Computer & Science Test.pdf

GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATIONS ®

Computer

Practice Book

This practice book contains

test-taking strategies

Become familiar with

test instructions and answering procedures

Compare your practice test results with the performance of those who

took the test at a GRE administration.

Visit GRE Online at www.gre.org

Listening.

Learning.

Leading.

This book is provided FREE with test registration by the Graduate Record Examinations Board.

Science Test

one actual full-length GRE Computer Science Test

test structure and content

Note to Test Takers: Keep this practice book until you receive your score report.

The book contains important information about content specifications and scoring.

EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE, ETS, the ETS logos, GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATIONS,

and GRE are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service.

Table of Contents

The GRE Board recommends that scores on the

Subject Tests be considered in conjunction with other

relevant information about applicants. Because numer-

ous factors influence success in graduate school,

reliance on a single measure to predict success is not

advisable. Other indicators of competence typically

include undergraduate transcripts showing courses

taken and grades earned, letters of recommendation,

the GRE Writing Assessment score, and GRE General

Test scores. For information about the appropriate use

of GRE scores, write to GRE Program, Educational

Testing Service, Mail Stop 57-L, Princeton, NJ 08541,

or visit our Web site at www.gre.org/codelst.html.

Purpose of the GRE Subject Tests ........................ 3

Development of the Subject Tests ....................... 3

Content of the Computer Science Test ............... 4

Preparing for a Subject Test ................................. 5

Test-Taking Strategies .......................................... 6

What Your Scores Mean ...................................... 6

Practice GRE Computer Science Test ................. 9

Scoring Your Subject Test ..................................47

Evaluating Your Performance.............................50

Answer Sheet .....................................................51

Development of the

Subject Tests

Purpose of the GRE

Subject Tests

Each new edition of a Subject Test is developed by a

committee of examiners composed of professors in the

subject who are on undergraduate and graduate facul-

ties in different types of institutions and in different

regions of the United States and Canada. In selecting

members for each committee, the GRE Program seeks

the advice of the appropriate professional associations

in the subject.

The content and scope of each test are specified and

reviewed periodically by the committee of examiners.

Test questions are written by the committee and by

other faculty who are also subject-matter specialists

and by subject-matter specialists at ETS. All questions

proposed for the test are reviewed by the committee

and revised as necessary. The accepted questions are

assembled into a test in accordance with the content

specifications developed by the committee to ensure

adequate coverage of the various aspects of the field

and, at the same time, to prevent overemphasis on any

single topic. The entire test is then reviewed and

approved by the committee.

The GRE Subject Tests are designed to help graduate

school admission committees and fellowship sponsors

assess the qualifications of applicants in specific fields

of study. The tests also provide you with an assessment

of your own qualifications.

Scores on the tests are intended to indicate

knowledge of the subject matter emphasized in

many undergraduate programs as preparation for

graduate study. Because past achievement is usually

a good indicator of future performance, the scores

are helpful in predicting success in graduate study.

Because the tests are standardized, the test scores

permit comparison of students from different

institutions with different undergraduate programs.

For some Subject Tests, subscores are provided in

addition to the total score; these subscores indicate

the strengths and weaknesses of your preparation,

and they may help you plan future studies.

COMPUTER SCIENCE TEST

PRACTICE BOOK

Subject-matter and measurement specialists on the

ETS staff assist the committee, providing information

and advice about methods of test construction and

helping to prepare the questions and assemble the test.

In addition, each test question is reviewed to eliminate

language, symbols, or content considered potentially

offensive, inappropriate for major subgroups of the test-

taking population, or likely to perpetuate any negative

attitude that may be conveyed to these subgroups. The

test as a whole is also reviewed to ensure that the test

questions, where applicable, include an appropriate

balance of people in different groups and different roles.

Because of the diversity of undergraduate curricula,

it is not possible for a single test to cover all the

material you may have studied. The examiners, there-

fore, select questions that test the basic knowledge and

skills most important for successful graduate study in

the particular field. The committee keeps the test

up-to-date by regularly developing new editions and

revising existing editions. In this way, the test content

changes steadily but gradually, much like most cur-

ricula. In addition, curriculum surveys are conducted

periodically to ensure that the content of a test

reflects what is currently being taught in the under-

graduate curriculum.

