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The number of Indian students appearing for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) has outstripped the number of American students, making India the largest GRE test-taker market, a top official of Education Testing Service (ETS), which conducts this standardised admission test, said.
"This is the first time in the more than 80-year history of the GRE that a country outside of the US has more test-takers," said Amit Sevak, chief executive of ETS, the world's largest private non-profit educational testing and assessment organisation. "It just shows that the demand is growing here in India," he told ET.
First introduced in 1936, GRE is a standardised test for admission to graduate schools. It measures analytical writing, critical thinking, quantitative reasoning and verbal reasoning skills of students seeking admission to graduate and business schools in the US and many other countries.
The countries with the greatest number of citizens who took the GRE in the 2022-23 testing year (June-July) were India (113,304), the US (97,676) and China (57,769), ETS said.
The number of US citizens appearing for the exam has plummeted 61% compared to the 2019-20 cycle when 250,274 took the test, data from GRE Worldwide Test Taker Report (July 2015-June 2020) showed.
During the same period, the number of Indians appearing for the GRE has increased 62% from 69,835, data showed.
There was a blip during Covid-19 due to the test-optional movement, wherein test centres had to shut down in the lockdown world over and universities had to waive GRE requirements for applications.
Since then, most institutions have reinstated the test.
"Institutions around the world and especially in the US have always taken GRE scores as an indicator of readiness for advanced studies," said Manisha Zaveri, joint managing director at Career Mosaic, an education agency that helps students to apply to study abroad. "The growing interest of Indian students in STEM disciplines makes GRE a natural test of choice for them," she said.
For the GRE test-takers in India-in the 2022-23 testing year-the most popular intended graduate majors were physical sciences (35%), undecided (29%) and engineering (13%).
While GRE test-takers have a near-even inclination to study in all regions of the United States, their preferences are particularly pronounced for the southern (24%) and western (23%) regions. Among non-US regions, Canada (11%) and Western Europe (10%) were the most sought after.
Also, according to ETS, a rising number of Indian higher education institutions including b-schools - about 100 now - recognise GRE scores. "There's this whole focus on study in India now, getting more and more international students to come to India. This is a way for internationalising Indian higher education," Sevak said.
GRE provides more flexibility to students, he said. "Unlike other graduate entrance examinations, scores for the GRE are valid for five years. It gives you options. You can take the GRE as a pathway to enter an Indian institution or get an opportunity to access institutions outside of India," Sevak said.
