The GRE’s Quantitative Section contains Quantitative Comparison questions, Data Interpretation questions, and Problem-Solving Questions, which include geometry.

GRE Problems

The Geometrypart of the GRE exam consists of several multiple choice questions on various topics, including:

• Lines and angles
• Triangles
• 4-sided shapes like quadrilaterals, squares and rectangles
• Circles
• 3D shapes, mostly rectangular solids
• A tiny bit of coordinate geometry can help

The GRE contains approximately 10 quantitative problems, some of which include a little geometry. Geometry problems can be both regular problems and quantitative comparison questions. You will have approximately 1.5 minutes to solve these questions, which means you need to work on your timing.

Geometrical Examples

Column A: The area of triangle ABC, which is a right-triangle with perpendicular sides of length .
Column B: The area of triangle ABC, which is a right-triangle with perpendicular sides of length .

Answer:The area of the triangle from column A is . Similarly, the area of the triangle from column B is , which is always smaller since it has a 3 instead of a 4. Thus Column A is greater, so the answer would be A for this comparison question.

My rectangular solid has dimensions 4 by 8 by X. If I fill 1/2 of the solid, the volume that’s inside would be 96. Find the volume of a cube with sides X.

Answer: If half the volume is 96, the full volume is 192. Thus . The volume of a cube with sides 6 is 216. That’s the answer, see, not too bad.

Remember, there’s not a whole lot of geometry on the GRE. Regardless, if you want a good score, you should go over the basics of different shapes and be able to solve this type of questions. You’ll find some good practice here:

Online GRE Practice Tests

Here are some practice problems that’ll help you prepare for the Quantitative Section of the GRE: GRE Quantitative (10 questions), GRE Quantitative Practice (10 questions), GRE Quantitative Practice Test (10 questions), GRE Quantitative Questions (10 questions), GRE Quantitative Comparison (10 questions).

Find Out More!

Don’t forget to practice the other sections of the GRE! There’s the Data Interpretation section, the Quantitative Comparison Section, and of course the Problem Solving Section. Good luck!