Ohio University officials are unsure how changes to the Graduate Record Exam will effect enrollment in the Graduate College - which has been on the rise for the last eight years.
A redesigned version of the GRE, a test used to determine admittance to Ohio University's graduate school, will go into effect in 2011.
Beginning in the fall, the 60,000 students who take the test each year will experience a revised grading scale, expanded time limit and computer-based format.
Graduate school enrollment at OU has been on the rise since 2002, when 2,749 students entered the program. In recent years, the rate has grown to over 3,100 students entering every fall.
An average of 65 percent of undergraduate students plan on furthering their education while an average of only 18 percent decide to continue with their education at OU.
OU offers test preparation courses for the GRE, as well as other graduate school entrance exams.
There is free test prep for the exam (through Educational Test Services)
said Jennifer Hines, interim associate dean of the Graduate College. And with my understanding with the free test prep and new (GRE) layout I think that it will really help the students' ability to succeed at the students' ability at grad school.
The computer-based test adapts to each individual student in the program, so that a correct or incorrect answer will lead to a harder or easier next question. The revised test also features a page-marking device that can let the students return to a previously skipped question.
For security reasons, the updated GRE will rearrange the questions randomly every two and a half hours.
It is still a standardized test
said Neal Seltzer, national content director for The Princeton Review. (It's) not 'are the questions easier or harder
' but how easy it will be to raise your score ... anyone can prepare with lots of hard work and anyone can have a significant impact on their score with their test.
Basic changes to the test include a new grading scale and a longer test time. The new grading scale ranges from 130 to 170, as opposed to the previous scale, which ranged from 200 to 800. Also, testing time increased from two and half hours to three and a half hours.
The GRE is the most popular graduate school admissions test with about 600,000 people taking it every year. A revision will make the test more relevant to the requirements of graduate schools and what the students are learning in undergraduate school.
The number (of students) taking the test has gone up significantly
Seltzer said. It was about 400
000 a couple years ago ... more students are going back to school.
More than 3,200 graduate and business schools across the United States use the GRE. Ohio schools using the GRE include: Youngstown State University, Bowling Green State University, Miami University, Central State University, University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, University of Akron, Wright State University, Cleveland State University and Kent State University.
The individual colleges are looking at it (GRE) as a predictor to academic achievement
said Aimee Howley, senior associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies. It is a test of aptitude ... it predicts whether a student will succeed in graduate school or not.
While the GRE scores can affect a university's decision to admit a student or not, it is not the only thing that is looked at by graduate programs. Requirements vary from program to program at OU, but each student is required to submit three letters of recommendation, two copies of an official transcript, two copies of official registrar-certified mark sheets, a personal statement or autobiographical sketch and a resume or CV.
For grad schools
the GRE is used in almost as many different ways as the different (graduate) program
Seltzer said. Programs will look at different things ... the most part
grad schools have much better things to look at than a GRE score ... you might say that GRE or GPA is a way to weed out applicants.
