<p>I have read about the changes in the GRE coming next fall. My son is a hard sciences/math guy and plans on grad school. He is currently taking english but has ap'd out of most of his other humanities and plans on schedule heavy in higher level math and sciences. He dislikes english (great at mechanics and vocab, bad at analysis). Would he be better off taking GRE this Feb. before it changes?</p>
<p>"great at mechanics and vocab, bad at analysis"</p>
<p>imho, I'd say go with the current test, and it doesn't have to be in February, it could be pretty much any day of the week from now 'til August as the new test starts in Sept. Take a look at <a href="http://www.kaptest.com/GRE%5B/url%5D">www.kaptest.com/GRE</a>. You will find, among other things, a two column comparison of the new and the current test. </p>
<p>The current test has antonyms and analogies. If your son is really good at vocab (better if he actually likes word and word meanings), then he should do ok on these two sections, both of which will be eliminated on the new test. In their place will be increased emphasis on comprehension and analysis, including some free response items where, due to technology, you will be asked a question w/o multiple choice and simply have to highlight the sentence or phrase in the text that you think best answers the question and click submit. Also there will be lots more questions as the new test is linear and they must give you lots of items in every difficulty level to get a viable score for you. This is also holds for math (more free response, more items, more time).</p>
<p>otoh, lots of people really detest the analogies and would relish the opportunity to avoid them (personally the analogies were always my favorite part). btw, math will have less geometry and more real life applications, charts, graphs, data sets, etc., plus an online calculator. But, also more time, items.</p>
<p>The new test will be almost 2 hours longer than the current one and that could be hard on anyone who lacks "testing stamina". I've looked at all this for my junior who could be quite affected (not in a good way) by a test that takes 4 hours and 20 minutes vs. the current 2 1/2. However, she hates analogies, so she has a decision to make, as she will be facing app deadlines that start Dec. 1 next year. The first set of score reports for the new test won't be out until early Nov., only a few weeks before her app is due.</p>
<p>I have decided to encourage my second child, a college freshman, to take the current GRE this spring and/or summer. I think she'd do well on it; the scores are good for 5 years and she'll be applying to grad school w/in that time frame and it will be behind her.</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision. Check out the Kaplan site. They are recommending taking the current test if you can and set out some good reasons imo.</p>
<p>Wondering if grad schools will be like colleges & REQUIRE the new GRE (tho initially Us said old SATs would be fine ultimately most required the new SATs with writing). My S would probably love the current GREs, as he loves analogies & was sad when they were dumped from the SATs. He's a freshman this year as well & would probably love to take the GREs if they'll still be valid when he applies after graduation.</p>
<p>Mercymom...thank you for your response. Where the heck is the info. on the testing dates?</p>
<p>So I am glad to see that this isn't too early. My only hope is that colleges don't decide to only accept the new scores by the time he applies to grad school. Now to convince him that he needs to take another standardized test...already! </p>
<p>crosspost with HIMOM</p>
<p>Testing dates. Right now the way that works is this. Go to princetonreview.com and there is a link to find a test center near you. Here we have two: the local state u and some private place that doesn't answer their phone. The local state u told me that they test 6 days a week, M-Sat. They said that Sat's are usually booked about 6 weeks in advance, but M-F is pretty open and they usually only need about 2 days notice for you to register.</p>
<p>The deal is that with the current test, it is adaptive, which means (short version here, carpool awaits) that the computer changes the questions you get as you answer depending on how many you get right/wrong. Everyone gets a different test basically, so you can test whenever you want and the center has room for you. The whole thing takes about 3 hours with the tutorial they make you do and seeing/sending your scores ( a freshman wouldn't send them, you'll pay for that later). See what's really neat is with the adaptive test you get your score immediately. Not in 3 to 6 weeks.</p>
<p>The new test will be linear. That means everyone will take the test on the same day, at the same time and take the same test. This requires LOTS more questions to get a valid score (you need to take a large number and vary the difficulty). This means the scoring is like the SATs and depends in part on how the other people did so it takes time to score and report. With the new test they are going to have around 30-35 test dates a year, rather than hundreds, and it will all operate more like the SAT.</p>
<p>Frankly, I think the current test is awesome and they are crazy to get rid of it. Princeton Review thinks they are just doing it to save money as creating the current test is labor and money intensive apparently. Who knows. Bottom line is right now you can pretty much take the GRE whenever you want.</p>
<p>(like when I called the local test center it was a weekday afternoon and there was only one person in the room taking it - how's that for increasing your ability to concentrate?)</p>
<p>Whether the schools will continue to accept the scores is another question, but some of the older student posters seem to think they will be valid and accepted for the full 5 years like stated. I think Kaplan and Princeton Review think that too, at least for now. We should know more in the spring (hopefully).</p>
<p>Keep us posted on whatever anyone learns. Would like to have some idea whether to encourage S to take the exam in the spring of 2007 before the new GRE surfaces or not. I do like the idea of having very few others around when S is testing, but S has never been bothered by having a lot of folks present during his exams. Shorter exam time would be very good for him, as he gets very exhausted from testing & waiting for stragglers to arrive at standardized testing sites.</p>
<p>you'll be surprised how much things can change in one year, let alone 4 years. by the time he is a senior, he may decide that grad school isnt for him at that moment (if at all), or that med school/law school/business school would be more appropriate (in which case the gre would'nt be relevant). i'd wait until at least junior year</p>
<p>I agree with huskem55, and I'd add that even if schools will not require the new GRE, this does not give your son much room if he decides, as many people do, that he wants to take a year or two off between undergrad and grad school.</p>
<p>At any rate, hard sciences PhD programs will be most/primarily interested in an applicant's quantitative score, to the extent that they are really interested in scores at all. The GRE is really not all that critical in graduate school admissions, and it's much more important for a prospective scientist to get involved with a research project this year than to take the GRE already.</p>