Repeating the Test ETS does not impose any limit on the total number of times an individual may take the GRE. However, no test taker may take the computer-based GRE and/or the paper-based GRE more than once in the same calendar month or more than five times within any 12-month period. These restrictions apply regardless of whether test scores are later canceled and regardless of testing location(s)—United States, Canada, or elsewhere in the world. Canceling or Rescheduling a Test Date, and Fee Refunds Test takers in the United States, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Canada can cancel a test appointment or reschedule the time, date, or location either online (at www.prometric.com) or by calling 1-800-GRE-CALL or 1-443-751-4820. CBT test takers elsewhere in the world must contact the appropriate RRC to cancel or reschedule. (For RRC contact information, see “GRE Availability and Registration [International Test- ing]” earlier in this chapter.) Registrants who cancel or reschedule no later than three full days before their test date (not including the test date) are entitled to a refund of one-half their original test fee; registrants who wait any longer to cancel or reschedule forfeit their entire test fee. Also, ETS charges a $50 fee to reschedule a test appointment. For cancellation and rescheduling policies regarding the paper-based test, see the current GRE Bulletin. Fees for the GRE and for Related Services The fees listed below are for the 2008–09 testing year, in U.S. dollars. Note that fees for the GRE General Test are likely to increase for the 2009–10 testing year and beyond. (Not all GRE-related fees are listed here; see the GRE Bulletin for a complete list.) • $140 for the GRE General Test in the United States, U.S. Territories, or Puerto Rico • $190 for the GRE General Test in China (including Hong Kong), Korea, or Taiwan • $170 for the GRE General Test in any other international location • $25 for late registration • $50 for rescheduling or changing test location • $20 for each additional score report (ASR) request Fee Reduction Program During each testing year, a 50% reduction in the GRE test fee is available to a limited number of GRE registrants on a first-come, first-served basis. To be eligible for the fee reduction, a registrant must be: • a U.S. citizen or resident alien, and • a college senior or unenrolled college graduate. Chapter 1: All About the General GRE 23 . www.petersons.com Registrants must also meet certain financial-need requirements. To receive the fee reduction, you must ask your college financial aid office to affirm your eligibility by issuing a fee reduction certificate, which you can then apply to the General Test and/or one Subject Test. Submit the original certificate (not a photocopy) as directed to ETS; allow about three weeks for ETS to process the certificate. The fee reduction program is available for eligible individuals strictly on a one-time basis. Test Takers with Disabilities The following types of nonstandard testing accommodations are available to eligible GRE test takers: • Special keyboards and mouse devices, screen magnification, special screen colors (for computer-based testing) • Braille or large print paper-based testing (with or without audio) • Extended testing time and/or break times • Assistance from readers, writers, and interpreters Minor accommodations (e.g., additional breaks, adjustable chairs, or special lighting) are also available to test takers with documented medical conditions (for example, those with chronic pain, diabetes, or epilepsy). To secure nonstandard accommodations, complete and submit to ETS a “Request for Non-Standard Testing Accommodations” form. You can download the form from the ETS Web site or contact ETS Disability Services (see below) for a copy. If your request is approved, ETS will mail you an authorization voucher. Allow six weeks for ETS to process your request. You’ll need a special number that appears on your voucher to register for the test under the accommodations you’ve requested. Note that test takers requesting non- standard testing accommodations must register for the GRE by mail rather than online or by telephone. For additional information and instructions, see the Bulletin Supplement for Test Takers With Disabilities, available for download at the ETS Web site or by contacting ETS Disability Services. This supplement also includes the request form, which consists of a three-part application. For more details and for the latest updates, or to obtain the request form or the current Bulletin Supplement, contact ETS Disability Services (information provided below). Web www.ets.org/disability Telephone 1-866-387-8602 (toll-free for test takers within the United States, U.S. Territories, and Canada) 1-609-771-7780 (all other locations) Monday–Friday 8:00 A . M .to5:00 P . M . Eastern Time PART I: GRE Basics24 . www.petersons.com Email stassd@ets.org TTY 1-609-771-7714 Fax 1-609-771-7165 Mail ETS Disability Services Educational Testing Service P.O. Box 6054 Princeton, NJ 08541-6054 THE GRE PERSONAL POTENTIAL INDEX (NEW IN 2009) Starting in July 2009, a new measure called the Personal Potential Index (PPI) is available to all GRE General Test registrants. The PPI was designed by ETS to provide a quantitative assessment of non-cognitive personal attributes that the GRE test itself was never intended to