Changes to the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) graduate school entrance exam will not be implemented until October 2007 because of the switch from fixed testing centers to a secure Internet system, according to David Payne, executive director for the GRE program.
In the new system, the GRE will be delivered on the weekends through the Internet in university computer labs, Payne said.
"We basically rent the facility for a short time from the university," he said.
The Educational Testing Service, which owns the test, is in the process of expanding testing sites so it is sure all test-takers will be accommodated the day they take the test, Payne said.
"We're really just being cautious," he said.
Payne said he anticipates that all ETS-owned tests will switch over to the Internet-based system. The GRE is the third to do so, after the Test of English as a Foreign Language and tests in certain states that are to be taken statewide.
The price of the test will increase because it has not risen over the past five years and because $20 million was invested in the new test, Payne said. The current price is $115 in the United States.
The content of the GRE is also changing. While the basic structure - analytical writing, verbal and quantitative - will remain the same, the scoring scale will change. Instead of the 200-800 point scale graded in increments of 10 points, the new test will be graded on a scale of 110-150 in one-point increments because the news test measures differently, Payne said.
Cooper Hanning, a senior in the School of International Service, said he looked at the GRE's Web site but did not understand the details of the changes.
"Since I never took the time to find out about the old format, I am not worried about how the new format will affect me," he said. "I guess I'm a bit apathetic about the whole thing."
ETS changed the test in response to graduate schools that wanted the GRE to represent more of what graduate students will have to do while in school, according to Payne. Those who participated in pilot testing responded positively to the changes, he said.
"They still say it's a very demanding test, and it is," Payne said.
The current test is computer-adaptive, meaning the computer selects succeeding questions based on what the test-taker is more proficient in, so the time spent taking the test can be short, Payne said. The new tests will be linear tests, so those who take the GRE on a certain day will have the same questions as all the other test-takers. The computer will also ask more questions to encompass all levels of learning, Payne said.
The verbal section will eliminate antonyms and analogies and focus on text passages. The length of the test will increase from two-and-a-half hours to four, according to CNN.
Jackie Hyland, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences who has taken the test, said she knows of at least one person who is taking the test early because of the changes.
"The test is very stressful because your future depends on your performance," Hyland said. "I know I would take it earlier if it meant I wouldn't have to suffer through that feeling for even longer."
Test-takers will also be able to move forward and backward to answer questions and look over previous questions; currently, test-takers can only move forward through the questions because the computer establishes the difficulty of the test as it progresses, Payne said.
Hyland said the current form of the test affected the way she took the test.
"Not being able to go back on questions definitely affected my test-taking strategy, but I'm not sure one way is better than the other," she said. "I thought that was the whole reason we took it on the computer"
