| Graduate Record Examination (Biochemistry Subject Test) | |
| Type: | Paper-based standardized test[1] |
| Test Admin: | Educational Testing Service |
| Skills Tested: | Undergraduate level biochemistry: |
| Purpose: | Admissions in graduate programs (e.g. M.S. and Ph.D.) in biochemistry (mostly in universities in the United States) |
| Duration: | 2 hours and 50 minutes |
| Score Range: | 200 to 990, in 10-point increments[2] |
| Score Validity: | 5 years |
| Offered: | 3 times a year, in September, October and April[3] |
| Regions: | Worldwide |
| Language: | English |
| Test Takers: | ~1,500-2,000 yearly |
| Prerequisite: | No official prerequisite. Intended for biochemistry bachelor degree graduates or undergraduate students about to graduate. Fluency in English assumed. |
| Fee: | US$ 150[4] (Limited offers of "Fee Reduction Program" for U.S. citizens or resident aliens who demonstrate financial need, and for national programs in the USA that work with underrepresented groups.[5]) |
| Score Users: | Biochemistry departments offering graduate programs (mostly in universities in the United States). |
GRE Subject Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology was a standardized exam provided by ETS (Educational Testing Service) that was discontinued in December 2016. It is a paper-based exam and there are no computer-based versions of it. ETS places this exam three times per year: once in April, once in October and once in November. Some graduate programs in the United States recommend taking this exam, while others require this exam score as a part of the application to their graduate programs. ETS sends a bulletin with a sample practice test to each candidate after registration for the exam. There are 180 questions within the biochemistry subject test.
Scores are scaled and then reported as a number between 200 and 990; however, in recent versions of the test, the maximum and minimum reported scores have been 760 (corresponding to the 99 percentile) and 320 (1 percentile) respectively. The mean score for all test takers from July, 2009, to July, 2012, was 526 with a standard deviation of 95.[6] After learning that test content from editions of the GRE® Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology (BCM) Test has been compromised in Israel, ETS made the decision not to administer this test worldwide in 2016–17.
Since many students who apply to graduate programs in biochemistry do so during the first half of their fourth year, the scope of most questions is largely that of the first three years of a standard American undergraduate biochemistry curriculum. A sampling of test item content is given below:
A Chemical and Physical Foundations
Thermodynamics and kineticsRedox statesWater, pH, acid-base reactions and buffersSolutions and equilibriaSolute-solvent interactionsChemical interactions and bondingChemical reaction mechanisms
B Structural Biology: Structure, Assembly, Organization and DynamicsSmall moleculesMacromolecules (e.g., nucleic acids, polysaccharides, proteins and complex lipids)Supramolecular complexes (e.g., membranes, ribosomes and multienzyme complexes)
C Catalysis and Binding
Enzyme reaction mechanisms and kineticsLigand-protein interaction (e.g., hormone receptors, substrates and effectors, transport proteins and antigen-antibody interactions)
D Major Metabolic Pathways
Carbon, nitrogen and sulfur assimilationAnabolismCatabolismSynthesis and degradation of macromolecules
E Bioenergetics (including respiration and photosynthesis)
Energy transformations at the substrate levelElectron transportProton and chemical gradientsEnergy coupling (e.g., phosphorylation and transport)
F Regulation and Integration of Metabolism
Covalent modification of enzymesAllosteric regulationCompartmentalizationHormones
G Methods
Biophysical approaches (e.g., spectroscopy, x-ray, crystallography, mass spectroscopy)IsotopesSeparation techniques (e.g., centrifugation, chromatography and electrophoresis)Immunotechniques
Methods of importance to cellular biology, such as fluorescence probes (e.g., FRAP, FRET and GFP) and imaging, will be covered as appropriate within the context of the content below.
A. Cellular Compartments of Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes: Organization, Dynamics and Functions
Cellular membrane systems (e.g., structure and transport across membrane)Nucleus (e.g., envelope and matrix)Mitochondria and chloroplasts (e.g., biogenesis and evolution)
B. Cell Surface and CommunicationExtracellular matrix (including cell walls)Cell adhesion and junctionsSignal transductionReceptor functionExcitable membrane systems
C. Cytoskeleton, Motility and ShapeRegulation of assembly and disassembly of filament systemsMotor function, regulation and diversity
D. Protein, Processing, Targeting and Turnover
Translocation across membranesPosttranslational modificationIntracellular traffickingSecretion and endocytosisProtein turnover (e.g., proteosomes, lysosomes, damaged protein response)
E. Cell Division, Differentiation and Development
Cell cycle, mitosis and cytokinesisMeiosis and gametogenesisFertilization and early embryonic development (including positional information, homeotic genes, tissue-specific expression, nuclear and cytoplasmic interactions, growth factors and induction, environment, stem cells and polarity)
A. Genetic Foundations
Mendelian and non-Mendelian inheritanceTransformation, transduction and conjugationRecombination and complementationMutational analysisGenetic mapping and linkage analysis
B. Chromatin and Chromosomes
KaryotypesTranslocations, inversions, deletions and duplicationsAneuploidy and polyploidyStructureEpigenetics
C. Genomics
Genome structurePhysical mappingRepeated DNA and gene familiesGene identificationTransposable elementsBioinformaticsProteomicsMolecular evolution
D. Genome Maintenance
DNA replicationDNA damage and repairDNA modificationDNA recombination and gene conversion
E. Gene Expression/Recombinant DNA Technology
The genetic codeTranscription/transcriptional profilingRNA processingTranslation
F. Gene Regulation
Positive and negative control of the operonPromoter recognition by RNA polymerasesAttenuation and antiterminationCis-acting regulatory elementsTrans-acting regulatory factorsGene rearrangements and amplificationsSmall non-coding RNA (e.g., siRNA, microRNA)
G. Viruses
Genome replication and regulationVirus assemblyVirus-host interactions
H. Methods
Restriction maps and PCRNucleic acid blotting and hybridizationDNA cloning in prokaryotes and eukaryotesSequencing and analysisProtein-nucleic acid interactionTransgenic organismsMicroarrays