Students considering graduate school will soon face harder questions on a longer entrance exam.
Beginning Sept. 10, the Educational Testing Service is changing the format of its Graduate Record Examination, a mandatory standardized test for entrance into many graduate programs across the U.S.
ETS will make changes to the GRE's content, length and format, said Jung Lee, a GRE program manager at Kaplan Test Prep.
"This is GRE's biggest test change in its 55-year history," he said.
The current format is computer-adapted, meaning questions are recycled, and the level of difficulty of each question varies on whether the previous question was answered correctly, Lee said.
The new format, which will take four hours to complete rather than 2 1/2 hours, will be a linear test, meaning questions will be used once and then tossed out, he added.
A change was made to the GRE for several reasons but primarily to help predict students' likelihood of succeeding in graduate school, Lee said.
"The idea is if you do well on the GRE, then you will do well at graduate school," he said.
Security concerns were also raised about the GRE and its recycling of questions, Lee said.
"Students in Asia were posting questions they received while taking the GRE on the Internet," he said.
Under the current format, students have the opportunity to take the GRE Monday through Thursday, Lee said.
When the new format is implemented students will choose among 35 days during the year, he added.
Kaplan and ETS officials are urging students to take the current GRE before it expires July 31, Lee said.
"Based on the length and content and it being more challenging," he said, "we are encouraging students to sign up early and take the GRE in its current form."
But the worry may not be warranted, said Michael Dickson, assistant dean in the division of graduate studies.
"I think it is just nervousness over a new test," he said. "Students should take the test when they are prepared. They shouldn't rush - it adds anxiety."
It's not University policy for graduate students to take the GRE, but some ASU graduate programs do require their students to take the examination, Dickson said.
"It's just one factor in the admissions process," he said. "No one looks solely at the test. Academic records, research interest and statement of purpose are all factors in the decision-making process."
Biochemistry senior Nick Caselman said he thinks an extended GRE would be detrimental to students' scores.
"If I were taking the exam, I wouldn't like the longer length," he said. "You can only concentrate for so long."
Nearly 400,000 students take the GRE each year. Of those, nearly 300,000 are U.S. students, Lee said.
The University Testing Service at ASU conducts about 1,600 GRE examinations each year - of those, nearly one-third are taken by ASU students, said Jan Patock, associate director of UTS.
Because students aren't very aware of the upcoming changes, ASU hasn't seen any sort of push to take the current test, Patock said.
Reach the reporter at: gary.levison@asu.edu.
