The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States, in other English-speaking countries and for English-taught graduate and business programs world-wide.
Created and administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in 1949, the exam aims to measure verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing and critical thinking skills that have been acquired over a long period of time and that are not related to any specific field of study.
The GRE General Test is offered as a computer-based, computer adaptive exam administered by selected qualified testing centers; however, paper-based exams are offered in areas of the world where computer-based testing is not available.
In the graduate school admissions process, the level of emphasis that is placed upon GRE scores varies widely between schools and between departments within schools. The importance of a GRE score can range from being a mere admission formality to an important selection factor.
In August 2011, the GRE revised General Test replaced the GRE® General Test. Featuring the new test-taker friendly design and new questions, the revised test more closely reflects the kind of thinking you’ll do in graduate or business school and demonstrates that you are ready for graduate-level work.
- Verbal Reasoning — Measures your ability to analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it, analyze relationships among component parts of sentences and recognize relationships among words and concepts.
- Quantitative Reasoning — Measures problem-solving ability, focusing on basic concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis.
- Analytical Writing — Measures critical thinking and analytical writing skills, specifically your ability to articulate and support complex ideas clearly and effectively.
Computerized adaptive testing
The common (Verbal and Quantitative) multiple-choice portions of the exam currently uses a section-based computer-adaptive testing (CAT) format that automatically changes the difficulty of the sections as the test taker proceeds with the exam, depending on the number of correct or incorrect answers that are given. Currently, the GRE revised General Test allows the test-taker to move forth and back, and change answers within a section, and thus the questions in a given section are not adaptive.
While questions within each section are not adaptive, performance on the first Verbal and Quantitative section influences the difficulty in the second section of the same topic. This approach to administration yields scores that are of similar accuracy while using approximately half as many items.
However, this effect is moderated with the GRE because it has a fixed length; true CATs are variable length, where the test will stop itself once it has zeroed in on a candidate’s ability level.
In addition to the General Test, there are also eight GRE Subject Tests testing knowledge in the specific areas of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology; Biology; Chemistry; Computer Science; Literature in English; Mathematics; Physics; and Psychology. The length of each exam is 170 minutes.
The GRE revised General Test is available at about 700 test centers in more than 160 countries. In most regions of the world, the computer-based test is available on a continuous basis throughout the year. In Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, the computer-based test is available one to two times per month. In areas of the world where computer-based testing is not available, the test is administered in a paper-based format up to three times a year in October, November and February.
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Info taken from http://www.ets.org/gre/
