Graduate Record Examination (GRE) that is conducted by the Educational Testing Services (ETS) for admission into MS programmes primarily in the United States and in other English-speaking countries will undergo a major change from August 1. Earlier GRE score was important for getting admission into MS programmes but from August the score will also be considered for admission into MBA programmes by some universities such as Yale, Wharton, Stanford and MIT.

"This shows that GRE is coming close to examination formats such as CAT and GMAT. The format is being suitably altered to suit the admission process for both MS programmes and B-schools," says the Director of TIME (Vizag) J.V. Murthy.

Annually over 6.75 lakh students from about 230 countries write GRE for admission into various universities in the US and in other English peaking countries. The major change will be in the verbal ability section. Unlike in the earlier pattern, there is going to be less emphasis on non-contextual vocabulary.

The antonym and analogies section will be removed and the focus will shift towards reading and cognitive skills, with more focus on questions and reading comprehensions. In the new format the verbal part is being divided into two sections. The old format had only one section. Both sections in the new format will have 20 questions each.

"Most importantly the students can now move within a section. They can scroll up and down, edit, skip and correct. Students can even highlight a sentence in a passage to answer a question. It will be more user-friendly with lot of flexibility," says Mr. Murthy.

The quantitative aptitude section is again divided into two sections with 20 questions each and the same flexibility is given. Apart from multiple choice questions, there will be numeric entry type questions in the new format. And for the first time ETS will be providing an on-screen calculator.