GRE Info – GRE History
As part of its ongoing mission to advance the science and measurement necessary to power human progress, ETS has adapted the GRE over the years to fit the changing needs of learners, educational institutions, and education policy. The organization’s goals are to raise awareness around educational issues, develop assessments that are valid and fair, and conduct research that drives innovation and informs education policy. Below is a brief history of the GRE, as well as information on important revisions beginning with the most recent.
1936: GRE Creation
The GRE was established in 1936 as a joint experiment between the graduate school deans of Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and Columbia University in partnership with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 1938, the University of Wisconsin became the first public university to ask their students to take the GRE. This was followed by the University of Iowa in 1940, Texas Tech University in 1942, and Michigan State University in 1943. By 1948, the GRE had been taken by more than 45,000 students applying to over 500 colleges.
The GRE was overseen by the Carnegie Foundation until 1948, when the Educational Testing Service (ETS) was created. The organization was composed of a combination of researchers and statisticians, test developers, and educational policy specialists dedicated to social responsibility, equity, opportunity, and quality. Since 1948, ETS has overseen all aspects of GRE administration and revisions.
The earliest versions of the GRE exam only assessed Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning abilities, and the test did not change significantly in the first decade or so following its release. In the 1950s, it played an important role in helping soldiers returning from WWII applying to graduate programs. Many of the returning soldiers had chosen non-traditional careers paths, which meant they acked the traditional academic backgrounds of students who had attended prestigious undergraduate university programs. With a larger and more diverse student body seeking higher education, colleges more regularly began using standardized tests such as the GRE to evaluate an applicant’s likelihood of graduate school success.
1977: First Test Revision
In 1977, the GRE underwent the first significant revision since the test’s creation. A new measure of analytical ability was included on the exam, and this Analytical section assessed a test-taker’s analytical reasoning skills, as well as their ability to analyze and interpret logical diagrams and explanations. This was introduced as a separate section from those measuring verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning abilities. This meant that the revised GRE now assessed Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytical abilities through multiple-choice questions.
1992: First Computerized Version of the GRE
In 1992, ETS introduced the first computerized version of the GRE. Prior to this, all GREs were paper-and-pencil tests taken in an approved testing center. The idea of taking an exam on a computer was still relatively new at the time, and many people doubted that test-takers would warm to the idea. However, leaders at ETS were confident test-takers would quickly take to the new format and administration, especially since students could receive an unofficial score immediately after completing the exam, providing them with at least some idea of how they had performed and whether they needed to consider taking the exam again before applying to graduate schools.
Initially, the computerized version of the GRE was available at roughly 100 testing centers in major US cities, as well as at seven ETS field offices and seven educational institutions, plus approximately 100 Sylvan Learning Center test sites. Thanks to the computerized version, the GRE could be offered three times per week at testing centers rather than five times per year, although the computerized version of the exam originally cost $90 while the paper-and-pencil version cost $45.
1993: The GRE Becomes Computer Adaptive
In 1993, the first computer adaptive version of the GRE was introduced. In this version of the exam, the GRE was computer adaptive at the question level, which meant that the difficulty level of a question was determined by how the test-taker performed on the previous question. If a test-taker received a question and answered it correctly, the following question was of similar difficulty or more challenging. If a test-taker received a question and answered it incorrectly, the following question was generally less challenging and easier to answer.
With the introduction of computer adaptive testing, experts believed the GRE was able to provide an even more accurate reflection of a test-taker’s true skills and abilities. And because the test adapted to each person who took it, each test-taker completed an individualized exam, making cheating on the test all but impossible.
1999: Goodbye, Paper Version of the GRE
In 1999, ETS offered the final paper-and-pencil version of the GRE before doing away with that version of the exam. This meant the GRE could now only be taken on a computer in a designated testing center. This was due to the overwhelming popularity of the computer-based test, as well as advances in computer adaptive testing. With paper-and-pencil exams, large groups of students completed the identical exam, which theoretically increased the possibility of cheating. Computer adaptive tests were individualized through the automated selection of questions from a large pool based on the student’s ongoing performance, meaning each test was customized to the particular student taking it, making cheating virtually impossible.
Early 2000s: Revisions, No Revisions, and Minor Format Changes
In 2006, ETS announced plans to undertake significant revisions on the GRE, including a longer testing time, a departure from computer adaptive testing, a new grading scale, and a greater focus on reasoning and critical thinking skills across both Verbal and Quantitative sections. However, in 2007, ETS announced that they had cancelled plans for a revision, citing concerns over their ability to provide equal access to the new test after implementing the planned revisions. Instead, several small changes were made to the exam in 2007, such as including new “fill in the blank” questions rather than allowing a test-taker to choose from multiple answer options.
