A team of researchers led by the Rochester Institute of Technology completed an analysis of physics Ph.D. students from 2000 to 2010, and discovered that the students’ performance on the GRE physics subject test had no bearing on Ph.D. completion. The team also now believes the test is hurting the growth of diversity in physics, because the standardized test shows significant gender and race-based differences. Since the test doesn’t seem to be correlated with student success, and considering women and underrepresented minorities are performing worse on the test, researchers urge universities in the U.S. to rely on a different method of selecting candidates, such as undergraduate GPA.
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a member of NYSERNet’s R&E network. Read more about the study here: http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=69014