These are my GRE scores. Tell me what you think.

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CaptainTrips222
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05 Aug 2011, 3:57 am

580 Verbal
550 Quantitative
4 Analytical writing

As you can see, I didn't post this to brag. I am proud of myself for making the effort, because I did work hard at it. I spent three months studying daily. I really, really tried hard. But I don't know if it was all worth it. I may have just gotten lucky on the quantitative, because I guessed on some of the data interpretation.

So, hit me with your judgements. HOLD NOTHING BACK! I need the truth. Is this a poor score? The school I'm applying to starts at 500 in each category, but most people do better than this.

If you took the GRE, how did you do? Do you think I'll get into grad school?



Cyanide
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05 Aug 2011, 4:29 am

Well, according to this site http://www.testmasters.net/greabout/scoring-scale your verbal score is about 82nd percentile, and your quantitative score is about 37th percentile...

If you're not going to grad school for a quantitative field, I bet you'll be ok.



CaptainTrips222
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05 Aug 2011, 5:09 am

No, it's sociology. And it's ASU were talkin' about, not Cornell. If it were something like Engineering or Biochem, I'd wanna kill myself right about now. J/k, but I would be despondent.

What do those percentiles mean? Does it show how high or low I am? I don't get it.



Artros
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05 Aug 2011, 5:30 am

CaptainTrips222 wrote:
No, it's sociology. And it's ASU were talkin' about, not Cornell. If it were something like Engineering or Biochem, I'd wanna kill myself right about now. J/k, but I would be despondent.

What do those percentiles mean? Does it show how high or low I am? I don't get it.


It shows how many people scored lower than you. 82% of all people had a lower verbal score, 37% had a lower quantitative score (and, if the percentiles haven't changed since I took it, 81% scored lower than you on analytical writing). This is, as far as I am aware, quite okay for sociology. I remember finding a list somewhere on the GRE sites which gave the mean scores of various fields (including sociology). You could look for that.


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CaptainTrips222
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05 Aug 2011, 6:15 am

Artros wrote:
CaptainTrips222 wrote:
No, it's sociology. And it's ASU were talkin' about, not Cornell. If it were something like Engineering or Biochem, I'd wanna kill myself right about now. J/k, but I would be despondent.

What do those percentiles mean? Does it show how high or low I am? I don't get it.


It shows how many people scored lower than you. 82% of all people had a lower verbal score, 37% had a lower quantitative score (and, if the percentiles haven't changed since I took it, 81% scored lower than you on analytical writing). This is, as far as I am aware, quite okay for sociology. I remember finding a list somewhere on the GRE sites which gave the mean scores of various fields (including sociology). You could look for that.


Thank you, talking cat. So 82% beneath me in verbal. Not too shabby. 32% beneath me in quantitative. Shabby!

But that's okay. I'll keep brushing up on math.



SadAspy
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05 Aug 2011, 8:05 am

Quote:
If you're not going to grad school for a quantitative field, I bet you'll be ok.


I had a 660 verbal and 510 math (5 on the writing portion). I was applying for poli-sci grad programs and let me tell you, they DID care about my quantitative score. Yeah, I eventually got into and funded for a grad program, but it wasn't my ideal one. It was one that really didn't care about GRE scores at all (though they did require taking it).



Artros
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05 Aug 2011, 8:34 am

CaptainTrips222 wrote:
Artros wrote:
CaptainTrips222 wrote:
No, it's sociology. And it's ASU were talkin' about, not Cornell. If it were something like Engineering or Biochem, I'd wanna kill myself right about now. J/k, but I would be despondent.

What do those percentiles mean? Does it show how high or low I am? I don't get it.


It shows how many people scored lower than you. 82% of all people had a lower verbal score, 37% had a lower quantitative score (and, if the percentiles haven't changed since I took it, 81% scored lower than you on analytical writing). This is, as far as I am aware, quite okay for sociology. I remember finding a list somewhere on the GRE sites which gave the mean scores of various fields (including sociology). You could look for that.


