美国教育考试服务中心取消新GRE考试计划

　　Testing service cancels plans for new GRE exam

　　美国教育考试服务中心取消新GRE考试计划

　　(2006-2007学年第33期)

　　秦毅忠 译

　　{1}(AP) — The makers of the GRE graduate school entrance exam have scrapped an extensive makeover of the test, citing concerns they wouldn’t be able to accommodate enough students at test centers.

　　{2}The Educational Testing Service, which designs the exam, had already delayed planned revisions by a year, including lengthening the exam from two-and-a-half to four hours. ETS also was planning substantive changes such as eliminating antonym and analogy questions and emphasizing more critical reading.

　　{3}Most students already take the current version of the GRE on a computer, but ETS had hoped to switch to a more secure Internet-based system that would eventually expand the number of sites where the test could be taken.

　　{4}The new version, however, was to be offered only about 30 times per year, whereas students are free to schedule the current test at almost any time.

　　{5}On Monday, ETS and the Graduate Record Examination Board said they did not have the capacity to make the planned switch this fall and would stick with the old test and the centers where it was already being administered. The test had been in development for about five years, said ETS spokesman Tom Ewing.

　　{6}“In the last three months we’ve looked very carefully at the issue of access and whether there were enough Internet-based testing centers available to ensure that every student who wanted to take the test could,” he said. “It became clear that there were not enough domestically.”

　　{7}The GRE is taken by between 550,000 and 600,000 applicants to graduate programs annually.

　　{8}The change involves very different issues than the scoring errors on the SAT college entrance exam that surfaced last year. But Monday’s announcement could contribute to concerns that the standardized testing industry, busy with dozens of national and state-level standardized exams, has too much on its plate.

　　{9}The announcement confirms ETS “has repeatedly tried to rush computerized exams into the marketplace before they were ready for prime time,” said Robert Schaeffer, public education director of the group FairTest, which has been critical of the testing industry. “They pushed these flawed products to increase test-maker income, not improve assessment quality or meet students needs.”

　　{10}Even though it scrapped the planned changes, ETS said it is still considering whether to increase the price of the exam. It had previously announced the cost would rise but had not said by how much. The current exam costs $130 in the United States and $160 in most other places.

　　{11}“We’re still evaluating whether the price is going to go up,” Ewing said. “We suspect it will but we just don’t know at this point.”

　　参考译文：

　　{1}美联社消息：美国GRE研究生入学考试组织者已经取消了对该考试的一项重大修改计划，声称他们担心考试中心无法满足足够多学生的需求。

　　{2}设计该项考试的美国教育考试服务中心已经将这一修改计划延迟了达一年之久，修改计划包括将考试时间从两个半小时延长至四个小时。ETS过去还计划对GRE考试其它方面的内容作出一些重大修改，比如取消反义词和类推题以及加大阅读判断部分的内容等。

　　{3}大多数考生已经参加过目前的GRE机考，但ETS曾希望采取一种更为安全的网络考试系统，这将会扩大有能力承担该项考试的考点的数量。

　　{4}然而，新版的GRE考试每年将只提供约30次，而考生们也可以在几乎任何时间内自由安排自己的考试时间。

　　{5}ETS和研究生入学考试委员会周一发布公告说，他们无法在今年秋季按照修改了的计划安排考试，他们将继续沿用旧版的GRE考试系统，在已经实施过的考试中心举办该项考试。ETS的新闻发言人汤姆•尤因说，目前的GRE考试系统已经沿用了约五年时间。

　　{6}他说：“在过去三个月中，我们认真研究了参加GRE的机会问题，以及是否有足够的网络考试中心来确保每一位想参加该项考试的学生都能够参考。结果很明显，在国内没有足够的网络考试中心。”

　　{7}每年有55万到60万申请研究生课程的学生参加该项考试。

　　{8}GRE考试修改计划涉及计分错误问题，与去年披露的学业能力倾向测验(SAT2)大学入学考试中的计分错误有很大的不同。但ETS和GRE考试委员会周一发布的公告也可能出于这方面的担忧，即标准化考试部门成天忙于制定几十种州级和国家级的标准化考试，要做的工作很多。

　　{9}“公平考试组织”已经对考试部门的工作提出了批评，该组织的公共教育部主任罗伯特•谢弗说，公告证实ETS“已经一再地试图在机考还没有为黄金时间准备好的情况下，就把新版本匆忙推向市场。他们推出这些有缺陷的产品是为了增加考试组织者的收入，而不是为了提高考试质量或者满足学生的需求。”

　　{10}ETS说，即使取消了对GRE考试的修改计划，ETS仍在考虑是否提高考试的收费。此前ETS已经宣布GRE的考试费用会上调，但没有透露具体上调多少。目前的GRE考试费用在美国本土是130美元，而在大多数其它国家则为160美元。

　　{11}尤因说：“我们仍在评估是否将上调GRE考试的费用，我们觉得可能会上调，但目前尚不清楚是否真的如此。”

　　译注(文中下划线部分)：

　　1、 美国一家非营利性机构，致力于向全球各类人士、教育机构和政府部门提供公正有效的测评、研究及相关服务，提高教育质量和公平性，根据不同需求制定各种解决方案。ETS成立于1947年，目前在全球超过180个国家设有9000多个考试中心，每年开发、举办并评估有3000万人次参加的考试。

　　2 、为Scholastic Aptitude Test的缩写，是美国高中生进入美国大学所必须参加的考试，即美国“高考”，也是其他国家高中生申请进入美国大学本科学习能否被录取以及得到奖学金的重要参考。SAT由美国的College Board举办，在美国本土每年举办7次，其它地方每年6次，考试用英语。