The Supersonic Jet and the Money Already Spent
Continuing a failing project looks irrational until the cost of stopping is counted.
Abhishek Leela Pandey1 Qs · Medium
The GRE room
GRE reading, short and sharp.
One-paragraph and medium passages with 5-option and select-all-that-apply questions.
GRE pattern, marking & dates ↓
Featured for GREThe Dancers of Strasbourg and the Cure That Fed the PlagueIn the summer of 1518 a street in Strasbourg filled with people who could not stop dancing, and the official remedy may have made things worse.Read · 1 min
The Statues of Rapa Nui and a Collapse That May Have Come from Outside
Easter Island became a warning about people who destroy their own world. New research asks whether the warning was aimed at the wrong culprit.
Abhishek Leela Pandey2 Qs · Medium
The Cane Toad Programme and the Beetles It Missed
A species flourished in a new land, and some called that a success. The beetles it was brought to fight tell another story.
Abhishek Leela Pandey1 Qs · Medium
The Emu War and the Problem Soldiers Could Not Shoot
In 1932 machine guns were sent against emus in Western Australia, and the birds won the first round. The story is usually told as comedy, yet it hides a real question about what kind of problem an army can solve.
Abhishek Leela Pandey2 Qs · Medium
Abraham Wald and the Missing Bullet Holes
The statistician Abraham Wald is credited with telling the military to armour the parts of its bombers that showed no bullet holes. The advice sounds backwards until a reader asks which planes were never seen.
Abhishek Leela Pandey1 Qs · Medium
The Bridge That Resonance Did Not Break
The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is taught as a lesson in resonance. Two engineers argued in 1991 that the lesson was wrong.
Abhishek Leela Pandey2 Qs · Medium
About the GRE
Checked September 2026 · official siteGRE General Test · ETS (Educational Testing Service)
GRE runs year-round, at a test centre or at home. Book on ets.org.
ModeTest centre or at home, section-adaptive
Duration1 h 58 min
Verbal27 questions in 41 min (2 sections)
ScoreVerbal and Quant 130–170 each; Writing 0–6
NavigationSkip, mark and go back within a section
Pattern
| Section | Qs | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Analytical Writing (always first) | 1 task | 30 min |
| Verbal Reasoning: section 1 | 12 | 18 min |
| Verbal Reasoning: section 2 | 15 | 23 min |
| Quantitative Reasoning: 2 sections | 12 + 15 | 21 + 26 min |
Marking
- Section-level adaptive: your first section sets the difficulty of the second
- No negative marking, so answer every question
- Select-all-that-apply questions need every correct choice for credit
How reading is tested
- Roughly half of Verbal is reading comprehension: short one-paragraph passages and a few longer ones.
- Question types: multiple choice, select all that apply, and select-in-passage.
- The rest is Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence, which reward reading vocabulary in context.
- Passages come from the sciences, humanities and social sciences.
Prepare with GRADFLIX
- Pick GRE in the bar at the top for select-all-that-apply questions.
- Use the glossary: GRE vocabulary lives inside real sentences.
- Summarise each paragraph in 5 words. Short GRE passages punish skimming.
- Guess on everything, since there’s no penalty.
GRE: common questions
How many verbal questions are on the GRE?
27 Verbal Reasoning questions across two sections (12 and 15) in 41 minutes.
How long is the GRE now?
About 1 hour 58 minutes since the shorter format began in September 2023.
Is there negative marking on the GRE?
No. Wrong answers aren’t penalised, so answer every question.
What is a good GRE verbal score?
Scores run 130–170. Around 160+ is competitive for most top programmes; check your target programmes’ averages.
Dates and patterns can change. Always confirm on the official website.