<p>We just heard a rumor that it's unwise to take the GRE on the computer because of the inability to skip harder problems and then go back i.e. you have to take each problem in order and move on. Someone told my son she'd lost 200 points because of this. Don't know how she could quantify that, but it does sound a bit scary. Also, do you get the scores immediately? Lastly, is the deal that the paper based test is only given a couple of times a year?</p>
<p>Please don't flame me for being interested in my son's grad school prospects! I strongly suspect I'm not the only one.</p>
<p>I took it on the computer and I don't think my score was adversely affected. But then, I prefer to just plow through and do the questions in order anyway. You do get the scores immediately, except for the writing section, which an actual human being has to read so it takes several weeks. But as soon as you finish the test, your verbal and quantitative scores pop up. </p>
<p>My verbal score was lower than my quant., but I was in a higher percentile in verbal. I guess lots of people get high math scores.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think the paper and pencil version is only offered 3 times a year maybe?</p>
<p>Hi. The hard part of the GRE CAT is not that you cannot go back, but that it is adaptive, so If you are having problems with, let's say geometry problems, the computer will keep asking you those. At least that was my experience. I took It a second time and had great scores. The best advice is to take more time on the first questions of each section (because they count more). The paper and pencil version is only offered few times a year, and you don't get the results immediatly. I think that is a huge dissadvantage because if your score was not great you might want to reatake it, and if you don't know your score until weeks later, you might run out of time. And just a comment: With all due respect, I think your friend (the one who said she'd lost 200 points because of this...) was making excuses. For example, in the math part, you have 45 minutes for 28 questions in the computer. According to a friend who took it on paper, in paper you have only 30 mins. for 30 questions, so...</p>
<p>now with the SAT you can use calculator is this correct?
My daughter used a calc and also had extended length test for SAT.
However I was told that with the GRE you are not allowed to use a calculator, even if you had accomodations with SAT, anyone challenge this?</p>
<p>It is fun to play with the GRE online version.</p>
<p>For some information and an example on the test, you can check the link below. </p>
<p>EK, it is true that you cannot use a calculator on the GRE, but just like for the SAT-1 using a calculator makes little difference. I think it is easier NOT to use one because you can calculate faster in your head. On the other hand, by making the test trivial, the extended time makes a world of difference since the time pressure is the number one enemy. There is a reason why so many parents have used the loophole for their children after finding accomodating -with $$$- specialists. This does not mean that the loophole is exploited by everyone who receives extended time. The problem started when the organization supporting disabled successfully lobbied to remove the flags from SAT scores. It seems obvious that the non-flagging of extended time scores opened a pandora box. </p>
<p>FWIW, here's a comment on adaptive testing: "Adaptive means that the level of the questions that you get are dependent on if you answer previous questions correctly or not. The higher the level of question the higher the overall weight that problem has." I believe that in case of continious errors, the computer starts to regress as opposed to advance in difficulty. </p>
<p>My daughter took this recently and confirms that you cannot go back on the computer version and that, if you answer incorrectly, you get easier questions rather than harder ones. This eliminates the old test-taking strategy of answering all the problems you really know first and then going back to the harder ones. It also means you cannot change answers, which may be good rather than bad, since I was always taught that your first instinct is more often right than wrong. Scores for the two sections other than the writing pop up immediately.
Interestingly, her score so far is almost identical to her SAT score. Neither reflect her college performance or many of her other talents.
Here's my question: Why do graduate programs require the GRE? I understand some of the arguments for the SAT. Colleges do not know every high school in the country and think they need some extra information besides high school transcripts to help them predict college performance. But if you're taking the GRE your college performance is on the record. Add some written recommendations from professors to grades in the classes most relevant to the grad program, and I don't see what possible info the GRE adds. If they want a writing sample, they can ask for a paper you've written with professor's comments still on it.
Anybody else have an opinion on this?</p>
<p>" Add some written recommendations from professors to grades in the classes most relevant to the grad program, and I don't see what possible info the GRE adds. Here's my question: Why do graduate programs require the GRE?"</p>
<p>Possible answers:</p>
<ol>
<li>Uneven grading policies in colleges and universities</li>
<li>Uneven level of difficulty in undergraduate programs</li>
<li>Number of foreign students applying to US graduate programs</li>
<li>Establish a minimum level of English knowledge </li>
</ol>
<p>In other words, without an "objective" yardstick, how could you compare graduates from Podunk CC, Harvard, and Universit</p>
<p>"Here's my question: Why do graduate programs require the GRE? I understand some of the arguments for the SAT. Colleges do not know every high school in the country and think they need some extra information besides high school transcripts to help them predict college performance. But if you're taking the GRE your college performance is on the record. Add some written recommendations from professors to grades in the classes most relevant to the grad program, and I don't see what possible info the GRE adds. If they want a writing sample, they can ask for a paper you've written with professor's comments still on it.
