International Exams · Entrance Exams

GRE Previous Papers

The GRE does not release past papers. Official ETS practice material is the substitute, and it is better than any imitation.

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GRE · checked 19 September 2026

GRE at a glance, from the official notices

The dates, vacancies and rules below are read on the conducting body’s own site and rewritten as each notice appears. The guide beneath carries the full pattern, syllabus, cut-offs and free mock tests.

Free GRE mock testGRE syllabusToday’s current affairs
19September 2026

Checked 19 September 2026

GRE: the facts that matter now

  1. 01

    Educational Testing Service (ETS), at 1,000+ test centres in 160+ countries and at home

    Administered by

  2. 02

    Graduate admission worldwide, and by many business schools in place of the GMAT

    Used for

  3. 03

    Under two hours — one 30-minute essay, two verbal sections of 12 and 15 questions in 18 and 23 minutes, two quantitative sections of 12 and 15 in…

    Format

  4. 04

    Verbal and quantitative on 130–170 in one-point steps; writing on 0–6 in half points; section-adaptive

    Scoring

Past papers

GRE — Reading previous papers properly

Verbal reasoning questions in particular are difficult to replicate. The precision of GRE vocabulary questions — where two options are both plausible and only one produces the required meaning — is a standard third-party material frequently misses, and practising on approximations teaches approximate judgement. Official material should be the core of your practice.

How to use official material

  1. Work official questions first and most. They define the standard of precision the test uses.
  2. For every vocabulary question, articulate why the wrong option is wrong. Usually it is close in meaning but wrong in connotation or register.
  3. Build a personal vocabulary list from your errors. Better than a generic word list, because it targets your actual gaps.
  4. Practise quantitative comparison questions separately. A distinctive type with its own approach.
  5. Write essays under time and have them read. Analytical writing improves through feedback, not repetition alone.

Related pages

GMAT exam guide TOEFL exam guide English study material

Why official material is difficult to substitute

  • The wrong options are constructed to a standard — GRE distractors are near-synonyms that fail on connotation, register or logical fit. Third-party questions frequently offer wrong answers that are simply wrong, which trains a much cruder discrimination.
  • Difficulty is calibrated against real performance — rather than against an author’s estimate, which matters when you are trying to judge whether you are ready.
  • Passage register is characteristic — the density and subject range of GRE reading passages are distinctive, and imitations tend to be either easier or artificially obscure.
  • Quantitative comparison is often reproduced badly — the question type depends on precise sufficiency logic, and poorly written versions teach the wrong instinct about when something cannot be determined.

For every vocabulary question you get wrong, write down why the option you chose fails rather than what the correct word means. The failure is usually specific — the word carries the wrong connotation, or it fits the sentence but not the contrast the sentence sets up — and naming it is what builds the discrimination the test rewards. A list of definitions built from your errors teaches much less than a list of distinctions.

Practise quantitative comparison as its own category rather than mixed into general quantitative work. It is the one question type with no Indian equivalent, and its characteristic trap is a comparison that appears determinate until you consider negative values, fractions or zero. Working thirty of them in a block builds that habit far faster than meeting them occasionally.

Build the vocabulary list from your reading, not from a book

Words met in context and recorded with the sentence they appeared in are retained far better than words memorised from a list, and they come with the connotation the test asks about. Twenty words a week gathered this way over three months outperforms a thousand-word list worked through in a fortnight.

Exam resources

Everything for GRE

Six resource pages, each kept in step with the latest official notification.

GRE SyllabusGRE syllabus — verbal reasoning question types, quantitative content and the analytical writing task.GRE Exam PatternGRE exam pattern — the shorter format, section-adaptive scoring, the calculator and score reporting.GRE Previous PapersGRE practice material — why official ETS questions matter and how to use them.GRE Mock TestsGRE practice tests — section-adaptive full-length practice with attention to the first section of each measure.GRE PreparationGRE preparation strategy — building vocabulary over months, mastering the quantitative section and practising the essay.GRE Study MaterialGRE study material — vocabulary and reading practice, plus quantitative revision notes.

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