If you?re planning to in the next year, you?re probably thinking about ? the ?Graduate Record Examination,? which is required for admission to many graduate programs. You?ve probably also heard (possibly with some trepidation), that the GRE is making some changes to its test format and scoring, starting with tests administered in August, 2011.
According a GRE rep interviewed by the , that students actually need to succeed in graduate school. And it more closely mimics graduate school realities ? students now get to use calculators to answer math questions.
The Yale Daily News , and seven out of 10 said they preferred the new test format. Although at Florida International University, that students were rushing to take the GRE before it flipped over to the new format. English major James Salle told the paper:
There?s a lot of good information out there about what the new test questions will look like. The ETS (the organization that administers the GRE), has a , and some . And the New York Times showing off the new question formats.
The information out there about how this test compares in length to the old one is less good. It?s definitely longer, but I?ve seen estimates of how much longer that range from 30 minutes to over an hour. Here?s the official word from the GRE itself:
They say the old computer-based version would take 3 hours and the new computer-based version will take 3 hours and 45 minutes, which makes the test 45 minutes longer.
RedBus2US has a useful of the test. Most U.S. students will take the computer-based version, but some countries only have the option of one or the other. If you're not sure which version you can take, ETS lets you .
Students based in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea on a computer, rather than the previous split-test model.
Which one's harder? It likely depends on your own personal preferences and learning style. But HappySchoolsBlog has some interesting thoughts as to .