Graduate Record Examinations

The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) are standardized tests commonly required for admission to graduate schools in the United States and other countries. They assess verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing skills, aiming to measure the readiness of candidates for graduate-level study. The GRE is divided into three main sections: the verbal section evaluates reading comprehension and critical thinking, the quantitative section focuses on mathematical skills and problem-solving abilities, and the analytical writing section assesses the test-taker's ability to articulate complex ideas effectively.

The GRE is administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and is offered in various formats, including a computer-based version and a paper-based version in regions without reliable computer access. Test scores are valid for five years, giving candidates flexibility in their application timelines. Many graduate programs use GRE scores alongside other admissions criteria, such as undergraduate GPA, letters of recommendation, and personal statements. It's important for prospective students to research individual program requirements, as the significance of GRE scores can vary widely between disciplines and institutions. Overall, the GRE serves as a critical component in the admissions process for many graduate programs, providing a standardized measure of a candidate's potential for success in advanced academic pursuits.

Published in: 2021

By: Joseph Dewey, PhD

Subject Terms

Graduate Record Examinations

Last reviewed: February 2017

Abstract

Applications for graduate study programs have been steadily increasing in the twenty-first century. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is a standardized test used to help determine admission to graduate schools. Administered both in the United States and abroad, the GRE is designed to measure the general competencies in writing, reading, and mathematics of college seniors and others who take it. The test is used as an element for both graduate school admissions as well as admission to master’s level programs in business administration (MBA). The GRE can help determine fellowship and other graduate level awards, including research and teaching positions.

Overview

In the 1950s and 1960s, graduate level work was relatively rare. Most undergraduate degrees were considered more than sufficient for gainful and rewarding lifetime employment, and graduate work was considered very specialized, often the educational goal of more elite students who hoped to pursue original research in their field.

But with the advent of the global markets, the rise in digital technology, and the subsequent tightening of the job market and the number of career-type opportunities, college more and more has become the new high school; that is, a college degree has become the minimal expectation for employment. “For a relatively small number of job openings, competitive graduate programs often receive a large number of applications from individuals with impressive credentials but are able to admit only a small percentage of them” (Klieger et al., 2014).

Even professionals with standing in the field can feel pressure to return to secure the more specialized education of postgraduate programs. These professionals, often with enormous obligations both to their job and their families, work on their advanced degrees at their own pace as part of moving up within their network. However, many employers, recognizing the value of postgraduate work, have begun to offer to underwrite at least part of the often enormous expense of postgraduate education. Indeed, in the hard sciences as well as in the fields of computer engineering and programming, where information becomes obsolete quickly, employers began to insist their newest hires stay current by pursuing graduate level work.

According to the Council of Graduate Schools, in 2014, for instance, close to half a million students began graduate level work in the United States. The same institute estimates that since the turn of the twenty-first century, applications for graduate studies have increased steadily, roughly 2 percent each year.

This new interest in graduate work has given new importance to the GREs, tests that since the mid-1950s have been administered by Educational Testing Services (ETS), headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. This is the same private nonprofit testing and assessment foundation that administers both the SAT and AP tests, as well as a range of specialized in-field examinations, most notably the PRAXIS exam, which is a critical element in teacher certification.

The Test. The GRE itself is divided into two broad areas. The first is the general examination that tests a variety of basic skills expected to have been mastered during undergraduate study. The test has three parts: verbal reasoning; quantitative reasoning; and analytical writing. Much like other standardized tests, the GREs are intended to be predictive, not cumulative—that is, students cannot specifically prepare for the test. Questions and topics change each year. Of course, there are numerous workbooks and software apps (many—but not all—certified by ETS itself) that are designed to review the basic test-taking strategies and provide hundreds of practice questions.

But the test is more designed to help measure the sorts of classroom and research skills demanded by graduate level work. GRE scores—along with a student’s undergraduate grade record and letters of recommendation from faculty or in-field experts—help create a broad profile of a student’s potential to succeed at the graduate level (Hebert & Holmes, 1979). Graduate school can be expensive and represents a major commitment of both time and resources. Depending on the degree sought, this can be from two years on up, often requiring decisions requiring career and family life to be put on hold. In addition, graduate school is usually a means to an end—professional success.

In graduate school, the dynamic of a classroom is radically different. Students are expected to contribute to discussions, draw analytical conclusions, and use data and research confidently. The GREs are not intended to deny students access to graduate level work; rather, the GREs help tell students and schools about the potential for the student to make graduate school work. While among incoming undergraduate freshmen the dropout rate is estimated at nearly 30 percent, the attrition rate after the first year of graduate level work is double that.

