RYAN HAGEN
News Assistant
The largest revision in the history of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) has been cancelled because the new format limited the number of times the test could be offered and therefore the number of students who could take it, according to the institution that runs the test. Also, previously-canceled dates in August and September will be reinstated.
Among other changes to the GRE, the test would have been offered only 35 times a year, with completely different questions each time.
The current computer-based test selects questions based on answers to previous questions and is offered nearly every day, leading some students to post questions online. But the proposed changes could have meant an overflow of students on the remaining test days, leading to a shortage of computers to take the test.
“We’ve been developing contingency plans since last fall, but they all would have led to other problems,” said Dawn Piacentino, associate director in the GRE program for Educational Testing Services.
ETS began working in 2005 to revise the test, required for admission to most grad schools. It would have nearly doubled in length and changed the type of questions. For instance, there would be more data analysis and reading interpretations.
The sudden reversal has many supporters.
“It certainly caught people by surprise,” said Russel Schaffer, senior communications manager for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. “[But] it’s better that ETS realized the issue now than after [it began giving tests].”
Associate Professor of Psychology Steven Rouse, who teaches a class that studies tests, agreed.
“I frankly think it was a very good idea,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The current test is far from perfect, but at least we know what its strengths and weaknesses are; we know very little about the statistical strengths and weaknesses of the new one.”
04-05-2007