The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has announced significant changes to the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). Starting from September, the duration of the GRE exam will be reduced, making it the shortest test among top graduate, business, and law school admissions.
Changes in the GRE Format
The revised GRE General Test will take less than two hours to complete, which is roughly half the time of the current test. This change has been brought about by ETS to value the time of the test takers and reduce anxiety and fatigue.
In addition to the reduction in duration, ETS has also removed the “Analyze an Argument” task in the Analytical Writing section. The number of questions in the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections has been reduced, and the unscored section has also been dropped.
Impact on Test Takers
These changes are expected to provide test takers with a better experience. Just like the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), GRE test takers can now expect to receive their official scores within 8-10 days. This reduction in test duration was also recently implemented for the TOEFL, which is also administered by ETS.
Future Updates
ETS has stated that these changes mark the first of several planned future updates to the GRE General Test. All of these updates are intended to provide test takers with a better experience.
The GRE is a gateway exam for students pursuing a Master’s or doctorate in America. Recent data showed that the number of Indian students taking the GRE increased significantly from 56,782 in 2012-2013 to 114,647 in 2021-2022. With these changes, ETS aims to make the test more user-friendly and less stressful for candidates.
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