Considerations in Choosing a Reporting Scale for the GRE revised General Test GRE
- Author(s):
- Golub-Smith, Marna L.; Wendler, Cathy
- Publication Year:
- 2014
- Source:
- Wendler, Cathy; Bridgeman, Brent (eds.) with assistance from Chelsea Ezzo. The Research Foundation for the GRE revised General Test: A Compendium of Studies. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, 2014, p2.1.1-2.1.6
- Document Type:
- Chapter
- Page Count:
- 6
- Subject/Key Words:
- Graduate Record Examination (GRE), Revised GRE, Test Revision, Score Scale, Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning
Abstract
Provides a brief history of the GRE score scales and sets a context for the decision to change the scales for the Verbal and Quantitative measures. It provides an overview of the properties of a useful score scale and how these properties were used to define the new Verbal and Quantitative score scales: (a) the reference group scores should be centered near the scale’s midpoint, (b) the score distribution should be unimodal (i.e., have one distinct peak), (c) the score distribution should be nearly symmetric (i.e., have the same shape on both sides of the midpoint of the scale), (d) the score distribution should follow a commonly recognized form (e.g., a bell-shaped distribution), (e) the scores’ working range should go beyond the reported range, (f) the number of points on the scale should not be greater than the number of possible raw score points, and (g) the scale should be evaluated periodically and repaired if necessary.