In 2008, the Reading Comprehension passages within the Verbal Reasoning sections were reformatted. Rather than providing the line numbers of passages, test-takers could highlight lines as needed to better focus on the specific information in the passage.
2011: Major Changes to GRE Scoring, Structure, and Methodology
The GRE was significantly revised in August 2011, undergoing changes to the test’s scoring system, structure, timing, and methodology. With regards to scoring, prior to 2011 the GRE was scored on a scale of 200-800. After the 2011 revisions, the test was scored on a scale of 130-170, meaning the highest GRE total score a test-taker could achieve now fell between 260-340.
Revising the structure of the GRE resulted in several important changes. Test-takers could now skip test questions and go back and review them before selecting an answer. An on-screen calculator was added to the Quantitative Reasoning sections. The Quantitative Reasoning sections were revised to emphasize data interpretation and interpreting information from real-life scenarios. The Verbal Reasoning section was revised so that antonyms and analogies were removed in favor of text completion and sentence equivalent questions, allowing test-takers to “fill in the blank” in a way that reflected the sentence’s meaning rather than demonstrating a knowledge of memorized grammar rules. The Analytical Writing section was altered to include only one prompt per section, resulting in one “Analyze an Issue” task and one “Analyze an Argument” task.
The GRE was also changed from being computer adaptive at the question level to being computer adaptive at the section level. Rather than having the difficulty of the exam change question by question, the test now adapted to the test-taker based on how they performed on the first Verbal Reasoning section and the first Quantitative Reasoning section. How a student performed on the first section determined the difficulty level of the second section. If a person performed well on the first Verbal Reasoning section, the second Verbal Reasoning section would be more difficult; however, if a person performed poorly on the first Verbal Reasoning section, the second Verbal Reasoning section would feature less challenging questions.
2020: COVID-19 Prompts At Home Standardized Testing
With the onset of a global pandemic caused by COVID-19 in early 2020, the entire world shut down for several months as people practiced required social distancing. Only a limited number of people were permitted to be inside stores or offices at a given time, which mean that testing centers were closed, and students were unable to take standardized tests such as the GRE. This raised serious questions about how students would apply to, interview at, and ultimately gain admission to graduate, business, and law schools. Thankfully, ETS was able to quickly convert the computerized version of the GRE into a test that could be taken at home.
The content and format of the GRE did not change: the test remained 3 hours and 45 minutes long and consisted of two Verbal Reasoning sections, two Quantitative Reasoning sections, one Analytical Writing section with two separate tasks, and an unscored experimental or research section. What did change was the inclusion of a human proctor who monitored test-takers through a webcam as they took the GRE from their home. The proctor ensured students were not looking up information online while taking the exam, receiving assistance from anyone else, or otherwise engaging in inappropriate test-taking behavior.
2023 to Present: A Shorter GRE, Only One Essay, and No Breaks
In 2023, the GRE underwent a round of revisions that significantly altered the format of the exam. To begin with, the exam was shortened from 3 hours and 45 minutes to 1 hour and 58 minutes. The Analytical Writing section was made shorter by removing the “Analyze an Argument” task, leaving test-takers with only one essay to write as part of the “Analyze an Issue” task. The number of questions was reduced across both Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections, such that the first section of each now contained 12 questions while the second section contained 15 questions, making a grand total of 27 Verbal Reasoning questions and 27 Quantitative Reasoning questions. The unscored or experimental research section was removed from the exam entirely. And given the shorter length of the exam, the 10-minute break test-takers previously received was also removed. The GRE could stil be taken at designated test centers or remotely from the comfort of one’s own home.
GRE Consistency and Security
The GRE is regularly updated to reflect the increasingly global population taking the test, as well as to better measure the current skills deemed most relevant to academic or professional success at a particular time. While these changes may alter the length or format of the GRE, some aspects of the exam have remained consistent over time, most notably the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections. A general emphasis on verbal and quantitative reasoning abilities has remained relatively stable since the creation of the GRE and continues to be a key component of the exam.
ETS is committed to maintaining the security of the GRE, and there are numerous security policies in place when taking the exam at a test center. New security measures were introduced when the GRE was converted to a remote exam that could be taken at home, and test-takers would be wise to familiarize themselves with the security policies related to a specific test location, which are readily available through ETS at www.ets.org.