The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has made a significant update to the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) for the year 2023, aiming to reduce exam stress and enhance the overall testing experience. The GRE is a widely recognised standardised test that serves as a crucial admission requirement for various graduate, management, and law programs in the United States, Canada, and several other countries.
Here's a concise breakdown of the key changes introduced in the GRE 2023:
Exam Pattern:
1. Reduced Duration: In a bid to alleviate exam-related stress and enhance test-taker experience, the ETS has reduced the GRE's total duration by nearly half. The test, previously spanning almost 4 hours, now clocks in at just 1 hour and 58 minutes.
2. Sectional Division: The GRE 2023 is structured into three main sections: analytical writing, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning. The analytical writing section will always be the first, followed by the verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning sections, which can appear in any order after the analytical writing section.
3. Question Changes: Notably, the "analyse an argument" task in the analytical writing section has been retained, but the unscored section has been eliminated. Furthermore, the number of questions in both the quantitative and verbal reasoning sections has been reduced.
New Features:
In addition to the revised exam pattern, GRE 2023 boasts several new advanced features aimed at enhancing the test-taking experience:
Adaptive Design: Test-takers now have the flexibility to navigate forward and backward within a section, offering improved control and ease in answering questions.
Previewing and Reviewing: The exam now allows for previewing and reviewing options within a section. Candidates can review and mark questions for later revisiting, maximising time management.
Answer Modification: GRE 2023 offers the ability to modify or edit answers within a section, providing test-takers with a higher level of precision and control.
On-screen Calculator: An on-screen calculator is now available for use in the quantitative reasoning section, simplifying calculations for candidates.
The introduction of these new features and the streamlined exam pattern in GRE 2023 aims to not only reduce the stress associated with standardised testing but also improve the overall test-taking experience.
