About the new GRE

August 1st marks the end of ETS’ old GRE format and the launch of a new GRE. Here are some of the salient details for students wondering whether to take the old test or wait for the new.

Admissions:

• The new test will roll out August 1, and from that date to November 1, anyone who takes the test will receive a score after November 7!  If you plan to apply between August and November, it is essential that you contact admissions to find out how they will handle this delay in reporting. Old test scores are available the day you take the exam, with a two week delay for official results. More info.
• The new test will be graded on a new scale: 130-170.  At this time, ETS is not reporting how those scores will correlate to the old 200-800 scale, which makes it harder to prepare against school admission requirements. More info.

Math/Quantitative Section:

• In general, the math section will be more challenging than that on the old GRE.  The test will include more advanced subjects and more data interpretation and analysis.
• On the brighter side, students will be able to use on-screen calculators and will be able to return to previous questions; both are new features.  One warning: In the past, when GRE has added calculators to the test (as with the SAT), the use of the calculator has been less of a help than students had hoped!
• There will be new math question formats, too!  One type requires the test taker to select more than one answer. In another, the test taker supplies his or her own answer.
• More info on the new math section.

English/Verbal Section:

• Antonyms and analogies have been removed from the test (though vocab’s still in there, just less of it!)
• Reading comprehension and verbal reasoning are now prioritized, with two new question types and a beefed up RC section.
• More info on the new verbal section.

Essays:

• The essay section is not changed much. The score for essays is still distinct from the verbal score and is reported in the same way.  ETS says it’s now looking for more specific detail and fewer generalities in the essays.

Format:

• From the ETS website:

The overall testing time for the computer-based GRE revised General Test is about three hours and 45 minutes, plus short breaks. There are six sections to the revised test:

• One Analytical Writing section with two separately timed writing tasks
• Two Verbal Reasoning sections
• Two Quantitative Reasoning sections
• One unscored section, typically a Verbal Reasoning or Quantitative Reasoning section, that may appear at any point in the computer-based GRE revised General Test
• An identified research section that is not scored may also be included in the computer-based GRE revised General Test

Here are the changes that give you a better test experience:

• New preview and review capabilities within a section
• New “mark and review” feature to tag questions, so you can skip and return later
• New ability to change/edit answers within a section
• New on-screen calculator for the Quantitative Reasoning section
• New questions that better reflect the skills you’ll need for graduate and business school
• New answer formats, including tasks such as numeric entry and highlighting a sentence in a passage to answer a question
• Less reliance on vocabulary out of context, more emphasis on reading — and no antonyms or analogies

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