pattern-From October 2002

SECTION	CONTENTS	NO. OF QUESTIONS	TIME	SCORE
Verbal	Antonyms, Reading Comprehension Sentence Completion., Analogies	30	30 Minutes	200-800
Quantitative	Problem Solving & Data Comparison	28	45 Minutes	200-800
Analytical Writing Assessment	Analytical Writing Assessment	1. Present Your Perspective 2. Analyze An Argument	45 Minutes 30 Minutes	1-6 with half-point increments 1-6 with half-point increments

• In India, tests are conducted at Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Trivandrum
• Test fee is $140 for the General test and $150 for the Subject test and the scores are valid for 5 years
• Modes of Fee payment
  • Credit Card - VISA, MasterCard, or American Express
  • Order/Certified Check
  • U.S. Postal Money Order
  • International Money Order
  • UNESCO Coupons
• One should plan to take the General Test in November in order to meet any admissions deadline. Also, if you do poorly on your first try, you should have enough time to re-take the test in December to try and improve your scores
• Remember, though, that you have a 50-50 chance of doing worse on the next try, and that both sets of scores will be reported to the schools to which you apply, unless you cancel your scores, an option you have after taking the computerized General Test (you must cancel without knowing your scores).
• For the General Test, it is important to register early to get your choice of test dates in the busy testing months of November, December, and January.
• For the Subject Test, you need to register at least six weeks in advance. In any event, you will need to have taken it by February 1 of your senior year to meet the admissions deadlines for most doctoral programs
• You will receive your unofficial test scores on the General Test--taken on computer--as soon as you complete the test
• Official scores will be sent to you and to the institutions to which you will be applying within 10 to 15 days after the test.
• Scores for the Subject Test are usually reported about six weeks after you take the test.
• You can also register by mail by completing the registration form in the GRE Information and Registration Bulletin. You can obtain the latter by downloading it from GRE- Online or by writing to: GRE, CN 6000, Princeton, NJ 08541-6000. You may also obtain a copy from the Testing Office on your campus.
• For more information & to download brochure you can visit www.gre.org, www.gmat.org, www.toefl.org, www.ets.org