Changes to GRE General Test Being Investigated

The GRE Program is investigating changes to the verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing measures in order to increase the validity of the test, enhance security measures, provide faculty with better information on applicants' performance, and make better use of advances in technology and psychometric design. The GRE Program is currently planning to implement these changes in October 2006.

The changes planned for the verbal measure include:

  Greater emphasis on higher cognitive skills; less dependence on vocabulary
  More text-based materials, such as reading passages
  A broader selection of reading passages
  Emphasis on skills related to graduate work, such as complex reasoning
  Expansion of computer-enabled tasks (e.g., highlighting a sentence in a passage that serves the function described in the question)

The changes planned for the quantitative measure include:

  Quantitative reasoning skills that are closer to skills generally used in graduate
school
  Proportion of Geometry questions decreased
  Proportion of questions involving "real-life" scenarios increased
  Better use of technology (e.g., on-screen calculator)

The changes planned for the analytical writing measure include:

  New, more focused prompts that will reduce the possibility of reliance on memorized materials
  The Issue and Argument tasks will each be 30 minutes in length

As the direction of the potential changes becomes clearer, information on the GRE Web site will be updated.

http://bbs.gter.net/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=328982