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GRE matters most?


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"It is significant that most science and engineering departments at M.I.T. do not use the G.R.E. in their admissions process and that M.I.T President Charles Vest is lobbying nationally for abolition of the test."

 

 

GOOD PRACTICES

 

IN SELECTING GRADUATE STUDENTS FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT

 

JoAnn Moody, Ph.D., J.D. Vice President New England Board of Higher Education

 

© JoAnn Moody, June 2000

 

..........QUOTE (http://www.unh.edu/chemistry/goodpract.html):

 

7. De-emphasize or remove the Graduate Record Exam score from the list of criteria used in selecting graduate students for your department.... “There is little correlation between G.R.E. scores and later success as a scientist,” according to the experience of Brown University Physics Professor Robert Brandenberger. “Those being tested by the G.R.E. must race against the clock, decide on pat answers, and do this in isolation. Real research, by contrast, requires imagination, in-depth working and thinking with others, and grappling with questions that have no answers.” The G.R.E. does far more harm than good, according to Harvard University Physics Professor Howard Georgi, Cornell University Professor of Human Development Wendy Williams, and Yale University Psychology Professor Robert Sternberg. By relying on the test scores, graduate schools have inadvertently excluded talented students--in particular non-traditional ones--and thereby narrowed their graduate enrollment.

 

In addition, standardized tests have done potentially long-term damage to students and U.S. society. In the face of low G.R.E. scores, many students lose self-confidence and motivation for graduate school. They often self-screen themselves out of the running: that is, they do not follow through in their applications to graduate schools because they believe they have been shown to be inferior and unworthy. Their demoralization can last a lifetime; the U.S. academic and scientific enterprise is thereby short-changed.

 

Biochemist Bruce Alberts, president of the national Academy of Sciences, criticizes educational institutions for relying on multiple-choice, timed tests like the G.R.E. which reward superficial thinking and efficient test-taking. Such tests “tell us nothing important” but have been used to save time for admissions committees. It is significant that most science and engineering departments at M.I.T. do not use the G.R.E. in their admissions process and that M.I.T. President Charles Vest is lobbying nationally for abolition of the test. Universities like Vanderbilt University have performed their own internal audit and discovered that there is no correlation between their graduate students’ scores and their actual success in graduate school and beyond.

 

For these reasons, graduate departments are asked to reconsider their reliance on the G.R.E. Inadvertent damage is done by requiring students to take the G.R.E.: when they receive their scores, most of them believe their true intellectual worth and promise have been uncovered. Concomitantly, the graduate admissions committees may grant legitimacy to a single number that has little or no correlation to reality and the scholarly enterprise. Admittedly, if admissions committees stop factoring in G.R.E. scores, then their decision process in considering applications will be lengthened. But it seems clear that this lengthening is a price that deserves to be paid.

 

For more information, contact:

 

JoAnn Moody phone 617-357-9620, x118

 

New England Board of Higher Education 45 Temple Place Boston MA 02111 jamoody@nebhe.org

 

 

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The GRE measures the ability of the individual to do problems under timed conditions and without the assistance of others, and while I agree that in the real world such scenarios are few and far between; unfortunately, college is one of those scenarios. The GRE is supposed to test how well a person will do in graduate school and for the most part it does serve as a good predictor of a student's first year graduate school grades. However, it rarely predicts success outside of school. The problem isn't the GRE, the problem is that universities test students under conditions that are ridiculously aberrant to the "real world." Colleges give tests and quizzes that are to be done alone and under timed conditions, so while I agree that the GRE should not alone discourage an individual from pursuing a particular major or concentration. I feel that the larger problem is the layout of American institutions (and yes I am American), they assess individuals as individuals rather than as members of a team or an interdependent group. The main flaw lies in the disparity between the American schooling system and the real world.

 

Do I win anything?

:D

 

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Originally posted by GooGooDoll

 

Do I win anything?

:D

Your prize is the perspicacity with which you were born. :p

 

I believe that most of these standardized tests are terribly outdated and have little correlation with one's success. The new TOEFL looks promising, and the addition of the essays to the GRE and GMAT was an improvement, but still, the tests, as everybody says, really only measure your ability to do well on that test.

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