News

Plans for the Revised GRE® General Test Cancelled

ETS has cancelled plans to launch the revised Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®) General Test. The decision was made in consultation with the Executive Committee of the GRE Board.

While ETS and the Board remain committed to improving the test, on balance, GRE officials said they believe problems guaranteeing complete access to the new Internet-based test outweighed the benefits of immediately moving to the new format.

ETS originally planned to launch the revised GRE General Test worldwide in September. Instead, the company will continue to offer the test worldwide in its current computer-based, continuous testing format. Registrations in India, China and Japan, which had been closed, will be reopened in the near future to accommodate application deadlines. Likewise, registrations for the current GRE General Test will continue elsewhere.

"The decision to cancel the revised GRE General Test best serves the interests of test takers and the graduate institutions that use those scores to make admissions decisions," says David Payne, Executive Director of the GRE Program at ETS. "After much debate and evaluation, it became clear that the current format offers students more convenient and flexible opportunities to test when and where they choose, while still providing score users with valid predictors of test takers' preparedness for graduate school study."

The primary reason for cancelling the launch of the revised GRE General Test was test taker access. Plans called for the revised test to be delivered over the new worldwide network of 3,200 Internet-based testing centers. Despite the network's size, ETS officials did not believe that full access to the General Test for all students could be confidently assured.

"As the launch approached, ETS determined that, despite the aggressive development of our Internet-based testing network, we could not guarantee complete access to all students needing to take the exam" Payne explains. "While the graduate community supports, and in fact helped develop and pilot the revised GRE General Test, they have also stated that they are satisfied with the current GRE General Test, until such time as improvements can be gradually implemented. ETS is being responsive to their best interests."

ETS officials will work with the GRE Board to implement many of the planned test content improvements in the future without the access issues associated with changing to an entirely new test delivered over a brand new testing network.

Administering the GRE General Test in two testing sessions in The People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong), The Republic of Korea and Taiwan will also continue for the immediate future.