Updated GRE Test for September 2023

In mid-June 2023, ETS, the Educational Testing Service, announced several updates to the GRE (Graduate Records Examination) General Test. ETS has made small updates to the GRE every few years over the last decade since the previous major update to the test in August 2011. Those changes included changing the scoring scale to the current 130-170 model, updating the open-response questions on the math sections, the line numbering on the reading portion of the verbal sections, and the adjustment of the computer-adaptive system from question-by-question to adaptive by section.

The upcoming changes to the GRE General Test will be significant. First, ETS is shortening the length of the exam from three hours, forty-five minutes to just under two hours long. This will be accomplished by reducing the number of verbal and math questions by as many as 46 per testing. The second major change is eliminating one of the two essays that GRE test takers currently encounter.

ETS claims that the new version of the GRE will measure the same skills as the current test, featuring the exact same question types. The good news is that college students and college graduates looking to return for an advanced degree can continue to prepare using the same materials currently available.

ETS has decided to eliminate one of the two essays on the GRE. Currently, the GRE essays are different in format and purpose. One of the essays requires the test taker to analyze a current events issue. The solution to this type of essay prompt is to write something similar to a traditional five-paragraph essay, including a concise thesis statement in its own thesis paragraph, specific detail paragraph providing support for the position taken in the thesis, and a basic conclusion paragraph to wrap up the response. The other current essay asks the test taker to analyze an argument supplied as by the prompt. The test taker is expected to deconstruct the provided argument, explaining where it succeeds and where it fails. The new GRE will retain the Analyze an Issue essay, dropping the Analyze an Argument essay type.

In the press release, the ETS copy writer compares the new GRE to the GMAT and related exams. Clearly, this is an attempt to offset the trend in higher education admissions in which more and more graduate schools are dropping the requirement that applicants must take the GRE. By making the GRE test-taking experience less onerous, I suspect ETS hopes that both graduate school admissions offices and applicants are more willing to use the GRE as a metric in admissions.

Additionally, ETS promises that scores will be available in half the time following a testing as compared to the current version of the exam. Unfortunately, the cost of taking the GRE, US$205 as of June 2023, will remain the same despite the shorter length of the exam.