Registrations Up for Law and Business School Tests, but Not for for GRE

Applications for the exam needed for most graduate schools will drop this year, marking the first-ever decline in students taking the test during an economic downturn.

Only 621,000 students are expected to take the Graduate Record Examination this year, down from 633,000 last year, Inside Higher Ed reports.

The drop stands in marked contrast to increases reported in registrations this year for the Graduate Management Admission Test, up 10.4 percent, and the Law School Admission Test, up 6.2 percent, TaxProf Blog reports.

The blog says the surge in LSAT applications is spurred by an ABA rule that requires law schools to report a student's highest, rather than average, LSAT score. The number of would-be law students retaking the test jumped by more than 16 percent in the past year, according to the National Law Journal.