GRE Computer vs. Paper Exam
The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is currently only available as a computer-based test, meaning that whether you take it at a test center or remotely from the comfort of your own home, you will be taking the test using a computer. However, the GRE was not always administered via computer and at one time was a paper-based test.
History of the GRE Paper-Based Test
The GRE was first utilized in 1936 by the deans of four Ivy League universities and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Following the lead of Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, and Columbia University, the University of Wisconsin became the first public university to ask students to take the GRE in 1938. The Carnegie Foundation remained responsible for overseeing and administering the GRE until the Educational Testing Service (ETS) was established in 1948.
As the GRE became more widely utilized, it remained strictly a paper-based exam that could only be taken at designated locations. In 1992, ETS offered the first computer-based version of the GRE, but this version was only available at certain testing centers, and the paper-based version of the GRE was still more popular.
With the technological advances in the late 1990s, the paper-based version of the GRE began to be offered significantly less frequently. Ultimately it was only available at a handful of testing centers during certain months of the year on specific days. After several years of offering both paper-based and computer-based testing, ETS made the decision in April 1999 to discontinue the paper-based version of the exam.
This was done primarily because advances in technology made it possible for the GRE to become a computer adaptive test, meaning the test adapted to the knowledge and abilities of the person taking it. Early computerized versions of the GRE were adaptive at the question level, meaning how you performed on one question determined the difficulty level of your next question. With the early computer-based GRE, a test-taker was given a question of “average” difficulty. If they performed well on that question, their score was raised, and they were given a more challenging question as a follow up. If they performed poorly, however, their score was lowered, and they were given an easier question as a follow up.
Unlike computerized exams, paper-based versions of the GRE were not adaptive, nor could they incorporate this technology-dependent feature. There were other challenges with the paper version of the exam, including those related to privacy and scoring, and we will examine both.
From a privacy perspective, those students taking the paper GRE on a given day were all taking the same exam with questions presented in the same order, making it at least theoretically possible to copy from another test-taker or otherwise cheat. With the advent of a computer adaptive test, test-takers could receive different questions based on their responses (harder or easier depending on how they answered the previous question), making it impossible to copy or cheat from another test-taker.
Additionally, paper versions of the GRE had to be stored in boxes at test centers until they were mailed or delivered to locations where they could be scored. This meant there was always the possibility of paper tests being misplaced, lost, or destroyed, which could negatively impact a test-taker’s ability to submit test scores with the rest of their program application by a given deadline.
The paper-version of the GRE had several challenges when it came to scoring, as well. The computerized version of the exam could immediately calculate your score when you finished the exam and while the score would not be considered “official,” it at least gave test-takers an idea of how they had performed as they waited to receive their official score. Paper versions of the exam had to be sent out for scoring, and test-takers would not receive news of their score for at least 10-14 days after completing the exam.
The paper version of the GRE was eventually discontinued in favor of utilizing technology that was seen as making the GRE more widely available and better able to provide an objective assessment of a test-taker’s readiness for higher learning in a graduate, business, or law program.