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Last Updated on April 28, 2023
There is no escaping the truth that a good score on the GRE General Test score requires a significant amount of study time for most test-takers. One main reason such a large number of study hours are needed is that there is so much material you must cover to succeed on the GRE.
As a result, almost all GRE students are looking for ways to reduce their overall study hours. One such method is by focusing most of their study time on a select few topics while ignoring others. Thus, one of the most common inquiries I get from my students is, “What are the most commonly tested GRE Quant and verbal topics?”
This article will discuss which Quant and verbal topics you can expect to see on any given GRE and why the question of which topics appear the most doesn’t have a straightforward answer. But, most importantly, we’ll talk about why attempting to discover a concrete answer to that question is not a great use of your time.
First, let’s go over what we know about the topics tested on the GRE’s Verbal and Quantitative sections.
- What We Know About GRE Topics
- Making Use of What We Know About What Has Been Tested
- Don’t Let “Common Topics” Affect How You Study
- You Can’t Game the GRE by Studying Common Topics
What We Know About GRE Topics
First, we know that there are 40 Quant questions and 40 Verbal questions (not including the research section) on any particular GRE exam. Let’s go over the different types of questions you’ll find on the GRE in each of those sections, as well as the topics tested in both Quant and Verbal.
KEY FACT:
There are 40 Quantitative and 40 Verbal questions on the GRE.
The Quantitative Section of the GRE
The Quantitative section of the GRE contains four unique question types. Let’s look at each.
- The traditional multiple choice question. Of the five answer choices, only one is correct.
- The “select all that apply” multiple-choice question. You must select one or more correct answer choices. There is no partial credit for this question type; you must choose all the correct answers.
- Quantitative Comparison (QC) questions. These comprise nearly half of the Quant questions on the GRE. A QC question presents you with two Quantities, and you must determine the relationship between the two Quantities.
- Numeric Entry questions. You’ll be required to calculate a particular value, and then type that value into the entry box or transfer the answer electronically from the on-screen calculator.
KEY FACT:
The Quantitative Reasoning section of the GRE includes four major question types: traditional multiple choice, “select all that apply,” Quantitative Comparison, and Numeric Entry.
There are 22 primary GRE math topics, listed below:
- Basic Arithmetic
- Linear and Quadratic Equations
- Number Properties
- Roots
- Exponents
- Inequalities
- Absolute Value
- General Word Problems
- Rates
- Work Problems
- Unit Conversions
- Ratios
- Percents
- Statistics
- Overlapping Sets
- Combinations and Permutations
- Probability
- Geometry
- Coordinate Geometry
- Sequences
- Functions
- Data Interpretation
Any of the 22 topics listed above can be broken down into subtopics that cover hundreds of concepts.
Geometry, for example, includes parallel and perpendicular lines, circles, triangles, polygons, area, perimeter, volume, and the Pythagorean theorem, among other subtopics. Another topic, Statistics, covers mean, median, mode, percentiles, box plots, scatterplots, and a host of other concepts.
Any of those subtopics can be thrown your way on the GRE.
KEY FACT:
There are hundreds of subtopics in the 22 main Quantitative topics that can be tested on the GRE.
Let’s now take a look at the Verbal section.
The Verbal Section of the GRE
The GRE Verbal portion uses three main question types to assess your abilities in effective language use and reading comprehension: Text Completion (TC), Sentence Equivalence (SE), and Reading Comprehension (RC). Reading Comprehension questions comprise about half of the Verbal questions, with the remaining half roughly split between SC and TC questions.
KEY FACT:
The three question types on the Verbal section are Reading Comprehension, Text Completion, and Sentence Equivalence.
Let’s look at the three verbal question types in more detail.
1) Text Completion (TC) questions provide you with a sentence(s) with one, two, or three blanks that you must fill in with the correct vocabulary word. For one-blank questions, you have five answer choices, only one of which is the correct answer. For two- and three-blank questions, you will be given three possible answer choices for each blan. You must choose the correct answer for all blanks in order to get credit for answering the question correctly.
2) Sentence Equivalence (SE) questions provide you with a sentence with one blank. You must choose two words from the six answer choices. The two answers you choose must make the sentence mean the same thing. Again, you must correctly choose both words, as there is no partial credit.
3) There are 5-7 Reading Comprehension (RC) passages on any given GRE, each consisting of 1-5 paragraphs, with 1-6 questions asked about each passage. The majority of RC questions are in traditional multiple-choice format, although some may instruct you to select any of three answer choices that are correct. In those cases, either one, two, or all three answers could be correct. Other RC questions may not have any answer choices and may instead ask you to highlight a certain sentence from the passage.
