Numerous students are faced with the question of whether GRE is necessary for MS in Germany. There is good news for such aspirants: No, the GRE exam is not mandatory to pursue one’s MS in the country. Several colleges in Germany seek only IELTS or TOEFL scores; in order to evaluate your competence in English. 

English skills are assessed only if the course is taught in the language at a particular university. However, having a good GRE score can help improve your profile. It will also make one eligible for applying to universities that have made GRE for MS admissions a requisite.Targeting a score of 310+ in the exam improves one’s chances of getting into top German Universities. 

What is GRE?

The GRE Exam (Graduate Record Examination) is a standardized online test that is compulsory to apply for a Master’s degree or Ph.D. programme in any field abroad. You can appear for the GRE exam any time during the year by choosing a slot 45 days prior to a test date. ETS (Educational Testing Service) oversees the conducting of the exam. The test is conducted in multiple stages. 

In this exam, the difficulty of the next section depends on your performance in the previous one. The difficulty level of questions within a section does not change. If you perform well in the first verbal section, then the difficulty level of the second verbal section will automatically increase. The scores for the Verbal and Quantitative sections are between 130 to 170 with one point increments. Analytical writing is scored on a scale of 0 to 6 with 0.5 point increments. 

GRE Syllabus

The syllabus for the exam covers three subjects: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing. Time duration of the GRE test is 3 hours and 45 minutes. There are a total of six sections: two sections each on verbal and quantitative reasoning, one section on analytical writing. The sixth section is largely unimportant as it plays no role in the calculation of the final score. 

Apart from GRE scores, some colleges in Germany also require you to score at least a 6.5 band score in IELTS (where the course is taught in English).

Here is the list of top MS colleges in Germany that accept IELTS scores:

	University	IELTS band
1	Dresden University of Technology	6
2	University of Kiel	–
3	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	6.5
4	FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences	6.5
5	Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg	7
6	University of Rostock	6
7	University of Gottingen	–
8	EBS University of Business and Law	–
9	University of Paderborn	7
10	University of Augsburg	6.5
11	University of Regensburg	–
12	University of Konstanz	6