Facing the new & "improved" computerized GRE

The online GRE, which ETS seems to have contracted out to a company called Prometrics, has so far been a real challenge to register for.

The ETS and Prometrics websites both drop me off into a website which leads nowhere - no links to test center locations, dates, etc. Used to be the test was given at colleges - now, more usually, it seems to be at a bunch of hard-to-find "test centers" in out of the way industrial parks and the like.

I tried calling Prometrics - their regular number 1-800-CALL-GRE puts you in perma-hold, but I finally got a response from their "reporting problems" number 1-800-853-6769. I could ask the human who answered about a specific date, and she could tell me if it was free or not, but it would have been a lot better to be able to look at an assortment of dates. All they had on the days I was free were evening dates, which aren't good.

So far, this hasn't been reassuring. It seems pretty messed up. I took the paper GRE a long time ago. I remember the process of registering being a lot smoother.

And it costs a lot more - $140.

This process cries out for competition from other test providers. I wonder if there are any alternative tests grad schools would take, like the Miller Analogies Test if that's still around.