US postgraduate entry exam updated - graduate jobs

Graduates looking to study for a post-graduate degree in the US will face a completely revamped entrance exam from 2011 onwards.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is the country's standard method of measuring graduates' abilities, regardless of their academic background, and more than 600,000 students sit the test each year.

Hailed as the biggest revisions to the test's format since it began 60 years ago, the changes will affect sections on analytical writing, quantitative reasoning and verbal reasoning, where participants must read and understand prescribed material.

Business and graduate schools will have to adapt to a new points system, which will lower the highest possible score from 800 to 170, and the lowest from 200 to 130 points. The test scores remain valid for five years.

Liza Weale, executive director of graduate programmes at  test preparation company Kaplan, said: "The narrower scoring scale might also make test-takers nervous that it will be more difficult to stand out from others."

The Educational Testing Service has been marketing the GRE to prospective business students as an alternative to the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), which is more commonly used for judging entry into US business schools.

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