After a new edition of a Subject Test is first admin-

istered, examinees’ responses to each test question are

analyzed in a variety of ways to determine whether

each question functioned as expected. These analyses

may reveal that a question is ambiguous, requires

knowledge beyond the scope of the test, or is inappro-

priate for the total group or a particular subgroup of

examinees taking the test. Answers to such questions

are not used in computing scores.

Following this analysis, the new test edition is

equated to an existing test edition. In the equating

process, statistical methods are used to assess the

difficulty of the new test. Then scores are adjusted so

that examinees who took a difficult edition of the test

are not penalized, and examinees who took an easier

edition of the test do not have an advantage. Varia-

tions in the number of questions in the different

editions of the test are also taken into account in

this process.

Scores on the Subject Tests are reported as three-

digit scaled scores with the third digit always zero.

The maximum possible range for all Subject Test total

scores is from 200 to 990. The actual range of scores for

a particular Subject Test, however, may be smaller. The

maximum possible range of Subject Test subscores is

20 to 99; however, the actual range of subscores for

any test or test edition may be smaller than 20 to 99.

Subject Test score interpretive information is provided

in Interpreting Your GRE Scores, which you will receive

with your GRE score report, and on the GRE Web site

at www.gre.org/codelst.html.

Content of the Computer

Science Subject Test

The test consists of about 70 multiple-choice

questions, some of which are grouped in sets and

based on such materials as diagrams, graphs, and

program fragments.

The approximate distribution of questions in each

edition of the test according to content categories is

indicated by the following outline. The percentages

given are approximate; actual percentages will vary

slightly from one edition of the test to another.

I. SOFTWARE SYSTEMS AND

METHODOLOGY — 40%

A. Data organization

1. Data types

2. Data structures and implementation

techniques

B. Program control and structure

1. Iteration and recursion

2. Procedures, functions, methods, and

exception handlers

3. Concurrency, communication, and

synchronization

C. Programming languages and notation

1. Constructs for data organization and

program control

2. Scope, binding, and parameter

passing

3. Expression evaluation

COMPUTER SCIENCE TEST

PRACTICE BOOK

D. Software engineering

1. Formal specifications and assertions

2. Verification techniques

3. Software development models, patterns,

and tools

E. Systems

1. Compilers, interpreters, and run-time systems

2. Operating systems, including resource

management and protection/security

3. Networking, Internet, and distributed systems

4. Databases

5. System analysis and development tools

3. Upper and lower bounds on the complexity

of specific problems

4. Computational complexity, including NP-

completeness

B. Automata and language theory

1. Models of computation (finite automata,

Turing machines)

2. Formal languages and grammars (regular

and context-free)

3. Decidability

C. Discrete structures

1. Mathematical logic

2. Elementary combinatorics and

graph theory

3. Discrete probability, recurrence relations,

and number theory

II. COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND

ARCHITECTURE — 15%

A. Digital logic design

1. Implementation of combinational and

sequential circuits

2. Optimization and analysis

B. Processors and control units

1. Instruction sets

2. Computer arithmetic and number representation

3. Register and ALU organization

4. Data paths and control sequencing

C. Memories and their hierarchies

1. Performance, implementation, and management

2. Cache, main, and secondary storage

3. Virtual memory, paging, and segmentation

D. Networking and communications

1. Interconnect structures (e.g., buses,

switches, routers)

2. I/O systems and protocols

3. Synchronization

E. High-performance architectures

1. Pipelining superscalar and out-of-order

execution processors

2. Parallel and distributed architectures

IV. Other Topics — 5%

Example areas include numerical analysis, artificial

intelligence, computer graphics, cryptography,

security, and social issues.

Note: Students are assumed to have a mathematical

background in the areas of calculus and linear

algebra as applied to computer science.

Preparing for a Subject Test

GRE Subject Test questions are designed to measure

skills and knowledge gained over a long period of time.

Although you might increase your scores to some

extent through preparation a few weeks or months

before you take the test, last-minute cramming is

unlikely to be of further help. The following informa-

tion may be helpful.

▪

A general review of your college courses is

probably the best preparation for the test. How-

ever, the test covers a broad range of subject

matter, and no one is expected to be familiar

with the content of every question.

III. THEORY AND MATHEMATICAL

BACKGROUND — 40%

A. Algorithms and complexity

1. Exact and asymptotic analysis of specific

algorithms

2. Algorithmic design techniques (e.g., greedy,

dynamic programming, divide and conquer)

COMPUTER SCIENCE TEST

PRACTICE BOOK

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