The 60-year-old Graduate Record Examination is about to get a face-lift.

The GRE, which is taken by students seeking admission to graduate school, will change in fall 2011. Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit institution that produces the test, said the revisions will make the test more aligned to the skills needed in graduate school.

The GRE will receive adjustments in both content and design. The best change to the test, however, is the ability to flip through a section to revise answers, said Andrew Mitchell, the director of graduate programs at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. The current GRE does not allow test takers this freedom.

Other big changes include the elimination of antonyms and analogies on the verbal section, the addition of an online calculator on the quantitative section and a different scoring scale. Writing is the only section that will remain the same.

These changes might lead some to believe that the test will be easier, but Mitchell said this is not the case. He said the addition of an online calculator will allow straightforward math problems to be replaced with more complex ones.

“It’s hard to imagine that the kind of math and level of difficulty currently on the exam will stay the same if students will be able to use an online calculator to help them,” Mitchell said. “Many GRE test takers are stronger in the verbal section, so potentially having more challenging math questions may not be welcome news.”

Changes to the GRE’s scoring system will make the 200 to 800 point scale a 130 to 170 point scale.

“[The new scoring system] will be more useful in the long run because [the numbers] are more compressed,” said Elliot Slotnick, the associate dean of the graduate school at Ohio State. “It will give us a better understanding of what the scores mean.”

Mitchell referred to the GRE’s revision as “a trade off.” Although modifications will make the GRE more up-to-date, the new version will come with a couple of drawbacks. Harder math problems are an example, but the test will also take longer to complete, he said
Many speculate revisions are being made to the GRE so it can better compete with the Graduate Management Admission Test. The GMAT, which is produced by Pearson, is required for many graduate programs, including OSU. Increasingly more MBA programs accept the GRE, but according to a 2009 Kaplan survey of business school admission officers, almost all GMAT-only MBA programs have no plan to accept the GRE in the future.

“The reality is that ETS is also a business and in recent years has been working hard — with some success — to position itself as a competitor to the GMAT,” Mitchell said.

“I think the logical conclusion is that they are competing for that one spot,” Slotnick said.

MItchell said it will be interesting to see if the revisions to the GRE
will increase the number of MBA programs that accept it.
Laura Smith, a fourth-year in film studies at OSU, took the GRE earlier this year.

“While it might have been great to use a calculator or not have an analogy or antonym section, I still had to take the test now,” Smith said. “However, I hope it helps students in the future. The revisions might make the test easier.”

Smith also said that the ability to change answers could be negative or positive. She said that freedom is an advantage, but students might dwell on the idea that they should change a previous answer.
This would mean spending too much time revising, she said.

Slotnick said the GRE score weighs differently on an applicant’s admissions depending on their grade point average in undergraduate school.

To prepare for the upcoming GRE revisions, Slotnick said he and his staff are attending workshops.

“They are doing a good job of keeping us informed,” he said.
Students taking the new GRE in 2011 can receive more information on the changes and sign-up for test updates at ETS.org.