Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Free GRE Practice Test and Personal Score Assessment

Start your free GRE Practice Test

65 Minutes

You’ll get a baseline score estimate and a personalized study plan that targets your strengths and weaknesses.

  • Math Section 20 questions, 35 minutes
  • Verbal Section 20 questions, 30 minutes

Magoosh is excited to offer you a free GRE practice test (online) with video answers and explanations. The assessment will take a bit over an hour and you’ll also get access to:

  • your baseline score estimate
  • a detailed report of your strengths and weaknesses (for the GRE 😜)
  • a lesson plan personalized for you, based on your assessment data
  • practice questions with in-depth video explanations
  • lesson videos that cover every concept you’ll encounter on exam day
  • expert-led, cohorted live classes

Woman at desk, sitting with computer

Table of Contents

GRE Practice Test FAQ

GRE Practice Test FAQ

Quant questions on GRE practice test - image by Magoosh

What Quant content will I be tested on?

For a lot of students, the GRE Quantitative Reasoning section presents question types they’ve never seen before. However, with careful practice, you can master these! On test day, expect to see:

  • Multiple choice questions with one answer choice
    Click here for an example!

    gre multiple choice problem - magoosh

     

  • Multiple choice questions with multiple answer choices. These could be “all that apply” or “exactly X correct answer choices” (such as “exactly three correct answer choices”). Be sure to read directions carefully!
    Click here for an example!

    gre multiple select problem - magoosh

     

  • Type-in answers (numeric entry)
    Click here for an example!

    gre numeric entry problem - magoosh

     

  • Quantitative comparisons. These are the trickiest question types for many test-takers but becoming familiar with them helps a lot. You do not solve the problems given in these questions. Instead, you review two columns (which can contain anything from numbers to equations). Then, you decide whether the information in Column A is bigger, the information in Column B is bigger, the two quantities are equal, or if it cannot be determined from the information given.
    Click here for an example!

    gre quantitative comparison problem - magoosh

If the GRE quantitative practice test makes you nervous, you’re not alone. A lot of test-takers won’t have studied math since high school or college. That’s OK! Just make sure to brush up on all of the topics you’ll see. If you’re unsure of where to begin, taking a GRE online practice test is a great way to figure out areas to focus on.

You can expect to see the following subjects covered on the GRE.

GRE Quant Concept Percentage frequency on the test
Word problems 35.5%
Ratios, percents, and fractions 23.9%
Algebra 22.8%
Data interpretation 20%
Integer properties and arithmetic 16.7%
Two-dimensional geometry 15%
Statistics 14.4%
Powers and roots 7.8%
Inequalities 6.1%
Probability and combinatronics 5.6%
Coordinate geometry 4.4%
Three dimensional geometry 2.2%
Sequences 1.7%
Functions 1.1%

 
Back to top button - Magoosh

 

Verbal questions on GRE practice test - image by Magoosh

What Verbal content will I be tested on?

The GRE Verbal practice test contains many question types that you’ll see on the official exam. In this section, you’ll encounter general GRE practice questions that test your reading comprehension and critical reading skills. These include:

  • Text Completion. These are questions with blanks that you select the answers to. You’ll see one or two TCs with single blanks, two to three with double blanks, and one to two with triple blanks. For questions with more than one blank, you must fill in the right answer everywhere to get the point.
    Click here for an example!

    gre text completion problem - magoosh

     

  • Reading Comprehension. These questions come with passages, which vary from fewer than 20 lines (short) to over 40 lines (long). They ask about your understanding of the text.
    Click here for an example!

    gre reading comprehension problem - magoosh

     

  • Critical Reasoning. Technically a subset of Reading Comprehension questions, CR questions ask you to make logical connections between pieces of information in a short passage.
    Click here for an example!

    gre critical reasoning problem - magoosh

     

  • Sentence Equivalence questions. SE questions ask you to select words that complete a given sentence—and that produce the same meaning. If your vocabulary is strong (and you can make it stronger with good preparation), these questions go quickly!
    Click here for an example!

    gre sentence equivalence problem - magoosh

Now that you know what to expect, check out these do’s and don’ts when taking a GRE Verbal practice test:

Back to top button - Magoosh

 

Calculator - image by Magoosh

How are GRE practice test scores calculated?

We would love to be able to give you a score calculator where you input your raw score (the number of questions you answered correctly) from a GRE practice test and it spits out a scaled score (that’s the 130-170 scale). Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple.

Once you’ve taken the actual GRE test, ETS (the test-maker) performs mysterious calculations on the raw score. This process, known as “equating,” translates those scores into the scaled scores you’ll see on you report. Read this article to learn exactly what that means.

You can use some of the available ETS materials, like this evaluation PDF, to get a very rough sense of what your raw score means for your test-day performance. However, we strongly urge you not to rely too much on this method. The equating process is different for each exam, so the likelihood of getting a different scaled score on the real GRE test—even if you answer the exact same number of questions correctly—is very high!


