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.

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