GRE

Graduate Record Examination (GRE)

What is the GRE?

The GRE is a standardized test created by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), is administered to more than 350,000 students per year and used by a decreasing number of American graduate programs. In 2012, only approximately 60% of graduate programs use the GRE in admissions decisions.

Has the GRE Changed?

Many people falsely believe that the tests they remember are the same as the test of today. All “standardized” tests change significantly over time, a fact that is overlooked by those who argue for the test as consistent measures. The question types, timing, and content are significantly revised periodically. In the early days of the GRE new question types were added and removed almost annually. Below are just a few of the major changes in the GRE since its introduction.

What does the GRE claim to measure?

According to ETS, the GRE “measures your verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills— skills that have been developed over a long period of time and are not related to a specific field of study but are important for all.”

The exam is composed Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning and an Analytical Writing Assessment. The Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning are scored on a 130 – 170 scale (the scale changed from 200 to 800 in 2011).

Does the GRE accurately predict success?

Like other multiple-choice exams, the GRE does not accurately assess a test-taker’s full potential for achievement in scholastic, professional, or personal endeavors, and limits access to graduate school for many individuals, particularly women, students of color, and non-traditional applicants.

Despite its primary purpose of predicting success in graduate school, a GRE score adds little useful information to a student’s application – the test’s own developer admits that undergraduate college grades do a better job of forecasting graduate achievement. ETS concedes “[T]he limitations of graduate school admissions tests in the face of the complexity of the graduate education process have long been recognized…[the] critical skills associated with scholarly and professional competence…are not currently measured by graduate admissions tests.”1

The ability of the GRE to predict first-year graduate grades is incredibly weak, according to data from the test’s manufacturer. In one ETS study of 12,000 test takers, the exam accounted for a mere 9% of the differences (or variation) among students’ first-year grades.2 Undergraduate grades proved to be a stronger predictor of academic success, explaining 14% of the variation in graduate school grades. An independent non-ETS study found an even weaker relationship between test scores and academic achievement – just 6% of the variation in grades could be predicted by GRE scores.3

What do the GRE validity studies from major universities show?

In a Yale University review of the GRE’s predictive ability for graduate students in its psychology department, test scores explained only 3% of the difference in grades during the first two years of study.4 The predictive power of the exam dropped to 1% when more comprehensive measures of performance (e.g. overall faculty ratings of the quality of students’ performance and faculty evaluations of dissertation work) were considered. In fact, the correlation between GRE scores and graduate performance was negative for women in Yale’s graduate psychology program.

At the University of Texas, one study showed that the GRE is not a valid predictor of success for the Graduate School of Social Work as measured by grades, degree completion, and fieldwork quality. Researchers concluded that eliminating the GRE from the selection process would not lead to lower quality students but would “open opportunities for many other individuals of professional quality.”5

Researchers at Bowling Green State University hypothesized that individuals with high GRE scores would complete a graduate program in geology at a faster rate than their lower-scoring peers. Findings from the study revealed the opposite: high-scoring students took longer to complete the degree. Furthermore, undergraduate grades proved to be a better predictor of completing the geology graduate program than did test scores.6

What impact does the GRE have on educational equity?

As is the case with most other college admissions tests, large disparities in GRE scores exist between different groups of students. Despite their higher grades as undergraduate and graduate students, females score on average 20-30 points lower than males on each section of the exam. African-American, Latino, and, Native American students on average score lower than White and Asian American students. When test scores play a major role in admissions decisions such gaps create graduate student bodies that are disproportionately White and male.

