GRE to undergo changes

U-WIRE CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Students taking the Graduate Record Exam, better known as the GRE, should expect more changes beginning this November.

The Educational Testing Service, the organization that develops the exam, announced in July that it will add two additional types of questions to the test. The service said it is instituting the changes to make it a better predictor of a student's success in graduate school.

This fall's form of the exam will introduce a new type of math question and a new type of verbal question.

If successful, more changes may be introduced, said Jennifer Kedrowski, GRE program manager of Kaplan Test Preparation.

The new math question will be a numeric entry, where students will be given a non-multiple choice math question and be required to answer it "fill-in-the-blank."

The second addition, a new verbal question, will be in a text completion format, similar to the current "sentence completion." The question includes two to three word blanks.

"For every blank there is a unique list of possible answer choices," Kedrowski said. "To add to the difficulty, students will not be able to receive partial credit if they only miss one word."

Although these changes will be put into effect in November, they will not be scored until there is sufficient data.