Administration. The GRE tests are administered both on selected dates at certified testing sites (more than 1,000 in 160 countries). Testing sites offer an online format, on average, three times per month and virtually year-round. Students are given three hours to complete the three sections. Seldom do students take the GREs more than once—positions in graduate school are quickly filled, and students who do poorly on the test the first time often reconsider the entire strategy of pursuing graduate level work—although like other standardized tests, such retaking is possible. Indeed, ETS promotes the idea of taking the test multiple times during a standard four- to five-year undergraduate program of study and then having the best set of scores sent to prospective graduate programs. However, like the counterpart standardized testing administered to high school seniors—most notably the SAT, the ACT, and the AP tests—the GRE is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Although college seniors often spend much time (and money) to prepare to take (and often retake) the test, the test itself is more than a way into graduate level work. As Darolina points out, in an increasingly competitive job market and an increasingly complex digital world, advanced degrees are becoming more and more expected for securing career-type employment, advancement within that career, and long-term job security (2014).

Subject Tests. In addition to the three-part general skills competency test required by most graduate schools and MBA programs, ETS also administers a second type of graduate admissions tests: the far more specialized degree-specific GRE field tests. These subject tests—which include most of the standard academic disciplines, including psychology, mathematics, computer science, biology, language, chemistry, history, business and economics, literature, and physics—are most required elements of applications only to the most prestigious and competitive graduate schools.

Applications

The test has three sections: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing. Test questions move generally from simpler applications to more complex questions, and students can skip questions and return to them as they see fit. The scoring on the first two sections is based on a simple point system—they are scored by a computer; scores can range from 130 to 170; in the analytical writing section, which is scored by professionals in the fields of rhetoric and language, hired and certified by ETS, scores range from 0 (for responses that are entirely off topic or that are left blank) to 6 (for responses that demonstrate an exceptional proficiency and confidence with language). Provisions are routinely made to assist those students with special needs.

Verbal Reasoning. In the verbal reasoning section, students are asked to demonstrate basic competencies in language: word usage, sentence structure, and vocabulary range. The students can be given basic vocabulary questions or, as is far more often the case, asked to read a passage and then answer multiple-choice questions directed at the use of language in that passage. Students can be asked to define words in context, or to relate words used in the passage through analogies, or to find antonyms. In addition, students can be asked to draw careful conclusions from the passage’s argument as a way to demonstrate confidence in understanding how sentences actually relate one to the other within a passage to create a coherent argument.

Quantitative Reasoning. In the quantitative reasoning section, students are asked to demonstrate basic competencies in mathematical applications ranging from arithmetic to more complex models such as geometry and algebra. More recently, the test has added questions on data analysis—such as drawing conclusions from sampling data or establishing a mean distribution given a variety of information such as percentages and ratios or surveys. The question here is clear: Can a student, regardless of his or her major, apply the appropriate classic mathematical model to solve a basic problem? What is at issue, in addition to their command of such models, is to measure how students go about solving a problem, whether the student can recognize patterns of thought and data and how to manage such raw material into a coherent solution.

Analytical Writing. In the analytical writing section, students are asked to demonstrate basic competencies in critical thinking and in organizing an argument in defense of their idea. This is an actual written response. Working with a passage, most often nonfiction, which most often deals with some complex current or controversial topic (such as the role of advertising, the relationship between ambition and success, or the implications of environmental stewardship), students can be asked to take a stand and defend that perspective or agree or disagree with a stated proposition or critique a position taken in a passage. Evaluations are based on the clarity of the position and the quality of the writing and its basic organizational patterns, not on the position taken.

Viewpoints

Much like the SAT and the AP tests, the GRE General Test has generated its share of both criticism and support. Although few criticize the field tests as they measure specific foundational knowledge in the student’s chosen field of study, critics harp on traditional objections to standardized testing—the tests too often measure test-taking skills rather than competencies in the subject areas. There are very gifted students who simply test poorly.

Reading these test scores can be problematic (Neal, 2013). Such tests, for instance, can easily mistake a wide vocabulary for skill in actually using that vocabulary in analytical thinking—and because the test is taken against a clock, students are often unable to think through the answer clearly, not because of any significant deficiency in their expertise but rather because in-depth thinking generally requires time and mental energy to create the best rewards.

In addition, critics caution that tests must be taken in a wider context—scores must be measured against the classroom achievements of students—scores on standardized tests have to be measured against the student’s GPA and that record of steady achievement across their entire education experience. These tests actually undercut the authority of teachers who are best able to assess a student’s potential. “The [classroom grading] process requires thoughtful and informed professional judgment, an abiding concern for what best serves the interests of students and their families, and careful examination of the tasks students are asked to complete and the questions they are asked to answer to demonstrate their learning” (Guskey, 2013).

