"ETS was trying to change something that affects nearly 500,000 students each year," Fidler said. "Logistical issues are bound to come into play with a test of this magnitude."
The primary changes made to the GRE include content changes, grading scale changes and an increase in price, though the increase from $115 has not been determined. Next year the GRE will be administered only 29 or 30 days out of a year -- currently it is offered almost everyday -- and the test will be "retired" so none of the questions will be repeated.
The new version of the GRE will eliminate analogies and antonyms in the verbal section and replace the sections with reading comprehension, critical thinking questions and sentence completion.
The quantitative section will reduce the amount of geometry questions and include more data interpretation and word problems.
Another change to the GRE is that the grading scale, which used to be from 200 to 800, will now range from 110 to 150. There will also be a delay in the scoring of the new test.
Other reasons for the delay include too few testing facilities to administer the exam and difficulty in assessing practice exams, said Liz Wands, director of Graduate Programs at the Princeton Review, which spends millions of dollar each year researching, developing and preparing students for the GRE exam.
"[The practice test] was not allowing them to collect the data that they need," Wands said.
Wands said they need certain data to make sure the questions adequately assess students' abilities and skills and to finalize the grading scale.
ETS has been discussing the changes to be administered to the GRE for the past eight years, and in the past, ETS has never met a deadline in regard to making the changes with the exam, Wands said.
Before October 2002, GRE exams had a separate analytical ability section in place of the writing section to test students on logic and reasoning abilities.
"ETS claims that their changes to the test are because they think the new test will be more valid, but we do not think that this is true at all," Wands said. "We think they are making the changes to save money in the long run, because they only make changes to their tests when it will directly affect their pocketbook."
The new test will cost students more money, but it is actually going to be cheaper for ETS to produce in the long run, Wands said.
The current GRE costs $115, and although ETS has said there will be a price increase, it has not yet determined the total amount.
"We are really outraged that students are going to have to suffer because of the changes to the test," Wands said. "We are still encouraging students to try to plan on taking the GRE in its current format if they have the appropriate amount of time to prepare," she said.
Students have basically been given a year reprieve and will now have an extra year to take the existing exam before the changes are put into effect, Fidler said.
"I think it is a very good thing for students because instead of ETS administering something that was sub-par, [ETS] now has more time to improve the new testing format," Fidler said.
The success of the new test will be determined mainly when ETS receives the feedback from students and from graduate schools once the changes have been implemented, Fidler said.
"We are still recommending that students take the test before these changes are implemented, mainly because there are so many steps that you have to take to go to grad school," Fidler said. "Why not take the GRE now in a format that we are all familiar with and have it out of the way? Crop it off of your list of things to do."
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