Not able to afford the thousands of dollars often required for a prep course, he studied for the GRE on his own. But his test results weren’t what he hoped: “I didn’t feel like they were good enough to be sent in to any of the programs I was considering.”

Stories like Vazquez’s highlight the limitations of standardized admissions tests like the GRE—or at the high-school level, the SAT and ACT—and the obstacles they can pose to otherwise talented students, many of whom are disadvantaged minorities. Most graduate programs accept or require GREs as part of a prospective student’s admissions-application package and the stakes are well-known. Grad-school admissions is a competitive venture; researchers call grad school a “high-status opportunity.” For Fall 2014 admission, 2.15 million students applied to graduate school in the U.S. Only 22 percent of the doctoral applicants and about 48 percent of the Master’s-degree applicants were accepted, however. Score well on the GRE and your odds of entry to this high-status opportunity look better. Don’t score well, and—at least traditionally—you may have to consider something else to do with your life. Critics say an over-reliance on these tests leaves people like Vazquez—somebody who has demonstrated grit and passion for his field and a dedication to learning and teaching—out in the cold without just cause.

“In our society we put a huge premium on the kinds of analytical problems the GRE measures. So if you’re a good abstract analytical thinker, you’ll do well on these tests,” says Robert J. Sternberg, a cognitive psychologist and professor of human development at Cornell University. “The GRE is like taking a cancer test that was invented in the 1940s, though. Most of us wouldn’t have confidence in the results from a cancer test developed then. We have more knowledge and a far better understanding of intelligence and ability now.” Some students simply don’t achieve stellar GRE results although they may be intelligent and exceptionally capable, says Sternberg, who has studied both intelligence and college admissions for more than three decades.

In 2014, professors from Vanderbilt and the University of South Florida published a column in the science journal Nature denouncing the GRE as a test that fails because it takes a toll on student diversity—mainly the numbers of women, minorities, and economically disadvantaged students with high academic potential but relatively low GRE scores. Last December, the president of the American Astronomical Society posted an open letter asking chairs of university departments that grant degrees in the astronomical sciences to reconsider the use of the GRE.

One of the problems critics cite is that as a predictive test the GRE is something of a flop, only managing to (weakly) predict those who will do well in their first year of grad school. That’s it. GRE scores say little about whether a student has the perseverance, creativity, and intellect required to finish a graduate program or, more importantly, to add something to their professional world afterward.