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Following a surprise announcement earlier this year to cancel the long-scheduled renovation to the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), the exam’s administrator recently made another announcement that two new question types will be added in November.
The GRE is the “most widely taken graduate exam,” said Katherine Lynn, GRE program manager for Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions. Each year, an average of 445,000 students worldwide take this exam to determine their eligibility for merit-based fellowships and grants.
Educational Testing Service (ETS), the creator and administrator of the GRE, has long been planning a change in the test. However, Lynn said officials from the ETS decided in April to dismiss the “long-planned major overhaul of the exam, which would have included harder question types, fewer exam administrations, and a test length increase form 2.5 to 4 hours.”
The ETS only stuck with a few minor changes; however, the two new types of questions, which will be unveiled in November of this year, will make the exam more of a struggle.
The first new question type is mathematical. Numeric Entry gives students an empty box to manually enter their numerical answers into, rather than somewhat guiding test takers with answer choices.
The second new question type is verbal, a revised Text Completion. Students are given a passage with two or three blanks that they must fill in with words from separate multiple-choice lists. This question is a disadvantage to the test taker, simply because if one blank is wrong, the whole question is marked down.
Not knowing what to expect in the test is a big reason senior Spencer Pfeil is glad he will just miss having to take the revamped GRE.
“The two new questions are harder, so I need to take advantage of the test as it is now,” said Pfeil, who took it the first time in July and plans on taking it in October. “Most of us here at Pepperdine dodged the bullet with the new SAT, and that’s exactly what I’m doing with the GRE.”
Senior Christie Decker took the GRE a couple weeks ago, just in time to avoid the new questions.
“The test was pretty straight-forward,” she said. “It’s everything you expect it to be, just like the SAT.”
Pfeil said he thinks the new questions will make a big impact on the test. “I think the test will gradually change over the next months so that it will be completely different by this time next year.”
If planning on taking the GRE this fall, Lynn suggests students “take the exam before these changes occur,” just as Decker and Pfeil did.
If this is not possible, Kaplan offers many programs that will help one prepare for the GRE. Kaplan is constantly updating its programs to help test takers succeed even on this new, harder edition.
On Oct. 18, there is a free practice event at Pepperdine where students can take a practice exam, receive a score analysis and learn helpful strategies. Students can sign up for this practice event and other preparation programs on www.kaptest.com.
Submitted 09-20-2007
MALIBU, CA