At New York University, bilingual Hispanic doctoral students who scored low on the GRE did outstanding work on a comparable test written in Spanish. Researchers reasoned that because the culturally-laden language of the GRE can lead to score differences, it is crucial to explore alternatives to the GRE for bilingual students.7

One study in the Journal of Negro Education revealed that at the University of Florida Black graduate students with low GRE scores were compared to White peers with high test scores. The Black students attained higher GPAs during graduate study than did the Whites, leading researchers to conclude that the GRE is insensitive to how Black students’ skills and resources translate into performance.8

The GRE is particularly susceptible to the influence of socioeconomic class. ETS’ own research has shown a strong relationship between family background and test scores. One study of applicants who scored between 750 and 800 on the exam found that only 4% of these high-scoring test-takers had fathers who had not completed high school; around half had fathers with bachelor’s degrees or more, and of these, a whopping 90% had fathers with graduate or professional degrees. When family income was held constant, most of the test score differences between races disappeared or shrank dramatically.9

How is the GRE misused?
ETS guidelines specify: “A cutoff score based solely on GRE scores should never be used as the sole criterion for denial of admissions.”10 Yet one ETS study revealed that only 10% of schools adhere to these guidelines, with almost 30% of those surveyed indicating they use a cutoff score and 10% recommending use of a cutoff.11 ETS has done little to curb such misuses. The use of cut scores is particularly dangerous to low-income individuals and students of color, who on average score markedly below affluent and White students. The Ford and Danforth Foundations tracked hundreds of students of color they had funded for graduate school and concluded: “Large numbers of [our] fellows might well have not been admitted to graduate programs if admissions committees had employed only numerical parameters in their assessment of student potential…More than half of the students who earned a doctorate would not have been admitted to graduate school in the first place if a GRE-Verbal score of 500 or more had been a criterion.”12

Is the GRE coachable?
The GRE can be conquered with tricks having nothing to do with the knowledge, persistence, thoughtfulness, and other qualities that are vital to graduate study and professional performance. One coaching book advises: “Taking the GRE is a game with its own rules, traps, and measures of success…How you do on the GRE is an indication of how well you play the game, but it is not an indication of how ‘intelligent’ you are, or what kind of student you will make.”13

The exam’s susceptibility to coaching undermines educational equity by advantaging students who can afford test prep materials – many of whom already score in the upper percentiles – over those who cannot. The most comprehensive coaching classes (which generally offer the greatest score gains) cost upwards of $1,000 or more. One coaching company claims its students gain on average 212 points on the GRE – a substantial advantage in the graduate school application process.14 While ETS asserts that the GRE is not coachable, it promotes its own materials: test takers can purchase a diagnostic service for $15, Preparing to Take the General Test for $18, or can use the free POWERPREP software package. While there are no independent studies on coaching’s impact on the GRE, independent studies of coaching for the similar SAT exams demonstrate that coaching can improve scores.

How does the GRE’s computerized format affect test takers?
In 1992 ETS began offering test takers the option of a computerized version of the GRE; in 1999 it eliminated the pencil-and-paper exam completely. Like any multiple-choice exam, the “computer adaptive” GRE General Test fails to measure complex abilities such as writing, critical thinking, and research skills. It instead rewards test-taking skills such as pacing and strategic guessing, perhaps to an even greater degree than paper-and-pencil formats.

After years of denial, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) has acknowledged that the computerized format of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) mis-assesses some test-takers. ETS now admits that scores for students who carefully answer questions at the beginning of the exam but guess quickly at the end as they run out of time may be inaccurate. The same problem exists for those who answer difficult questions correctly but get generally easier ones wrong. The shift to computerized testing also resulted in price increases for test takers. Test takers must now pay $105, more than double the price of the exam before it was completely computerized. ETS also acknowledges that taking the exam more than once will help boost scores. The high cost of the GRE makes retesting prohibitive for lower-income students, adding to the advantage affluent individuals already have on the test.

What’s the alternative?
Several highly regarded graduate programs have proven that institutions can conduct a successful admissions process without the use of test scores. A brief list of such programs includes: Harvard Divinity School, Simmons College School of Social Work, Bank Street College School of Education, Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Brown University Division of Engineering, and Columbia University Masters of Science in Journalism.

Such institutions rely on the wealth of information that is already available through the application process, including application essays, undergraduate grades, faculty recommendations, writing samples, and personal interviews.