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For students pursuing further education after graduating from college, the stressful cycle of test preparation begins again soon after worries over SATs disappear. The Graduate Record Exam, is required for admission into many graduate schools and changes to the test will require more intense preparation and review to succeed.

The changes, which will begin in October 2006, will increase the verbal and quantitative reasoning portions of the exam to include two 40 minute sections each. Scoring for these sections will change from a maximum possible score of 1600 to a maximum possible score of 150, with one point increments. Additionally, the test will include an analytical writing section of two required essays which will be scored separately on a scale of 0-6.

�[ The Educational Testing Service] is changing the GRE is to make it a better predictor of skills students need to use in grad school,� said Matt Fidler, GRE Program Manager for the Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions company. �I think that some of the contact changes will require a shift in mindset but definitely the time is something that folks are going to have get used to.�

Much like the recent changes to the SAT, the GRE will no longer include analogies or antonyms in the verbal sections. They will be replaced by verbal exercises geared towards reading comprehension, critical thinking and complex reasoning. Additionally, the quantitative reasoning section of the exam will replace the geometry exercises with questions that more closely resemble real-life scenarios.

�The essay questions were hard,� Alex Katinos said, who took the current GRE this year. �They were almost philosophical, they were just weird. I found the verbal section very hard because of the analogies, but I found the reading comprehension really easy.�

The test, which is currently about two and a half hours long, will increase to four hours, which will likely require students to review not only for the content of the test, but to review test taking strategies as well. The registration fee will expand as well from the current $115, adding to the expenses incurred by students who also wish to take preparation courses.

�Grad schools are going to want more comprehensive exams to identify how students have been educated at the undergraduate level,� senior Patrick Goodwin, who took the test recently, said. �However, I feel that higher test fees and the fact that grad schools will receive the time-pressured piece of writing that you wrote during the test will detract people from taking the test.�

�The reason why ETS is changing the GRE is to make it a better predictor of skills students need to use in grad school,� Fidler said. ��If you take a look at it from the test makers point of view, their customers and clients are universities. They�re trying to make it more in line with what universities want,� he said.

�On the whole it will be an adjustment for students who want to take the new GRE,� he said. �Four hours is a long exam and there are issues with test taker stamina. Students need to be aware of that and need to train themselves to be mentally sharp [that time].�

�I think it took me two and half hours,� said Nasatka of her testing experience. �It wasnice. You can�t go back to your questions, so I was able to go right through it without second guessing myself.�

Kaplan recommends that eligible students take the old test, provided that they can dedicate at least three months preparation. For those wishing to gauge their readiness for the test, Kaplan will be offering a free practice test at Drew for the existing GRE in February.

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