On April 2, 2007, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) canceled its plans to launch the Revised GRE General Test. This non-adaptive exam would have introduced many new question types that required more student interaction with the computer.

Instead of scrapping these changes entirely, ETS unearthed two of these new question types in November 2007.

The new Verbal Reasoning question is a text completion with either two or three blanks. To complete each blank, users click on cells within a table to select the appropriate words or phrases. The new Quantitative Reasoning question is a word problem requiring users to type answers manually as either numbers or fractions.

Test takers may see one new Verbal Reasoning question, one new Quantitative Reasoning question, or no new questions at all. No test taker will see more than one new question on a single administration.

In January 2008, ETS began to introduce reformatted reading passages in the Verbal Reasoning section. Unlike the current reading passages, the reformatted passages will not have line numbers. Instead, some portions of the passage may be highlighted in order to focus the test taker on specific information. Test takers may encounter both types of reading passages (ones with line numbers and ones with highlighting) in their tests.

The new question types will not affect students' GRE scores immediately after they are introduced. However, once enough sample data have been gathered from test takers, these questions will begin to count.

ETS is still considering other future improvements, so stay up to date at their official site.

In the meantime, we recommend that you prepare for the GRE by taking practice tests and learning some important tips and strategies.