Issue date: 11/5/05 Section: News

A test that almost a half-million students are preparing to take will undergo drastic changes within the coming year. The Graduate Record Exam, better known as the GRE, tests students' knowledge on certain subjects before entering graduate school.

 

Under the proposed changes, students will be tested for longer periods of time on majors such as journalism, art and psychology. The 2½-hour test will be lengthened to four hours long, making it compete with many of Kaplan's already extensive test times.

 

"Kaplan decided to change the format of this test because we wanted to make a better test of graduate school performance," said Ben Baron, Kaplan's vice president of graduate programs.

 

ETS, a testing center responsible for giving Kaplan the new GRE, told them that it could be several months before the general public will know anything about the changes.

"As soon as we get approval from graduate schools and the ETS Corp., we will allow testing centers to know about these changes," Baron said.

 

"We also need to add more security toward this test," he said, adding that old GRE answers were being posted on Web sites all over the Internet.

 

The future GRE will comprise two 30-minute essays and more critical thinking questions, rather than questions based on basic knowledge.

 

"Kaplan wants to give students a rigorous challenge, not just an easy test. We want students to be prepared for what is really ahead of them in graduate school," Baron said, adding that the old test was very similar to the SAT, a test taken by numerous high school students each year.

 

The possible changes caused many on the UWF campus to worry about how the test might affect their future.

 

"It sounds as though the test might be a lot more challenging, but that just means more preparation for everybody else," said Auggie Lye, a future test taker of the GRE.

 

The changes to the GRE will not come until Oct. 1, 2006. Until then, Baron encourages students to continue taking GRE prep courses. The next courses being in August.

 

Baron also asks students to be aware of a seminar taking place 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8 in the conference center lounge.

 

For more information on the new Graduate Record Exam and frequent updates on the new testing material, go online at Kaplan's test site, www.kaptest.com.

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