Thank you, talking cat. So 82% beneath me in verbal. Not too shabby. 32% beneath me in quantitative. Shabby!

But that's okay. I'll keep brushing up on math.


You are welcome, talking fish.

People generally care about the quantitative score as well, but the mean scores vary. I went and looked up what I was talking about before, and these are the average scores on verbal, quantitative and analytical writing respectively for each field.

Life Sciences 460 578 4.2
Physical Sciences 486 694 4.2
Engineering 470 718 4.1
Social Sciences 487 563 4.5
Humanities 545 564 4.7
Education 449 533 4.3
Business 440 591 4.1

Don't take this as everything, though. I had 650/800/4 and still failed to get into an economics graduate school. It seems as if people care far more about the impression you make in interviews and the like.


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littlelily613
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05 Aug 2011, 11:32 am

I am so scared to take this test!! How far in advance did you take this prior to applying for grad school? I have not taken it, and want to apply for my Masters for the fall 2012.


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littlelily613
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05 Aug 2011, 11:33 am

Also, how do you go about preparing for something like this??


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Artros
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05 Aug 2011, 12:05 pm

littlelily613 wrote:
Also, how do you go about preparing for something like this??


The beauty of the GRE is that there is an insane amount of stuff written on it. Try Peterson's "Master the GRE" and the preparation files on the GRE website. They even have a computer program which is a lot like the actual GRE in layout, options and the like. Between the three of those, I think there are about 25 practice tests you can do. There's also lots of advice of how to prepare for the test and shortcuts you can use in answering question.

I was pretty late for the whole thing so I only had one shot at it. Most people advise to do it a bit earlier so that, if you fail, you can take the test again at a later date (most schools accept results for up to two years after you took the test). I think I prepared for it for a couple of weeks, but I didn't get intense about it until a couple of days before the test itself. I mostly did the practice tests since I always feel like that works best for me.

If you cannot find any of these, send me a PM and I'll e-mail the stuff to you. I've got 1.5 gigs worth of programs and materials.


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CaptainTrips222
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05 Aug 2011, 4:39 pm

Artros wrote:
CaptainTrips222 wrote:
Artros wrote:
CaptainTrips222 wrote:
No, it's sociology. And it's ASU were talkin' about, not Cornell. If it were something like Engineering or Biochem, I'd wanna kill myself right about now. J/k, but I would be despondent.

What do those percentiles mean? Does it show how high or low I am? I don't get it.


It shows how many people scored lower than you. 82% of all people had a lower verbal score, 37% had a lower quantitative score (and, if the percentiles haven't changed since I took it, 81% scored lower than you on analytical writing). This is, as far as I am aware, quite okay for sociology. I remember finding a list somewhere on the GRE sites which gave the mean scores of various fields (including sociology). You could look for that.


Thank you, talking cat. So 82% beneath me in verbal. Not too shabby. 32% beneath me in quantitative. Shabby!

But that's okay. I'll keep brushing up on math.


You are welcome, talking fish.

People generally care about the quantitative score as well, but the mean scores vary. I went and looked up what I was talking about before, and these are the average scores on verbal, quantitative and analytical writing respectively for each field.

Life Sciences 460 578 4.2
Physical Sciences 486 694 4.2
Engineering 470 718 4.1
Social Sciences 487 563 4.5
Humanities 545 564 4.7
Education 449 533 4.3
Business 440 591 4.1

Don't take this as everything, though. I had 650/800/4 and still failed to get into an economics graduate school. It seems as if people care far more about the impression you make in interviews and the like.


Damn, you're only 21 and you've already applied with a score like THAT? You've gotta be freaking smart.



pree10shun
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05 Aug 2011, 4:46 pm

littlelily613 wrote:
I am so scared to take this test!! How far in advance did you take this prior to applying for grad school? I have not taken it, and want to apply for my Masters for the fall 2012.


About now would be the best time. The scores are valid for 4 or 5 years. GRE pattern's changing. You should look up the new pattern.



