Tom Ewing, spokesman for Educational Testing Service, which is based in Princeton, N.J., and designs the tests for the graduate, management and admissions council, outlined the reasons for changing tests' formats. Audrey Ward, spokeswoman for the School of Law, said Law Services, which oversees the LSAT law entrance exam nationwide, was still considering changing its test format to a computer-based one. Ewing denied the criticism that the new tests would discriminate against students who had had limited access to computers. Dr. Bonnie Angel, clinical associate professor for the School of Nursing, said the National Council for Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses, which is taken by graduates of the nursing school, became computerized in 1994. They're about equal in measuring competency to practice nursing.
Some students advocate the merits of computerized tests.
William O. Johnson, a first-year student in the MBA program at UNC who took the pencil and paper GMAT last year, said he would have preferred the computerized test. The positive aspects are the immediate feedback, speed and accuracy and the reduction in the threat of fraud. The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus charged the United States judicial system with abusing its authority and with illegitimacy in his speech on the widening gap between church and state Wednesday night. He pointed to a Supreme Court where decisions, he said, came more from the self-granted authority of the justices than from sanction of the U.S. Constitution or American people. He called the practice judicial usurpation, meaning the authority had been taken without approval or consent.