Plans for the revised General GRE cancelled!
April 2, 2007
"In consultation with the Executive Committee of the Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®) Board, ETS has cancelled plans to launch the revised GRE General Test.While ETS and the Board remain committed to improving the test, on balance, and after thorough review, it became clear that full access to the test for all students could not be confidently assured." The decision to cancel the launch was made with the best interests of test takers and score users in mind." More can be read here.
Three cheers and a coconut for ETS! After scaring the crap out of test-takers and test-educators, it decides to do away with the new pattern. While this move has been welcomed by test-takers worldwide, it is not quite clear what ETS plans to do about the thousands of test-takers who booked their test in god-forsaken locations just so that they could take the test before the pattern changed. Presumably this knee jerk reaction has a lot to do with the thousands of complaints that poured in from Indian, Chinese and Pakistani test-takers. So for now, it's back to good old Barron's and the Big Book.
Revised GRE to be launched in September '07
February 8, 2007
So it's official. The new version of the GRE (the iBT) is to be launched worldwide from September 2007. Registrations have already been closed in some countries where the volumes of test-takers are extrememly high (read India and China). Test takers who intend to apply to American universities for the academic semester beginning in Fall '08 and haven't booked a date yet are pretty much up the creek without a paddle since ETS has clearly stated on it's website that "We recommend that Fall '08 aspirants opt for the current pattern."The only options left therefore are to test outside India (in Nepal or Sri Lanka, for example) or to wait for the new pattern which is unlikely to be without its share of administrative pitfalls. More can be read here
ETS plans to introduce significant changes to the GRE
23 December 2007
The GRE has always been criticized by many who opine that the test measures skills which are completely irrelevant to those required by most graduate aspirants (especially in the area of vocabulary). A more serious problem with the test, in my opinion, is the fact that since test-takers attempt the questions in a random order, those who start their verbal sections with Reading Comprehension questions tend to fare poorly as compared to those who start off with Antonyms or Analogy questions since RCs are significantly tougher and more time-consuming. One can only hope that this particular problem is addressed in the newer version.