Attention aspiring graduate and business school students: the six-month countdown to the longer, more complex Graduate Record Exam (GRE) has begun. Starting on Aug. 1, students will face a much different GRE exam than ever before.

Educational Testing Services (ETS) said it designed the GRE revised General Test to be friendlier, more flexible and more focused on the skills needed for graduate and business school. The new test will be about an hour longer than the current exam and will feature several differences such as a new grading scale, a different test format and new types of questions.

“ETS has put a lot of research and critical review into designing the new test to be more fair in assessing the abilities of prospective graduate students,” said Dr. John Stevenson, associate dean of Graduate Studies. “We all want the test to be appropriate, valid and reliable for all candidates and ETS feels that they have redesigned the GRE so all test takers are really coming to the test with the same opportunities and the same possibility of scoring as best as they can. The new test may be more user-friendly, more contextually relevant, thereby balancing the assessment of ability to do successful graduate work. However, readiness to do graduate level work is a different matter and not easily assessed by any paper-pencil measurement.”

Stevenson said the use of the GRE exam varies across degree programs, ranging from not requiring it at all to including the scores as a valuable component of making a good admissions decision.

“We have recently asked our graduate programs at GVSU to review their individual application requirements to determine if the GRE is appropriate to use for determining admission into the program,” said Dr. Jeffrey Potteiger, dean of Graduate Studies. “If a program faculty decide that the GRE can be an effective measure for evaluation of an applicant’s ability to be successful then the Office of Graduate Studies will support the use of the GRE score in the evaluation for admission process.”

Junior Betsy Burgess plans on attending a graduate school for clinical studies in psychology. Burgess said she is excited for the new format of the test.

“I am purposely holding out on taking the test so that I can take the new GRE, I think I will do a lot better on that one,” said Burgess. “For me personally, I think the new test is a positive thing. There is going to be less vocabulary and more statistics, which is important for what I am studying.”

Although not all GVSU students may be excited for a longer, more complex GRE exam, Potteiger said they can be assured that the GRE will not adversely affect GVSU’s graduate program.

“I do not believe this change in format for the GRE will affect GVSU’s graduate programs,” said Potteiger. “We have good quality programs that admit excellent students who are very successful while in our programs, as well as after they graduate.”

Students who test between Aug. 1 and Sept. 30 of this year are eligible to save 50 percent on the GRE revised General Test. If scores are needed before Nov., students will have to take the current form of the test. Different schools have different admissions deadlines, so knowing when each prospective school needs scores by can help students make the decision between which test they should take.

“Keep in mind that the single best estimator of a student’s potential for success in graduate school is still GPA, both overall and in the major area of study,” said Stevenson. “A high GPA with mid-to-high GRE scores makes for an easier admissions decision.”

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