New Question Types

The Educational Testing Service is slowly adding two new question types to the GRE: text completions and numeric entry questions. At present, these question types are only found in limited versions of the computer-based examination. Some students may encounter one or two numeric entry questions in the Quantitative Ability section and one or two text completion exercises in the Verbal Ability section. Numeric entry questions require you to produce a written answer to a mathematical problem, while text completion exercises require you to fill in several blanks in a short passage. You will not be given any extra time to answer these questions, so it is a good idea to learn their format before sitting for your exam.

At present, your performance on these new question types will not affect your score. However, the GRE will soon begin including these questions in the scored version of the exam, so students should strive to answer them correctly. In general, testing research has indicated that students perform well on these questions, so long as they are familiar with the format and structure. The content knowledge required to answer numeric entry and text completion questions will be the same as for the rest of the GRE.

Last Updated: 03/01/2012

Home