The content of the GRE consists of certain specific data analysis or interpretation, arguments and reasoning, algebra, geometry, arithmetic, and vocabulary sections.

[11] "Until the Educational Testing Service was established in January, 1948, the Graduate Record Examination remained a project of the Carnegie Foundation.

[20] The announcement cited concerns over the ability to provide clear and equal access to the new test after the planned changes as an explanation for the cancellation.

Changes to the GRE took effect on November 1, 2007, as ETS started to include new types of questions in the exam.

The new types of questions in the revised format are intended to test the skills needed in graduate and business schools programs.

[25] From July 2012 onwards GRE announced an option for users to customize their scores called ScoreSelect.

The computer-based verbal sections assess reading comprehension, critical reasoning, and vocabulary usage.

The changes in 2011 include a reduced emphasis on rote vocabulary knowledge and the elimination of antonyms and analogies.

The computer-based quantitative sections assess knowledge and reasoning skills taught in most Mathematics and Statistics courses in secondary schools.

Test takers are expected to address the logical flaws of the argument and not provide a personal opinion on the subject.

ETS provides no score data for "non-traditional" students who have been out of school more than two years, although its own report "RR-99-16" indicated that 22% of all test takers in 1996 were over the age of 30.

In the past, subject tests were also offered in the areas of Computer Science, Economics, Revised Education, Engineering, English Literature, French, Geography, Geology, German, History, Music, Political Science, Sociology, Spanish, and Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology.

[47] Many graduate schools in the United States require GRE results as part of the admissions process.

In addition to GRE scores, admission to graduate schools depends on several other factors, such as GPA, letters of recommendation, and statements of purpose.

In some cases, the GRE may be a general requirement for graduate admissions imposed by the university, while particular departments may not consider the scores at all.

[50] Graduate schools will typically provide the average scores of previously admitted students and information about how the GRE is considered in admissions and funding decisions.

[52][53][54] The college made the decision after conducting a study showing that the GRE is a valid and reliable predictor of students' first-term law school grades.

ETS does not license their past questions to any other company, making them the only source for official retired material.

Critics have claimed that the computer-adaptive methodology may discourage some test takers since the question difficulty changes with performance.

By contrast, standard testing methods may discourage students by giving them more difficult items earlier on.

[68] The National Association of Test Directors Symposia in 2004 stated a belief that simple mean score differences may not constitute evidence of bias unless the populations are known to be equal in ability.

Robert Sternberg (now of Cornell University;[71] working at Yale University at the time of the study), a long-time critic of modern intelligence testing in general, found the GRE general test was weakly predictive of success in graduate studies in psychology.

Specifically, if only students accepted to graduate programs are studied (in Sternberg & Williams and other research), the relationship is occluded.

[74] Kaplan and Saccuzzo state that the criterion that the GRE best predicts is first-year grades in graduate school.

Kaplan and Saccuzzo also state that "the GRE predict[s] neither clinical skill nor even the ability to solve real-world problems" (p. 303).

[74] In May 1994, Kaplan, Inc warned ETS, in hearings before a New York legislative committee, that the small question pool available to the computer-adaptive test made it vulnerable to cheating.

[76] In December 1994, prompted by student reports of recycled questions, then Director of GRE Programs for Kaplan, Inc and current CEO of Knewton, Jose Ferreira, led a team of 22 staff members deployed to 9 U.S. cities to take the exam.

[77] According to early news releases, ETS appeared grateful to Stanley H. Kaplan, Inc. for identifying the security problem.

However, on December 31, ETS sued Kaplan, Inc. for violation of a federal electronic communications privacy act, copyright laws, breach of contract, fraud, and a confidentiality agreement signed by test-takers on test day.

ETS acknowledged that Kaplan, Inc employees, led by Jose Ferreira, reverse-engineered key features of the GRE scoring algorithms.