fox: linguistics-related IPA (linguistics)
fox ([personal profile] fox) wrote2003-09-04 06:27 pm
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GRE

who thinks i should retake the GRE?

i took it in december of 1999, so the scores should still be valid:

V 650, 92nd percentile
Q 720, 80th percentile
A 690, 84th percentile

that's not how they're scoring anymore, but still. thing is, i don't like those percentiles with eights in them. anyone have thoughts?
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[identity profile] glasshouseslive.livejournal.com 2003-09-04 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
why do you have to take it again? Are you applying for a PhD program?

If so, find out their miminum requirements and if you meet them don't bother. Those are fine scores, and you could be off your game if you take it again, and then you're stuck with lower ones on your record.
thalia: photo of Chicago skyline (Default)

[personal profile] thalia 2003-09-04 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm... How much prep did you do for the first time? And how rusty have your math skills gotten? I guarantee you can ace the analytical writing portion if you practice a little (I got 5.5/6.0 when I took the GMAT, and it wasn't hard), and you might have an advantage now since there's only the one math section instead of both quantitative and analytical. And that 650 in verbal... I suspect you could get that over 700. I'm sure you could on the GMAT, but I have no idea how the GRE verbal compares. (Oops, just checked, it's very different.) If you could afford to take a prep course--like, say, Kaplan, just for example [g]--you might be able to get your scores up quite a bit. But you probably shouldn't retake it if you're not going to do some serious prep.

You can download a practice GRE. Maybe you should give that a try and see how you do.

(I kind of miss the old GRE. I got 750/800/800 back in 1987; I'm tempted to have that score report framed. It's not good for anything now, though.)

[identity profile] ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com 2003-09-04 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
When I was shredding documents for the department a few years back, I got to see everyone's GRE scores. Yours wouldn't have been out of place at all-- actually, I was surprised to see that the program's two most famous washouts of recent years had the very highest scores.

All depends on the department

[identity profile] wholenother.livejournal.com 2003-09-04 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Some departments still actually take GREs seriously. Not that those are bad scores -- they're not, so stop it! -- but I did better than that (in percentiles, I don't remember the scores, but the fact that I can remember my lowest percentile but can't remember people's names says something scary about me -- an 8 disturbed me, too), and I firmly believe you are brighter than me and, therefore, in a perfect world would do better than me.... (Or, well, however I should put it. Basically, you'd do better the second time around, I believe, but it's all really an expensive crapshoot.) No department is going to take the GREs so seriously as to reject you on those perfectly good scores.

So, unless they're making financial decisions based on GREs, I wouldn't bother. But I understand -- however much we go on and on about how "objectivity" is crap and these things don't measure what they're purporting to measure (and couldn't even if they were well designed, whatever that means), we still want to see that 90 (or, preferably, 99, who am I kidding?) percent of the population are (even just supposedly) behind us.... (Don't forget, too, that the crowd who took the GREs is quite a bit different from the crowd who took the SATs.)

So, don't fret, and don't waste your money if it's not likely to lead to your getting more money in the future.

signed,
wholenother, the parenthetical (some of which, I admit, were added in the editing phase because I'm so tired I actually find myself amusing, which borders on disturbing or maybe disturbed)

[identity profile] mearagrrl.livejournal.com 2003-09-04 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, it's not that much worse than [livejournal.com profile] datlowen, IIRC, and I think GW was quite impressed by his...

I'm just scared of the new essay thing. I LIKED the old versin, and damnit, I liked it on PAPER, not computer!
thalia: photo of Chicago skyline (Default)

[personal profile] thalia 2003-09-04 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I took the GMAT right after it was computerized, and I was a nervous wreck. I did really well on it, but it seemed much tougher than the paper version.

The essays aren't bad, really, except they're *first*, so you're already exhausted when you get to the multiple choice stuff. That's not fun. I found them pretty straightforward, though, and ETS isn't expecting Great Prose, thankfully.

[identity profile] bethbethbeth.livejournal.com 2003-09-04 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
What program are you applying to? Or...more to the point, do you know what TPTB in your prospective program think is most important?

When I took the GRE's, I scored in the 99th percentile in verbal, 96th percentile in the logic puzzle thingy (it would appear my verbal skills have deteriorated sadly over the years *g*), but in math? The 52nd percentile. Yes, that's right...you heard me. I think that's just high enough to be able to be trusted to buy a loaf of bread at the store and come back with correct change. The head of the PhD program I was applying to looked at the scores, said "good thing we're not a physics department," then just laughed and offered me a fellowship.

Apparently the math portion wasn't considered terribly important in my program. *g*
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