A Meta-Analysis on the Predictive Validity of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Foreign Languages Department, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

2 Kerman University of Medical Sciences (KMU), Kerman, Iran

3 Department of English, College of Science and Humanities, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, 11942, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Since its inception in 1949, over 1,500 studies have investigated the validity of the GRE General Test to predict its performance criteria in higher education (Klieger, Bridgeman, Tannenbaum, & Cline, 2016). The present review paper sought to examine the predictive validity of the GRE General Test. Factors affecting the predictive validity (e.g., range restriction, compensatory selection, criterion unreliability, substantive and artifactual moderators, bias in testing, coaching effects, socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and a host of other intervening factors such as motivation, communication skills, etc.) have been discussed. A brief overview of GRE revised General Test format is also presented. After an account of the related review of the literature, a critical commentary on the predictive validity of the GRE General Test has been discussed with an emphasis on the role of criterion unreliability and SES factor effects.
Keywords: Predictive validity, Graduate Record Examination (GRE), criterion unreliability, range restriction, compensatory selection

Keywords