GRE syllabus: General skills and three Subject Test disciplines
The GRE does not have one common subject syllabus. The General Test measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and analytical writing across broad skills; it is not designed around a particular undergraduate major. GRE Subject Tests cover Mathematics, Physics and Psychology as separate assessments. Choose a syllabus only after confirming which test, if any, the target programme asks applicants to take.
General Test content areas
Verbal Reasoning asks candidates to understand written material, identify relationships among ideas, draw supported conclusions and interpret words in context. Reading questions can require distinguishing a main claim from evidence, following an author's reasoning and evaluating an implication. Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence assess how words and sentence relationships affect meaning. Preparation should focus on evidence in the sentence or passage and how answer choices fit the logic, rather than memorizing isolated definitions alone.
Quantitative Reasoning covers arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis. Candidates need to interpret quantitative information and solve problems, not simply recall formulas. Question forms include quantitative comparisons, multiple-choice questions and numeric entry. Data questions can involve tables, graphs and statistics. ETS provides an official topic guide; use it to identify the stated boundaries and practise explaining why an answer follows from the values and conditions. Do not assume that a high-school syllabus map exactly matches ETS's tested content or that every topic receives a fixed weight unless ETS publishes such a distribution.
Analytical Writing is one 30-minute Analyze an Issue task in the current General format. The candidate develops a position, supports it with reasons and examples, and writes a coherent response to the prompt. It assesses analytical writing rather than knowledge of a specialized academic discipline. Older guides that include an Analyze an Argument essay describe a retired format, not the current General Test.
Mathematics Subject Test
The Mathematics Subject Test is intended to assess undergraduate-level mathematics knowledge. ETS's current subject guide organizes content across areas including calculus, algebra and additional topics such as analysis, discrete mathematics, geometry, probability and statistics. Consult the current ETS Mathematics test guide for its exact topic list and proportions; do not infer a fixed section weighting from a coaching outline. Candidates should map prior coursework against the official content outline, identify gaps and work through problems that require selecting and connecting concepts rather than relying only on familiar routine exercises.
Physics Subject Test
The Physics Subject Test samples undergraduate physics. ETS's current guide covers mechanics, electromagnetism, optics and wave phenomena, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, atomic and nuclear physics, and laboratory methods. The official outline is the controlling scope. It describes a breadth assessment, so candidates should refresh principles and relationships across the listed fields and practise applying them to unfamiliar representations. A coaching list may contain useful practice but cannot add an official topic or establish how often it appears.
Psychology Subject Test
The Psychology Subject Test spans core areas of psychology described by ETS, including biological, cognitive, social, developmental, clinical and measurement or research topics. The exact current content breakdown and terms should be taken from the official Psychology guide. Candidates should distinguish experimental findings, research methods and theoretical concepts when studying. A programme might recommend the Subject Test for one specialty and ignore it for another; the existence of an official test does not mean every psychology applicant must take it.
Use the syllabus in an application decision
First read the target department's testing policy. If it requests General only, preparing a Subject Test may add cost and scheduling burden without meeting a requirement. If it names a Subject Test, confirm the exact discipline and accepted score age. If scores are optional, compare the value of submitting one with the time needed to prepare and the rest of the application. No GRE test guarantees admission.
Use ETS's official content and structure guides together. The content page explains what skills and disciplines are assessed; the structure page shows the current General timing and task arrangement; Subject guides state discipline details and duration. This separation prevents a common error: using an old book's format, a generic university syllabus or a third-party topic-frequency claim as if it were ETS's current exam specification.
A practical study map has four columns: official topic; what you can already solve; errors or concepts to review; and the next source-backed practice task. For General Verbal, cite the passage evidence for each answer. For Quant, record the method and the condition that makes it valid. For Writing, compare the response against the prompt and ETS's stated task. For a Subject Test, track topics against the official discipline outline. This is a planning method, not a prescribed number of study hours or an ETS success formula.
Check ETS again before booking because test content and preparation resources can change. The current format date matters especially for General practice: since 22 September 2023 the test has one Issue task and shorter Verbal and Quant sections. The historic structure may appear in used books, archived coaching videos or old sample tests, but it should be labelled as historical.