By By Leesa Oberholzer
The Graduate Record Examination (GRE), a required test for students pursuing certain areas of study, will be undergoing major changes beginning in October 2006.
The GRE tests critical thinking, analytical writing, verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning skills, which is a tool used with other undergraduate records to determine how prospective students will perform at the graduate level, according to PrincetonReview.com.
Liz Wands, director of graduate programs for the Princeton Review said, “The GRE is being completely revamped in October 2006.”
The Educational Testing Service (ETS), a non-profit testing organization who administers the exam, states on its Web site that it does not require graduate school applicants to take the exam. However, some programs require it.
For those students who are taking the GRE, there are six major changes to the exam.
The Princeton Review press release explains the revised test will be a computer-based linear format rather then the current computer-adaptive one.
The content of the three sections will be revised, so everyone who sits for the exam will have the same questions. The length is also being increased from two and a half hours to four hours and the scores students receive will be based on a 120-170 scale.
Also, the new test will be offered 30 days during the year.
“We are changing the exam to improve its validity, to provide graduate schools with more accurate information, and to expose students to the most advanced technology,” Tom Ewing, a representative from ETS, said.
Wands does not have the same opinion regarding why such drastic changes are occurring, since there have never been any former changes to the test.
“ETS is claiming they are changing it to improve the validity, but they are changing it because the previous exam is expensive for ETS. It’s really a shame students have to suffer because ETS wants to save a few bucks,” she said.
In ETS’s press release, David Payne, executive director of the GRE Program of ETS’s Higher Education Division, made it known that the exam “will include more real-life scenarios and data interpretation questions and new, more focused writing questions. This will improve the GRE test’s usefulness to students and graduate schools.”
Adam Chenard, a senior marketing major who plans to take the GRE is not looking forward to taking the revised exam.
“This is ridiculous,” she said. “It’s unfair to change the test when students presently in grad school have taken the current version. Some schools who will accept both exams are putting the test takers of the new GRE at a disadvantage.”
Wands tries to calm anxious seniors preparing for grad school and the GRE.
“It’s too early to tell what kind of impact the changes will have on grad school admissions, but the admissions cycle will likely be effected,” she said.
“For the 2006-07 academic year, schools should accept both scores, but students should contact the specific program they’re applying to and consider taking the current GRE,” Wands added.
Another issue she spoke of was preparation and not to panic.
“The Princeton Review is 100 percent ready to prepare students,” she said. “This is not something to stress about. Be confident in your preparation.”
Both the ETS and the Princeton Review recommend to begin studying at least a couple of months before the exam.
The Princeton Review will update and publish a new book “Cracking the GRE” geared to prepare students for the new exam effective October 2006.