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More Changes Ahead for the GRE Test

May 27, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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What does it take to excel in grad school? Critics of standardized testing have long complained that the Graduate Record Exam doesn't measure some of the other essential ingredients for grad school success. The Educational Testing Service plans to address those concerns by introducing a new GRE component. Scheduled to debut in July 2009, the "Personal Potential Index" is designed to measure skills like communication, organization, and integrity.

The new index will require professors or supervisors of the student's choice to evaluate students on a scale of 1 to 5 in six areas: knowledge and creativity, communication skills, teamwork, planning and organization, ethics and integrity, and resilience. ETS has been careful not to overburden professors, emphasizing that the index should take only 15 minutes to fill out.

The index will be bundled with the rest of the test and will be optional—unless specific graduate schools start requiring it—but the higher price tag will not be. The fee for the test, which currently costs $140 in the United States and is taken by about 600,000 people each year, is expected to increase $10 to $15 once the index is implemented.

Some of the test's critics may be mollified by this broader approach to evaluation. But critics in the Orwellian tradition might worry that ETS is overstepping its bounds in attempting to measure not just aptitude but character. What will it measure next?

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As long as no alternative to the GRE exists, students must pay whatever ETS charges for the exam since the vast majority of graduate schools require it. Money is the issue here, and David Payne, ETS' vice president of college and grad programs estimates that it will become "widespread" after a couple years. Given the resundancy of the information the test measures, this is just another way ETS is deepening its toehold in the admissions process. I hope that soon university administrators recognize the financial hurdle created by ETS' testing monopoly and start offering alternative testing without the pricetag.
As far as testing organization and communication skills, the admissions process itself requires plenty of these. No one without serious determination can complete the process. It was designed to be a challenge.

Anne Julian of CA 8:59PM June 22, 2009

The GRE has got to be the biggest crap-shoot of a standardized test that I've ever taken. I must say, that it does not reflect my potential to succeed at the graduate level. It is simply hit or miss as to which questions you get on the test, the vocabulary is so abstract that you most likely won't even use it in graduate school anyway. And why do they even require that you take a ridiculous math test, which has absolutely nothing to do with your future in your academic or professional field? Again, they measure nothing.

Albert E. of DC 3:14PM December 02, 2008

I don't know whether I would agree with the one person that said the GRE measures nothing, but this whole proposed change seems rather silly. Most graduate school admissions already often ask applicants to send 3 recommendations whether it is an academic program(math, engineering, history, etc.) or a vocational program(med school, law school, education school, etc.). The university admissions programs craft the recommendation forms to ask whatever they are most interested in the professor, supervisor, etc. to write about the applicant. This PPI may not ask the person filling it out all the questions that the admissions program wants answered.
I have a feeling that the vast majority of graduate programs will never require students to use this PPI in lieu of their own recommendation form. I wouldn't be surprised if some allow you to use this is lieu of their own forms, but I also wouldn't be surprised that most grad schools will prefer their own form even if they let you use the PPI instead.
About the only advantage I could see is for those who apply to a lot of programs could theoretically have their professors fill this thing out once instead of filling out recommendation forms for EVERY college whose grad school program you apply. Unlike undergrad admissions I haven't heard of a lot of people apply to dozen grad programs. Provided that you narrow your list down to 3-4 programs max I am sure most professors wouldn't be so annoyed to fill out a recommendation a couple of times.
One thing I don't understand is why ETS is increasing the price of the exam $10-15 per testing. It certainly can't cost $10 to print a form and give the prof a SASE or to print out the results to all the schools that you send your GRE results. In addition, since this is optional, why should I pay for something if I am not going to use it? This more sounds like a money grab for ETS than anything else. The exam is already expensive enough. If anything I suspect if the exam gets much more expensive that some graduate school admissions programs will reconsider requiring the GRE if they think the cost of the exam is deterring good candidates from applying to their program.

S Augsburger of CA 4:50PM June 29, 2008

More Changes Ahead for the GRE Test

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