More to the point, however, these critics point to the lack of any real data that indicate the relationship between success at the graduate level and performance on such standardized tests. Let these students demonstrate a commitment to their education by coming to graduate school and doing the work. Graduate work is simply not undergraduate education—why does a promising chemistry major need to demonstrate proficiency in vocabulary skills, they ask; why does a promising literature major need to demonstrate skills in calculus, or why does a promising computer engineer need to take a coherent stand on, say, education reform? These tests, in short, are viewed as simply another financial obligation, another education distraction, and yet another occasion for creating unnecessary stress and competition among those seeking to pursue an advanced degree.

But advocates of standardized testing point to the need to have some sort of independent and objective measure of a student’s potential for graduate work. After all, what can a graduate program actually tell from grades received in classes taught by instructors in different colleges or universities? “A logical response from graduate schools and employers in this case would then be to rely less on the increasingly noisy information transmitted by college grades and to turn to other, more credible signals of applicant ability when making admissions or hiring decisions” (Wongsurawat, 2009). Letters of recommendation are by nature biased; what student would request a letter from someone likely to give a poor evaluation? As a graduate school admissions officer at the University Michigan conceded, graduate school admissions committees can “[rely] on the GRE because [officers] associate scores with qualities that they thought had been central to their own success, such as intelligence and a sense of belonging in elite intellectual communities” (Cassuto, 2016).

By asking students to demonstrate basic across-the-curriculum skills that may factor into graduate level success, the test can reassure graduate schools—and business schools—that here is a student likely to apply basic skills and competencies to postgraduate work and who is generally comfortable with the range of classroom skills that may factor into postgraduate success. Few graduate programs make decisions about competitive admissions based solely on GRE scores. More to the point, the GREs can provide an important focal point for undergraduates who see taking the test as a signal that now they must prepare for the special demands of postgraduate work. Taken with a broad context of student academic work, the GREs are seen to provide graduate programs with a reliable metric to use in assessing a student’s potential not only to undertake graduate work but also to complete it.

Terms & Concepts

Cumulative Test: A test designed to measure whether a student has mastered a specific body of information, most often reviewed in class or in textbooks.

Educational Testing Service (ETS): A nonprofit corporation based in Princeton, New Jersey, that administers several of the most common standardized tests.

Fellowship: An award, most often presented by graduate schools but also by foundations and even corporations, that recognizes outstanding undergraduate achievement and often covers all or a significant part of the cost of postgraduate study.

MBA: A master’s degree in business administration.

Predictive Test: A test—either multiple choice or essay style—designed to measure broad academic skill levels and in turn to be used by application committees and admissions directors to help assess and predict potential for success at the next level of education.

Quantitative Skills: The ability to work with data, that is numbers, and to apply those data to problem solving.

Standardized Tests: Tests, most often multiple-choice format, administered at a prearranged time and at designated sites and in uniform manner, and in turn that are assessed and scored in a consistent manner that approaches as much as possible objectivity.

Bibliography

Cassuto, L. (2016). Inside the graduate-admissions process. Chronicle of Higher Education, 62(23), A27–A28. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=113038828&site=ehost-live

Darolia, R., Potochnick, S., & Menifield, C. E. (2014). Assessing admission criteria for early and mid-career students: Evidence from a U.S. MPA program. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22(101), 1–17. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=99429044&site=ehost-live

Guskey, T. G. (2013). The case against percentage grades. Educational Leadership, 71(1), 68–72. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=90068952&site=ehost-live

Hebert, D. J., & Holmes, A. F. (1979). Graduate record examinations aptitude test scores as a predictor of graduate grade point average. Educational & Psychological Measurement, 39, 415–420. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=519802955&site=ehost-live

Klieger, D. M., Cline, F. A., Holtzman, S. L., Minsky, J. L., & Lorenz, F. (2014). New perspectives on the validity of the GRE® general test for predicting graduate school grades. ETS Research Reports Series, 2014(2), 1–62. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=100178401&site=ehost-live

Neal, D. D. (2013). The consequences of using one assessment system to pursue two objectives. Journal of Economic Education, 44(4), 339–352. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=90465294&site=ehost-live

Wongsurawat, W. (2009). Does grade inflation affect the credibility of grades: Evidence from US law school admissions. Educational Economics, 17(4), 535–534. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=45605873&site=ehost-live

Graduate Record Examinations

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Subject Terms

Graduate Record Examinations

Abstract

Overview

Applications

Viewpoints

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

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