February 6, 2009

Testing the Test

An English professor takes the GRE and questions its value

By Michael Bérubé

I did a very foolhardy thing this fall. I retook the Graduate Record Examination in English literature, 25 years after I entered graduate school at the University of Virginia.

The potential for embarrassment, I thought, was enormous — and, therefore, so was the perverse attraction. It seemed like a stunt out of a David Lodge novel. What if an English professor got a lower GRE score than some of the applicants who had been rejected from his own graduate program? It's not

Digital or Print Subscription

Web Pass

Already have an account? Log In Now.