The admissions test for graduate school will be longer and have an altered format in October 2006 in order to more accurately predict how well students will perform.
Education Testing Service, the company that administers the Graduate Record Exam, announced plans to overhaul the time, length and format of the graduate school entrance examination. As of October 2006, the exam will be 90 minutes longer, according to a written statement by the testing service.
Some changes include 15 fewer minutes for the written portion of the exam, more mathematical word problems, fewer geometry questions and test takers will now choose the best paraphrase for sample text in the verbal section.
ETS wants the verbal section to require "less dependence on vocabulary," said Tom Ewing, ETS spokesman. "Rather than memorization, we want there to be an emphasis on skills related to graduate work, such as complex reasoning."
Field testing of the new exam began last Monday and will conclude Nov. 4, according to Ewing. At the conclusion of field testing, "four or five thousand students will have been tested, which will allow us to refine the exact composition of the test."
The changes come in response to graduate school deans and school officials who have wanted the GRE to be changed for many years, because they thought the test did not accurately predict success in graduate school, Ewing said.
Some students find the increased length of the exam most challenging.
The GRE already felt like a very long exam, said Katie Cantrell, a journalism graduate student.
"It's the kind of test where you shouldn't get in the car for at least an hour after you finish it," Cantrell said.
Ian Jorgeson, a test-prep tutor at Austin's House of Tutors, said he doesn't believe the increased length will deter students from taking the GRE.
"In the end, people want to go to grad school no matter what. The MCAT is eight hours, and people are still willing to sit through it to get into medical school," Jorgeson said.
Graduate admissions officers at the University use the GRE "as part of a holistic review," said Dr. Dawn Zimmaro, section leader for Research Evaluation and Assessment at UT. "We don't rely solely on it as a predictor of success in grad school."
The GRE differs from other graduate school exams like the LSAT and GMAT in that the test is not the primary factor considered when admissions committees decide who to allow into their program. Work experience, extracurricular activities, grades and essays are also equally considered.
"The fewest percentage of people get test preparation for the GRE even though more people take it than any other graduate school test," Jorgeson said.
Despite the exam's changes, some remain skeptical that the GRE will more accurately predict success in graduate school.
"I don't think any of the standardized tests accurately predict success in graduate school other than the MCATs," said Jorgeson who tutors in GRE, LSAT and GMAT test-preparation. "It's truly hard to make a standardized test that tests the real skills needed in graduate school."
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