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Testing service cancels February GRE

Princeton Review officials denounce policy, criticize computerized test

By Allyssa Lee

The recent cancellation of February's Graduate Record Examination has prompted the Princeton Review test preparation center to threaten legal action against exam administrators.

The Educational Testing Service (ETS), which oversees the graduate school admissions exam, received criticism earlier this month for reducing its computerized Graduate School Exam by 80 percent. But the cancellation of the February paper and pencil test caused the Princeton Review to denounce the testing service's public policy and threaten legal action, according to Princeton Review officials.

"It's very frustrating," said Bill Kerr, director of graduate programs, Princeton Review, Los Angeles. "The ETS does what they want when they want, and we just have to justify it."

The computerized Graduate Record Examination, otherwise known as the Computer Adaptive Test, was introduced in November, 1992 with hopes of eliminating the paper and pencil exam by the 1996-1997 school year.

The ETS credits its computerized exam for providing immediate scoring, being adaptive to the students' difficulty levels, having less populated testing centers, as well as more testing dates.

But according to Kerr the test is unfair to the students.

"The first few questions are worth a lot ­ it's unfair that if you're a slow starter, there's no chance for you," Kerr explained. "But that's no reason for someone not to be able to go to school. It's very frustrating."

The cancellation of the February testing date came as part of a decision to start phasing out the paper and pencil test administration dates, said ETS spokesman Kevin Gonzales. The decision, made last year, was printed on the test information booklet and has been available to students since last summer, he added.

"(The Princeton Review is) looking for a place on the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) bandwagon," said Gonzalez. "Just like Kaplan."

In December 1994 the Kaplan Test Preparation Services publicly announced the computerized test's susceptibility to cheating by recreating 75 percent of the exam. As a result, the ETS pulled back 80 percent of its computerized test dates and charged Kaplan for violating copyright and electronic communication privacy laws.

By eliminating its February testing date, Kerr believes exam administrators are limiting students' options. "The word was getting out that not a lot of people were taking the (computerized test), so (ETS) wanted to force people to take the test ... people are going crazy," said Kerr. "The test is only available for one week a month ­ there's nothing available for this week, unless you want to go to a really far place."

In response to the criticism, Gonzales remarked, "(The students) probably should have looked at the information booklet starting in the fall and should have planned on the dates. The information has been out there since the summer."

"There were two (paper and pen test) dates prior to this date," Gonzales added.

Albert Aubin, a Placement Career Planning Center special needs counselor said he had not received any recent notice of a canceled date. "It has had no effect on UCLA students," said Aubin. "Very few students take the computerized GRE. It's very new and apparently most of our students take the paper and pencil test. There's no such thing as a February test. There's only four nationalized test dates."

Prospective graduate students at UCLA said they were unaffected by the canceled pen and paper test.

Hong also said the February exam would probably have been too late for seniors who planned to attend graduate school the next year.

"People are doing applications right now," Hong said. "They want you to have your applications done by March and it takes about a month for ETS to report your scores. Each graduate school has a different deadline, and they want all your information."

Test scores take about five weeks for the paper and pencil exam, while the computerized one takes two to three weeks. Pen and paper test dates for the 1994-1995 school year are listed in the ETS's current catalogue. Computerized test dates occur the first week of every month.

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