Computer adaptive - new gre

[Creme]

will need some clarification on the scoring of the new GRE. Concerning the old GRE, it was general knowledge that acing your first 8 to 12 question MIGHT automatically put you in the 700+ range. How does it work with the new system considering the fact that everyone gets a mixture of hard and easy questions???

[chaospaladin]

Is the new GRE computer adaptive at all?

[lordvader]

Yes, but is section adaptative

http://newgre.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/revised-gre-to-be-section-adaptive/

[Kitkat]

If you go to ETS's website here:

http://www.ets.org/gre/institutions/scores/how/#howgen

and specifically look at the computer based section.

It explains how the new test is section adaptive, rather then question adaptive. What I have heard from other sources on how this works(Kaplan, princeton review, and the like), is that in the first section you will have a mix of questions. Based on how well you did with each type of those questions you will get a certain set of questions in the next section of that type. It seems to be broken into about 3 different types of question sets for the next section. If you did well, you get 'medium' to 'hard' questions. If you do ok, you mainly get 'medium' questions with a few 'hard' and some 'easy'. If you don't too well you get mainly 'easy' and some 'medium'. Its probably not entirely right, but you get the basic idea from it.

[crater21]

Sorry, I know this is a really stupid question, but I just don't get this whole adaptive thing.

Why can't they just have everyone write the same test?

I'm sure there's some logic behind this that I'm not understanding, but it seems like you are being penalized for doing well.

[Kitkat]

Sorry, I know this is a really stupid question, but I just don't get this whole adaptive thing.

Why can't they just have everyone write the same test?

I'm sure there's some logic behind this that I'm not understanding, but it seems like you are being penalized for doing well.

Ok so I forgot to mention here that those three groups, the one that is the hardest, gets you in the top range of scores, the middle hard scores get you middle scores, and the easy section gets you closer to the lower scores. So its not like you are getting a harder test for now reason. Its trying to figure out where you 'belong' in the range of scores. So your grade is still totally dependent on how you do and how many of the hard questions you can answer correctly.

[crater21]

Ok so I forgot to mention here that those three groups, the one that is the hardest, gets you in the top range of scores, the middle hard scores get you middle scores, and the easy section gets you closer to the lower scores. So its not like you are getting a harder test for now reason. Its trying to figure out where you 'belong' in the range of scores. So your grade is still totally dependent on how you do and how many of the hard questions you can answer correctly.

Oh, I see. Thanks for the explanation. So, does the entire test keep adapting to how you answer questions, or do the first few questions determine which group you'll be in?

[Kitkat]

The first quant section determines how you will will do on the following quant section. The first verbal determines how you will do on the following verbal. So it is not dependent on the first few questions that you answer, but rather how you do with that section as a whole. This is mainly with the whole setup that they have with the new test. You are allowed to move around in the section however you want really, so you can answer the easy questions first and then go back to answer the harder questions later. So they don't force you to answer the questions in the order that you get them. So it is no longer dependent on the first few questions that you get and how you do on them.