The Graduate Record Examination, a standardized test required for admission to many graduate schools, will see the most dramatic changes ever in 2011, said the Educational Testing Service (ETS), which creates and administers the test.  The test is taken by approximately 600,000 students annually, according to Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.

Test content will involve less geometry and more data analysis, and possibly more complex math problems in place of straightforward math, according to Kaplan.  The verbal section will include more reading comprehension, but will be rid of antonym and analogy questions.

In taking the test, students will be able to use an online calculator and will also be able to return to previous questions, which is currently not allowed.  Scoring will be boiled down from a 10-point increment 200 to 800 point scale to a one-point increment 130 to 170 point scale, Kaplan said.

Changes are aimed to better judge students’ abilities, as well as to increase security of the test, ETS said.