Anyone taking the general GRE in August (or later) will be taking a brand new version with some major changes to the test question types and overal design of the questions. This means that if you have been studying with some of the older review books or classes, that you should take the test BEFORE August if possible!

If you are studying the new format and haven’t registered for the test yet, ETS (the company that runs the GRE) is offering a 50% discount on the test fee if you take the test between August 1 and September 30. The only catch is that your scores won’t make it out until mid-November. Considering that the regular fee is a whopping $160, this is something to seriously consider taking advantage of!

What are some of the changes on the new test? Well among some general test format changes like the ability to skip around on the computer based test and an on screen calculator, there are also some major changes to the question types.

• Math Questions are More “real life” – It seems as though they are trying to get away from mindless calculations and focus more on questions that test your reasoning abilities. HOWEVER, they still say about 100 times on their own site that you still must have the same math skills as you would have on the old test.
• New Math Question Types – There are two new types of math questions: numeric entry, where instead of choosing an answer, you type it in and “multiple select” questions where there may be more than one right answer that you need to choose. You can also expect to see more data interepretation.
• No More Antonyms and Analogies – It has been many years since I took the GRE but I am jumping for joy as I read this! ETS says they will no longer test vocabulary “out of context” and instead will have more reading comprehension questions and new question types such as text completion and questions that have you determine if two sentences have the same meaning.

You can read more about the revised GRE here: http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/know