measure and that serve as predictive indicators of effectiveness and persistence in graduate-level study. The PPI is not part of the GRE that you take on test day. Rather, it is essentially a means of standardizing one element of the admissions application: the letter of recommendation, or “rec letter.” Here you’ll learn about the PPI index and rating system. You’ll also learn how graduate schools are expected to use the PPI and how you, as an applicant, can make use of it. The PPI Questionnaire As a candidate for admission, you initiate the PPI process by asking up to five evaluators to complete an online PPI questionnaire aimed at assessing you, the applicant, in terms of the following six attributes, or “dimensions”: • your knowledge and creativity • your communication skills • your ability to work as part of a team • your resilience • your planning and organization abilities • your ethics and integrity The PPI questionnaire includes four questions for each of the six attributes listed above (24 questions in all). Notice that the six attributes have more to do with noncognitive attributes than with intellectual capacity or academic accomplishment. Also note that in developing the PPI, ETS recognized that an evaluator may not be familiar with the specific academic program to which an applicant is applying. Accord- ingly, the PPI does not ask the evaluator to comment on the applicant’s suitability for any particular academic program. Chapter 1: All About the General GRE 25 . www.petersons.com Evaluators respond to each question by comparing you with other individuals they have known and who have applied for graduate admission in the same field of study, and then rate you accordingly on the following 1–5 scale: Below average Average Above average Outstanding (top 5%) Truly exceptional (top 1%) Evaluators may also elaborate on their answers by providing a narrative response to any specific PPI question. They may provide general comments as an overall evalu- ation as well. After tabulating and averaging the ratings provided by all your evalu- ators, ETS reports the results to the schools as you, the applicant, direct. The PPI evaluation report includes the following information: • the mean (average) rating by each evaluator for each of the six attributes • the mean of all evaluators’ ratings for each of the six attributes • each evaluator’s overall mean and the overall mean for all evaluators • individual answers (including narrative responses) provided by each evaluator • name and contact information of each evaluator You can track the status of your PPI evaluations and evaluation report throughout the entire process. The PPI and Graduate School Policies As noted earlier, the function of the Personal Potential Index is similar to that of traditional letters of recommendation. But this doesn’t mean that all graduate schools will immediately abandon their own rec-letter forms in favor of the PPI questionnaire. Remember that the PPI is new in 2009. Although many schools will embrace the new system as a way for applicants to supplement their recommendation letters, fewer schools are likely to replace their own recommendation letters entirely with a standard- ized form—at least not for a while. In any event, contact the specific graduate programs that interest you to determine their current policies. How the PPI Can Help You, the Applicant Let’s assume that the PPI is not required for admission to your target graduate programs. Does that mean it is of no use to you? Not necessarily. Traditional recommen- dation letters from professors may suffice for applicants with distinguished academic records. But if your strengths lie more in the personal attributes that the PPI measures than in your GPA, then the PPI might very well help make you a more attractive candidate to graduate programs. By the same token, if you have a strong academic record, you can use the PPI to show the admissions committee that you possess not only the “book smarts,” but also the character they’re looking for to round out their student body. PART I: GRE Basics26 . NOTE Evaluators complete the PPI online and submit it electronically. According to ETS, evaluators spend an average of less than 15 minutes completing the PPI questionnaire. www.petersons.com PPI Fee Policies Effective July 2009, the PPI is bundled with the GRE General Test. This means that by registering for the test itself, you can access the PPI, at your option, without paying an additional fee. (The costs of administering the PPI are reflected in a 2009 fee increase for all test takers.) At no additional charge, you can designate up to four institutions to receive a PPI evaluation report once the evaluations have been completed. ETS charges a small fee for each additional institution beyond four that you designate to receive an evaluation report. You can purchase the PPI as a stand-alone assessment as well—so if you took the GRE before July 2009 and don’t need or want to repeat the test, or if you’re applying for admission to a program that does not require GRE test scores but nevertheless requires the PPI, you won’t need to pay the full GRE registration fee just to access the PPI. OBTAINING UP-TO-DATE GRE INFORMATION The registration, testing, and other information in this chapter highlights ETS’s policies and procedures, but it is not intended to be comprehensive. For complete