In short: Use this practice test to get a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, not to estimate your exact GRE score. Your goal on the GRE is to answer as many questions correctly as possible within the given time limits.

So how should you use your practice tests? Look carefully at the explanations for the questions that you missed on your practice test, understand what you did wrong, and then devote extra time to understanding those concepts and question types.

On your next practice test, compare the results to see if your raw section scores have improved and if you’ve mastered the concepts that used to give you trouble.
 
Back to top button - Magoosh

 

Pen icon - image by Magoosh

How do I evaluate AWA in GRE practice tests?

Evaluating your own Analytical Writing section isn’t the easiest thing in the world. After all, if you knew what you needed to do to improve your GRE AWA…well, you would probably have done it already.

The very best way to score your GRE essay is to get a friend, study partner, tutor, or teacher to help (if you can enlist one of them to help, here’s a GRE AWA rubric they can use!). But that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing you can do if you’re working on your own.

You can use that same AWA rubric to score your own essays. Now, the key here is honesty: Be brutally honest with yourself as you go over your essays.

Remember, you’re evaluating your analytical writing skills. If you’re struggling with this, scroll down in that post to find a series of questions you can ask yourself as you evaluate it.
 
Back to top button - Magoosh

 

Scale icon - image by Magoosh

Is the GRE harder than the practice tests?

The answer to this is complicated: it can be, but it depends.

In terms of the content, the actual test is section adaptive. In other words, the difficulty level of the questions change as you go through the test. They might become easier, if you mess up a few in a row—or they might become harder. As hard as it is, try not to take the difficulty level of the question as a comment on your current score; a particular question might just be easy for you, rather than easy in general, so it doesn’t necessarily reflect your score band the way you think it does.

This is different than the free practice tests given in paper format (or in standard quiz form) above. Though these can give you a sense of how well prepared you are for test day, they don’t necessarily change difficulty as you go along. So they might be easier or harder than what you’ll actually see on test day.

Now, for most people, the actual test is definitely harder psychologically, in that test day pressure can make you more anxious than you were taking a practice test at home. But with enough practice in test-like conditions, as well as relaxation strategies, you can prepare yourself to succeed in this environment.

Overall, keep in mind that different people will find different questions easy, medium, or hard depending on their training or background. A particular practice exam might seem like a breeze for you while being objectively difficult—or vice-versa.

The best thing you can do to prepare for variations in question difficulty on test day? Practice as much as you can with a variety of questions of all different difficulty levels. That way, nothing you see on the official exam will throw you off your game!
 
Back to top button - Magoosh

 

Rocket - image by Magoosh

How do I practice for GRE tests?

Still craving more GRE practice? You can find it in these Magoosh resources:

 
As you practice your GRE test preparation skills with a mock test (or several mock tests!), check out the Magoosh blog for tips to help you master different subject areas with our study guides. We’ve covered everything from the most frequent GRE quant concepts to a comprehensive guide to Reading Comprehension questions for GRE verbal.

Finally, don’t forget to set goals! You can find out everything you need to know about GRE scores here. And Magoosh’s GRE prep can help you reach those goals once you’ve set them! You can choose between a live cohorted class with an instructor (which includes all our lessons and practice questions) or access to the self-study option by itself.

Authors

  • Rachel Kapelke-Dale

    Rachel is one of Magoosh’s Content Creators. She writes and updates content on our High School and GRE Blogs to ensure students are equipped with the best information during their test prep journey. As a test-prep instructor for more than five years in there different countries, Rachel has helped students around the world prepare for various standardized tests, including the SAT, ACT, TOEFL, GRE, and GMAT, and she is one of the authors of our Magoosh ACT Prep Book. Rachel has a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from Brown University, an MA in Cinematography from the Université de Paris VII, and a Ph.D. in Film Studies from University College London. For over a decade, Rachel has honed her craft as a fiction and memoir writer and public speaker. Her novel, THE BALLERINAS, is forthcoming in December 2021 from St. Martin’s Press, while her memoir, GRADUATES IN WONDERLAND, co-written with Jessica Pan, was published in 2014 by Penguin Random House. Her work has appeared in over a dozen online and print publications, including Vanity Fair Hollywood. When she isn’t strategically stringing words together at Magoosh, you can find Rachel riding horses or with her nose in a book. Join her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook!

  • Chris Lele

    Chris Lele is the Principal Curriculum Manager (and vocabulary wizard) at Magoosh. Chris graduated from UCLA with a BA in Psychology and has 20 years of experience in the test prep industry. He’s been quoted as a subject expert in many publications, including US News, GMAC, and Business Because. In his time at Magoosh, Chris has taught countless students how to tackle the GRE, GMAT, SAT, ACT, MCAT (CARS), and LSAT exams with confidence. Some of his students have even gone on to get near-perfect scores. You can find Chris on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook!

More from Magoosh