gre graduate school
Testing locations
While the general and subject tests are held at many undergraduate institutions, the computer-based general test is only held at test centers with appropriate technological accommodations. Students in major cities in the United States, or those attending large U.S. universities, will usually find a nearby test center, while those in more isolated areas may have to travel a few hours to an urban or university location. Many industrialized countries also have test centers, but at times test-takers must cross country borders.
Validity
A meta-analysis of the GRE’s validity in predicting graduate school success found a correlation of .3 to .4 between the GRE and both first year and overall graduate GPA. The correlation between GRE score and graduate school completion rates ranged from .11 (for the now defunct analytical section) to .39 (for the GRE subject test).[16]
However, a lack of correlation appears when the analysis is extended to review of the literature in the past, and such a review appeared in a 1985 issue of the journal Research in Higher Education. Over eighty pages in length, it is one of the most exhaustive literature reviews on the question of test validity. The author Leonard Baird focused on studies completed between 1966 and 1984, reported in any of nineteen highly regarded scholarly journals. In study after study many of the reported correlation coefficients were zero or near zero, and some studies even showed significant negative coefficients. Most striking, many of these negative correlations appear in the studies concerning the relationship between test scores and the number of publications and citations for graduates of PhD programs. For instance: “Clark and Centra studied two samples of doctoral recipients… The resulting sample consisted of 239 chemists, 142 historians, and 221 psychologists, all of whom had at least one GRE score. In chemistry, the correlation of number of articles and book chapters with GRE-verbal was -.02; with GRE-quantitative it was -.01; and with GRE-advanced it was .15… For all historians, these correlations were -.24, -.14, and .00. For all psychologists, the correlations were -.05, -.02, and .02. Clark and Centra also examined the distribution of number of publications by GRE scores. The distributions were essentially flat, with no particular trend. In fact, the largest number of publications was reported by the lowest scoring groups in all three fields.” [17]
However, it should be noted that the GRE has been substantially revised since the publication of this 1985 study. Moreover, the GRE does not claim to predict lifetime professional success. It is designed to correlate with graduate school factors, as mentioned previously.
Criticism
Test takers complain about the strict test center rules. For instance, test takers may not use pens or bring their own scrap paper. Paper and pencils are provided at the testing center. Food and drink are prohibited in the test centers, as well as chewing gum. Personal items such as jackets and hats are subject to inspection.
Bias
Critics have claimed that the computer-adaptive methodology may discourage some test takers, because the question difficulty changes with performance.[citation needed] For example, if the test-taker is presented with remarkably easy questions half way into the exam, they may infer that they are not performing well, which will influence their abilities as the exam continues, even though question difficulty is subjective. By contrast standard testing methods may discourage students by giving them more difficult items earlier on.
Critics have also stated that the computer-adaptive method of placing more weight on the first several questions is biased against test takers who typically perform poorly at the beginning of a test due to stress or confusion before becoming more comfortable as the exam continues.[18] Of course standard fixed-form tests could equally be said to be “biased” against students with less testing stamina since they would need to be approximately twice the length of an equivalent computer adaptive test to obtain a similar level of precision.[19]
The GRE has also been subjected to the same racial bias criticisms that have been lodged against other admissions tests. In 1998, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education noted that the mean score for black test-takers in 1996 was 389 on the verbal section, 409 on the quantitative section, and 423 on the analytic, while white test-takers averaged 496, 538, and 564, respectively.[20] Note that simple mean score differences do not constitute evidence of bias unless the populations are known to be equal in ability, and insisting that group score difference are direct evidence of a bad test is an extreme position.[21] A more effective, accepted, and empirical approach is the analysis of differential test functioning, which examines the differences in item response theory curves for subgroups; the best approach for this is the DFIT framework. [22]
There is also a bias towards those students who have the financial resources to take privately owned test-taking classes. These classes do typically result in better scores;[citation needed] however, many such companies and tutors focus solely on how to use the test’s format to one’s advantage, and not how to actually learn the material on the exam.
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