On August 28, 2020, University of Windsor student Dana Manning sat in front of her computer to write the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), a standardized test often required by many graduate schools in their admissions processes and administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), a nonprofit organization.
At first, Manning tells Empoword, she was excited to take the GRE General Test, which had moved online due to COVID-19. It must be taken on a personal computer with a webcam in a private space with a stable Internet connection.
The online test has the same content and format as the test administered at test centres. The entire test is supervised by artificial intelligence technology and a live human proctor from ProctorU, an online proctoring service.
During part of the Operational Verbal Reasoning section, Manning was suddenly informed by the human proctor that there was a technical issue on the ProctorU end.
There were eight minutes and 35 seconds left for the section when the proctor rebooted Manning’s computer to try to solve the issue. When Manning opened her computer again, the time had run out and she was brought to the next section of the exam. Manning asked what she should do, and the proctor told her to continue.
Manning ended up losing 25% of her verbal mark on the test.
For the next two and a half months, Manning would be in contact with EST to rectify the issue. Manning was eventually offered a 50% refund on the test and a letter to institutions explaining the situation. Manning said it felt “like a slap in the face for all the time they took up.”
“The letter they provided indicated no fault on their part, nor did it outline the extenuating circumstances that led to a deficit in my mark,” Manning said.
Manning says she’s owed more compensation for the time she took off of work to study and “the emotional turmoil” the test and the months that followed put her through, especially since her mark affects her future.
The At Home Test
Empoword also spoke to Jocelyn Rodriguez, a recent graduate from Northeastern Illinois University. In November 2020, Rodriguez was looking forward to taking the GRE at home, but tech issues also turned her experience into a “nightmare.”
“The exam lasted almost eight hours because the website kept freezing and the technician had to log me in every time,” she said.
Every time the screen froze, the countdown would freeze, too. Once they were able to get the test up and running again, it would start at or near the same time frame.
Rodriguez was able to complete her exam and use her score, but many of the schools she applied to didn’t require them anyway.
Speaking to Empoword, Chrystal Molnar, Senior Director of Global Education at ETS, says technical issues are handled on a case-by-case basis and “in certain instances ETS will offer test takers a free retest.”
The requirements for the at home test have been criticized by test-takers and educators for disadvantaging students from rural and low-income backgrounds.
Ambika Mathur, Vice Provost & Dean of The Graduate School at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), has been involved with research on the GRE and says students especially shouldn’t be forced to take the exam during a pandemic. She told Empoword:
“The pandemic has affected the economy, the ability of people to pay for the tests.”
Mathur also noted that not everyone has the privilege of finding a quiet place to take the at home test when there are people “living five to a single room” or taking care of family members at home.
Empoword spoke to Jess Millar, a graduate student at the University of Michigan who has done research on the GRE. She says the pandemic has only added more hurdles for test takers, such as needing a private room and stable Internet connection.
Molnar acknowledged that test takers may come from diverse backgrounds and said that the at home test is available 24/7, “so test takers can test whenever is most convenient for them and their family.”
Beena Khurana, Director MBA Programs at Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly and member of the GRE Business School Advisory Committee, has praised the GRE at home test. She told Empoword that last year her program had already admitted a third of its cohort when stay at home orders were announced.
“While other programs chose to waive the requirement, I opted for what I held as the ‘fairer’ option,” said Khurana.
Khurana said ETS gave her program a small set of GRE vouches to give to anyone who does poorly on the exam and makes a compelling case for why they should be given a second chance.
Khurana takes issues with the remote proctored version into account, including “anything from a wayward pet distracting them to a brief loss of electricity or internet outage.”
Now, nearly half of GRE test centers worldwide outside of China have reopened, but the online test is here to stay.
#GRExit
In response to COVID-19, some graduate programs have temporarily waived GRE scores from their admission requirements. This move adds to a discussion about removing GRE scores from admission requirements that has been going on before COVID-19.
Known as #GRExit on social media, many graduate programs, particularly in the biomedical and geoscience fields, decided to remove the GRE requirement from their application process, citing the test’s high cost, inaccuracy in predicting grad school success, and bias against women and people of colour.
In public health programs, GRE waivers have seen a 650% increase over past 15 months, according to Millar. She also said 82% of Council on Education for Public Health accredited programs offer at least one GRE waiver.
“But waiver coverage for degrees/concentrations are not consistent and over half of waivers are temporary for the pandemic,” said Millar, who noted the importance of considering the gaps in waivers and how this data can be used to make decisions about the future of the GRE.
“I would like to see the GRE permanently waived, at the very least because of the cost barrier it creates,” said Millar.
Mathur said one positive thing to come out of the pandemic was that, due to lack of access to GRE test taking centers, the GRE was not used as the primary screening for applicants to graduate programs.
In April 2020, UTSA temporarily suspended GRE test results in response to the pandemic and has instead been holistically reviewing applicants.
“To hold people back because they can not perform on a standardized test makes no sense to me,” said Mathur, who noted that women and minorities do not do as well on standardized testing compared to other groups.
According to Mathur, UTSA’s applicant pool increased by 20%, and they saw an increase in masters and doctoral enrollment for fall 2020 and spring 2021. Aside from not using GRE scores, the admission standards are still the same. Mathur says student quality and success rates are also “very much the same.”
Molnar says the validity of the tests has been “proven extensively over the span of decades,” including newer research that validates the at home GRE test.
“Some people feel that because the tests show group score differences, the tests should be thrown out,” said Molnar. “ETS — and many who understand the value of standardized tests — compare this to throwing out a thermometer because we don’t want to know it’s hot outside.
“The value that GRE scores can bring to admissions far outweighs the limitations of group score differences as long as scores are used as part of a holistic approach to admissions,” said Molnar.
To help programs adopt a more holistic admissions process, ETS has launched holisticadmissions.org.
Khurana already uses GRE scores as one measure in a holistic review.
“I look carefully at the demographic information ETS provides in order to ensure I don’t judge applicants based on averages that don’t represent them,” said Khurana.
Khurana says that rather than “permanently giving up” on the GRE, it “must evolve in order to stay meaningful and serve as a good measure of abilities necessary to succeed in a graduate program.”
Sophia Savva
Featured image courtesy of Engin_Akyurt on Pixabay. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
Sophia Savva
Sophia recently graduated from the University of Toronto with High Distinction and a double major in Book and Media Studies & English. She is an emerging writer with works in CBC Canada Writes, carte blanche, Points in Case, and many more. When she's not busy writing or reading, she likes painting, cooking, playing the piano, and crafting the perfect Spotify playlist. She currently lives in Tokyo, Japan. Follow her on Instagram @spooktacularextravaganza and on Twitter @sophiafansite.