'First A Trickle And Then A Surge': Why More Grad Schools Are Going GRE-Optional

Joshua Hall had his sights set on a doctoral program in microbiology. In his dorm, he’d taken and retaken the practice tests for the GRE, the graduate school entry exam.

On the big day, he was ready.

“So I sat down and began my test, and I remember at that time there was a section called the analytical section and this was actually the section that I tended to do the best on in the practice tests,” he said.

Then things started going south. Another student came in and sat next to him.

“She was super loud, like she was crumbling some papers up and was just trying to get situated, and it was so distracting,” he said. “The more distracted I got, the more nervous I became, and I started, I remember sweating, thinking like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to do well on this.’ ”