The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education developed the Graduation Rate Survey (GRS) to help institutions comply with the "Student Right-to-Know (SRTK) Act" requirements. NCES uses GRS data to calculate graduation rates within 150 percent of normal time for all students in the GRS cohort, as well as 100 percent and 125 percent of normal times for students seeking bachelor's degrees, by race/ethnicity and by gender. Responding to the GRS is wrought with complexities. Respondents are required to be aware of which students to include (e.g., can first-time students attending the previous summer be included), which students to exclude (e.g., can students who temporarily stop their studies because of military service be excluded), and the dates used to compute an accurate graduation rate. The purpose of this paper is to present recommendations for reducing complexity and confusion of completing the GRS survey as well as improve the standardization of data. The paper summarizes findings from two activities: deliberations of the NPEC GRS Working Group (with feedback from the full NPEC membership) and an analysis of graduation rate survey perceptions using entries in the Common Dataset listserve. Appended are: (1) About the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC); (2) Methodology and Detailed Findings; and (3) Clarifications of Instructions and Definitions. (Contains 7 footnotes.)