GRE exam scheduled to change in October

For students across the country and around the world applying to graduate schools next year, a major change in the application process will take place this fall. Beginning in October 2006, the Graduate Record Examinations, or the GRE, will switch to a longer format that they hope will "increase the validity of the test," according to the Education Test Service (ETS) website.

The new exam will increase from two and a half hours to over four hours long, and all three sections of the GRE will be changing.

The three sections of the GRE will be revised so that the questions are more focused on skills necessary for graduate school. The makers of the GRE, the ETS, hope that the questions will better test reasoning and cognitive skills and in turn provide graduate admissions and fellowships with scores that more accurately represent the aptitude of the applicant.

Tech will still accept the old version of the GRE for students applying for Fall 2007.

"It's our policy that we accept GRE scores, provided ETS will send them to us directly, that are up to five years old," said Gail Potts, Director of Graduate Admissions at Tech.

"If [ETS] makes changes in a test, like they're doing now, we'll accept however many that fall within the five year period, and we'll keep posted on the website the scores that are acceptable scores or the range of scores for each individual type of tests," Potts said.

Another change in the GRE is the switch from an adaptive test to a linear test. The adaptive test questions varied according to each test taker. The new GRE test questions will be the same exam for every test taker and will only be given once. This change is to prevent cheating.

"I wasn't aware of any changes to the GREs, but after looking them up. I like the idea that [in the old test] your questions differ. based on how you did on the previous [test]," said Will Diehl, a third-year Physics major.

Scoring of the GRE will also be different. Both the Verbal and the Quantitative will be scored on a scale from 110 to 150, whereas the traditional scaling was from 200 to 800. Analytical scoring will remain the same.

Starting in Oct., the new GRE exam will only be given 29 times a year instead of year-round. A schedule will be available on the GRE website in spring 2006 of the future test administration dates.

Potts reassured that the Graduate Admissions Office at Tech would be ready. ETS will be providing universities with information regarding the new test but has not yet, she said.

When the ETS went through changes last fall with the TOEFL, universities were given documentation as well as conversion tables for score equivalencies between the old and new versions of the exam.

"The one concern that I do have about the new test is how often it's going to be administered," Potts said.

"For international [students], if they're only going to offer it 29 test dates per year, I think that could restrict some peoples' access, especially in other countries other than United States."

Tech students were not enthusiastic about the changes.

"Preparing for this test will presumably be harder than for the old test due to limited availability of test prep materials geared at the new format," said Marissa Wronka, a third-year Physics major.

"I think it's an adjustment, anytime you get something new, it's an adjustment. We'll adapt, we always do. As far as the applicants are concerned, I think they'll have to plan a little bit better," Potts said.

The revised GRE General Test will be introduced in Oct. 2006. Some changes include:

• Two 40-minute Verbal Reasoning sections rather than one 30-minute section
• Two 40-minute Quantitative Reasoning sections rather than one 45-minute section
• A new score scale range from 110 to 150, in 1-point increments
• 29 fixed offerings instead of year-round