The Analytical Writing section of the GRE exam assesses your ability to think critically and communicate ideas clearly in writing. It consists of two tasks:

1. Issue Task: You are given a statement or issue and asked to take a position on it. You need to develop an argument, provide reasoning, and support your viewpoint with examples.

2. Argument Task: You are provided with a short argument or reasoning, and your task is to critique the logic of that argument. You don’t need to agree or disagree with the argument, but rather evaluate its reasoning and identify any flaws.

Key Points:

• Time: You have 30 minutes for each task.
• Evaluation: Your writing is scored on clarity, coherence, grammar, and the quality of your argument and analysis.

Focus on presenting well-organized responses with clear reasoning and proper use of language.

The Experimental or Research section in the GRE exam is an unscored section that is included to help ETS test new questions. It typically appears in the Verbal Reasoning or Quantitative Reasoning sections.

Here’s a brief overview:

1. Purpose: It’s used to gather data on new questions for future exams.
2. No Impact: It doesn’t affect your score, so you can focus on it without worrying about the outcome.
3. Unlabeled: You won’t know which section is experimental, but it’s usually placed randomly.
4. Content: The questions are similar to the scored sections but are not part of the actual scoring process.

Just treat all sections the same way and focus on doing your best!

The GRE is a computer-adaptive test (CAT), which means the difficulty of the questions you receive depends on your performance as you progress through the exam.

Here’s how it works:

1. Verbal and Quantitative Sections:

   • The first section of each (Verbal and Quantitative) consists of 20 questions, and the difficulty of the second section is determined by your performance on the first. If you answer questions correctly, the second section will contain harder questions. If you answer incorrectly, the second section will have easier questions.

2. Impact on Scoring:

   • Because the test adapts to your ability, your score is based not just on the number of correct answers, but also on the difficulty level of the questions you answered correctly.

3. Why Computer-Adaptive?:

   • The goal of the adaptive format is to provide a more accurate measure of your ability by tailoring the test to your skill level.

4. Experimental Section:

   • In addition to the adaptive sections, you may also encounter an unscored experimental section (Verbal or Quantitative), which does not affect your score.

The CAT format helps the GRE assess your abilities more efficiently, and it can make the test experience feel more personalized.