The GRE tests were created more than 70 years ago to provide common measures that would enable graduate applicants to be compared, regardless of their background. The GRE Program’s dedication to fairness exemplifies nonprofit ETS’s mission to help advance quality and equity in education for all people.
Today, thousands of graduate and professional programs around the world use GRE scores as part of their holistic review of applicant strengths.
Most high school students take the SAT, the ACT, or both during the spring of their junior year or fall of their senior year. It’s important to leave time to re-take the test if you need to raise your score before you apply to college. The SAT exam is offered nationally every year in August, October, November, December, March, May, and June.
There are two SAT sections:
The SAT is 3 hours long.
Each section of the SAT is scored on a 200 to 800 point scale. Your total SAT score is the sum of your section scores. The highest possible SAT score is 1600.
Admissions is an art and a science. Quickly identifying who is ready to pursue an advanced degree and fairly comparing applicants is a significant challenge. The GRE tests are standardized and objective measures that give faculty committees a way to directly compare applicants with different backgrounds and experiences. Thousands of graduate and professional school programs around the world, including business and law, use GRE test scores as part of their admissions process.
Thoughtful engagement and reflection about graduate admissions practices is essential to meeting the goals of your program and ultimately supporting your institution’s mission. To facilitate that, the GRE Program provides information and resources to faculty, administrators and others involved in graduate admissions decision making and policy setting as you work toward evaluation and enrichment of your programs’ practices.
The GRE General Test and GRE Subject Tests were designed to achieve a specific intended purpose that adds value to the admissions decision-making process. GRE scores can:
For more information, see the GRE® Guide to the Use of Scores (PDF) and Using Scores.
The GRE General Test measures skills that graduate and professional schools have identified as necessary for academic success. However, GRE test scores cannot offer insight into all of the qualities that are important to graduate programs; therefore, they should be considered in the context of an applicant’s entire application package. For more information about how GRE scores can be used as part of holistic admissions, see our Holistic Admissions site.
Most colleges and universities will accept scores from either the SAT or ACT, and do not favor one test over the other. That said, college-bound students are increasingly taking both the SAT and ACT. Changes made to the SAT in 2016 have made it easier than ever to prep for both tests concurrently—and earn competitive scores on both! The best way to decide if taking the SAT, ACT, or both tests is right for you is to take a timed full-length practice test of each type. Since the content and style of the SAT and ACT are very similar, factors like how you handle time pressure and what types of questions you find most challenging can help you determine which test is a better fit.
