Changes to the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), originally scheduled to take effect this October, will be delayed until the fall of 2007, according to an announcement yesterday from the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the producers of the exam.
The GRE is required for application to most graduate school programs, and nearly 500,000 applicants take the test per year.
"Though the year-long delay in the change to the GRE may wreak short-term havoc on aspiring graduate students' test-taking considerations, it's ultimately a good thing," said Matt Fidler, GRE program manager for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, in the announcement. "It gives students additional breathing room and more time to take the current, shorter version of the test."
In the announcement, Executive Director of the GRE program in ETS' Higher Education Division David Payne said that the now-delayed changes are designed to "improve the GRE test's usefulness to students and graduate schools."
These changes will include an altered scoring scale and an increase in the length of the test from two-and-a-half to four hours.
"Once the new test is implemented it will be longer and more challenging for some, so we are still recommending that students who can adequately prepare for the test take it before it changes," Fidler said in the announcement.
The new version of the test will include a greater number of real-life scenarios and questions that deal with data interpretation.
In the verbal section, there will be a greater emphasis on higher cognitive skills and less dependence on prior knowledge, such as vocabulary. The test will also include questions and reading passages more closely related to actual graduate work.
In the quantitative reasoning section, test-takers will see more use of real-life scenarios and fewer rote geometric problems.
Both sections will be longer as a result of these changes.
The new test will be administered 29 times per year, and each version will only be used once-a change from the current format, in which testing occurs continuously.
The new test will also take greater advantage of its computerized format: Certain computer-enabled tasks will be added to the verbal section, and an on-screen calculator will be added to the quantitative section. Internet-based testing opportunities will also be available worldwide.
