GRE format change, scheduled for 2007, is canceled

DAVIS, Calif. – The Educational Testing Service announced the cancellation of plans to launch a revised version of the Graduate Record Examinations because of concerns over test-taker access. The test was supposed to be released in an Internet-based format in September 2007, but will instead remain in its current format.\nTom Ewing, spokesman for the ETS, said the now-canceled Internet-based format would have been easy to implement, but it still did not guarantee that everyone would be able to take the test.\n“The way we’re doing it is that most of the Internet-based centers are computer labs in universities, and they function as computer labs,” Ewing said. “A couple days a month, they become our test centers. The students course register and get the admission ticket and when they come to the center, they sit down at the computer, and the test comes in over the Internet. They take the test and their answers go back out over the Internet. Then it returns to being a computer lab. We have 3,200 Internet-based centers around the world currently operating. We have 1,800 more coming online shortly.”\nHowever, despite the fact that the ETS currently has 3,200 Internet-based centers around the world, the company did not feel that it could provide enough testing centers for all test-takers.\nEwing said the revised test was canceled because the ETS did not feel that they had enough spaces for test-takers.\n“The primary reason was that in the last three or four months, ETS had been studying very closely whether there were enough spaces, test centers and seats in those centers to ensure that every student who wanted to take the GRE would be able to,” he said. “We determined that we could not guarantee that.”\nAbout 600,000 students take the GRE every year, according to the ETS. Eighty percent of these students are from the United States. The GRE is a standardized test that measures verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skill. It is used by universities worldwide in order to determine admission status for graduate school.\nEwing said that had the changes been enacted, there would have been significant changes to the test as well as the format it was presented in.\n“It would’ve been a slightly more difficult test and would’ve been longer,” he said. “It would’ve jumped from about three hours to four hours and 20 minutes.”\nJeffery C. Gibeling, dean of the Office of Graduate Studies at UC Davis, said the GRE plays an integral role in admissions decisions.\n“Well, most of our graduate programs require that students take the GRE as part of their admission application and provide scores,” he said. “That’s pretty common across the country, and many institutions do that. On our campus, it’s up to each program to decide whether to require that or not.”\nHe added that although GRE scores are important to the admission process, he tends to encourage various programs to take a holistic approach when considering graduate school applicants.\n“The scores are then used as part of the overall evaluation for admission along with grades and letters of recommendation, statement of purpose,” he said. “We encourage programs to take a holistic view in the application process and not make numerical calculations. We’re always encouraging our programs to look at the whole package.”\nMost students take the general GRE test, but there are also subject tests. For example, students applying to graduate school for computer science must take a test on computer science knowledge. Similarly, international students must first pass a test in English proficiency.\nGibeling said at UC Davis, there are a fair number of international students who have to take this English test in order to apply.\n“We have about 4,300 graduate students, and roughly a quarter of them are international students,” he said. “I would say that nearly all undergraduate students applying to graduate school take the GRE. It’s probably in the 90-percent range. There are some subject tests in the GRE as well.”\nThough the changes were canceled for the September test, there will still be changes to the test in the future.\nEwing said the ETS still wants to implement some of the changes it planned on adding to the September test.\n“We will implement some of the improvements that we had planned, but we will not do it all at once,” he said. “We will do it individually and gradually over time. There will be no changes during the 2007 to 2008 school year.”