Makers of the GRE graduate school entrance exam announced last Tuesday they have postponed the release of a reformatted version of the test expected next fall.

Educational Testing Service had already delayed planned revisions by a year and has now said they do not have the capacity to make the switch this fall and will maintain the old test as it is currently administered.

Between 550,000 and 600,000 applicants to graduate programs take the GRE annually.

Roberta Bell, director of the Vanderbilt Institutional Research Group, said her office was just about to have its first meeting to discuss the changes, but it was cancelled that same day.

While the changes may not come this fall, they are still expected in the coming years.

Fearful of the inability to accommodate enough students at test centers, the main revision involved a switch to a more secure Internet-based system that would eventually expand the number of sites where the test could be taken.

Among other potential revisions, the test may be lengthened from 2 1/2 to four hours, the antonym and analogy sections may be eliminated in favor of critical reading, and the test will only be offered 30 times a year.

The test would also change from its current "adaptive model," in which test takers receive different questions depending on previous correct or incorrect responses, to a "linear model," in which all test takers receive the same questions.

The MCAT and the LSAT both feature linear testing models.
While all proposed changes are still tentative, ETS has also considered increasing the price of the exam but has not stated the new price. The current exam costs $130 in the United States and $160 in most other places.

Recent scoring errors on the SAT college entrance exam coupled with the delay in GRE revisions have raised concerns that the standardized testing industry, busy with dozens of national and state-level standardized exams, has too much on its plate.

"ETS has repeatedly tried to rush computerized exams into the marketplace before they were ready for primetime," said Robert Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest, a group that has been critical of the testing industry. "They pushed these flawed products to increase test maker income, not improve assessment quality or meet students' needs."

Senior Stephen Johnson said he did not feel the revisions would do much to solve the problems associated with the exam.

"You are not going to solve a problem of overcrowding by making the test longer or by offering it only 30 times a year," he said.

Johnson said he believes a four-hour exam is too lengthy and only decreases academic ability as students become tired.

Senior Ally Adams-Alwine said she took the GRE in May after hearing about the potential changes and extension of the test to four hours.

"They didn't really make it clear what the changes were going to entail, but when I took the test there was an experimental section - I guess a sample of some possible changes - and it was not pleasant," she said.