GRE announces ScoreSelect Option July 2012 onwards

by Ankita Arora

GRE or Graduate Record Examination is a standardized test taken for admissions in to graduate and now even Business Schools in USA. GRE is created and administered by ETS.

ETS has taken this test a long way since its start in 1949. The major changes which we all know came into play in August 2011. Some of the important changes in this new pattern of GRE were:

A new scoring scale with marking in the range of 130-170 and most remarkably one point progressions.
Omission of analogies and antonyms
Inclusion of an online calculator for the quantitative section which was definitely welcomed by test takers across world
Last but not the least, Computer Adaptive test format of question by question adjustment was replaced by section by section adjustment

To keep the changes in the GRE pattern rolling, a new announcement has been made by ETS.

A new provision in score reporting "ScoreSelect Option" is being introduced which is being considered a GOOD NEWS for the test takers!

Let's analyze how it can help the test takers.

Most importantly with this new feature in the score reporting, test takers can select the score from all previous tests taken in past five years which they feel reflects their personal best.

The options available to the test taker on the test day would include:

ScoreSelect Most Recent option - For sending your current test scores

ScoreSelect All option - For sending scores from all tests takes in past five years

The options available to the test taker after the test day would include:

ScoreSelect Most Recent option - For sending your current test scores

ScoreSelect All option - For sending scores from all tests takes in past five years ScoreSelect Any option - For sending scores from one or many test takes in last five years. This could be done by choosing the scores from a particular test date in the past when you took the test.

On the test day you can send your scores to the recipient universities free of cost, while after the test date you will bear the cost in form of an additional score reporting.

This new feature incorporated by ETS is surely a boon for the students taking multiple tests but somehow are not able to improve upon the scores. Earlier the score cards used to reflect scores from all the past test takes. Consequently, for all students for whom the scores had taken a dip in the recent test takes, score reports left a negative impact on the admissions committee. But now with a choice among the scores from past test takes, one can showcase his/her personal best without letting the university officials know about the tests taken in the past.

Thus this surely is a welcome feature from ETS for the test takers globally.

ScoreSelect option will be available from July 2012 onwards. The specific date of test administration which will take this feature on board will be announced later in June. Till that time score reporting would be cumulative i.e. scores from all the test takes in last five years would be reported.

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Image Credits: jhull's photostream