Test taking doesn’t end with graduation for students seeking higher degrees

Standardized tests don’t usually whip students into a frenzy of excitement. But for those students who have graduate school on the horizon, they are sometimes a necessary evil.

The Education Testing Service is a non-profit organization that creates and distributes millions of standardized tests in the United States as well as in 180 other countries. They are the company responsible for distributing various tests ranging from high school AP tests to the GRE.

ETS states the tests are aimed to measure potential success and critical thinking skills, not necessarily specific knowledge or achievement.

Test scores are not the only thing that will gain you acceptance into graduate school but they are a strong factor. Exactly which test you need to take is dependent upon your department or college.

Eric Jensen, testing director at Career Services stated in an e-mail, that for most programs a January or February deadline is common in the year when the student plans to begin in the fall term. Scores take between three and six weeks for these exams, so it is a good idea to take the exam well in advance of any deadline.

“Some schools, especially schools with competitive programs or more selective admission policies, have earlier deadlines,” Jensen said, “Students should always contact the schools and programs they are interested in soon enough to meet all deadlines that may come earlier than the ‘normal’ January or February dates.”

Jensen said all tests require advance registration and although all of the tests can be taken more than once, full test fees apply to each administration of the test.

Jensen said most tests can be taken no more than once per calendar month.

Jensen said exactly which test you need to take is dependent upon your department or college. The graduate and professional school tests currently offered at Utah State are the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). Jensen said the GMAT administration will end at USU December 31, 2005 when ETS has contracted to hand GMAT testing over to Pearson-Vue Test Centers

• The Miller Analogies Test is taken mostly by psychology students. This test challenges your mental ability through 100 problems stated as analogies.

• The Graduate Record Examination is perhaps the most common of the standardized tests. ETS said the tests is aimed to measure verbal, quantitative and analytical reasoning abilities that have been acquired over a long period of time and that are not related to any specific field of study.

• The Law School Admission Test is required for first-year law students. This test examines critical reading and analytical thinking

• The Medical College Admission Test is required for all first-year medical students. The MCAT is based first on intellectual ability and then tests knowledge of biology, chemistry and physics.

•The Graduate Management Admission Test measures general verbal math, and writing skills. This test is aimed towards business students and includes quantitative reasoning as well and the ability to interepret graphs and charts

Jason Wallace spent 10 hours in the testing center taking the MCAT this past August. Wallace said the actual test was “only about 5-6 hours” but because there were so many people taking it, passing out the tests again between breaks took a long time.

“I took the test during the summer, and so studying was my full-tine job,” Wallace said. Wallace took a preparation course and for five Saturdays before the actual test. Each Saturday he would take a sample MCAT in order to get used to the timing and format of the test and in order to get ready to take a long test each weekend. In addition to his prep course, he took another six-week preparation class that met for three hours each day before Wallace would spend between three to four hours of his own time each day studying.

Wallace is currently awaiting his test scores back. He said they should be here sometime this month. In the meantime, he is getting ready to apply to medical school.

Wallace said his biggest piece of advice for students getting ready to take the MCAT would be to take as many practice tests as possible.

“Nothing can give you the test experience with the timing without sitting down and taking the tests,” Wallace said

Joe Creasy, a graduate student in accounting said when he took the GMAT it was a lot like a “more complicated ACT.” Creasy said the test took him about four hours to complete and he scored well enough to get into the program he aimed for.

“Most people only take it once unless they are trying to get into a really prestigious school, most time the score for the first time is OK, ” Creasy said.

Creasy said his advice for any students who are getting ready to take the test would be to, “study the math section a lot more, it has a lot of geometry stuff. It’s all stuff you’ve probably learned before,” Creasy said, “But you haven’t gone over it in a while.”

Pete Morris Admissions Officer in the School of Graduate Studies said Utah State requires graduate test scores in the 40th percentile for acceptance.

Although acceptance into graduate school can often be challenging and frustrating, according to recent surveys posted on GradView’s Web site sponsored by Hobsons, over one million people entered graduate programs in the United States last year. Those one million people now have the opportunity to earn an average of 35 to 50 percent more than those with only a bachelor’s degree.

-etippets@cc.usu.edu