Psychology

The GRE Psychology Test is a paper-based test of about 215 questions in a multiple-choice pattern with five options to choose from. There is one and only one unique answer to each question. Students are given 2 hours and 50 minutes to finish the test. The test is administered on three dates every year in test centers located worldwide.

The GRE wing of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) selects six faculty members from the departments of Psychology from US colleges and universities to form the committee that prepares the Psychology Subject Test for GRE. The members have to be from diverse research specialties, from different geographical locations of their universities, etc. and they need to have a broad understanding of Psychology as a whole, and not only in their area of research. Each member is expected to frame 15 potential questions for the year. Additional questions are prepared from other faculty members who are not part of this core committee. The committee then reviews the questions submitted by other faculty members to check whether every question is clearly stated, has one unique answer only, and addresses a significant branch of the subject.

Of the questions, 40% deal with cognition, sensation and perception, learning, and biological psychology. Another 43% questions deal with social psychology, personality, development and abnormal behaviour. The remaining 17% deal with research methods, history of psychology, and applied psychology.

When the test has been administered, and before the scores are reported at ETS, statisticians assess every question to check for a few parameters. These include what percentage of students answered each question correctly and the point biserial. The statistical assessment helps in pointing out some minor issues in every test, and the questions that involve these issues are not counted in computing the scores for that test, and discounted from all future tests.

The GRE Psychology Subject Test is updated regularly to accommodate changes in theory brought about by new research and in the understanding of psychological phenomena.

Tags: Clinical Psychology, Psychology, Psychology Subject test, Subject GRE Psychology