Reading Comprehension questions assess your ability to read and understand the kind of material you will encounter in graduate school. Of course, you need to understand word meanings and sentences, but you also need to understand how paragraphs interact with each other and fit into larger bodies of text. You need to summarize material, make inferences about missing information, and draw conclusions from the passages.
In addition to traditional RC questions, you will be presented with a small number of Critical Reasoning (CR) questions. Those will require you to use logic and critical thinking to answer the questions correctly. Some question types you may encounter will require you to consider the author’s assumptions, identify paradoxes, identify points that may strengthen or weaken the author’s position, and find flaws in the author’s logic.
KEY FACT:
Critical Reasoning questions are included in the Reading Comprehension part of the GRE.
Making Use of What We Know About What Has Been Tested
If there is one thing we’ve learned about the GRE so far, it’s that there is a LOT to learn for both the Quantitative and Verbal sections — literally hundreds of topics. Furthermore, any one of those hundreds of topics could appear on your exam, and there is no way of knowing which combination of questions you’ll get on test day. As a result, deciding what to study based on data about the most common GRE topics is a very dangerous game. Let’s look at some of the reasons why.
KEY FACT:
There is no way of knowing which combination of questions you’ll get on test day.
The GRE Provides Few Opportunities for Success
Despite the enormous range of topics that could appear on any given GRE exam, we can make some broad statements regarding which GRE topics are the most common. For example, we know that 15% to 25% of the Quant questions can test you on Geometry. When you first hear this data point, you might think it gives you important information about how you should plan your study time. However, the odd thing is that it doesn’t help you much at all.
Consider the following situation: let’s say that out of the 40 Quant questions on the GRE, about 10 are Geometry. So, the remaining 30 questions are not Geometry.
Now, if you spend the majority of your Quant study time on Geometry questions and very little time learning the other 21 major Quant topics, you may find yourself underperforming on a significant percentage — possibly 75% — of the Quant questions you encounter on the exam. Knowing that one type of Quant question is more common than others would not have helped you much with your overall Quantitative performance.
Now let’s apply this concept to GRE Verbal. Out of the 40 Verbal questions on the GRE, about half of them are RC. The majority of RC questions are Function and Info-Based questions, followed by Main Idea questions. So, even if we’ve covered two-thirds of the RC questions on your exam with those three question categories, you still have the other third to worry about. Do you think being 66% prepared for Reading Comprehension is enough?
The point is, even with “approximate” data about which GRE topics are more common than others, if you want to do well on the exam, you must also be able to handle questions on less commonly examined topics. After all, because the Quantitative and Verbal sections of the GRE contain relatively few questions, each question has the potential to have a big impact on your section results.
Let’s look at another theoretical scenario. As mentioned above, Geometry questions can represent roughly between 15% and 25% of the Quant questions on any given GRE. Let’s also say that Rate and Work questions could represent roughly 5% of the Quant questions. We say “roughly” because we cannot say for certain how many you may see. So, with those percentages, you might go into the GRE expecting to see 10 Geometry questions and 2 Rate and Work questions.
On test day, however, let’s say you see 6 Geometry questions (fewer than expected) and 4 Rate and Work questions (more than expected). Imagine how you’d feel if you had spent all your time learning Geometry and very little time learning Rates and Work? Not too good, right?
TTP PRO TIP:
To improve your GRE score, practice answering questions on topics that aren’t as commonly tested as others.
You might still believe that risking being unprepared for a few questions here and there isn’t a concern if doing so saves you study time by allowing you to skip certain topics altogether. However, picking and choosing GRE topics is also a mistake due to the layered nature of GRE questions. Let’s discuss that now.
Questions on the GRE Are Multi-Layered
The Quant section of the GRE would be pretty darn straightforward if each GRE question were based on one particular topic. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Instead, GRE questions are multi-layered. Meaning that one question may contain concepts from a variety of topics.
For example, Geometry questions may include concepts from Number Properties, and Number Properties questions may require knowledge of Exponents. Practically any topic could fall under the umbrella of “word problems”. Alos, numerous questions from a variety of topics could require that you use algebra to calculate the final answer.
On the Verbal sections, students often have the misconception that simply memorizing vocabulary word lists will suffice for doing well on Text Completion (TC) and Sentence Equivalence (SE) questions. However, the GRE will not be so single-purposed and simple-minded. In otherwords, ETS won’t make half of the questions on the Verbal section of the GRE dependent solely on a student’s ability to memorize. Yes, you need to know a huge number of vocabulary words. But you also need to be able to use them in sentences. The multi-layering in both TC and SE questions comes from having to use the vocabulary words in context. The words must make sense in the sentence with which they are associated, both logically and grammatically. Additionally, you must use both structural and context clues in the sentences in order to find the correct answers.
GRE questions are multi-layered, meaning questions in one topic may include concepts from numerous other topics.