information, consult the official GRE Web site (www.gre.org) or refer to the printed GRE Information and Registration Bulletin, published annually by ETS. This free bulletin is available directly from ETS and also through career-planning offices at most four-year colleges and universities. You can also download the Bulletin from the official GRE Web site. The Bulletin provides detailed, current information about: • the CBT test format • registration methods and procedures • fees for registration and related services (fee amounts, preferred methods and currencies, and so on) • accommodations for test takers with disabilities • canceling or rescheduling a test date/refund policies • ID requirements for admission to the test center • canceling scores and score reinstatement • repeating the test • test center regulations and testing procedures • test centers and RRC centers (codes, locations, telephone numbers, hours of operation) • the paper-based GRE (availability, registration procedures, standby testing, and so on) • scores and score reporting (additional score reports, phone services for scores, and so on) • the GRE Search Service (this service matches applicants with graduate pro- grams) Chapter 1: All About the General GRE 27 . TIP It’s perfectly okay for the same individuals writing your “rec letters” to provide your PPI ratings as well. But try to find at least one different person for the PPI -- perhaps an employer, supervisor, or mentor who knows you outside the context of academia. NOTE The Bulletin also provides registration information for the GRE Subject Tests, as well as a description of each one. www.petersons.com CONTACTING THE TESTING SERVICE For general inquiries about the GRE, you can consult ETS by several methods. If you are already registered for the test, be ready to provide your registration number and test date. Web www.gre.org (official GRE Web site) www.ets.org (ETS home page) www.ets.org/gre/grereg (GRE registration) www.ets.org/gre/stupubs (GRE download library) Telephone 1-609-771-7670 Monday–Friday 8:00 A . M .to7:45 P . M . Eastern Time (except for U.S. holidays) 1-866-473-4373 Monday–Friday 8:00 A . M .to7:45 P . M . Eastern Time (toll-free for test takers within the United States, U.S. Territories, and Canada) 1-609-771-7714 (TTY) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for test takers who are deaf or hearing impaired Recorded information is available 24 hours a day if you use a touch-tone phone. Phones are busiest between 11:00 A . M . and 2:00 P . M . every day and all day on Mondays Fax 1-610-290-8975 Regular Mail GRE-ETS P.O. Box 6000 Princeton, NJ 08541-6000 Overnight Mail GRE Distribution and Receiving Center 225 Phillips Boulevard Ewing, NJ 08628-7435 GENERAL TEST-TAKING TIPS In Parts III–V of this book, you’ll learn strategies and tips for specific test sections and question types. Right now, however, let’s review eight general test-taking strategies for the GRE. Even if you’ve read about these strategies elsewhere or they seem like common sense to you, it’s a good idea to reinforce them in your mind. Know your optimal pace and stay at it. Time is definitely a factor on every section of the GRE. On the Quantitative Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning sec- tions, expect to work at a quicker pace than is comfortable for you. Similarly, the time limit for each GRE Analytical Writing essay requires a lively writing pace and allows little time for editing, revising, and fine-tuning. PART I: GRE Basics28 . NOTE Contact information for ETS Disability Services and for Regional Registration Centers (RRCs) is provided earlier in this chapter. NOTE Some tips here refer specifically to the computer- based GRE. Additional strategies for paper-based testing are provided earlier in this chapter. www.petersons.com During the Quantitative and Verbal sections, check your pace after every ten questions or so (about twice during each section) and adjust it accordingly so that you have time at least to consider every question in the section. During each writing task, be sure to leave enough time to cover all your main points and to wrap up your essay, so it looks and reads as though you finished in time. The best way to avoid the time squeeze is to practice under timed conditions before you take the actual exam. This will give you a sense of what your optimal pace should be. If you’re not sure about an answer, don’t dwell on it—move on. This tip follows logically from the first one. You might find yourself reluctant to leave a question until you’re sure your answer is correct. While this is admirable, doing this under the strict time conditions of the test will only defeat you. Remember: You can miss some questions and still earn high scores. After you develop a sense of your best pace for the exam, you’ll have a better idea of how much time you can safely spend on each question. Avoid random guesswork if possible. If you must guess, always try to eliminate obvious wrong-answer choices first; then go with your hunch. On mul- tiple-choice questions, eliminating even one possible answer improves your odds. If you’re out of time during a section and you haven’t answered every available question, there’s no advantage to making random guesses at the remaining questions. Read each question in its entirety. Beware: Some GRE questions offer wrong- answer choices that may seem correct