Study Abroad: GRE begins for graduate, law, business admissions; now for two hours

NEW DELHI: The English Testing Service (ETS) Graduate Record Examinations (Shorter GRE) begins today. Students can now take the shorter GRE for admissions to various graduate, business, and law programmes. The shorter GRE test time has been cut in half and is now conducted in under two hours compared to almost four hours previously.

The shorter GRE will improve the testing experience for students while maintaining the validity and reliability of GRE scores that are accepted by institutes globally. The official GRE scores will be available to the test takers after eight to ten days of the conduct of the examination.

The GRE test is now under two hours with a quick score as the number of questions in the quantitative and verbal reasoning sections has been reduced, and the removal of analysis of argument tasks in the analytical writing section has been removed. The ETS has also removed the unscored section.

As per the ETS, the score scales will remain consistent, ensuring that graduate programmes can easily compare performance across individuals who test before and after September 2023.

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The shorter GRE allows test takers to answer questions in the order that they choose and to change their answers as often as they need to. The students can create an account, register for a test, access test preparation resources, etc. through the official website, ets.org/gre.

Speaking on these changes Sachin Jain, country manager, ETS India and South Asia, said "The shorter GRE provides a better test-taking experience while continuing to be the most valid and reliable assessment of graduate-level readiness. GRE’s widespread acceptance across graduate and professional programs, including STEM, business, and law, is a testimony of being an objective measure of cognitive skills that are the foundation of success across fields of study and profession.”

“We are confident that GRE test takers from India, one of the largest populations of GRE test takers in the world, will welcome a significantly better experience with the shorter GRE when showcasing their graduate-readiness to admissions professionals at higher education institutions around the globe ” Jain stated further.

More than 1,300 business schools in 94 countries accept GRE scores for MBA and other professional graduate programmes. Additionally, GRE scores are valid for five years providing students with flexibility to explore their graduate and professional school options.