Free GRE practice test — 54 questions at real section timing 🇺🇸

8 original practice questions written by Myndaq in the GRE style. They are not taken from this mock paper or from official past papers. Try each one, then open the answer.

1. Question 1Verbal ReasoningOne correct answer

   Although the panel's report was widely praised for its thoroughness, several department heads complained that its recommendations were so ______ that no one could act on them without requesting further guidance.

   1. A. prescriptive
   2. B. nebulous
   3. C. contentious
   4. D. exhaustive
   5. E. remunerative
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B

   The clause after 'so' must explain why the recommendations could not be acted on: they were unclear. 'Nebulous' means vague or ill-defined, which fits exactly, and the 'Although' signals a contrast with the praise for thoroughness.

   'Prescriptive' is the opposite of what is needed, since prescriptive recommendations tell you precisely what to do. 'Exhaustive' merely restates the thoroughness instead of contrasting with it. 'Contentious' would mean disputed, which is a reason to argue about the recommendations rather than a reason they cannot be carried out, and 'remunerative' (profitable) is unrelated to the sentence.

2. Question 2Verbal ReasoningOne or more correct answers

   Select the TWO answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce completed sentences that are alike in meaning.

   Far from being the iconoclast his admirers describe, the architect was in truth thoroughly ______, borrowing without embarrassment from the very traditions he claimed to disdain.

   1. A. derivative
   2. B. unorthodox
   3. C. imitative
   4. D. austere
   5. E. meticulous
   6. F. reclusive
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A, C

   The second half of the sentence says the architect borrowed from existing traditions, and 'Far from being the iconoclast' tells us the blank must contradict originality. 'Derivative' and 'imitative' both mean taking from the work of others, so either one produces the same sentence meaning.

   'Unorthodox' says the opposite of what the sentence establishes. 'Austere', 'meticulous' and 'reclusive' describe plausible traits of an architect, but none of them pairs with another option to give two sentences alike in meaning, which is what this item type requires.

3. Question 3Verbal ReasoningOne correct answer

   For decades the dark bands in the shells of deep-sea clams were read as annual growth marks, and their spacing was used to reconstruct centuries of bottom-water temperature. Recent work complicates that reading. When Vasquez and her colleagues reared clams of the same species in tanks held at a constant temperature, the animals still laid down bands, but at irregular intervals that tracked the timing of the food pulses the researchers delivered rather than any seasonal cycle.

   The finding does not overturn the older reconstructions outright. In the open ocean the supply of food sinking to the sea floor is itself largely seasonal, so bands may still form roughly once a year. What the experiment suggests is that a band records the arrival of food rather than the passing of a year, and that where surface productivity is erratic the resulting chronologies may be distorted in ways no one has yet measured.

   The passage suggests which of the following about the older temperature reconstructions?

   1. A. They are invalid, because the bands on which they rest do not form on an annual schedule.
   2. B. They may remain approximately sound in waters where food reaches the sea floor on a seasonal schedule.
   3. C. They relied on a clam species that does not produce bands outside its natural habitat.
   4. D. They understated bottom-water temperatures in regions where surface productivity is erratic.
   5. E. They could be corrected by measuring the spacing of the bands rather than counting them.
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B

   The second paragraph states that the finding does not overturn the older work outright, because open-ocean food supply is itself largely seasonal, so bands may still form about once a year. That is precisely the qualified endorsement in the second option.

   The first option is too strong and is contradicted by that same sentence. The third is false: the captive clams did lay down bands. The fourth names a direction of error, understatement, that the passage never specifies; it says only that chronologies may be distorted. The fifth invents a remedy the passage does not offer, and in any case the older method already used spacing.

4. Question 4Verbal ReasoningOne correct answer

   A city council has proposed easing downtown traffic congestion by closing two municipal parking garages and replacing them with public gardens. Supporters of the plan point out that vehicles circling in search of a scarce space make up a substantial share of downtown traffic; remove the spaces, they argue, and the circling will disappear with them.

   Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the supporters' argument?

