The number of Indian students taking the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in India grew by nearly 20 per cent taking the total to over 1.10 lakh, according to the latest figures released by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) that conducts the GRE.
While the growth in international students appearing for GRE was at 11 per cent over the last year, it was 20 per cent in India, indicating that Indian students were increasingly looking for study opportunities abroad.
The most significant growth in the graduate major fields of study was in business (18 per cent), physical sciences (13 per cent) and engineering (11 per cent).
David Payne, ETS Vice-President and COO of Global Education, said: “With the number of institutions accepting GRE scores at an all-time high, students can use GRE scores to apply to graduate programmes, MBA programmes and specialised master’s in business programmes around the world.”
Mr. Payne believes that many test takers are choosing GRE as it has friendly features. “The GRE revised general test enables students to preview questions, skip and go back to more challenging questions, and even change answers, all within a section. We know these features can help test takers to get better results,” he said in a statement.
Unlike earlier, GRE test takers don’t need to make an immediate decision about their scores right after taking the test. “If for some reason they feel they did not do their best, they can take the test again. This means that at any point in the five-year period during which their scores are valid, they can choose which test scores they want to report to schools. It’s about helping them succeed,” said Mr. Payne.
However, Nishidhar Borra, managing director of Storm Educational Consultancy, feels that growth can be attributed to rising engineering graduates in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. He says GRE test centres in Chennai, Hyderabad, Madurai and Bangalore were almost full for the next few months.
Among them, Hyderabad has the highest test takers, he reveals. The repeaters also add to the increasing numbers. GRE scores are accepted at thousands of institutions around the world, including more than 1,200 business schools for their MBA programmes.
Over the last year, business schools have become more vocal in stating that they consider GRE scores equally with other test scores in the admission process, Mr. Payne claimed.