The Revised GRE, Part V: Quantitative Reasoning

by , Apr 24, 2010

by Bob Verini, 30-year Kaplan veteran teacher, trainer, and curriculum developer

When the new GRE is unveiled in 2011, the Quantitative Reasoning section will look awfully familiar to longtime test watchers (and we at Kaplan employ hundreds of them!). QCs the well-known Quantitative Comparisons, comparing quantities in Columns A and B will remain. Also intact will be that mainstay of both GRE and GMAT Quantitative, the math question with five answer choices, only one of which is correct.

Yet therell be innovation as well. For one thing, some quantitative multiple choice questions will have more than one possible answer and just as in GRE Reading Comprehension (discussed in an earlier posting), no partial credit will be offered. As an additional wrinkle, testmaker ETS is suggesting that sometimes theyll spell out exactly how many (as, for example, Which two of the following are equivalent to x?) and other times theyll leave it ambiguous, e.g. Indicate all amounts that could be the average employee salary, followed by seven possibilities. Such questions wont respond to mere tactics that is, one wont be able to narrow down possibilities creatively though theyll continue to be vulnerable to the best strategic approaches and mindset.

Another new question type, Numeric Entry, is reminiscent of the paper-and-pencil SAT grid-in questions. Examinees will have no gridding or bubbling-in to do, of course, thanks to the computer format; when asked for the value of x one will have to type in 18.75 rather than select from among five choices. With no multiple choices to manipulate strategically or to eliminate when stuck, the advantage here goes to the examinee with a strong command of calculation.

As far as graph and data analysis goes, the GRE has always put a higher premium on these skills than the GMAT. The new GREs Data Interpretation questions will continue that tradition, incorporating traditional multiple choice, multiple right answer, and numeric entry questions. The GRE folks clearly want to reward students especially the prospective business students ETS hopes to pull away from GMAT for their essential ability to read quantitative information presented visually. If in the coming years the GMAT starts to incorporate more charts and graphs to reflect their extensive use in b-school, remember that you heard it here first.

In our next posting: what calculator use may mean to the GRE examinee.

Read other articles in this series:

• The Revised GRE for B-School Aspirants, Part I: The Scoring Scale
• The Revised GRE for B-School Aspirants, Part II: Redefined Navigation
• The Revised GRE for B-School Aspirants, Part III: Reading Comprehension
• The Revised GRE for B-School Aspirants, Part IV: Verbal Reasoning