The Education Testing Service has canceled its decision to make July 31 the last day for students to take the Graduate Record Examinations until mid-September when a new version was due to be released.
Instead, test administrations will resume as usual in July and August and will be given in the same, original format throughout 2007-2008.
Executive Director of the GRE Program at ETS David Payne said in a press release on April 2 the main reason for canceling the release of the new format was concern that not all students who need to take the test would have access.
During the past four to five years, the ETS has spent $12 million in an effort to revamp the GRE due to security issues, said Jung Lee, GRE program manager at Kaplan Test and Admissions.
The current GRE, which is given in a computer adaptive format during a two and half hour time frame, recycles questions. The problem, Jung said, is when these questions are posted online for study aids and students recognize them on the GRE.
In an effort to address this security issue, ETS’ revised version of the GRE was to be in a linear format which would retire questions after each administration, Jung said.
Not only would the test be longer, 4 hours and 15 minutes in total, but the content would also change.
With the computer adaptive format, difficulty of questions depends on how well the student is performing. If a students answers question correctly, then a more difficult question follows and vice versa, Jung said.
Unlike the computer adaptive format, the linear format would resemble pencil and paper, allowing students to go back and change answers.
While this may be beneficial for students, Jung said, this may also make the test more difficult since some questions would require students to fill in the blank instead of choosing from multiple choices.
Other major changes would include allowing schools to view essays written by students in the analytical writing portion and a new scoring scale of 130-170 instead of 200-800.
Although the GRE will be given in its original format for the time being, Jung said ETS will most likely look into possibilities for adding these changes gradually over time, which is why students should take advantage of this opportunity.
“We recommend that if students were going to take the GRE this summer to go ahead,” Jung said. “GRE scores are good for five years and then you will have an imperative component of graduate admissions completed.”
Jung also recommends that students prepare at least three months in advance before taking the GRE. The first step is to take a practice test which is offered for free at Kaplan’s Web site.
“You will be surprised when you take these practice tests how much you will remember,” Jung said.
