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GRE General Test practice questions and exam guide

80 multiple-choice questions and 250 flashcards, written to the ETS GRE General Test Content Specifications blueprint. Every question carries a full rationale.

Written and maintained by Nick Burton · last updated 2026-08-22 · how we write and review questions

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About the GRE General Test exam

ETS GRE General Test Content Specifications — 3 sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Analytical Writing

CoStudy's GRE General Test bank holds 330 items. Every multiple-choice question carries a written rationale explaining why the correct answer is correct and why each distractor is tempting but wrong.

Free GRE General Test practice questions

A sample of 6 multiple-choice questions from the bank, with the full rationale shown.

GRE Quant: Probability of rolling a 4 on a standard 6-sided die:

  1. 1/4
  2. 1/6 (one favorable outcome / six possible)
  3. 1/2
  4. 4/6

Answer: B — 1/6 (one favorable outcome / six possible)

Basic probability = favorable / total. 6 equally likely outcomes (1-6). Only 1 is '4.' = 1/6. GRE probability covers basic conditional, independent/dependent events, combinations/permutations.

Quantity A: 2^10. Quantity B: 10^2. Which is larger?

  1. Quantity A is greater
  2. Quantity B is greater
  3. The two quantities are equal
  4. Cannot be determined

Answer: A — Quantity A is greater

2^10 = 1024 (memorize this powers-of-2 milestone). 10^2 = 100. 1024 > 100, so Quantity A is greater. Quantitative Comparison questions test fluency more than computation — common doubling/squaring patterns appear often.

ETS recommends to prepare for the GRE by:

  1. Memorizing every English word in a dictionary
  2. Avoiding practice tests
  3. Working through official practice tests and GRE-style problems, focusing on weak areas, and reviewing solution strategies
  4. Skipping the verbal section entirely

Answer: C — Working through official practice tests and GRE-style problems, focusing on weak areas, and reviewing solution strategies

C) Standard prep approach. A/B/D) Each is impractical or counterproductive.

Choose the word that best completes the sentence: 'Despite his __________ demeanor, he was actually quite ambitious.'

  1. zealous
  2. ostentatious
  3. phlegmatic
  4. garrulous

Answer: C — phlegmatic

Phlegmatic means calm, unemotional, unexcitable — contrasting with ambitious. (A) zealous = passionate (would not contrast); (B) ostentatious = showy; (D) garrulous = excessively talkative.

GRE Adaptive test design:

  1. Same difficulty for all
  2. Question-by-question adaptive
  3. Not adaptive
  4. Section-level adaptive: performance in first Verbal section determines difficulty of second Verbal section (similarly for Quant); scoring weights difficulty + correctness

Answer: D — Section-level adaptive: performance in first Verbal section determines difficulty of second Verbal section (similarly for Quant); scoring weights difficulty + correctness

GRE section-adaptive: not question-adaptive like LSAT. First V/Q section: medium difficulty. Second V/Q section: easy/medium/hard based on first performance. Scoring accounts for difficulty level reached. Strategy: maximize first-section accuracy.

The GRE Analytical Writing section involves:

  1. Filling in vocabulary blanks
  2. Solving quantitative-comparison problems
  3. A single "Analyze an Issue" essay (30 minutes) requiring a clear argument with reasoning and examples
  4. Listening comprehension

Answer: C — A single "Analyze an Issue" essay (30 minutes) requiring a clear argument with reasoning and examples

C) Post-2023 AW structure. A) Verbal section. B) Quant section. D) Not on the GRE.

GRE General Test flashcards

6 sample cards from the 250 in the bank.

Vocab: 'magnanimous'?

Generous; forgiving.

Vocab: 'opulent'?

Wealthy; lavish.

Simple interest: $1000 at 5% for 3 years?

I = Prt = $150.

Vocab: 'abstemious'?

Not self-indulgent; moderate.

Square inscribed in circle radius 5. Side length?

Diagonal = 10. Side = 10/√2 = 5√2.

Vocab: 'urbane'?

Sophisticated; suave.

Practise the full GRE General Test bank

These samples are a small slice. The full bank runs flashcards, multiple choice and timed mock exams with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.

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GRE General Test — frequently asked

How many GRE General Test practice questions does CoStudy have?

The GRE General Test bank holds 330 items: 80 multiple-choice questions, 250 flashcards. 12 of them are on this page to read free, with no signup.

Do the GRE General Test questions come with explanations?

Yes. Every multiple-choice item carries a written rationale that states the controlling principle behind the correct answer and then addresses each wrong option in turn — why it tempts and precisely where it fails. Knowing why the plausible answer was wrong is worth more than knowing which letter was right.

Are the GRE General Test practice questions free?

The samples on this page are free to read in full, rationales included, with no account. The complete 330-item bank, the timed mock exams and per-chapter progress tracking are part of CoStudy on the web and in the iOS app.

How current is the GRE General Test content?

Last reviewed 2026-08-22. Banks are written against the certifying body's published exam outline and re-checked when that outline changes — exams get renumbered, retired and reweighted, and a bank written to a superseded outline teaches the wrong proportions. Figures that are re-indexed annually are deliberately not asserted as rules; the questions test the governing principle instead.

Primary source

This bank is written against ETS's published exam material. Check the ETS test content specifications for the current outline, fees and eligibility rules — those change, and the certifying body is the only authority on them. CoStudy is not affiliated with ETS.

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