by Serena Lin
Honesty is the best policy, and for students lacking credibility, the ETS (Educational Testing Service) has decided to implement a new policy regarding the GRE. Starting from Oct. 1, 2002, ETS has suspended the Computer-based General Test, and has implemented paper-based testing in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea. The paper-based version of the exam will take place on Nov. 23, 2002, and March 15, 2003. This drastic transformation is a response to security breaches. According to ETS, “a number of Asian-language Web sites offer both questions and answers illegally obtained by test takers who memorize and reconstruct questions and share them with other test takers. The Web sites are located in China and Korea, and easily accessed in Hong Kong and Taiwan.” After implementing the new policy, ETS expects to tackle the problem of people gaining an unfair advantage, and to protect the integrity of the test. In fact, ETS requires each test taker to sign a confidentiality statement, and it may cancel one’s scores if he/she discloses the test’s content. But apparently, the statement was only a formality. As a test taker in Taiwan, one of the “notorious” four countries, I feel as if we are being fried in our own grease. We no longer benefit from a year-round computer-based test nor an instant score report; rather, we retrogress to taking the test on restricted dates, and craning our necks for test reports. Furthermore, graduate school administrators might blacklist Taiwanese applicants and discredit our scores. Even if we are fortunately admitted, do we genuinely possess the prominent academic ability reflected from the “prominent” scores? Regarding these gloomy anxieties, Professor Han-liang Chang, the Executive Director of the LTTC, has provided some enlightening insights. Instead of viewing this transformation as a regression, he agrees with the latest paper-based version of the exam, which requires analytical writing as well. A traditional writing exam can check one’s ability to write eloquently, while questionnaire-type examinations suffer the drawback of test-takers answering questions by probability and memorization. Also, Professor Chang holds a lenient attitude towards all kinds of testing methods. “The most essential point is the quality of the test questions, not the form or structure.” He encourages NTU students to lay a sound foundation in learning English, and thus, no matter how the examinations alter, we will be able to confront challenges with composure and confidence. “Cram school organizers are those who will smart from the shock, not the students with English proficiency,” Professor Chang concluded. #Volume 8 Issue 1 a
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May 2024
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