The GRE subject test in mathematics is a standardized test created by the Educational Testing Service, and is designed to assess a candidate's potential for graduate or post-graduate study in the field of mathematics. It contains questions from many fields of mathematics. About 50% of the questions are on calculus (including multivariate calculus), 25% on linear algebra, and 25% on a broad variety of other topics typically encountered in undergraduate mathematics, such as abstract algebra, point-set topology, elementary number theory, probability and statistics, as well as real and complex analysis.
This exam, like all the GRE subject tests, is paper-based, as opposed to the GRE general test which is usually computer-based. It contains 66 questions, which are to be answered within 2 hours and 50 minutes. Scores on this exam are required for entrance to most math Ph. D. programs.
Prior to October 2001, a significant percentage of students were achieving perfect scores on the exam, which made it difficult for competitive programs to differentiate between students in the upper percentiles. So the test was reworked, made much more difficult, and renamed "The Mathematics Subject Test (Rescaled)." It is now considered by many to be the hardest of the GRE subject exams. One contributing factor to this is that there is a shortage of practice exams available, as the test in its current format has only been around since 2001.
Tests take place each school season one Saturday in each of October, November, and April. Registration for each season of testing begins in July.