Collegiate Times

The Graduate Record Examination is one of the first steps students must take to receive their graduate or business degrees and take the work force by storm. After eight years of revision, the revised GRE will be introduced on August 1 replacing the current GRE general test.

According to the Educating Test Service, the added perks to the revised test will benefit students in a number of ways by giving them the advantage of a better test experience—and new types of questions that help show readiness for graduate-level work.

The scoring will be much different compared to the 200-800 scale in 10-point increments. 

Verbal and quantitative reasoning scores will be reported on a 130 – 170 score scale, in 1-point increments. 

The test time will also be increased by 30 minutes.

Analytical writing scores will continue to be reported on the same 0 – 6 score level, in half-point increments. With 10-point increments, it looked like a vast difference when comparing two students scores. 

However, with 1-point increments, it will be easier to tell if two candidates performed similarly on the revised test.

As for  the new test, I expect some confusion since the score scale is changing dramatically,” said Mark Schaefermeyer, Associate Dean at the Graduate School of Virginia Commonwealth University.

“We’re making changes to measure skills that the kids are more likely to be using when they are graduate students,” said Dawn Piacentino, program director of the GRE, in an interview with the Washington Post.

According to Piacentino, grad students are “not likely to be doing analogies but more likely to be reading and interpreting reading passages.”

On the current GRE, approximately the first eight questions were the ones that were the most crucial to a student’s score. 

If a student did poorly on those first eight, then the chances of them doing well were slim.

Computer adaptivity has been mildly changed to give students an advantage. 

Questions will get harder or simpler based on how a student does on a section, rather than each individual question. 

ETS has made it so answers can be skipped, reviewed, or changed.Analytic writing prompts will now be very specific. 

Students will have to pay attention to what they are being asked, whether it is to address both views presented, how a view could be challenged, the consequences of adopting a view, or how it shapes their position.

According to the the ETS website, they hope to make it harder to write and memorize an essay or strategies before the exam.

The test is designed to give the student more freedom, in that each person can use their own test-taking strategies.

There will be harder question types, like open-ended questions and questions with two answers.

According to their website, the ETS said that in life there is more than just one answer.

While some question sets, such as analogies, are being removed from the test altgother, the ETS decided to add another feature: an on-screen calculator.

Students have adjusted to using calculators, and this will allow students to solve problems realistically.  

In addition to the calculator, the revised test will have new types of questions in the verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning sections, featuring real-life scenarios that reflect the kind of thinking students need in order to pursue a graduate or business program.

Another feature of the new GRE is the 50 percent off discount when a student takes the GRE revised general test between August 1 and September 30, 2011.

Also, if a student takes the GRE revised general test during the special discount period of August to September, their scores will be sent by mid-November. 

“Since widespread testing of the new format has not started yet, I’m not sure if anyone (especially test takers) can say if it is easier or harder than the current test,” said Schaefermeyer. “Here at VCU, we caution all programs to assess the ability of the applicant based on multiple factors—the GRE is only one measure of potential. Some programs give the scores less weight than other programs. Some programs rely more on one part of the test than the
other.”

A version of this article appeared in the Jul 14 issue of the Collegiate Times.