Length
The length of the test will increase from 2½ hours to over 4
hours long. The extra time is necessary because the test will
change from a computer adaptive test (CAT) to a linear computer
based test (CBT), which means that more questions are needed to
test varied difficulty levels. There will be two 40-minute verbal
sections, two 40-minute quantitative sections, one experimental
section and two 30-minute analytical writing essays.
Administration
Currently, the GRE is offered almost every day of the year.
The new GRE will only be administered a maximum of 35 times a
year with no repetition of questions. The number of
administrations in each area will depend on the test region’s
demand and some regions will have less than 35 administrations
per year. The number of test locations is expected to increase
from 600 to almost 3,000 in order to accommodate test takers. The
revised GRE General Test will be administered in the ETS global
network of Internet-based test centers and through Thomson
Prometric. ETS announced that the last test date for the current
GRE is July 31, 2007. You should prep and register now to take
the current GRE. The new GRE will not launch until September 10,
15, or 16, 2007 (depending on location). Fore more information on
the test registration gap, consult the FAQs on
gre.org.
Content
One of ETS's goal is to more accurately predict success in
graduate school by focusing on higher cognitive and reasoning
skills. There will be new question types introduced to both
sections.
Verbal:
- Less emphasis on vocabulary (analogies and antonyms
eliminated)
- More complex reasoning and application (broader reading
comprehension and more complex sentence completion)
- Addition of new question types
- Computer enabled tasks (highlighting passages and
sentences)
- Two 40-minute sections instead of one 30-minute
section
Quantitative:
- Fewer geometry questions
- Increased data interpretation and complex word
problems
- Addition of fill in the blank questions
- Addition of new question types
- Addition of an on-screen calculator
- Two 40-minute sections instead of one 45-minute
section
Analytical Writing (will be renamed Critical
Thinking and Analytical Writing):
- Essay questions will be more specific in nature
- Admissions Deans will now have access to actual student
essays instead of just seeing a score
- Two 30-minute essay questions instead of one 30-minute
and one 45-minute essay question
Scoring
For the Quantitative and Verbal sections, the scoring scale
will change from a 200-800 point scale to a 130-170 point scale
with a mean of 150. ETS may change this new scale slightly and
will not release scores until after the first three
administrations in November 2007. The Analytical Writing section
will continue to be graded on a 6-point scale.
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