if you haven’t read the entire question and all the answer choices thoroughly. This is especially true in the Verbal Reasoning section. Unless you’re running out of time, make sure you read every question from start to finish, and never confirm an answer unless you’ve first compared it with all the others for that question. Maintain an active mind set. When taking an exam such as the GRE, it’s easy to fall into a passive mode in which you scan the answer choices and hope that the correct answer “jumps out” at you as you do so. Fight this tendency by keeping your mind engaged while reading each question. Remember that each question on the GRE is designed to measure a specific ability or skill. Try to adopt an active, investigative approach to answering the questions. Ask yourself: What skill is the question measuring? What is the most direct thought process for determining the correct response? How might I be tripped up on this type of question if I’m not careful? Use your pencil and scratch paper. Scratch work helps keep your mind in active mode. Make brief notes, draw simple diagrams and flow charts, and scribble equations and geometry figures. All of this will help you think clearly. Also, make sure that you confirm all but the simplest calculations. Remember: You won’t have access to a calculator during the test. Chapter 1: All About the General GRE 29 . www.petersons.com Know the test directions inside and out—before you take the test. Just before the first question of each type (e.g., Quantitative Comparison or Reading Comprehension), the test will present the directions for that question type. Of course, the clock is running even while you’re reading the directions. You can save time by clicking on the appropriate button to dismiss the directions as quickly as possible—if you’ve reviewed them thoroughly before the exam. Take advantage of exam breaks, but keep an eye on the time. You’ll be allowed brief breaks between exam sections—10 minutes after the Analytical Writing section and 1 minute after each subsequent section. Keep in mind that the GRE clock is always running, even during these breaks. By all means, take full advantage of that first, 10-minute break to grab a quick snack from your locker or use a restroom. And use the 1-minute breaks to do some stretching or standing. But remember: These breaks go by very quickly, and the test will resume after break time has elapsed—with or without you. PART I: GRE Basics30 . TIP For multiple-choice questions, jot down “A B C D E” on your scratch paper. Then cross out letters as you eliminate corresponding answer choices. www.petersons.com SUMMING IT UP • The computer-based GRE contains three scored sections: a 75-minute Analytical Writing section, a 45-minute Quantitative Reasoning section, and a 30-minute Verbal Reasoning section. The exam also contains one additional, unscored sec- tion—either a Quantitative Reasoning or a Verbal Reasoning section. Some test takers may also see an identified, untimed, and unscored research section at the end of the exam that will contain question types different from those of the other sections. • The Analytical Writing section is always the first section. The Quantitative Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning sections (including the unscored section) may appear in any order after the Analytical Writing section. • The Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections of the computer-based GRE are “computer-adaptive,” which means that the test continually adjusts to your ability level as you answer each question in turn. When you answer a question correctly, the testing system increases the difficulty level of subsequent questions covering the same topic or skill; incorrect answers result in easier subsequent questions. Correct answers to difficult questions earn you more credit than correct answers to easier ones. • You’ll receive a separate score for each of the three scored exam sections: Ana- lytical Writing, Quantitative Reasoning, and Verbal Reasoning. You’ll also receive a total score that combines your Quantitative Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning scores. • GRE registration procedures for test takers in the United States, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Canada differ in some respects from those for test takers in other countries. Consult the official GRE Web site and the current GRE Information and Registration Bulletin for the most up-to-date procedures and policies. • The paper-based version of the GRE is offered only in certain remote locations outside the United States and Canada. International test takers should decide where they want to take the GRE, and then register for the appropriate version of the exam. • The GRE Personal Potential Index (new in 2009) is designed to supplement traditional recommendation letters. Depending on your individual circumstances, you may wish to access this index to enhance your graduate school admission application. Chapter 1: All About the General GRE 31 . www.petersons.com . stassd@ets.org TTY 1-6 0 9-7 7 1-7 714 Fax 1-6 0 9-7 7 1-7 1 65 Mail ETS Disability Services Educational Testing Service P.O. Box 6 054 Princeton, NJ 0 854 1-6 054 THE GRE PERSONAL. www.prometric.com) or by calling 1-8 00 -GRE- CALL or 1-4 4 3-7 5 1-4 820. CBT test takers elsewhere in the world must contact the appropriate RRC to cancel or