GRE Format changes from 2011

The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) , a test taken by 600,000 students across the world each year, will look significantly different in 2011. The Educational Testing Service , which administers the exam, announced its plans to revamp the GRE. on Dec. 4, calling the changes the “largest revisions” in the test’s history.

ETS spokesman Tom Ewing said changes have been a “long time coming.” ETS first announced changes in 2006, but delayed making them until 2007 to add more Internet-based test centers. In 2007, it canceled the planned changes. The new test will include a new grading scale and an increased emphasis on reasoning and critical thinking skills, while focusing less on analogy and vocabulary sections.

Changes to the computer systems the test is administered through will allow students to skip questions and come back later to complete them before finishing the section. Previously, students could not go back to answer questions they skipped. The most significant change, Ewing said, will be in the types of prompts.

“The questions asked will be more focused and require thoughtful responses rather than strictly memorization,” he said. Ewing said exam changes will benefit future test takers.