Checked against official sources on 22 September 2026.
Since September 2023 the GRE General Test has been about two hours long, with a single essay task and shorter Verbal and Quantitative sections.
| Measure | Questions | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Analytical Writing | 1 essay task | 30 minutes (always first) |
| Verbal Reasoning | 27 | 41 minutes (two sections: 12 questions in 18 minutes, then 15 in 23) |
| Quantitative Reasoning | 27 | 47 minutes (two sections: 12 questions in 21 minutes, then 15 in 26) |
Section-level adaptation
Section-level adaptive for Verbal and Quant: the first section of each measure is of average difficulty, and your performance on it sets the difficulty of the second. Inside a section you can skip, mark and return to questions, which the GRE's Review screen makes easy.
Scoring
Verbal and Quantitative 130–170 in one-point steps; Analytical Writing 0–6 in half-point steps.
- Within a section you can skip questions, mark them, and go back to change answers.
- An unscored section may appear; it does not count towards your score.
Our GRE tests follow this structure, including the Analyze an Issue essay and easy, medium or hard second sections.
GRE practice tests