Students planning to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) will be in for a surprise next year when the test's format will undergo the most drastic change it has seen in its 55-year history.

Beginning next October, the GRE will shift its focus from concept and term memorization to questions that focus on more complex reasoning, which is what students are expected to encounter in graduate school, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions Senior Communications Manager Victoria Grantham said.

While the new format of the math section will include fewer geometry problems and more data interpretation, and the new format of the verbal section will replace antonyms and analogies with sentence equivalencies, the test still does not seem to be structured in a way that will accurately predict a student's chances of success in graduate school.

Students who are really interested in attending graduate school will take the test regardless of content and length, but the new format may deter those who are on the fence about whether or not they want to continue their educational endeavors.

A two-hour test seemed bearable for the undecided undergraduate, but a lengthy four-hour examination probably won't seem too appealing.

Revamping the GRE is an enormous task, and if the test's writers will go through the trouble of replacing outdated sections with sections that should better reflect a student's true analytical ability and graduate school potential, shouldn't the replacements include material that will actually reflect these abilities?

But how exactly will these changes improve the test at all? What does it say that all college graduates can do is analyze data and choose sentences that reflect similar ideas? Shouldn't more of an emphasis be placed on writing and the student's ability to convey their thoughts effectively in writing?

Like many other standardized tests, the GRE includes a combination of multiple choice questions and free response writing sections to gauge the test taker's ability to think and write analytically, but the GRE should predominantly feature writing sections with math and multiple choice verbal as secondary sections.

The best way to evaluate potential at a specific school would be for each individual school to give their own test to each applicant. But using this logic, a student applying to 10 schools would have to take 10 different exams.

One universal GRE is the most feasible way to level the playing field for students, but the changes made should have included the addition of problems that reflect a student's ability to think, argue and reason in a graduate school setting.