Traditional GRE Exam Shortened by Two Hours From September 2023

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Mrunmayai Bobade
Updated on Jun 02, 2023 02:54 PM IST

Educational Testing Service (ETS), the conducting body of the GRE exam has introduced some major changes pertaining to the GRE exam duration. From September 22, 2023, the test will take 1 hour and 58 minutes, nearly 118 minutes to complete, instead of the former GRE test duration of 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Traditional GRE Exam Shortened by Two Hours From September 2023

As per an announcement made by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the conducting body of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), the GRE General Test will take less than two hours to complete. These updated changes will come into effect from September 22, 2023.

Once made effective, the GRE General test will last 1 hour and 58 minutes instead of the former 3 hours and 45 minutes. Currently, test takers of the GRE exam receive their official results within 15 business days. The official test results will be provided to test-takers within 8 to 10 days after the reforms go into force in September.

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The newly revised GRE exam has undergone the following changes:

  • The GRE analytical writing section's "analyse an argument" task has been eliminated.

  • The GRE verbal and quantitative reasoning sections now are reduced to 46 fewer questions.

  • The GRE unscored section, which was given to ETS to help prepare, has been removed.

Here is an estimated analysis of the updated GRE exam duration beginning September 22, 2023:

GRE Section

Updated Exam Structure

Reduced Estimated Time (in minutes)

Quantitative Reasoning

Two sections, 27 total questions

47

Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)

One essay task, One section

30

Verbal Reasoning

Two sections, 27 total questions

41

Total Introduced Time

1 hour, 58 minutes (118 minutes)

Note: (i) GRE registration for the reduced test duration will open on September 22, 2023.

(ii) GRE exam fee will remain unchanged, it will still cost USD 228 (approx. INR 18,771).

The modifications ETS made public highlight how important it is for the administrative body to keep its consumers at the focus of all it does. As stated by ETS CEO Amit Sevak, the organisation is dedicated to striking a balance between preserving rigour as well as legitimacy and enhancing the applicant's experience as it introduces novel services.

The ETS plan is comparable to the one unveiled in another news that the TOEFL iBT is to be Shortened by 1 Hour. Effective from July 26, 2023, the TOEFL will have a two-hour testing window instead of three.

The GRE General Test will still be a reliable and precise indicator of graduate-level readiness and provide a quicker way to assess verbal, mathematical, and critical thinking skills. A spokesperson for ETS added that applicants will receive their GRE results faster, which is beneficial for their college application process.

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In the past decade, ETS has observed an increase in applicants as more individuals who wish to attend law school have chosen the GRE over the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). However, from 541,750 in 2017, just 341,574 applicants took the GRE in the year 2021.

It states that an unprecedented proportion of graduate programmes have taken steps to either make the GRE test-optional or remove it entirely from their list of entrance requirements.

When the English department at Cornell University decided to no longer require the GRE for acceptance, it released the statement: the ambiguous anticipatory accuracy of the GRE test is vastly outweighed due to the strain that it imposes on student plurality. It also stated that the results of the GRE test are not a reliable indicator of a student's success or failure in a PhD programme in English. The cost of studying for and attempting the GRE test is exorbitant for several hopefuls, and it is not available worldwide.  

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Also, the School of Public Health at Boston University reported that no loss in academic achievement occurred after it dropped the GRE requirement in the year 2019. Instead, more Black and Hispanic students applied.

Furthermore, maintaining a test-optional stance that started during the Covid-19 pandemic, Duke University, a renowned private university in North Carolina, declared in 2022 that it would skip the GRE for the majority of its graduate programmes.

As colleges transition to more comprehensive admissions processes, the last-minute choice of whether to make standardised tests like the GRE exam optional or to withdraw them outright will probably put a greater burden on academic institutions.

Source: The New York Times

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