The Educational Testing Service plans to add a measure of skills, like creativity and organization, to the Graduate Record Exam starting in July 2009.

The new component, the “Personal Potential Index,” will allow several individuals to rate students from 1 to 5 in six key areas: knowledge and creativity, communication skills, teamwork, planning and organization, ethics and integrity, and resilience.

David G. Payne, associate vice president for college and graduate programs at ETS, said professors or supervisors chosen by the students would fill out the index. The new component, however, is not meant to replace letters of recommendation, Mr. Payne said. It is intended to measure skills that don’t always come through in letters of recommendation, which often focus on scholarship or only certain skill areas.

Mr. Payne said the index had been designed to allow graduate schools to evaluate students more holistically, especially as they strive to diversify their student bodies. The new component, he said, is a direct response to requests from graduate-school deans and faculties for just such a tool. “They felt this was key to measuring factors that indicate potential success but that don’t necessarily come through on a standardized test,” Mr. Payne said.

The index will be bundled with the GRE, but will be optional unless graduate schools start requiring it. Mr. Payne said he expected the new component to raise the cost of the test from $10 to $15. The test currently costs $140 in the United States, and is taken by about 600,000 people each year. —Elyse Ashburn