NEWS IN BRIEF: Changes To Graduate School Examinations, Planned for October 2006, Are Moved Back to October 2007

Changes to the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) test originally scheduled for release in October 2006 have been pushed back to October 2007 because the Educational Testing Service (ETS) needs more time to implement them.

“ETS decided to put this off because logistically they were unable to handle a change of this significance,” said Matthew S. Fidler, a GRE programming manager at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, a test preparation company. “The new test will be an hour and a half longer, there will be different question types and content areas, and the test will be more expensive to take.”

In addition to these changes, the test—which is used in graduate school admissions—will be offered on fixed dates instead of continuously, it will be given through an Internet-based system in more locations worldwide, and the test will be administered so that each test-taker on a given date receives the same questions.

In the test’s current computer-based version, the difficulty of a given question is determined by whether or not the previous question was answered correctly, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Fidler said that those taking the new test will have more time to prepare for the changes, and that the delay in releasing the new test will work to the advantage of students planning to take the GRE in the next year.

“Pushing back the changes is a benefit to students,” Fidler said. “Students have an extra year to take an exam that they are familiar with.”
—DINA GUZOVSKY