Artros
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06 Aug 2011, 2:26 am

CaptainTrips222 wrote:
Artros wrote:
CaptainTrips222 wrote:
Artros wrote:
CaptainTrips222 wrote:
No, it's sociology. And it's ASU were talkin' about, not Cornell. If it were something like Engineering or Biochem, I'd wanna kill myself right about now. J/k, but I would be despondent.

What do those percentiles mean? Does it show how high or low I am? I don't get it.


It shows how many people scored lower than you. 82% of all people had a lower verbal score, 37% had a lower quantitative score (and, if the percentiles haven't changed since I took it, 81% scored lower than you on analytical writing). This is, as far as I am aware, quite okay for sociology. I remember finding a list somewhere on the GRE sites which gave the mean scores of various fields (including sociology). You could look for that.


Thank you, talking cat. So 82% beneath me in verbal. Not too shabby. 32% beneath me in quantitative. Shabby!

But that's okay. I'll keep brushing up on math.


You are welcome, talking fish.

People generally care about the quantitative score as well, but the mean scores vary. I went and looked up what I was talking about before, and these are the average scores on verbal, quantitative and analytical writing respectively for each field.

Life Sciences 460 578 4.2
Physical Sciences 486 694 4.2
Engineering 470 718 4.1
Social Sciences 487 563 4.5
Humanities 545 564 4.7
Education 449 533 4.3
Business 440 591 4.1

Don't take this as everything, though. I had 650/800/4 and still failed to get into an economics graduate school. It seems as if people care far more about the impression you make in interviews and the like.


Damn, you're only 21 and you've already applied with a score like THAT? You've gotta be freaking smart.


*blush*

I practiced a lot beforehand. Also, the Dutch school system tends to churn out younger students (I only skipped one grade). And, like I said, I apparently still wasn't good enough.

What else did you have to do for the application? Did you have to send in letters and stuff? In my experience, it seems like people attach an inordinate amount of importance to motivational letters.


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06 Aug 2011, 9:26 pm

For a school like ASU and a field like sociology, those scores should not disqualify you or hold you back. However, they also won't really be impressing anyone or contributing to your application, so be sure you can show the school some other reason why they would want you as a student.

Cyanide wrote:
Well, according to this site http://www.testmasters.net/greabout/scoring-scale your verbal score is about 82nd percentile, and your quantitative score is about 37th percentile...

Now, this is what bugs me about the GRE. The numerical scores the OP listed were similar, but such a huge gap in percentile ranks? When I took the GRE recently, I actually got a higher percentile rank on the verbal despite having a "lower" score in that section. ETS seriously needs to re-scale these tests, or change the fact that there is such a damn big difficulty gap between the two sections. The same score should mean roughly the same percentile rank on the math and verbal sections.


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06 Aug 2011, 9:29 pm

Your verbal score was better than mine



CaptainTrips222
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06 Aug 2011, 9:39 pm

Orwell wrote:
For a school like ASU and a field like sociology, those scores should not disqualify you or hold you back. However, they also won't really be impressing anyone or contributing to your application, so be sure you can show the school some other reason why they would want you as a student.

Cyanide wrote:
Well, according to this site http://www.testmasters.net/greabout/scoring-scale your verbal score is about 82nd percentile, and your quantitative score is about 37th percentile...

Now, this is what bugs me about the GRE. The numerical scores the OP listed were similar, but such a huge gap in percentile ranks? When I took the GRE recently, I actually got a higher percentile rank on the verbal despite having a "lower" score in that section. ETS seriously needs to re-scale these tests, or change the fact that there is such a damn big difficulty gap between the two sections. The same score should mean roughly the same percentile rank on the math and verbal sections.


Yeah... I guess it depends on how well everyone else did, but even that depends on where they're pulling the scores from. The information you have to study for is extremely varied and random. The questions you get are randomized, except they do get harder as you do better. If you're lucky enough to get something you're good at, you do well. The essay part of the test depends on the person who grades it.

Random, random, depends, depends. Too much outside of a student's control. I talked to so many people that think the GRE just sucks. And it probably sucks even worse now that it changed in August.