IN ADDITION to the blinding panic that comes with impending graduation, fourth years who hope to attend graduate school must add the Graduate Record Examination to their list of headaches. The GRE, in theory, helps schools to determine which students are best prepared for graduate school, but the unfortunate reality is that the GRE rewards expensive test preparation while it systematically disadvantages low-income students.
The Educational Testing Service claims that the GRE measures critical thinking skills that students acquire through years of formal education -- skills that the company admits are learned, rather than innate. The test is designed to measure preparation, not intelligence. But what ETS fails to acknowledge is that for many students, test scores are most closely linked to the acquired skill of taking the GRE itself, which is why bookstores overflow with GRE practice guides.
In the intensely competitive admissions process, prospective graduate students have little choice but to cough up the cash for coaching services. Students pay for these services because they work; scores improve with practice, and low-income students who cannot afford prep courses have a tremendous disadvantage.
The test fee itself serves as a financial barrier for low income students. Each GRE exam costs $115, no small expenditure for a college student. Students who can afford to take the test multiple times will have an advantage over students who find the fee a burden. The cost does not stop with the test fee; on the day of the test, students can select four schools to receive their scores, but every additional school costs $13. While ETS does offer exemption for some low-income students, most students fail to qualify because ETS requires that dependent students receive less than $1,200 from their parents. Additionally, the fee waiver will only cover one test, denying low-income students the opportunity to improve.
On its Web site, ETS features a multiracial group of smiling children and the promise that "At nonprofit ETS, our sole mission is to advance learning." But while ETS claims nonprofit status, its leaders have every incentive to increase revenue and reduce costs. The president of ETS, Kurt M. Landgraf, earned $431,000 in 2001, plus a bonus of $366,000. Several top employees also earn six-figure salaries, giving everyone who controls ETS a very personal stake in the company's revenue. And the testing fees have paid off: For the 2004 fiscal year, ETS reported consolidated revenues of $825 million.
In addition to putting low-income students at a disadvantage, the GRE exacerbates racial and gender gaps. Women and minorities consistently score worse than white men on the GRE. This is partly because of gaps in preparation that exist from kindergarten through college, but ETS disadvantages these groups even further by asking for race and gender at the beginning of the test. Placing these questions at the beginning of the test is highly irresponsible since research conducted at Stanford University by psychology professors Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson has shown that achievement gaps increase when women and racial minorities are reminded of their race or gender before taking the test. Perhaps ETS could direct some of its nonprofit millions toward researching the consequences of its own tests.
Besides considering the role of social privilege in GRE scores, we should also question the value of a test that forces students to devote weeks of time and energy perfecting useless skills. While quantitative and verbal skills are essential for most graduate programs, the most relevant skills will be developed through undergraduate academic work, not by learning archaic words and solving obnoxious little puzzles. Students who abandon their academic work to practice analogies and triangle math are rewarded with high scores, while students who wisely conclude that the GRE is not worth their time and energy are punished for their superior priorities.
Because questioning their own methods might compromise the power and influence of ETS, reform must come from outside the organization. The leaders at ETS probably did not set out to perpetuate inequality in higher education; it is simply not in their interest to care when their current methods bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
The problems caused by standardized testing will only be solved if graduate schools stop considering GRE scores as part of admissions. Schools could abandon the GRE with little consequence to their programs: Research has shown that a student's undergraduate GPA actually serves as a more accurate predictor of her success in graduate school, while according to ETS's own research, GRE scores account for less than ten percent of variance in graduate success. It's time to stop subjecting students to heinous standardized tests and reward them for skills that truly matter, such as their ability to succeed in college.
Cari Lynn Hennessy's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at chennessy@cavalierdaily.com. chennessy@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
SULLIVAN: Ramp up physical accessibility on Grounds
By Scarlett Sullivan | 20 hours agoThe University must take responsibility for the inaccessibility of Grounds and work to promote accessibility for all students despite misguided laws.
EDITORIAL: Scapegoating students will not stop hazing
By Editorial Board | 3 days agoInstead of retroactively responding to extreme hazing allegations, we, and especially the University, must begin asking more probing questions about the role of fraternal organizations on Grounds.
EDITORIAL: Celebrating and reflecting on The Cavalier Daily’s independence
By Editorial Board | April 18, 2024Our independence grants us the ability to ask the hard questions and to say what University representatives cannot.
