‘63% increase in GRE test takers from India’ says ETS official

Since the beginning of ‘at-home tests’, has there been an increase in the number of test takers from the rural parts of India?

We have seen phenomenal growth in the number of test takers, for both our at-home and test center testing. We know that India is amongst the world’s largest markets for outbound students with nearly 1.8 million Indian students estimated to apply for admission to overseas education programmes by 2024 (Red Seer Report). With this, we are confident the GRE test will be the natural beneficiary of this overseas education rush. In fact, we have seen this already with our GRE test volume having increased 63 per cent from 2020-2021 to 2021-2022.

If we look at the last six years of data, non-metros such as Pune and Ahmedabad have appeared as the top 10 cities where GRE test takers live. In the last four years, cities such as Thane, Guntur, Vijaywada and Khammam have made it to the list, with Guntur and Vijaywada in the top 5 in both 2021 and 2022. These trends point to increased GRE demand from mini metros and tier 2 towns.

Over the last 10 years, we have seen considerable growth among our Indian GRE test taking population. In 2012-13, 56,782 test takers from India took the GRE General test. In 2013-2014, we served 85,489; in 2014-2015 we grew to 96,178; in 2015-2016 we grew further to 99,376 test takers; in 2016-2017, we served 80,123 test takers; 68,702 in 2017-2018; in 2018-2019, just before the pandemic, we had 72,855 Indian students take the GRE test; 2019-2020, we served 69,835 in the midst of COVID-19 and began to grow back again in 2020-2021 with 70,136 test takers. We experienced incredible growth in 2021-2022 with 114,647 test takers, a 63 per cent increase from the year before as we continue to emerge from the pandemic.

Below are the top 10 cities from where this growth has come (last 6 years data by testing year, June-July):

(Graphics by Abhishek Mitra)

With things getting back to normal, and Covid taking a backseat, is ETS planning to discontinue the ‘at-home GRE test’?

When Covid came, we thought that as the leading organisation, we needed to provide an opportunity for people to have the test available to them in a place that was safe and that was proctored without obviously the possibility of going to a test centre. That’s how the at-home test was created by ETS for GRE and TOEFL. Then other assessment companies followed the same for their tests.

So, now that Covid is winding down, we still believe that there are places in rural areas in the world that don’t have easy access to test centres. Therefore, the solution of the at-home test for GRE and TOEFL continues to be an opportunity to serve these individuals. Having said that, we are also aware in the case of India, of some situations where there have been some reported cheating situations and ETS stands understands the need to stop that type of behaviour. We have taken steps for a while now and we are now actually enhancing steps to stop that situation. So, at this point, everything is on the table, but we are not making any decisions about that just now for two reasons.

One, we do not want to leave individuals who require this solution (of at-home test). The second reason is that we want to make sure we look at the data and understand if these are isolated instances in a specific area in the country.

Talking about cheating cases, how many cases have been caught in India since the launch of at-home tests, and what are the security measures taken against that now?

The number of cheating incidents we see represents a very small percentage of the overall number of tests we administer each year across the globe. While we have seen these incidents increase since the pandemic, each day we continue to thoroughly investigate and mitigate the incidents of those who cheat on our assessments. We go to great lengths to certify the scores of our test takers because we have an obligation to those test takers who test with integrity. It is important to know that if you diligently prepare and demonstrate your skills on test day, you will not only be setting yourself up for success in graduate school, but also in your career and beyond. At the end of the day, cheaters and those trying to commit fraud eventually get caught. The risk is not worth the perceived reward and does not pay off.

To safeguard test security, our Office of Testing Integrity (OTI), Chief Security Office and Research and Development teams work to analyse scores and testing sessions that are suspected of having been earned or conducted unfairly (and cancel test scores when evidence warrants doing so); investigate cheating rings and services; identify new trends and patterns that require action; work with local law enforcement, etc. In the most extreme cases, we have and will continue to ban test takers from taking our assessments. In the coming months, we also plan to invest tens of millions of additional dollars to further our technological capabilities and double down on test security measures to ensure we are continuing to be at least one step ahead in this space.

Have there been cases in rural parts of India where students faced technical snags in the at-home test services or at the test centres? How are these being dealt with?

Sometimes test taker-takers don’t have good Wi-Fi and they don’t get the opportunity. We see such cases every single day, but our processing test centres help us in such cases. This is not like we send a student to a test centre and whatever happens, happens. We have protocols in place that if these things, unfortunately, happen because of a network issue, there are hundreds of individuals in call centres addressing these issues for thousands of students that take the test and need help. We have all that in place. So, for anyone who encounters a problem, we work with the positioned test centres and at the same time we work with our call centre. No candidate is denied an opportunity due to these technical issues, and we ensure that we deal with it in a fair and an unbiased way.

Are there any changes or modifications that we can expect in the GRE test in the near future?

Yes, we are now in the process of revising some of the areas in the test. We are looking at how can we position GRE as a more modern test and stay relevant with the changing times. We want to ensure that whatever new products or alterations of the (existing) products that we bring to the table are things that help the students and are welcomed by the institutions. More details will be made available in the next few months. We want to see the GRE test evolve with time.

Are authorities worried that IT layoffs may lead to a decrease in GRE test takers?

This is a market trend that takes place every so often and what is happening now is that after Covid, the discussion about additional ways of conducting admissions accelerated. So, this is not just about GRE, but also about SAT, LSAT etc. At the end of the day, these are healthy discussions about how everyone can help students better, but we are seeing an increase in the number of GRE test takers, and we are also seeing some big universities such as MIT going back to using GRE scores. These things sometimes happen, and sometimes don’t, but our aim is to ensure that the relevance and quality stays intact for GRE while we have such discussions with the universities.

However, we are not concerned about it, we just believe that it is important to continue working with this constituency. We have also seen tremendous growth (year-to-year basis) in India in terms of test takers, which proves that GRE stays relevant in India.

This chart is by testing year from June of the first year to July of the second year in the range.

(Graphics by Abhishek Mitra)

Indians are in the top 3 test takers of GRE all over the world. Indian students do quite well in the GRE, and we are happy about that as it reinforces their value. Having said that, we are now looking for ways to make this process easier for Indian candidates, and we want to get in direct contact with these test takers.

In addition to that, there are also programmes such as GRE Mentor for candidates. We are also exploring opportunities to help individuals here to understand their personal skills and qualities. These are small things we are doing to help generate more interest (regarding GRE) in India.

There are services (coaching centres) out there that may not be verified, so students need to watch out for that. There is free material available on our website for preparation, and students can pay a little bit more to get higher prep services and material. I would advise candidates to always be careful and be aware about the authenticity of GRE test prep material available on the Indian streets.

Is ETS planning to launch new test centres in India?

We are not concentrating on the at-home tests right now. While we still believe it is an important solution, our focus is on providing different solutions and one of those solutions is going to the test centres. As of now, ETS is trying to expand the capacity of the existing test centres as we want more students to have access to test centres now.

We also want to expand the number of test centres in India, but that will be decided on the basis of the analysis of the situation and need in India.