Every year, millions of students take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) in order to apply to graduate studies in colleges and universities in the United States-a test that has hardly changed in its 55-year history.
But students thinking about applying to a U.S. university next year will be treated to a new GRE-one that has less emphasis on obsolete knowledge and more on critical thinking, according to the company that writes it.
The name behind standardized admission tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), and the GRE is an American non-profit organization called Educational Testing Services (ETS). Nearly all American graduate programs and most Canadian psychology graduate programs require applicants to take the GRE. ETS’s website states that their “sole mission is to advance learning,” though many students would object that their real mission is to make their lives a living hell.
Currently, the GRE is a computer-based, high school knowledge-centred test that focuses on analytical writing, verbal skills, and quantitative reasoning. The analytical writing section gives test-takers 45 minutes to present their perspectives on an issue and 30 minutes to analyze an argument, while the 30-minute verbal section consists of analogy, sentence completion, antonym questions, and reading comprehension questions. The final section is composed of problem-solving, chart, and quantitative comparison questions.
Tedious, to say the least. By contrast, ETS’s revised exam, which will appear in October 2006, will reduce each writing section to 30 minutes in length, decrease the importance of analogy and antonym questions, and put greater emphasis on higher cognitive skills, such reading comprehension and analysis. Its quantitative section will focus more on data interpretation and less on geometry.
“It gives us a measure for comparing students with different educational backgrounds,” says University of Toronto psychology graduate program director Morris Moscovitch.
Nevertheless, the price is steep for a test Moscovitch calls “not bad.” Fourth-year psychology student Jessica Wilkins, who will be applying to the U of T graduate program this year, says the cost is too much-about $140 U.S.D for Canadians, and $50 more if you need to re-schedule which day you’re taking it.
Looking at the proposed changes to the GRE, Wilkins admits she would rather take the new GRE test than the current one.
“I like that there is more emphasis on the data interpretation. I think that complex reasoning is more pertinent to graduate-level study. If I can’t think critically about psychology, what difference am I going to make in my field of study?”
Still, Wilkins will be ahead of the group who will be taking the new version of the GRE in terms of having lots of preparation materials.
“Unless [ETS] itself comes out with a lot of practice tests, you won’t have the large body of prep stuff available,” says John Richardson, founder of Toronto-based Richardson Prep Courses, which offers monthly weekend GRE prep courses. “For people who like to practice, there are definite advantages to doing the test before October 2006.”
The bottom line? If you’re a high-school vocabulary and geometry whiz, take the GRE this year. But, if you’d rather prove your higher-thinking and reasoning skills-those needed in graduate study-show them what you’ve got next October.
