GRE to be revamped
Today’s New York Times talks about the biggest revamp in the history of the Graduate Record Exam. What does it mean for someone who’s thinking of applying to graduate school? A salient change is in the length and format of the exam - now it will be almost twice as long, and internet-based. It will also be more difficult - the article says there will be a greater emphasis on higher cognitive skills in the verbal section and on interpretation in the quantitative section. It seems from this that you have to do better to get an equivalent score (although percentile scores may not be significantly affected, since they rank test-takers), while preparing for a new format. At the same time, you hope that the schools you apply to are sufficiently aware of what to expect with the results of the revamped test.
ETS (the agency that administers the test) has delayed rollout of the revamped test until Fall 2007. If possible, therefore, it might be a smart strategy to try and take the test in the old format before the rollout. ETS has had occasional glitches with rollouts, and you would not want to be among those affected by a possible difficulty in the system. In any case, a new system takes time to get used to, not only by test-takers, but also by administrators and universities who are consumers of test results. And test preparation centers may not have a suitably effective curriculum in place till they have a chance to learn from the new set-up.
So if you have change anxiety try and take the test before they change it. But keep things in context - the GRE is only one part of your application packet. A disastrous score may kick you off the list of serious applicants, but if you are within a reasonable range of scores, it will not make or break your chances by itself. Focus on strengthening the rest of your application. Some schools accept the subject GRE as well - a good score on that can mitigate a little the effects of substandard GRE performance. Similarly, business schools may accept the GMAT or GRE, and you could hedge your bets by writing the GMAT as well.
In any case, check out Tamar Lewin’s article. It also talks about some pretty interesting strategies people have used to cheat on the exam (in fact, they’re revamping the test largely because of such security concerns).
EDUCATION | February 22, 2006
Testing Service Delays Rollout of Revamped Graduate Exam
By TAMAR LEWIN
The maker of the Graduate Record Exam said it encountered problems with setting up enough Internet-based test centers for test-takers.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.