The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) test has been cut in half: From four, it has gone to being just two hours. Announcing this, a statement was released by Educational Testing Service (ETS), the body that conducts GRE, saying, "Beginning today students can now take the shorter GRE for admissions to graduate, business, and law programs and school. The shorter GRE testing time has been nearly cut in half, and is now under two hours compared to almost four-hours previously." 

Additionally, "Official GRE scores will be delivered to test takers even faster than before, in just 8-10 days post-examination," it added. Listing out the new changes being made to the GRE test, the press release mentioned what sections have been removed. The shorter GRE test includes: 

— Removal of the Analyse an Argument task in the Analytical Writing section

— Reduced number of questions in the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections
— Removal of the unscored section

Moreover, this shorter GRE, "is also section-level adaptive, allowing test takers to answer questions in the order that they choose and to change their answers as often as they need to," the release added. 

As per the release, GRE scores are accepted for Master of Business Administration (MBA) in more than 1,300 business schools in 94 countries. Also, other professional graduate programmes, showcasing GRE’s position as a universal test for pursuing graduate and professional studies across disciplines. 

GRE scores are valid for a period of five years which provides students with flexibility to explore their graduate and professional school options.