Iraqi Graduate Students’ Analysis of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Verbal Reasoning Content: A Think-Aloud Study

Abstract

This study describes difficulties Iraqi graduate students encounter while answering Verbal Reasoning Measure (VRM) questions of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). Participants thought aloud while answering questions from three VRM subsections: Reading Comprehension (RC), Text Completion (TC), and Sentence Equivalence (SE). Data were collected via audio recordings, from seven Iraqi graduate students, and transcribed orthographically, coded, and analyzed. The analysis yielded several themes: Difficulties related to the structure of the question and/or the meaning of its answers, the content is pertinent to USA culture and history, SE is the most difficult part followed by TC, and RC is time consuming. These findings are consistent with previous research results that the structure of the GRE VRM questions and/or the answers are difficult to understand, SE items were much harder than TC and RC items due to their unfamiliar content and vague meanings, and RC is time consuming for international graduate students. Pedagogical implications were identified and recommendations for ETS and students were suggested.