   1. A. The two garages are among the oldest structures still standing downtown.
   2. B. Drivers turned away from the garages would continue into the district and search the surrounding streets for curbside spaces.
   3. C. Public gardens in comparable cities have measurably increased foot traffic on adjoining blocks.
   4. D. A council survey found that most downtown visitors already arrive by car rather than by transit.
   5. E. Building the two gardens would take roughly eighteen months from the first day of demolition.
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B

   The argument assumes that drivers who cannot park in the garages will stop coming downtown. The second option denies that assumption directly: the same drivers arrive and circle the streets instead, so removing the spaces makes the searching worse rather than eliminating it.

   The age of the garages is beside the point. Increased foot traffic concerns pedestrians, not vehicle congestion. The survey finding that most visitors drive supports the premise that circling matters rather than undermining the conclusion. The eighteen-month construction period speaks to a temporary inconvenience, not to whether the finished plan would reduce congestion.

5. Question 5Quantitative ReasoningOne correct answer

   The integer n is greater than 1, and n² is a multiple of 12.

   Quantity A: the least possible value of n Quantity B: 6

   1. A. Quantity A is greater.
   2. B. Quantity B is greater.
   3. C. The two quantities are equal.
   4. D. The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: C

   Write 12 as 2² × 3. If n² is divisible by 3, then 3 divides n, because 3 is prime. If n² is divisible by 4, then n must be even, since the square of an odd number is odd. So n is divisible by both 2 and 3, hence by 6.

   The smallest such n greater than 1 is 6 itself, and 6² = 36 = 12 × 3 is indeed a multiple of 12. Quantity A equals 6, so the quantities are equal. A common trap is to try n = 4 or n = 2, but 16 and 4 are not multiples of 12; another is to conclude that n² divisible by 12 forces n divisible by 12, which the case n = 6 disproves.

6. Question 6Quantitative ReasoningOne correct answer

   A tank holds 40 liters of a solution that is 15 percent acid by volume. How many liters of pure acid must be added, with no other change to the contents, so that the resulting solution is 32 percent acid by volume?

   1. A. 6.8
   2. B. 8
   3. C. 10
   4. D. 12.5
   5. E. 17
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: C

   The tank starts with 0.15 × 40 = 6 liters of acid in 40 liters of solution. Adding x liters of pure acid raises the acid to 6 + x and the total volume to 40 + x.

   Set (6 + x)/(40 + x) = 0.32, so 6 + x = 12.8 + 0.32x, giving 0.68x = 6.8 and x = 10. Check: 16 liters of acid in 50 liters is 32 percent. The choice 6.8 comes from stopping at 0.68x = 6.8 without dividing. The choice 17 comes from reading the 17-point gap between 15 percent and 32 percent as a number of liters. Adding 8 liters leaves 14 liters of acid in 48, about 29 percent, still short of the target, while adding 12.5 liters gives 18.5 in 52.5, about 35 percent, which overshoots it.

7. Question 7Quantitative ReasoningType a numeric answer

   Each of the 180 commuters in a survey was asked which services they had used during the past week. In all, 96 reported using the train, 74 reported using the bus, and 23 reported using both. How many of the commuters used neither the train nor the bus?

   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: 33

   By the inclusion-exclusion principle, the number who used at least one of the two services is 96 + 74 - 23 = 147, since the 23 who used both were counted once in each of the first two figures.

   The remaining commuters used neither, so the answer is 180 - 147 = 33. Forgetting to subtract the overlap gives 170 and an answer of 10, which double-counts the 23 commuters who used both.

8. Question 8Quantitative ReasoningOne correct answer

   If 3^(2k+1) = 27^(k-1), what is the value of k?

   1. A. -4
   2. B. 1
   3. C. 2
   4. D. 4
   5. E. 6
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: D

   Rewrite both sides with base 3. Since 27 = 3³, the right side is 3^(3(k-1)) = 3^(3k-3).

   The exponential function with base 3 is one-to-one, so the exponents must match: 2k + 1 = 3k - 3, which gives k = 4. Check: the left side is 3^9 and the right side is 27^3 = (3³)³ = 3^9, so the two agree. The value 2 comes from setting 2k + 1 = 3k - 1, and -4 from a sign slip when moving 3k across the equation.