A graduate or business degree can give you a big career advantage. In order to obtain the degree, you must take the Graduate Record Examination Test (GRE). It is an important step in your academic career and it is the path to thousands of graduate and business programs all over the world.

Graduate programs and business schools use GRE scores to evaluate your readiness for graduate school. It examines verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills that are not related to any specific field of study.

Each year, more than 600,000 prospective graduate school applicants from about 230 countries take the GRE. Applicants come from various educational backgrounds and countries.

The GRE is now offered year-round at computer-based test centers in the United States, Canada and many other countries. This is how it works: instead of having a pre-determined mixture of easy, medium, and hard questions, the computer will select questions for you based on how well you are doing. The first question will be of medium difficulty; if you get it right, the second question will be selected from a large group of questions that are a little harder; if you get the first question wrong, the second will be a little easier. The result is that the test automatically adjusts to your skill level. The tough questions have more credit than easier ones.

Scoring is based on how you perform on each section of the GRE:  Verbal Score (200 to 800 points); Math Score (200-800 points); Analytical Writing Assessment (0 to 6 points).

The GRE is a very important test and preparation is key. The first thing you should do is take a free GRE practice test to see how you’d do on the real thing. Then you can gauge your strengths and weaknesses, and see what GRE test prep options might be best for you.