After revisions, Graduate Record Exam to change grading scale
The Graduate Record Exam is implementing changes for 2011 that will revise its three parts and change the grading scale. The service that distributes the exam called the changes ‘the largest revisions’ in the history of the exam.
The Educational Testing Service, a Princeton University-based organization that administers the test, will be making the test longer, in order to make the results more precise. The testing service will expand the GRE’s grading scale from 130 to 170 points. The new test will run three and a half hours in length, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The test has three sections: analytical writing, verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning.
In the revised GRE, the testing service eliminated the antonyms and analogies from the verbal section, added an online calculator in the quantitative section, added a logical analysis and prompted essay.
Some at Syracuse University have downplayed the significance of the changes made.
‘They are put together by a group of professionals who understand psychometrics, and every few years, one of these tests goes through a major revamping,’ said Donald Saleh, SU’s vice president for enrollment management. ‘In the end, there isn’t a substantial difference on how students score.’
The Educational Testing Service discussed the changes for the new test at the annual meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools in San Francisco.
The testing service is making changes to the GRE under pressure to compete with the Graduate Management Admission Test, the exam used for entrance into many post-undergraduate businesses programs. The GRE is now being accepted by programs in more than 250 business schools, including seven of the top 10 global master’s programs, said the Educational Testing Service Web site.
The GRE is taken by 600,000 prospective graduate students each year in 230 countries and is accepted by 3,200 graduate schools, according to the GRE Web site. It is administered in paper form or online, and includes a registration fee of $150.
For most graduate schools or doctoral programs, tests like the SAT or GRE are of minimal importance, Saleh said.
‘Most graduate programs pay more attention to applicants’ transcripts rather than test scores. College transcripts are the most important part of graduate admissions,’ Saleh said.
The exceptions to this rule, Saleh said, are law schools, which use the Law School Admission Test, not the GRE, in the admissions process.
Published on December 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm
