2011 - Changes on the GRE

[csierrah]

IHi everyone,

I'm taking my time preparing to apply for grad school and also making sure that I have good valuable experience in the field I'm applying for (clinical psych). Thus, I have started, surely but slowly, to study for the GRE. I read at the ETS website that there will be some changes on the GRE on 2011 and I was wondering what you guys think of the changes. Will they makes the test easier? harder? I guess what I want to get at is if it's better to take the test prior to the changes or after (since either before of after would not make a difference for me in meeting deadlines).

I appreciate all you help.

Carlos

[American in Beijing]

IHi everyone,

I'm taking my time preparing to apply for grad school and also making sure that I have good valuable experience in the field I'm applying for (clinical psych). Thus, I have started, surely but slowly, to study for the GRE. I read at the ETS website that there will be some changes on the GRE on 2011 and I was wondering what you guys think of the changes. Will they makes the test easier? harder? I guess what I want to get at is if it's better to take the test prior to the changes or after (since either before of after would not make a difference for me in meeting deadlines).

I appreciate all you help.

Carlos

Too bad I've already killed myself taking the GRE. The new test looks a lot easier! No more analogies, no more antonyms! And you get a calculator on the math section too! Also, you can skip back and forth between questions and actually utilize your time efficiently. This is crazy! I'm wondering how the GRE is going to be hard anymore . . . then again, I haven't seen any of the new questions. Maybe the GRE test-makers have something horribly difficult and painful up their sleeves. The planning is still in the early phases, so it's hard to say.

However, the new test isn't coming out until August/September 2011. If you're willing to wait that long to apply for grad school, then it might be better to wait and see if the new test is easier. If not . . . then get out those vocab flashcards and study, study, study!

[Swagato]

Wow. Expect every Jack and his mom to achieve a perfect score '11 onward. As if admissions weren't warped enough, now a former standard gets dumbed down as well. Apologies if I sound too harsh, but this simply comes across as pandering to the masses and lowering the threshold -- perhaps to produce some illusory appearance of more people doing 'well' ?

[Octavia]

I think the GRE will only appear to be easier. In fact, it will actually resemble the LSAT and will be much more difficult than the current test. It will also be much more analytic and will require more complex computations from test takers. Even though I do agree that the elimination of analogies/antonym makes the content of the verbal part of the test much easier (especially for non-native speakers), I am sure the questions will actually be much longer, complicated and in that sense more difficult. They might actually resemble LSAT's reading comprehension and/or even logical reasoning sections to some extent. Even though calculators are of course "helpful", it also means that we will be asked to deal with much more complicated questions. In a nutshell, we will be asked to perform much more complicated computations and the questions will be more intricate.

Notice that the LSAT has the same deceptive appeal (no knowledge required, per se - simply logical and analytical reasoning) and yet it is undeniably extremely difficult.

Wow. Expect every Jack and his mom to achieve a perfect score '11 onward. As if admissions weren't warped enough, now a former standard gets dumbed down as well. Apologies if I sound too harsh, but this simply comes across as pandering to the masses and lowering the threshold -- perhaps to produce some illusory appearance of more people doing 'well' ?

[lily_]

Yeah, if anything I wouldn't assume that the GRE is being modified to be easier - it's probably being modified to become much much harder and become more indicative of applicant's abilities rather than "dumbed down."

[DrFaustus666]

I agree with Lily. I wouldn't for a moment assume that the test will be easier in toto.

My guess is that the new Verbal portion may be somewhat---but not a lot---easier than the current Verbal exam, and the new Quantitative exam will be considerably more difficult.

Being able to go back and forth is certainly an improvement---It saves "us" from the nightmare scenario of accidentally hitting the wrong answer (when we know the right answer!) on two or three questions in the first ten and thus totally sinking our chances of getting a top score.

[csierrah]

I agre with the posts above. Although it appears that it is wuold be easier at first sight one has to always be cautious with these kind of tests. Another aspect to consider is preparation. Most/if not all of the strategies to tackle the GRE are out there. You know that by working hard with the study guides you will learn the strategies neccessary to get a good score on the GRE (although sometimes not necessarily). I guiss this point is actually making me believe that it is better to study for the GRE right now and write it before everything changes and we all have to starte figuring out new strategies to do well on the GRE.

Any thoughts?

[lily_]

I have a feeling you are right, because there is a lot more information on how to take the current version of the GRE, and nothing I have seen for the new version. In order to score the best possible score, I would try to take it now while there is plenty of solid study guides out there rather than waiting and trying your luck with the next version. I should probably do the same and retake it myself ugh.

[khida]

hi guys !! i will take the new gre on octuber because i wanna to begin a master in US.... do you know where i can find free material ?..... it will be so useful for me !!!....

[ktel]

Whether the revised GRE will be harder or easier will likely depend on an individual's strengths and weaknesses. I have never taken the GRE, but have seen and completed a few practice questions. I found the quantitative section extremely easy, while the verbal section was more challenging for me, but something I'm sure I could do well in with more preparation. While I haven't seen the revised verbal questions, I feel the removal of analogies and antonyms would make it easier for me, as the vocabulary is no longer taken out of context.

[lottesnk]

Given my strengths and weaknesses, the new GRE will me much harder. Although it is ostensibly tester "friendly," the exam seems trickier and is longer, thus testing your ability to be accurate and keep focus. Instead of one verbal, one quant, and two essay. It increases to two quant sections, two verbal sections, and two essays, thereby increasing the test time from 3 hours to 4 hr long. For those who have a hard time keeping focus, I think this will be a huge test on mental endurance.

More or less, the content remains the same, however, the format is new. Multiple answer questions (e.g., select all answers that apply), makes guessing more difficult (especially since there is no partial credit). Fill in the blank questions on quant completely eliminate guessing. Essentially, there is more room for error in the new version.

Surprisingly, I do fairly well on the analogies and antonyms sections (memorized a lot of vocab words). The hardest for me is reading comprehension. It's soo long and requires more of my attention than antonyms. And new exam emphasizes reading comp (eek!).

And I'd be careful about using the calculator and skipping questions. It seems like a great idea at first, but could detract from time.