GRE Revisions Scrapped

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has scrapped plans to revise its popular examination for prospective graduate students, citing concerns about access to the test.

The proposed revision of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) was slated to take effect in October. It would have tacked 90 minutes on to the two-and-a-half hour test and eliminated some question formats, including analogies. It would also have made cheating more difficult, since the test would only be administered 35 days a year, with a completely new test developed each time. The test is currently administered more than 250 times a year.

But four years and $12 million dollars later, ETS appears to have decided that its test revision was not tenable.

“It would have been very nice to have launched the revised test with the various improvements that the graduate community helped us design, but the issue of access and having enough seats and centers for all students kept us from launching the new test,” ETS spokesman Tom Ewing said.

ETS undertook the effort to revamp the GRE in the wake of security concerns. Some test questions began showing up on Web sites in Asia about five years ago.

Ben Baron, vice president of graduate programs at Kaplan Test Prep, said that the ETS decision was largely beneficial for students—who now don’t have to worry about preparing for a new, longer test—but that security remained a concern.

“Their decision means they still have the security issue. We hope and certainly expect they will look to address this,” Baron said.

Ewing said that ETS was monitoring students’ score levels throughout the world and noting any major changes that might signal a security problem.

The GRE consists of verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing. It is used to supplement undergraduate coursework in applications for graduate school and fellowships.

Matthew T. Valji ’08, who plans to take the GRE this summer, said he wasn’t disappointed by the news that the test won’t be changed.

“I’m happy that they didn’t change it,” he said. “Continuity is good when it comes to this kind of thing.”

Baron said the decision would not hurt students studying for the test because there was not yet any preparation material available from Kaplan for the scrapped version of the test.

ETS, meanwhile, says changes to the test are still in the works—but a drastic overhaul is no longer in the offing.

“The graduate community has again encouraged us to continue to make improvements, and we will do those improvements, but they will be done in the future, and they will be done very gradually,” Ewing said.