There is no way for grad schools to have an intimate knowledge of how every teacher in every college grades. They probably can't even know all that much about each of the innumerable colleges. The GRE gives them a way to compare the overall quality of education and amount of knowledge that a student has acquired no matter what college the student attended.

Of course, the system is susceptible to abuse. Some students take intensive cram courses targeted at the GRE's. Others just have a talent for that type of test. But, overall, it is a good tool for the grad schools to use in comparing prospective students from different colleges.

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