An old comedy routine on Saturday Night Live by Father Guido Sarducci introduced a "Five-Minute University," because five minutes is all that's remembered after graduation anyway. In counterpoint, we discuss "cycling," a teaching method for memory enhancement. Our principal implementation consists of offering a simple version…

The computer-based "Graduate Record Examinations"® ("GRE"®) revised General Test includes interactive item types and testing environment tools (e.g., test navigation, on-screen calculator, and help). How well do test takers understand these innovations? If test takers do not understand the new item types, these innovations may…

The "e-rater"® automated essay scoring system is used operationally in the scoring of the argument and issue tasks that form the Analytical Writing measure of the "GRE"® General Test. For each of these tasks, this study explored the value added of reporting 4 trait scores for each of these 2 tasks over the total e-rater score.…

Now is an opportune time to consider new ways to ask registrants for the "GRE"® General Test about their race and ethnicity. Growth in the percentage of Americans who identify as multiracial suggests the possibility that a sizeable percentage of registrants would self-report more than one race or ethnicity if given the opportunity to do…

This report describes the development, administration, and scoring of open-ended variants of GRE® Subject Test items in biology and psychology. These questions were administered in a Web-based experiment to registered examinees of the respective Subject Tests. The questions required a short answer of 1-3 sentences, and responses were automatically…

This paper examined test scores and information about test takers collected from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) national test administration files, GRE validity study data provided by institutional users, and survey questionnaires sent to test repeaters. Data were collected from 200,000 men and women who took the GRE General Test in June…

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between Sedlacek's (2004b) student noncognitive variables (positive self-concept, realistic self-appraisal, successfully handling the system, preference for long-term goals, leadership experience, presence of a strong support person, community service, and knowledge of the…

Data about how graduate departments use the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), what scores are required, and how these admission policies are associated with the quality of graduate programs are analyzed. The results indicate that 64 percent of graduate departments require or recommend GRE scores from applicants. (Author/MLW)

Graduate faculty in six fields of study judged (1) the importance for academic success of various analytical skills; (2) the seriousness of various reasoning errors; and (3) the degree to which "critical incidents" had affected their estimations of students' analytical abilities. (Author/MLW)

The 1980-1981 Graduate Record Examination General Test verbal and quantitative ability scores were examined for four age groups of test takers (those age 22 or less, 23-29, 30-39, and 40 or more), and two groups returning to graduate study many years after completing the bachelors degree. The late returners were those 9-15 years beyond the…

This study provides preliminary evidence as to the validity of measures derived from the "Tests of Scientific Thinking" (TST). The TST and the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) were compared with regard to their relationships to interests, self-appraisals, and accomplishments of students during their first year of graduate work in…

This study analyzed data from a survey conducted in 1987. The sample consisted of 2,136 examinees who took the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) during 1986-87. The purpose was to determine how well the intended field-of-study item in the GRE background questionnaire can be relied on as an indicator of what examinees will actually study in…

This report discusses a multiphase project to develop a user-oriented survey of prior accomplishments of graduate student applicants to aid admissions committees and graduate departments in the selection process. The three phases included: (1) development of three prototype instruments based on a checklist approach, a semi-documented approach, and…