The End of a Useless Test

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From the Educational Testing Service:

The last administration of the GRE Computer Science Test will be in April 2013. The test will be discontinued after the April 2013 administration. Scores will continue to be reportable for five years.

Why is the Computer Science Test being discontinued?

Over the last several years, the number of individuals taking the Computer Science Test has declined significantly. Test volume will soon reach a point where ETS can no longer support the test psychometrically. As a result, the GRE Program has decided to discontinue the Computer Science Test. The test will be offered for the last time in April 2013

"Pyschometrically" just refers to the ability to measure abilities, mental traits and processes. Seems redundant in this context.



Bill tells me Maryland CS used to require a subject GRE but no longer does. Georgia Tech CS does not require a GRE. We have a separate PhD program in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization that requires the math subject test.



Computer Science is a broad field and can't be easily tested, psychometrically or otherwise, and the score of the subject test does not help us determine who will be a good grad student.



The math test is not much better because the applicants we care about in theory generally get a perfect score or very close to it.



The regular GRE exam is not that much better. The quantitative can only help weed the weak students. The analytic score should be a good predictor but isn't. The verbal score, at least among Americans, oddly enough may have the best correlation to success in grad school, but not reliable enough to put much weight on it.



So how do I judge PhD candidates? Grades in CS and math courses taking into account the quality of the university, any undergraduate research, and the recommendation letters.