I took the GRE today. I registered for it at the end of last month and did some preparing. Most of my true effort was in math: I am not a numbers person. Barron’s How to Prepare for the GRE Test was very helpful in reviewing and practicing math. In any case, it was certainly not much time to cram and learn about averages and polynomials and geometry (oy, geometry maketh me to swoon with terror even now).
Outcome so far:
Verbal - 700.
Quantitative - 560.
Analytical - not graded yet.
So, how happy or jubilant should I be? What will the University of Chicago/Northwestern University/etc. think when they see this score? (I haven’t sent them in to them. I’m debating whether to take it again if it’s not good enough.)
What program are you applying to? Many graduate programs don’t even look at the analytical section of your score (no cite, but I checked all this stuff out when I took the test. There was a list of programs and which scores they look at on a website sometime around 1999.)
For a verbally based program, your score is good. Assuming that you have the grades to back it up, I don’t think it will be a problem. The 560 in quantitative is probably a little low if you are trying to get into an engineering/science program.
As I understand it, GREs aren’t the major consideration when you are applying to programs. Make sure you have great references, and your grades are at least pretty good.
If it helps, I got into a top ten program in my field with a combined 2250 on the GREs, a 3.1 GPA, extracurricular involvement, co-op experience, and two very good references (one was from a professor who sometimes researched with one of the profs in the grad school). From the murmurings that I heard, the references and co-op are the items that really made the difference.
Well, I don’t plan on getting into anything science or numbers-related. Political science, international relations, security, South Asian area studies, Near East area studies, or Jewish studies. My goal is a PhD. Will my Quantitative score matter for any of the above?
That is 100% average. It should be right at the 50th percentile.
To those that do not know, the old GRE analytical section that was graded on an 800 point scale just like the verbal and quantitative sections has been replaced. It is now a two-part writing excercise where you must create and critique arguments. It is graded by hand by graduate student on a 1 - 6 scale.
Well, your verbal score is excellent so that wouldn’t be a limitation for any program. Your quantitative score may scare some off. Is there any way that you could study really hard for the math and retake it? I knew that math was going to be my weakness as well and studied hard for it and did well when I took the GRE last December. The quantitative part is the section that is easiest to boost you score on by studying. If you found that you couldn’t calculate the area of a triangle or the circumfurance of a circle then that is easily fixed with the many practice CD’s available.
I am not sure how much importance anyone really places on the analytical section. On the old multiple-choice analytical section, most places just ignored it because they didn’t really know how to interpret it and results weren’t distributed like a bell-curve.
For the new writing analytical section, I think that they just want to see that you don’t get a 1 or a 2 or something. I got a 4.5 on mine as well and I know that mine was much, much better than that. I have never written a paper in my life that was less than the top 10% of the class. Like I said, it is just graded by graduate students that get a few cents for spending 2 minutes max grading each section. We both could have easily gotten a 5.5 or a 6 if it wasn’t handed to the next evaluator instead.
That said, GRE scores are only part of the picture. Grades are another part but what really matter is actual research experience in the field you want to study. If you have that and you have a recommendation from a person that knows your work and is respected in the field, then you have a much better shot.