GRE Update! Because of the changes described below, there will be a lapse in the administration of the test. The current GRE will end on July 31. Students will have no opportunity to take the GRE during the month of August and ETS expects test dates earlier in the season to fill up rapidly. PowerScore encourages students to revise their GRE-preparation schedules and register early for the test.

The GRE Is Changing Fall 2007

Effective September 2007, the GRE will undergo some significant content and format changes. ETS, the company that administers the test, has announced the impending changes, but they have not yet finalized the details. ETS has been researching and testing different versions of the exam for four years with a goal of increasing the validity, international access, security of the test, and providing graduate faculty with the most accurate information on performance and skills directly related to graduate study. As always, PowerScore continues to offer cutting-edge preparation, and these GRE changes will be reflected in our courses for those students taking the test in the fall of 2007.

Changes to the GRE

Format: Instead of the current computer-adaptive test (CAT) format, the new GRE will be administered as a computer-based test (CBT). Each test-taker on a given day will receive the same questions in the same order. The revised test format will improve predictive and construct validity by reducing the possible effects of memorization and measuring skills more directly related to graduate study, respectively. According to ETS, “the linear testing format of the revised test is more test taker friendly than the current computer adaptive General Test . . . [and] allows test takers to review, omit, go back and change an answer, etc., which means that test takers can better allocate their time according to their personal test-taking approach.”

Length and Administration: The new exam will take about four hours to complete, quite a difference when compared to the current testing time of 2.5 hours. There will be two verbal and two quantitative sections, each 40-minutes long, plus two 30-minute analytical writing essays. The new test will be administered on fixed dates, currently planned at 30 per year, although the number of testing centers will increase substantially.

Scores: The new test will have a scoring scale of approximately 130 – 170 with a mean of 150 in 1-point increments, compared to the current range of 200-800. ETS will release a conversion scale that compares verbal and quantitative scores on the old and new versions for any tests taken before September 2007. According to ETS, “equivalents are based on a concordance study” and information describing the relationship between the new scale and the old scale will be posted at www.ets.org/gre in mid-November 2007. Shortly after the concordance table is released, approximate score equivalents and percentiles will be included on GRE score reports. By early January 2008, the GRE web site will provide broad major field score distributions. The Analytical Writing section scoring is unchanged and will still be evaluated using a 6 point scale.

Content: ETS is revising the content of each section—Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical Writing. One of the Verbal or Quantitative sections will be experimental.

Verbal Reasoning: This section will now include two 40-minute sections, although one section may be experimental. Analogies and antonyms are being eliminated. Skills related to graduate work such as complex reasoning, inferential reasoning, and verbal reasoning in context will be emphasized, and questions that are based strictly on vocabulary will be reduced. New question formats other than multiple choice will also be implemented (e.g., highlighting a sentence in a passage that serves the function described in the question).

Quantitative Reasoning: This section will now include two 40-minute sections, although one section may be experimental. There will be fewer geometry questions, and more emphasis on data interpretation and questions involving real-life scenarios to better assess skills generally used in graduate school. A new feature of this section is an on-screen calculator, reducing emphasis on computation. Question formats other than multiple choice (such as entering numeric answers) will also be implemented in the Quantitative Reasoning section.

Analytical Writing: A new name for this section, Critical Thinking and Analytical Writing, will be implemented on the revised test to more accurately indicate the skill being measured by this section. The Issue and Argument essay prompts will be more specific, requiring more specific responses and reducing the possibility of memorization, and each will be 30 minutes in length. Graduate schools will now have access to your essay response if requested.

Timeline of Major Events (provided by ETS)

• Spring 2007
  • Test preparation materials available
  • Test administration schedule available
    
    
• July 2007
  • Registration for the revised General Test opens
    
    
• September 2007
  • Revised GRE General Test launched
  • Internet-based testing in a new network
    
    
• October 2007
  • New Verbal and Quantitative score scale finalized
    
    
• November 2007
  • Scores reported for first 3 administrations and for subsequent administrations
  • Percentiles available on GRE Web site and printed on score reports
• Concordance table available on the GRE Web site
• Approximate score equivalents on the new scale included on score reports for Verbal and Quantitative scores earned prior to September 2007
• Essay responses made available to score recipients
  
  
• January 2008
  • Broad major field score distributions available on the GRE Website

For more information, please visit www.ets.org