GRE® vs. GMAT: Test Content and Structure

As you might already know, you can apply to nearly any major MBA program with only a GRE® score. Which brings up a follow-up question: what are the actual differences between the GMAT and the GRE®, and is there any chance you’d do better on one than the other?

For most people, scores come out comparable on both tests. But the exams test different things in different ways, and if those differences happen to line up with your strengths, you could gain an edge by choosing one over the other. Here’s a section-by-section breakdown. (For the bigger-picture decision, including the Executive Assessment, see our full test selection guide.)

GMAT & GRE® Writing Assessments

The first major difference between the GRE® and the GMAT is probably irrelevant to your odds of admission to top MBA programs.

The GRE® includes one 30-minute essay (the Analytical Writing Assessment, or AWA), while the GMAT has no essay at all. But the AWA is unlikely to move the needle on your admissions chances, because most MBA programs simply don’t care about that score. The AWA is scored separately on a 0-6 scale and has absolutely nothing to do with your GRE® composite, which means it doesn’t affect MBA rankings either. A 4.0 or above is comfortable for virtually all business programs.

If anything, the AWA is a stamina cost: it comes first on the GRE®, before the sections that actually matter. Conserve energy here so you’re sharp for verbal and quant.

GMAT & GRE® Data Insights (DI) Section

The GMAT includes a 45-minute Data Insights (DI) section that asks you to work with charts, graphs, and tables, among other data-related question types. (For more, check out this video on how to approach the Data Insights section.) Your DI score counts toward your overall composite, which means this section is very important on the GMAT.

There is no dedicated Data Insights section on the GRE®. You will encounter some data-interpretation questions within the GRE® quant sections (charts, graphs, and basic statistics), but most students find that these feel much more straightforward than GMAT Data Insights questions. If charts and graphs make you uneasy, the GRE® is the friendlier option.

Bottom line: data analysis skills matter on both tests, but they weigh more heavily into the GMAT score and generally feel trickier on the GMAT than on the GRE®.

GMAT & GRE® Quantitative Sections

For many test-takers, quant is the single biggest factor in the GRE® vs. GMAT decision.

Superficially, the two exams cover a similar array of topics, but the GMAT covers most of them in much greater depth. For example, you’ll see rate-work questions on both exams, but the GMAT features a much wider variety. As a result, most GMAT test-takers spend more time on rate-work questions, and questions from most other quant topic areas, than they would on the GRE®.

One notable exception: the GMAT does not test geometry at all, while the GRE® does. Most students need to knock the rust off their geometry skills (who actually uses the Pythagorean Theorem in their day-to-day life?), and it’s usually not a heavy lift. On rare occasions, though, geometry just doesn’t click for a particular student. If that sounds like you, the GMAT might be the better fit.

The GRE® also includes a question type the GMAT doesn’t have: Quantitative Comparison. You’re given two quantities and asked to determine which is larger (or whether it can be determined at all). These questions reward reasoning and estimation over computation, and they’re a meaningful part of the GRE® quant sections. For more on how they work, see our GRE® quant guide.

The GRE® offers a simple on-screen calculator, but it helps less than you might expect. The numbers on both exams are rarely cumbersome, especially if you’re well-trained in finding intelligent shortcuts. Most GRE® quant questions won’t require complex calculations if you approach them the right way.

Most test-takers agree that GMAT quant simply feels harder than GRE® quant, partly because of the broader topic coverage and partly because of the GMAT’s tendency to twist basic math into reasoning puzzles. To be fair, most of this difficulty difference washes out in the scoring: you can miss quite a few GMAT quant questions and still get an excellent score.

One thing to keep in mind if you’re leaning toward the GRE®: quant scores have deflated significantly. A 160 on GRE® quant, once a strong benchmark, now sits at the 50th percentile. A perfect 170 yields only the 91st percentile, because the raw number of perfect quant scorers has risen by roughly 174% in recent years.

Standing out on GRE® quant is harder than it used to be.

If you’d prefer to avoid the pain of GMAT quant’s breadth and difficulty, the GRE® might reduce your overall study time, but don’t assume a strong GRE® quant score will automatically stand out the way it once did.

GMAT & GRE® Verbal Sections

On the verbal side, the differences between the GRE® and the GMAT are also substantial.

Both exams include Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning questions. But that’s only half the story on the GRE®, where roughly half of the verbal section consists of vocabulary-heavy Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions. These test your ability to work with word meanings in context, and they have no equivalent on the GMAT.

If you have a strong vocabulary, the GRE® might be for you. But here’s a nuance you should know: the GRE® vocabulary questions reward the ability to reconstruct a word’s meaning from context, not rote memorization. Our experience is that daily reading of challenging material does more for GRE® verbal scores than flashcards do. So if your vocabulary feels limited but your reading skills are strong, the GMAT might be the better choice, because meaningfully improving raw vocabulary knowledge takes longer than most study timelines allow.

GMAT & GRE® Test Structure

Structurally, there are some major differences.

The GRE® has five sections and no breaks. It feels like running wind sprints: a 30-minute AWA, then two verbal sections (18 and 23 minutes) and two quant sections (21 and 26 minutes), in any order after the essay. The whole thing takes just under 2 hours.

The GMAT has three 45-minute sections (Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, and Data Insights) and one optional 10-minute break. That’s 2 hours and 15 minutes, plus the break (which you should probably take). The heart of the GMAT is three longer races instead of a set of shorter sprints.

Neither test penalizes you for wrong answers, so you should answer every question on both exams, even if you have to guess.

We rarely meet students who perform meaningfully better with one format than the other. But if you bristle at the thought of the GMAT’s longer sections, or if you prefer the GRE®’s slightly reduced testing time, you might be an exception.

The GMAT & GRE® as Adaptive Tests

Both tests are adaptive, but in different ways.

The GMAT adapts question-by-question within each section. If you get a few consecutive questions right, you’ll see tougher questions almost immediately. The GRE® adapts between sections: your first verbal and quant sections are medium difficulty, and your performance on each determines whether the corresponding second section is harder or easier. Within any given GRE® section, question difficulty bounces around instead of moving from easy to hard.

On both tests, you can review questions you’ve already answered within a section, provided you have time left. The difference is how far that review can go: on the GRE® you can change as many answers as you’d like, whereas on the GMAT you can bookmark questions and change up to three answers per section.

One important scoring nuance that applies to both exams: missing an easy question costs you far more than missing a hard one. The scoring algorithms are sensitive to which questions you miss, not just how many. So careful reading and avoiding careless errors on straightforward questions is, point for point, the most valuable thing you can do on either test.

The Bottom Line on GRE® & GMAT Content and Structure

The two tests are substantially different, but here’s the bad news: we’ve seen plenty of students take both exams, and their GRE® scores tend to be very comparable to their GMAT scores. The GMAT’s quant feels harder, but the GRE®’s vocabulary demands are real, and GRE® quant score deflation has narrowed the gap in how impressive a strong score looks on either test.

If you’re convinced that the GRE®’s question types systematically favor your strengths, don’t hold back, the GRE® might be ideal for you. If you’re not convinced you’ll do substantially better, you’re free to stick with the GMAT for your business school applications.

Still weighing the decision as a whole? Start with our full guide to choosing between the GMAT, GRE®, and EA.