There are a lot of apprehensions about taking the GRE, since Educational Testing Services will be administering a new GRE test for all those who take it in fall 2007.
But rest assured it is nothing to fear of. You can continue to prepare for the way you would have prepared for the old GRE, and leave the rest to us.
We have been preparing thousands of students over the years for the GRE, and will do so for the new GRE too.
The only thing you need to understand is the manner in which it will be structured and the scoring patterns therein. The new Quantitative section will test a greater depth and breadth of quantitative reasoning skills. Both the structure and content of the GRE will change next October. It will still consist of three sections: Analytical Writing, Verbal, and Quantitative; only the number and timing of the sections will change. As per the information released so far, there will be a 60-minute AWA section (30 minutes each for the Issue and Argument essays), two 40-minute Verbal sections, and two 40-minute Quantitative sections. One of the Verbal or Quantitative sections will be experimental.
The Verbal section is slated to emphasize more on higher cognitive skills and less on vocabulary. The analogy and antonym questions will be dropped, and more critical reading and interpretation questions will be added. The writing section is intended to evaluate the writing and cognitive skills as never before.
In short, the GRE shall have questions never used before on any standardized exam, will take an hour and a half longer to complete, will be scored on a new scale, and will be less convenient for students to take.
But then, we shall always be there to help you, and guarantee you the best schools on the basis of a rigorous training schedule and personalized attention to your needs.
As regards whether scores from the old GRE will be accepted or not, it will largely depend on the schools, although we expect both scores to be accepted through the 2007-08 admission seasons. However, the ETS shall be releasing a conversion scale to compare the old and new versions and hence there is no reason to worry.
