GRE Scores

[cyrille104]

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Just a quick question, because I just took the GRE like a few hours ago. I was wondering what is considered a "good" score that would be a true asset to an application...

Thanks!

 

[youthman]

Just a quick question, because I just took the GRE like a few hours ago. I was wondering what is considered a "good" score that would be a true asset to an application...

Thanks!

Best thing is to look up the averages for admitted students depending on the school you want to go to. Anything around that is probably "good." From what I've noticed, I think most averages are around 1200.

 

[ginkogirl]

From the schools that I looked up (Tufts, UPenn, VA-MD, Illinois) it seemed that the average GRE scores for attending students were Verbal- ~630-650, Quantitative- ~680-700, Analytical Writing- ~5. I would agree with youthman in that the average scores (or a bit above) would be a good measure of "strong" GRE scores for your application. You may want to look up the averages for schools that you are applying to also. Hope this helps!

Lisa

 

[ReinaDeLuz]

I was told (by the advisors are UF before I applied) that anything above a 1200 was great, and 1300+ was extremely competitive.

 

[youthman]

From the schools that I looked up (Tufts, UPenn, VA-MD, Illinois) it seemed that the average GRE scores for attending students were Verbal- ~630-650, Quantitative- ~680-700, Analytical Writing- ~5. I would agree with youthman in that the average scores (or a bit above) would be a good measure of "strong" GRE scores for your application. You may want to look up the averages for schools that you are applying to also. Hope this helps!

Lisa

That's impressive. I recall the averages for most of the verbal scores to be below 600. I guess they've gone up this year (or last year).

 

[PAThbrd]

From the schools that I looked up (Tufts, UPenn, VA-MD, Illinois) it seemed that the average GRE scores for attending students were Verbal- ~630-650, Quantitative- ~680-700, Analytical Writing- ~5.

Penn average is V569 Q702 and they dont require the analytical. I believe that data is for the entering class (V'10), so 1271 total score if I did my math right. I think most schools generally accept lower verbal scores as long as your math is up. i.e. my verbal was low-ish (560) but I compensated with a great math score (780).

 

[snoopy69]

to all of you guys/girls who got such high GRE scores, what would you recommend to improve your scores? I memorized like 500 vocab words for the verbal and my score was embarassingly low, my math score was okay, like 580 but I would like to bring that up about 100 points. I'm planning on taking it again in like 3 weeks so any advice would be appreciated!

 

[are_jay]

[real advice appears at the end] Uh well, I don't really advise not studying, but with a full load of classes, I didn't have time to study for the GRE except to review a "top-20" word list for the verbal (*coughcough* the night before *cough*) but scored low 500's, which beat my class average. I hadn't taken a math class in 5-6 years but I got a 780. My trick--all of the problems were meant to be done in your head, as you don't get a calculator. I wanted to get the exam done fast, so I kept thinking of ways to avoid having to think too hard. Laws of algebraic expressions, trig definitions ("oh look, there's a 180 degree shift between sine theta and cosine theta, that makes this funky part of the expression go away" or that sort of thing. I also have an engineering degree from 5 years ago which helped, but engineers often look for easy ways out when possible.

Real advice: Take the GRE during or shortly after you take your last math prereq. Things will be fresh in your mind. verbal: study word lists. I got at least 6 words off the top-20 list, but don't wait until the night before!!!

 

[PAThbrd]

Advice... Practice tests (I got them out of a book from our public library) and number2.com's vocab builder. And a little bit of luck and dont panic during the actual test.

 

[ginkogirl]

Penn average is V569 Q702 and they dont require the analytical. I believe that data is for the entering class (V'10), so 1271 total score if I did my math right. I think most schools generally accept lower verbal scores as long as your math is up. i.e. my verbal was low-ish (560) but I compensated with a great math score (780).

Go with PAThbrd's numbers. I just quoted those numbers off research that I had done about half a month ago when I took the GRE, and it is very likely that I remembered them wrong. I just looked again and it seems that verbal scores may have been a little lower than I remembered(~560-600). Sorry about the confusion, I should do my research before I quote numbers 😳

Lisa

 

[kate_g]

I memorized like 500 vocab words for the verbal

This may be part of your problem. In quite a bit of TA-ing I've observed that people who study by "memorizing" typically don't actually have a great *understanding* of the material. The GRE doesn't just want you to spit back a definition you memorized, they want you to evaluate shades of meaning (i.e. when there are several almost-right answers, which is the *best* one) and know how the words actually function in sentences. Also if they still do reading comprehension sections, all the memorized vocab in the world won't help you if you just aren't good at critical reading, pulling out main ideas and logical relationships in written passages, etc. (I'm the same way with math. My verbal score was way high 8 years ago, but I, for one, would *never* have seen the 180-degree phase shift in are-jay's example.)

There are probably quick things you can do to pull your score up a few points, but I think really the only way to get a *great* GRE score is to have really learned and internalized the material over a long period of time... (which, of course, is the whole point...)