Taking the GRE in Hong Kong

The ETS sure makes it a pain in the ass to do the GRE here. Rather than some prominent institution or location, they decide to administer the exam at the HKEA which is all the way in San Po Kong (Don't go without a map). Most peculiar how the GRE is a computer based exam in the US and many parts of the world, but only in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea is it given in a split format. Reason is to "restore the validity of scores for students in these regions. The paper-based Verbal and Quantitative sections that are administered will be retired from use after each administration, thereby removing the unfair advantage some past students gained by memorizing questions in advance of the test."

Hmmm. What's this supposed to imply? That the Chinese are all a bunch of medacious cheaters? What this split format infers is that rather sitting the entire exam in one day like elsewhere, the essay is taken first on computer and the qualitative/verbal about 4 months later. Of course the later is only available twice a year, hence the reason for the over capacitated exam hall. Also if you screw up, there goes $175 and a year delayed from applying to grad school. Alternatively, you could just fly to a country the ETS considers more trustworthy like Singapore.

Reminds me of back in high school when the A level exam board (Edexcel) in the UK suddenly decided to force all Hong Kong students to sit those exams according to their time zone. WTF! That means that if an exam is being administered from 8-10am in the UK, all Hong Kong students sitting the same exam are prohibited from leaving their respective exam halls until 4pm!

Yeah, the Chinese can't be trusted...