# What level of aptitude is needed for the GRE subject test? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 8, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-level-of-aptitude-is-needed-for-the-gre-subject-test/673369 "2013-11-08T00:18:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-level-of-aptitude-is-needed-for-the-gre-subject-test/673369/21 "2013-11-09T02:00:05Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Good point. Grad school requires several different things - subject matter knowledge, research skills, and thinking and logic skills. If you never got a good undergrad level of subject matter knowledge in your field, it doesn’t matter that you are really good at finding sources and making logical arguments, because you simply won’t understand what your sources say, you won’t be effective at developing methodologies, and it will be very difficult to make extrapolations on what might follow from your research because you aren’t familiar with any similar situations. Kudos for this post, **robert\_columbia**. A very succinct summary of what the GRE is all about. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-level-of-aptitude-is-needed-for-the-gre-subject-test/673369/22 "2013-11-09T02:57:54Z")
> [@mcgato](#): > > I think that a couple of people are talking about the general GRE test, while the OP was specifically asking about the subject tests. The two are quite different. Yup. I personally found the general ones easy, while my subject’s felt hard as fuck but I ended up scoring high. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-level-of-aptitude-is-needed-for-the-gre-subject-test/673369.md?page=1)