GRE Dummies?

[Catnapper]

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I just finished taking the GRE and will have to retake it (math dummy, here). Does anyone ever get in with less-than-genius math scores (i.e.: less than 600+)?? Or should I go cry myself to sleep tonight?🙁

 

[cyrille104]

I just finished taking the GRE and will have to retake it (math dummy, here). Does anyone ever get in with less-than-genius math scores (i.e.: less than 600+)?? Or should I go cry myself to sleep tonight?🙁

Don't cry yourself to sleep, but definitely do retake it. Make sure you study a lot and you'll do fine

 

[Serendipity4]

For studying, I highly recommend one of the books by Kaplan. Specifically, find the one that has the section in the back: "100 things you need to know to ace your math GREs" (or something like that). It really is 100 things you need to know; it starts off with the simplest things like adding and multiplying (seriously) and progresses to harder stuff like finding the length of a segment of a circle if you know the internal angle. Btw, that's really easy to figure out, if you know the trick. And that's what the 100 things in the book did for me; it reminded me of all the "tricks" I'd forgotten (and taught me several of the ones I'd never learned). I would say there were at least 3 specific problems on the GRE I took that would have taken me FOREVER to figure out, but because I'd just reviewed the trick, they became easy questions. I hope that helps! And good luck!!!!

 

[Angelo84]

One other bit of advice. Make sure you take a bunch of the practice computer adaptive tests (you can get to a couple from ETS). In my experience I did great on the paper tests (700s) and horrible on the computer ones (4 and 500s). That's because on the computer ones the first fifteen or so questions are the most important (ie are weighed the most) and on the paper when you ge a question wrong doesn't matter.

The paper tests give you a good grasp on the test questions but are in no way indicative of the score you will get on the computer--at least in my experience.

Good luck!

 

[Mylez]

I got into vet school with a less than stellar GRE. 500 for Quantitative, and 550 for Verbal. I chose not to retake the GRE, but would have if I had had the time (had a month to take it before applications were due). Did it hurt me for the application process? Heck yes! Do I regret not taking it? Heck no!

But I had a great GPA, stellar experiences, and the rest of the application was pretty tied up the way it needed to be. I did not get in right off the bat. I was ranked alternative at three of the schools, and rejected at one. I know it was the GRE that did that to me. However, I was a highly ranked alternate and got off the wait list pretty quickly.

But you have lots of time before the application is due! Study hard like the others have said and retake it. I wish I wouldn't have procrastinated the GRE. But, yes, getting in with a crappy quantitative score is possible.

Oooo...wait. I think *edit* that my quantitative was actually 400...hrm. I'd have to look again, but believe me it wasn't pretty.

 

[Catnapper]

Yeah, I think my mistake was in not practicing with the computer version enough, so I'll do that for another month and try, try again! Thanks for all the pointers (I'll definitely look into that Kaplan book) and good luck to those of you who have yet to break on through to the vet side!