David McRaney  |  Journalist

Graduate Record Exam overhaled

The Graduate Record Exam is slated to undergo a major overhaul next year, prompting some officials to recommend taking the test early.

In October of 2006, the content of the GRE will go through a major refurbishing, the first of its kind in the test's 55-year history. The changes will affect nearly 500,000 students attempting to get into graduate school worldwide next year.

The GRE is a standardized test used as an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States. It is intended to measure the abilities of all graduates regardless of their fields of specialization and is not considered an intelligence test. It is similar in format to the SAT, but is administered through a computer-based interface.

According to Harried Brand of the Princeton Review, each of the tests three sections, verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and analytical writing will soon change the content and format of the questions. The aim is to increase the validity of the test.

David Payne, executive director of the GRE program, said that the changes will be significant, and the new test will emphasize the kinds of complex reasoning and other skills needed for graduate work.

He added that there will be more real-life scenarios and questions designed for interpretation. Also, the writing portion will be more focused on higher cognitive skills instead of vocabulary.

Another major change, according to Brand, is in the test's length.

The new GRE will take over four hours to complete in contrast to the existing versions two-and-a-half hour duration. The new test will also abandon the computer-adaptive model in which the test changes in response to the answers given and will now be given in a linear format in which each student takes the same exam.

Brand said that because the number and type of questions on the GRE, the traditional point scale of 200 to 800 will be replaced by a new scale of 40 to 50.

Each version of the new test will be used only once, and the test will be given 29 times a year worldwide.

LaShana Sorrell, a senior journalism major at USM, said that she didn't feel that any form of standardized test was fair.

"I've heard of people memorizing the first five questions of the GRE to get the computer to change to the better questions," said Sorrell. "Why can't graduate schools look to the work we have done, our recommendations and our internships instead?"

Senior political science major Lexey Collins disagrees. "I think it's a good thing that it is becoming more standardized," she said. "That way it is more fair for everyone."

The GRE made waves in 1993 when the test format changed from the traditional paper booklet to a computer-based exam. Many, like Sorrell, distrusted the change believing individual scores varied considerably in response to the particular questions selected and the ordering of the material.

Although the GRE is the most widely used resource for screening potential graduate students, the test has suffered a fair amount of criticism in the past including speculation on whether or not GRE scores represent an accurate evaluation of a prospective graduate student's knowledge or aptitude for success, said senior USM history major Adam Chance.

He added that the quantitative section covers topics too basic for any college of math or science to take seriously, and that the same problems are irrelevant to English, history and other liberal art programs.

Liz Wands, national director of graduate programs at the Princeton Review, recommends that students take the GRE before the transition to the new test.

Originally published in The Student Printz on November 3, 2005