Why the GRE Must Go: The Tyranny of Standardized Testing
Like many students, I recently took the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations): the standardized test widely required for graduate school admission. Of course, in my preparation, I had heard that the test is especially grueling, clocking in at around four and a half hours with barely any break between sections. Yet, as I signed in at my testing center, I was unprepared for the oppressive atmosphere that the GRE elicits.
“Flip your pockets inside out,” the testing proctor told me. I complied; my pockets contained nothing but lint, which the proctor glared at suspiciously until I threw it away. I didn’t say anything. I felt voiceless. “Stand over here and raise your arms,” she continued. I held my arms out, as I would at airport security, while the proctor ran a handheld metal detector over my body. Complete submission. Total demoralization. I half expected to be frisked. Even waterboarding didn’t seem out of the question. The environment was undoubtedly prison-like—tightly regimented and controlled. The testing room, suffocatingly cold and quiet, emitted a culture of obedience. At that moment, my being, my will, was contained within the rules and regulations of a standardized test. At stake: the future of my education.
In the classic book on education in the United States and Canada, Life in Schools, Peter McLaren writes: “many educators and psychometricians agree that using a single test score to make a high stakes determination represents an ethical abuse.” Yet, Educational Testing Services (ETS), which administers various tests including the GRE, SAT, TOEFL and AP exams, is exceedingly powerful in controlling access to various educational benchmarks.
As the largest private testing organization worldwide, ETS has been described as having a virtual monopoly on such testing. ETS even exclusively administers the California High School Exit Exam, which all California high-schoolers must pass in order to graduate, effectively controlling the standards for graduation that all California students and teachers must adhere to. As a non-profit organization, ETS pays no federal income tax on most of its operations. Yet, despite its non-profit status, ETS has been criticized for high executive, board and member pay, and for selling test-preparation materials for its own tests at high prices. Make no mistake: educational testing is highly profitable. My GRE General Test alone cost well over $100 to take, and the big three testing companies (ETS, College Board and ACT Inc.) raked in a $59 million profit in 2009.
Gre Test Materials - News
Yet, despite its non-profit status, ETS has been criticized for high executive, board and member pay, and for selling test-preparation materials for its own tests at high prices. Make no mistake: educational testing is highly profitable. My GRE General
As part of the deal, ETS will help the language training company develop an English testing system based on its current training materials. "Our cooperation with ETS will provide us with a reliable reference to our future design of tests and
Manhattan Based *Test Prep New York has expanded their office to San Francisco this week, and announces their first offering to the Sunshine state is their most powerful SAT Critical Reading preparation class available: MindFlow Class.
"Our ETS® Personal Potential Index (ETS® PPI) was a big step in this direction, as was the GRE® revised General Test that launched last August." "What I've noticed is a higher number of minorities and international candidates doing the online interview
Students interested in applying for the MBA program must have a GPA of at least 2.5 for their undergraduate work, related undergraduate course work, and a satisfactory score on the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or
@ Best of luck with your #GRE studying! Let us know if you need any recs for test prep materials.
@ Excellent! Best of luck studying for the #GRE and let us know if you need any recs for test prep materials. :)
@ Good luck with your #GRE studying! Let us know if you need any recs for add'l test prep materials.