HYDERABAD: Sweeping changes are in the offing in the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and they will come into force in September 2007. The GRE is mandatory in many US schools for admission to graduate programmes and good scores in GRE are a path to admission in good schools.

According to reports, the revised GRE is aimed at increasing test validity, providing faculty with better information regarding applicants' performance, addressing security concerns and making better use of advances in technology. The new GRE will only be offered on set dates around the world unlike the previous set-up where the tests were scheduled by individual appointments.

Linear test format

The general test will be composed of revised verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and critical thinking and analytical writing sections.

The test is also changing from an adaptive test format, in which the questions presented to each examinee vary according to his or her performance, to a linear test format, in which all examinees testing at the same time receive the same questions.

Both the verbal and quantitative sections will be expanded to include two separate 40-minute sections.

The analytical writing section will be renamed to critical thinking and will have two 30-minute essays. While the current test is only two and half hours, the changes will make the new GRE three hours and 40 minutes long, excluding a 40-minute section that doesn't count to the final score.

Critical thinking

Changes to the verbal section will concentrate on critical thinking skills, rather than vocabulary. Different types of reading comprehension and sentence completion questions would be used instead of analogy and antonym questions. It will have more and shorter comprehension passages. Some of the new questions would allow the students to select multiple answers.

The quantitative section will see a decrease in geometry-related questions and an increase in questions involving data or real-life scenarios. In addition, questions may ask the test taker to enter a numerical answer, as opposed to selecting a choice. A calculator will also be available on-screen and this was based on recommendations from maths associations.

The writing section will try to minimise the reliance on memorised material and would measure the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly.

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