GRE Computer Science Exam Canceled For '02

An anonymous reader writes "This may be a bit dated, but the Educational Testing Service has canceled the Computer Science GRE exam for November due to the fact that students were sharing and posting exam questions. One has to wonder about the immediate effect this will have on grad school admittance, as well as the long term changes that will likely occur to the tests as a result."

Comments

The person responsible

[Alsee]

Considering it's a Computer Science exam, I propose that whoever hacked in to get the questions in the first place should get an automatic 100.

P.S.
Yes, I read the article. I took comedic licence with the facts. (I didn't like them, so I ignored them.)

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Deal

[Convergence]

Deal..

I applied for grad schools about 2.5 years ago, and got 5 rejection letters...

Did I hate 'abroad students'? No.. I did research and grad classes for 2 years, and tried again, last winter, and had a choice between two top shcools, in a much tougher year for grad schools.. I still got 3 rejection letters, but I got in.

Another thing, if you're applying to top schools, try setting your sights a little lower. There are enough spectacular faculty that *any* top-40 school will have them.

Finally, remember, a lot of the application process is chance and brownian motion. If a faculty member is interested in your particular skills&background, spectacular, if that member isn't on the admissions committee this year, better luck next year.

Re:how admission actually works

[bruthasj]

> I don't know what they do over there, but
> every student seems to ace the exams, probably
> because they study so hard for them. The
> exams, thus, aren't measuring anything more
> than rote ability.

You're a very upbeat guy, Dan! I mean, optimistic. I'll tell you how it works -- they cheat.

I live in Taiwan and have a sister-in-law who is studying to take the GRE. The advantage in Asia (India?? -- I think this is a Rumor!) is that they have "Teachers" that take the GRE test every few months on the computer. While they are taking the test, they memorize in their heads each question. Once they're done they come back out and teach 2 month long classes for big $$$ to the students.

I don't know what the history is as far as what cancellation came first, but the GRE people have cancelled the Computer-based General test for the express purpose of reducing continuing cheating that happens in Asia.

Everything in Asia is now written and its going to stay that way for a long time. This is why previously any GRE scores coming from Asia has zero value!

Test ability ... not memory ...

[ProfMoriarty]

This is a very interesting story, with many interesting thoughts.

Please note, that I have never even seen these tests, nor know anyone who has ... but I'll still pipe in :)

Instead of keeping the questions and answers "secret" ... create something like the amateur radio community has ... a large question pool (which is published), with a very limited number of questions actually asked.

The reasoning behind it, is for the sake of easily administering tests. Everybody knows the questions involved, and what you need to study is the theory behind it, not the answers ...

Now for something like this, you would have to have a HUGE question pool for each section, just to make sure that nobody knows WHICH question will be asked ... just make sure that you know the theory behind the question.

Obviously, you'll run into problems with programmable calculators being brought in, so a way to fix that would be to supply calculators (if necessary) that have all of the capabilities required.

Anyway ... just my thoughts on the process ...