GREs and ETS

The ETS website seems to have been programmed by an incompetent two year old. Its operation reminds me of the old phone systems where you need to enter the same information five times at each step of the way. I show just one example when I tried to send my scores to an institution.

After all my personal information has been entered I expected to see a nice set of check boxes where I could see my test scores and select the ones that I want to send. Instead I was faced with not one but three pieces of information I needed to provide in order to bring up my test.

They first needed one of the following:

• Web Registration Confirmation Number. You might expect this number to be in the confirmation email. There was some number in this email but it wasn't this one!
• Registration Number. This number was only on the paper thing they mailed to me.
• Appointment Number: This must be an internal GRE thing that only they know.

Then they asked for two more points of confirmation, just so that I can select the score. But they know all the tests I've taken!!! Why must I remember all these things and enter such an excess of redundant information!!!

For a company that charges $20 to print a piece of paper ¢3 put it in an envelope ¢3 and bulk mail it ¢44, (thats a markup of about 40 times the actual cost) you would think they could hire a web developer rather than having their sloppy cousin's kid hack it together (presumably).

Here are some tag words to go along with this post:

GRE, ETS, SAT, EVIL, Bulshit, French, pain in the neck, tortuous, maddening, sloppy, childish, unprofessional, monopoly, extortion . . .

Please feel to leave any more adjectives that come to your mind when you think of ETS and the GREs or the SATs.