The McNair Scholars Program at Southeast Missouri State University is helping students who plan to go to graduate school with Graduate Record Exam preparation sessions.

The GRE is a three-section exam used by graduate programs and business schools to evaluate how ready students are for graduate-level coursework.

Students will be tested on verbal reasoning, analytical writing and quantitative reasoning skills that are not related to any specific field of study.

The free GRE Prep Workshop Series will be held in the University Center Ballroom B from 5 to 8 p.m. On Feb. 27, student will prepare for the verbal and analytical sections. On March 27 student will prepare for the quantitative section and on April 24 student will take a mock exam.

Analytical writing is scored from zero to six in half-point increments while verbal and qualitative reasoning is scored from 130 to 170 in one-point increments. Scores are added to students’ applications. For most graduate schools it is required that students score within the 50th percentile for each section.

Senior psychology major Kelly McCormack is currently preparing for the GRE.

“I’ve been studying for an hour a day and for two hours on Saturdays because there’s a lot of things on the test I feel is important and a big deciding factor for schools,” McCormack said.

McCormack said she knows even if her GPA and resume is good the GRE is what a lot of graduate schools reference for deciding acceptance into the school or not.

Southeast also offers six-week online GRE preparation courses. The verbal and analytical sections are taught together while the quantitative section is separate. The online series is $174 and can be accessed through ed2go.com/semo.