The Revised GRE, Part VI: The Calculator

by , Apr 28, 2010

by Bob Verini, 30-year Kaplan veteran teacher, trainer, and curriculum developer

Of all of the changes to the GRE, the one that excites most students is the addition of an onscreen calculator on Test Day. They are elated at the prospect of a reduced need for scratch paper, not to mention the reduced likelihood of errors caused by freehand number crunching. Todays students are, of course, generally comfortable with new technological solutions to a challenge, and many students are inclined to welcome them unquestioningly.

At the same time, ETS is almost certainly looking forward to the calculator as a clear point of differentiation between the GRE and the test whose business the GRE is looking to steal a big chunk of: the calculator-free, scratchwork-dependent GMAT.

Yet its possible that, for examinees at least, the calculator will not be an unmixed blessing. For one thing, its quite likely that the GRE testmakers will write problems with the calculator in mind. Quantitative Comparisons will doubtless involve more variable manipulation, bringing them closer (interestingly enough) to Data Sufficiency Yes/No questions on the GMAT. In a similar vein, Problem Solving questions are likely to get tougher now that the writers can incorporate more complex calculations than before. Its a good bet that when the dust settles after a few months, GRE watchers will agree that the difficulty level of the Quantitative Section will have risen, perhaps significantly so.

At the same time, there will surely be many GRE math problems that dont lend themselves to calculator use. Those students who unquestioningly welcome technological means can be expected to rush to the calculator, even when doing so is inappropriate or when calculating by hand would actually be faster. All standardized tests are set up to reward examinees for their number cleverness, not for a lumbering cranking out of solutions, and sometimes on the new GRE it will simply be cleverer not to use the calculator.

So will the calculator have an effect on scores? If so, the effect isnt likely to be profound, once the problems themselves are adjusted to compensate for the ability to make quicker calculations. Thinking that is, the ability to decide the best approach for a given problem at a given moment will remain the skill the GRE is most eager to assess, a trait it shares with the business school entrance exam that GRE hopes to supplant.

In my final posting, Ill turn my attention to the forthcoming changes in the Analytical Writing Assessment.

Read other articles in this series:

• The Revised GRE for B-School Aspirants, Part I: The Scoring Scale
• The Revised GRE for B-School Aspirants, Part II: Redefined Navigation
• The Revised GRE for B-School Aspirants, Part III: Reading Comprehension
• The Revised GRE for B-School Aspirants, Part IV: Verbal Reasoning
• The Revised GRE for B-School Aspirants, Part V: Quantitative Reasoning