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Should the GRE Be Used as an Admissions Requirement by Schools of Social Work?
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1993
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EducationGre Test ScoresSocial Work PolicySocial Work PracticeSocial WorkProgram EvaluationGre BeAutomated AssessmentStatisticsHealth SciencesReliabilityTest DevelopmentEducational TestingEducational MeasurementGraduate Record ExaminationStudent AssessmentSchool Social WorkSociologySocial Work ResearchHigher Education AssessmentEducational AssessmentSocial Science EducationEducational Testing ServiceAdmissions RequirementEducation Policy
The Graduate Record Examination developed and administered by the Educational Testing Service is purported to be a valid predictor of academic success in graduate school. A large number of graduate school sof social work require applicants to submit their GRE scores as a part of the admissions process, and such scores are often a major factor in deciding to admit prospective students. In a test of the validitiy of the GRE, we adminsitered a reading comprehension subtest of the examination to 78 first year M.S.W. students, having first blanked out the relevant paragraphs of text, and asked the students to select the 'best' of the five available multiple choice answers for each question. Although chance would suggest that the average score for these students should be about 20% correct (one out of five), in actually our students achieved an average score 36% correct. These results suggest that at least one subtest of the GRE (reading comprehension) is not a valid method of assessmnet and call into question the common practice of including GRE test scores as a component of the admissions process.