Try out the following questions to test your GRE skills. If you've already answered the questions on a Pop Quiz flier, you can find the correct answers and explanations below.
Reading
Questions 1–3
Use the excerpts below from an index to answer the questions that follow.
Pages
I. Biographical sketches 35–190
II. Statistics 191–387
III. Hypotheses tests 389–401
IV. Internet projects 401–423
V. Practice exercises 424–457
VI. Standard deviations 452–476
- Where would you look for data on infant mortality?
- I.
- II.
- III.
- V.
- VI.
Answer: (B)
Select this answer by a process of elimination. Identify which answers are clearly wrong. I (A), V (D), and VI (E) can be eliminated first. Then go back. Probably III (C) and IV (not a choice) don't apply. Statistics (B) is the best choice.
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- Where would you look to gather information on a mathematician?
- I.
- II.
- III.
- V.
- VI.
Answer: (A)
Again, use a process of elimination, but after reading the choices, (A) seems the best. (B), (C), (D), and (E) do not include biography or personal information.
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- Where would you find information to help you prepare for a test?
- I.
- II.
- III.
- V.
- VI.
Answer: (D)
Hypotheses tests (B) is too specific, and (A), (C), and (E) don't fit. Practice exercises are standard test preparation vehicles.
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Advances in scientific knowledge are coming so fast that medicine, technology, and our space program can hardly keep up. 2New cancer treatments, new knowledge about indicators of heart health, and new methods for dental treatment are being announced seemingly weekly. Keeping up with all that is new in any field is a challenge. It requires enormous amounts of reading and, often, significant time attending informational meetings and conferences. How does a busy professional manage to stay informed and still work enough to earn a decent living? It is a challenge. Another significant question is, “How is a medical or dental patient to know that the treatment offered by the practitioner is the best available and based on the most recent discoveries?” The information explosion has improved our lives in many significant ways but may be overwhelming our capacity to absorb and use it.
- The author's use of sentence two is an example of
- parallelism
- repetition
- exaggeration
- cause and effect
- reasoning
Answer: (A)
The repetition of syntactic form in the sentence is a characteristic of parallelism. Sentence 2 is not repetitive (B), an exaggeration (C), or a cause and effect (D). (E) is a poor choice because it is too general.
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- The author's main point is
- good professionals will have a hard time earning money
- a well-informed professional may not earn much
- medical patients may not get the best treatment
- the information explosion has presented other problems
- professionals must attend many conferences
Answer: (D)
See the last sentence of the selection. It is more general than the other choices, but better because it is more to the point. (A), (B), (C), and (E) are all mentioned but are not the author's main point.
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Quantitative Comparisons
Directions: The following question consists of two quantities, one in Column A and one in Column B. Compare the quantities and select the appropriate answer choice. The centered information is applicable to both columns. The position of points, angles, regions, etc. can be assumed to be in the order shown; and angle measures can be assumed to be positive. Lines shown as straight can be assumed to be straight. Do not, however, attempt to answer the question by estimating lengths by sight. Use your knowledge of mathematics.
- the quantity in Column A is greater
- the quantity in Column B is greater
- the quantities in Column A and Column B are equal
- the relationship between the quantity in Column A and the quantity in Column B cannot be determined from the information given
Answer: (A)
Since ÐA and ÐC have the same degree measure,
sides AB and BC are of equal length. From the triangle inquality theorem, you know that
the sum of the lengths of any two sides of a
triangle is greater than the length of the third side.
(If you try drawing a triangle that fails to meet this
condition, you will see that it is impossible)
Therefore, AB + BC > AC. Since AB = BC, we can
say that 2(AB) > AC. Dividing both sides by two
gives us AB > ½AC. We now have have an equation that looks like the columns above.
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Problem Solving
Directions: Select the best of the answer choices given.
- Jane and Joan drove a car. Only one of them drove at any time. Jane drove the car 60% of the time, accounting for 80% of the total distance. What is the ratio of the number of miles per minute that Jane drove to the number of miles per minute that Joan drove?
- 8:5
- 2:1
- 8:3
- 4:1
- 8:1
Answer: (C)
This question can be solved algebraically. Call the
number of total miles x and the number of total minutes y.
Jane drove for 80% of the x miles, and 80% of
x is (4/5)x. Jane drove for 60% of the y minutes, and
60% of y is (3/5)y. So the rate of miles per minute that
Jane drove is 
. (Note that
we divided her distance by her time to find her rate.)
Joan drove for 20% of x miles or (1/5)x miles. Joan
drove for 40% of y minutes, or (2/5)y minutes. So the rate
of miles per minute that Joan drove is 
miles per minute. The ratio of Jane's rate to Joan's rate is 
, which is a ratio
of 8 : 3.
The algebraic solution that you just saw might
appear to be confusing. However, at Kaplan you will
learn that you can also pick numbers for unknowns
and solve many questions. Suppose that the
number of minutes is 120 and the number of miles
is 30. In that case, Jane drove for 80% of the 30
miles, or 24 miles. Jane drove for 60% of the 120
minutes, or 72 minutes. The rate, in miles per
minute, for Jane is 24 / 7, which is 1 / 3. Joan drove for
30 - 24 = 6 miles and Joan drove for 120 - 72 =
48 minutes. The rate of miles per minute for Joan
is 6 / 48, which can be reduced to 1 / 8. The ratio of the
rate for Jane to the rate for Joan is 
, which is the ratio 8 : 3. Note that could have
gotten the correct answer with any numbers you
chose, although choosing integers that are easily
divisible made the calculations a little easier here.
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