http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/concordance_information.pdf

Looking at the file above, 2 things are clear:

Quantitative: The new test has been designed to be able to more finely differentiate the highest ability test takers. As it says in the file:

Quote :

"Note: Score users should use special care in evaluating test takers who received a Quantitative Reasoning score at the top end of the prior 200-800 score scale. Now, with the new 130-170 score scale, we can provide more differentiation for higher ability test takers. However, test takers who took the prior test and received an 800 on the Quantitative Reasoning measure, received the highest score possible that they were able to earn on the measure"

I had an 800 on the old one (1999), and my percentile was 99. According to the table, 800 corresponds to 166. I took an official ETS practice test yesterday and got 167. Higher score, but percentile of 96.

They have obviously done this because of intense competition in the sciences for grad school. Because of the new types of questions, they can tease out the very best test takers among those with very high ability in math.

They have new question formats which were not on the old one. One requires a free answer, that is typed into a field. Another has multiple correct answers, anywhere from 1 to n, where n is the number of choices given, which could be as high as 10. NO PARTIAL credit is given, either you choose all the correct ones and none other, or you lose marks for that problem. The rest is same as before. It is obvious how these new formats are able to separate the very best from just the best. Still, it is not like it is difficult, if you are good at math, as the subject content is the same. That's why I am looking for that 170 when I take it in 3 days.


Verbal: Here they have done the opposite, if you look at the table. 760 or above on the old scale is now equivalent to 170 on the new scale. I guess that makes sense, as there is no big need to finely separate the best test takers on that section.

Here also, they have new questions with multiple blanks (sentence completions), and multiple correct answers (sentence equivalences). Again, no partial credit is given.



Overall, it is not much harder at all, just maybe 5% harder. Only major change is the Analytical Section with the 2 writing tasks, which I believe have been there for a while since the mid 2000s. When I took it in 1999, Analytical Section was all multiple-choice like the other 2 sections, with logic and reasoning problems/puzzles.


If you just want to get a feel for the new question styles, no need to do a whole practice test if you don't want to (link on previous page if you want to), just click on link below for 16 questions with a 20 minute time limit, and they change daily and have a leaderboard as well, for daily top scorers (also for GMAT, DAT, OAT, MCAT....)

http://www.kaplanworkout.com/play


[Edited on January 11, 2013 at 5:06 PM. Reason : ]

1/11/2013 4:57:18 PM

Free Kaplan GRE online bootcamp today at 9pm EST. Register online.

1/17/2013 1:48:37 PM

^Thanks for posting about that.. I attended and it was helpful to learn what to expect

1/17/2013 10:56:00 PM

Taking this tomorrow. Been using the kaplan book with online timed tests and scoring 60th-70th percentiles on the practice tests. Any last minute advice?

9/19/2013 8:38:27 AM