Anybody else have an opinion on this?"</p>
<p>I don't think those stupid tests prove anything except that the people who freak out, work slowly, and cannot sit still because of panic and noise (every little noise irritates me) do poorly. I didn't even study for the SAT either because I didn't honestly care. But I have a 3.85 in college......</p>
<p>My DD took the GRE last year; ONE time is all she allowed herself (not a good idea) and she found the computer version quite frustrating. She has always done very well on standardized tests, so she didn't do much prep for it. Didn't ultimately hurt her grad school stuff, but it was NOT a good experience for her. I think she was also put off by the examples online for the writing portion; she thought most of the writing samples seemed sophomoric, so she dumbed down her own writing. Not a good plan.
I think if she had it to do over, she would have made time to do both types of GRE to see how she did. The scores definitely did not reflect her college grades.</p>
<p>I perspnally would not take a test on a computer since almost every time I get neara computer something goes wrong and I end up hitting and cursing at the thing.</p>
<p>It isn't a case of not knowing how, but my daughter has a learning disability and received protection under civil rights act for it. She has taken and passed calculus at one of the most academic schools in the country, but she has difficulty with simple computation often making careless errors.
She is eligible to use the calculator in her classes and would do so in college, forcing her not to do so would be discrimination, just as forcing a deaf student to perform orally would be.
She is very gifted in other areas including higher level math, but simple calculations just don't stick with her.</p>
<p>Xiggi:
1. Uneven grading policies in colleges and universities
In grad programs, admissions committees are usually made up of faculty. They have a good sense of undergrad colleges and universities, especially in their own fields. They did their own undergrad or grad or postdoc work at some of those schools, know the faculty of some of those schools, trained the faculty at some of those schools, probably even have taught at some of those schools, etc. It's very different from trying to gauge the unknown quality of the vast number of high schools.
2. Uneven level of difficulty in undergraduate programs
Again, this is not a huge unknown. Faculty can gauge the difference between an MIT or U of Chicago transcript and one from Cal State Hayward.
3. Number of foreign students applying to US graduate programs
Many of these universities are a known quantity as well, though I could see more justification for a GRE from foreign students. However, given that most of these foreign students apply in scientific and engineering fields, there would seem to be more relevant tests than GREs.<br>
4. Establish a minimum level of English knowledge
I believe they take the TOEFL for this. </p>
<p>In other words, without an "objective" yardstick, how could you compare graduates from Podunk CC, Harvard, and Universit</p>
<p>good points sac
some schools including top schools are making SATs optional or even refusing to consider scores, even while other schools are placing more emphasis.
I wonder if this will cross over to graduate school as well, as ability to perform in college should be enough to determine placement in graduate program.</p>
<p>Actually, Sac, I have run across quite a few faculty at east coast schools who have never heard of my undergraduate school-- Pomona College. To them, it's just some random liberal arts college out west, but as most people here on CC know, it's actually a very competitive school. So I'm glad to send my GRE scores to those programs.</p>
<p>I have been looking on their website and they do have a process to obtain accomodations.
It requires ( within last 3 years)new documentation which would require new testing unfortunately for several hundreds of dollars, she just had testing before applying to college but that isn't recent enough. Must be in cahoots with the psychs :eek:
The computer version does sound like it wouldn't be a good deal for her.
She took a course( at public school) that required a computer test for placement, because of the structure of the test ( similar to GRE it sounds like)she did not place into the class that required basic algebra even though she had taken precalc in high school and the next semester took calc at Reed. ( she was able to take the paper version of the test at another school and got an A in the class) She needs to read through the test before she begins as do I, so that she can gauge how much time to allot to each section. It also is a disadvantage to be unable to check/change your work.
Even though she won't be taking the GRE till next fall, it looks like she will have to start now to jump thru their hoops.
Irene, Pomona has a very good repuation, on par with Swarthmore and Amherst. For faculty at east coast schools to not have heard of it, just brands them as provincial, IMO ;)</p>
<p>Sac, I know very little about the GRE and its impact on graduate admissions. I'll figure out what I need to know about the GRE in a few years. </p>
<p>In the meantime, you may find the link to a research paper of ETS interesting. It seems to explain the differences between what is tested on the GRE and on the TOEFL. </p>
<p>Considering that graduate schools insist on individual tests like the LSAT, GRE, or GMAT, it seems fair to conclude that the adcoms have issues accepting grades from different schools at face value. </p>
<p>Again, I do not have to deal with this in 2005! :)</p>