RYAN HAGEN
News Assistant
The current version of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) will not be offered after July 31, a change affecting many students who hope to attend graduate school.
Most graduate schools require the GRE, with law, business and medical schools being the main exceptions. It is taken by 500,000 students annually.
The revised, longer version will be offered beginning in September.
Representatives of test prep companies advise registering and beginning to study now for the current version.
Preparation takes an average of three months, they said.
“There’s plenty of time to prepare and register,” said Russel Schafer, senior communications manager for Kaplan Test Prep. “Avoid getting left out of taking the current GRE.”
Many students may register for July who had previously planned to take the test in August, he said, crowding out prospective test-takers.
August is typically the most popular month because it allows students to study during the summer, without worrying about finals or other schoolwork.
Educational Testing Service, which manages the GRE, has planned to redesign the test since 2005.
The revision is designed to better reflect skills used in graduate schools by emphasizing reasoning over memorization, Schafer said. For instance, the test will have more data interpretation and less geometry, and will shift the emphasis from vocabulary to reading comprehension.
The new version also will be linear instead of selecting questions based on test-takers’ past answers, and will require four hours instead of two and a half.
Students skilled at writing may also benefit from changes to the essay section, Schafer said. Admission officers always saw essay scores, but now can read the essay itself to understand the applicant’s thought process.
“[The changes] look promising,” Associate Professor Steve Rouse said in an e-mail, “but it will take a few years of independent research to really start to show whether the change is an improvement or not.”
Rouse teaches a course called Psychological Testing and Assessment that studies tests, from personality tests to the GRE.
The month without testing, announced in February, is designed to establish a representative and reliable sample of test-takers.
The scores from that test date will determine the new scale, so ETS decided to boost the number of students by not offering tests for a month beforehand.
ETS will announce which test sites will offer the GRE on Sept. 10 and which will start testing Sept. 16.
Local test prep centers agree students should begin studying now, even if they decide to take the new version.
“Start with straight-up reading comprehension,” said Nate Edelson, a partner at Beverly Hills Educational Services.
“From science literature to philosophy, get the style, tone, logic and how the sentence structure is going to change.”
He said students strong in English should read technical information, and science-minded students should focus on literature.
“I wouldn’t put it past someone to study for a year, even if it’s just an hour a week,” Edelson said.
Kaplan is offering free GRE practice Saturday at 10 a.m., at UCLA, and will compare the two versions March 15 at the Westwood Kaplan Center.
More information and registration is available at kaptest.com/gre.
02-22-2007