TTP PRO TIP:
Picking and choosing GRE topics to study isn’t a good method because GRE questions are multi-layered, meaning questions in one topic may include concepts from numerous other topics.
So, we now have two solid reasons why focusing on just the “most common” topics can harm your GRE score. But there is a third reason: the unpredictability of the GRE.
The GRE Is Difficult to Predict
If you search long enough on the internet for “what are the most common topics” asked on the GRE, you’ll see that some folks have provided lists based on the commonality of question topics on official GRE practice exams. However, using the data from GRE practice exams to predict what you may see on the actual GRE is not logical.
Consider this: would the test-makers provide GRE students with five practice exams that were a replica of what students could expect to see on test day? To look at this another way, would a teacher provide you with a copy of the final exam as a preparation tool? Neither of these scenarios seems likely, right?
The test-makers are well aware that a big part of what makes the GRE difficult is the limited number of questions on the exam, even though questions from hundreds of topics could show up on any given exam. In other words, we can’t say with any certainty what we’ll encounter from one GRE to the next — and that’s the problem!
Follow this same logic when comparing actual GRE exams to one another. Consider a test-taker who takes a GRE with no Exponent questions and only one Coordinate Geometry question. That test-taker now assumes that very few Coordinate Geometry or Exponent questions will appear on a retake. So, when studying for his next exam, he spends very little time reviewing Coordinate Geometry and Exponents.
However, on the next GRE, he encounters three Coordinate Geometry problems and one Exponent question. As a result he scores even lower in Quant than he did the first time he took the GRE. Of course, this is only hypothetical, but it certainly could happen. The point is, don’t rely on the data from a previous GRE to predict what you will see on a subsequent GRE.
KEY FACT:
Trying to draw precise inferences about what is on the GRE, based on what individuals have seen on previous exams, doesn’t really work because the mix of items test-takers encounter from one exam to the next is random.
In reality, the information we can get from our previous GREs or problems in the Official Guide brings us to the same broad conclusions we can derive from what we already know about the GRE. However, I have some good news for you: those broad conclusions are all we truly need. So let’s talk about that now.
Don’t Let “Common Topics” Affect How You Study
Whenever the conversation arises about which topics are most commonly tested on the GRE, you don’t have to go too far to hear people say “Geometry” or “Statistics,” for example. Yes, those topics are generally more commonly tested than, say, Rates or Work. However, we need to understand that the reason for such frequency is because Geometry and Statistics are very large topics!
Because there are more ways to test topics such as Statistics or Geometry, doesn’t it make sense that those topics would appear more frequently than others? There are more concepts that can be tested in Geometry than there are in Functions, for example. As a result, you’ll probably see more questions that test your understanding of Geometry in some way. However, that is not a reason to skip studying Functions!
Remember, the GRE isn’t seeking to ask you 10 times whether you know the same two things; it wants to get a more holistic view of your Quant and Verbal skills. So, if there is a greater variety of concepts that can be tested in a particular topic, it makes sense that more questions on that topic would appear on the exam.
Of course, a good GRE study plan will give you more to study for larger topics and less to study for smaller topics. For example, we know that Geometry plays a big role in the Quant section of the GRE because Geometry is such a massive topic. In contrast, topics such as Probability, Combinations/Permutations, Rates, and Work, individually play smaller roles because there are fewer ways those questions can be tested. As a result, it’s not surprising that the TTP GRE Course, for example, includes nearly as many lessons and practice questions on Geometry as it does on Probability problems, Rate problems, and Combination and Permutation problems combined.
However, it still does not make sense to skip over “smaller” topics. In fact, on any given GRE, you may see just as many questions in total on Probability, Rate, and Combination/Permutation as you will on Geometry. So, in essence, you want to put just as much time and effort into studying the four smaller topics as you do studying the one larger topic. Having this mindset will set you up for success on test day.
You Can’t Game the GRE by Studying Common Topics
The moral of the story — and it’s a hard moral to hear — is that you can’t game the test by studying what you might perceive as the most common topics tested on the GRE. You must attack your GRE prep with the mindset that anything on the list of possible GRE topics and concepts could be on your test.
GRE students who try to cut corners generally end up spending more time and energy (and more money) on their GRE prep, only to get poor returns on test day. Don’t be one of the “unlucky” GRE test-takers who sees five or six “less common” question types in a section and has studied only the most common topics.
Remember, the best way to prepare for the GRE is to take a comprehensive approach. That way, you’ll be ready for anything that might come your way on test day. Furthermore, you’ll have the confidence of knowing that you’ve done everything you need to do to reach your GRE score goal.
TTP PRO TIP:
Use a study approach that thoroughly covers all of the topics and subtopics that have the potential to appear on the GRE.
