Psych GRE

Started by clinicalpsyapp
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
C

clinicalpsyapp

Full Member
10+ Year Member
It might be too late for me (I'm taking the test in two weeks), but I thought we should start a thread about the Psych GRE.

I have been studying with the Princeton Review book, but still have a ways to get through in the next two weeks. I'm currently in a masters program that is practice-based, so I'm pretty good on theories and psychopathology.

Does anyone who has already taken the test have any advice? I'm so annoyed I have to take it, only 3 out of the 9 schools I'm applying to require it, but they happen to be my top 3...
 
clinicalpsyapp said:
It might be too late for me (I'm taking the test in two weeks), but I thought we should start a thread about the Psych GRE.

I have been studying with the Princeton Review book, but still have a ways to get through in the next two weeks. I'm currently in a masters program that is practice-based, so I'm pretty good on theories and psychopathology.

Does anyone who has already taken the test have any advice? I'm so annoyed I have to take it, only 3 out of the 9 schools I'm applying to require it, but they happen to be my top 3...
Click to expand...

Argh. I don't have any advice except I'm in the same boat. I wasn't gonna take it but I found out that one of my top school's "strongly recommend" meant "we want you to take it we just aren't saying it".

I'm not taking it til Nov (the October date is my brother's wedding date!) but I was not a psych major in college. I got a psych 1 book and am reading it. I've been exposed to most of the ideas before ( I have taken higher level psych classes) but it's nice to see things formally described. I did take the GRE practice test on the ets site and I actually found it easier than I thought (I'm good at multiple choice tests) , so I would recommend that to you. You may find what areas you need to brush up on. it also relieved a bit of my stress.
 
The Psych GRE test is different then the others in that it is a test of knowledge and memorization. You could have never taken a psych class in your life and if you can manage to memorize every single fact in the princeton review guide (easier said then done obviously) then you will get a good score.

The other tip I have is that even when you don't have a clue what the answer is, you can often reason it out based on the multiple choice answers. If they ask you the name of something and one answer sounds like that thing, then it probably is. If all but one answer sound like something completely different then it's probably the one that doesn't. They usually are not trying to trick you.

Finally when you register you get a sample actual GRE test. Make sure you practice it, because it's much more accurate then the Princeton review sample tests (which I actually thought were harder).
 
I just took the TPR practice and got a 580. Needless to say, it will be a long 2 weeks of studying!
 
Just when you think the days of the GRE are over, they make you jump through another hoop: the lovely GRE subject test. A few of my clinical psych programs require it, so I felt like it was something worth preparing for. I purchased both the Kaplan and Princeton Review book. The Kaplan is def more comprehensive and detailed. Kaplan has two practice tests, whereas PR has one. You can also get some cool intro to psych podcasts for your ipod/iphone which have been very convenient for "studying" on my way to work. Anyway, I'm not too stressed about this exam (the general GRE is much more important from what I hear). Basically, schools are looking for a score greater than 600. If your looking at a ultra-competitive school like Rutgers PsyD, I would recommend shooting for a 700.
And then once finished, I can make my final selection of schools and start filling out apps!
Good luck everybody
 
How did everyone think it went? I thought it was much worse that any of the pratice tests. I was acing the practice tests and I think I may have bombed this one. SO frustrated!
 
chasingadream said:
How did everyone think it went? I thought it was much worse that any of the pratice tests. I was acing the practice tests and I think I may have bombed this one. SO frustrated!
Click to expand...

I agree!! I studied a lot and I feel like hardly anything I studied was on it! I mean, there were a number of questions I totally knew and thought were super easy, some that I was able to take an educated guess on, but I hadn't expected there to be so many that I just had no clue about.

Oh well, guess we'll find out in 3 weeks. 😳
 
I agree. I only did the one diagnostic test ETS sent (and had thought it was pretty easy), and then studied off the Kaplan guide, but I definitely thought todays seemed a bit harder. Am I correct in thinking that with the Psych GREs schools look more at your raw score than your percentile(compared to the general GREs where I think they do pay attention to percentiles)? Did everyone write the same test then today? I guess I didn't do all that much research into the psych test and how scoring worked thinking it wouldn't be a bit deal...
 
Also, I could have sworn our proctor said it would take 6 weeks to get results mailed to us...it only takes 3? That would be nice!
 
Yeah, the proctor at my test said 3.. I hope it's not 6 that's soo long!!

And I did the same thing- took the one that ETS sent, and scored pretty high. I reviewed using the Kaplan book and last night I could have sworn I could have recited everything verbatim. Haha
 
me too! I reviewed from Kaplan, and RES, and got 90th percentile on the practice test on gre.org. I thought i was going to ace it and i left today thinking "what in the world just happened?!?!!?"
 
I thought it was just like the ETS practices. A few I was totally in the dark about, but overall very predictable.

There's no way I'm paying to get the scores earlier, either!
 
I took it today. I thought there were WAAAY too many questions pertaining to memory and language, so much so that about halfway through the test when questions within those categories would come up, I'd think, "Another one?!"

There were also quite a bit of questions on medications as well. I think there were only two that had to do with therapy.
 
i felt like that too. they usually know what past tests have tested, so they will come up with new questions.

when i took the test, I never studied language acquisition and there was about 20 questions on that alone. it was never in the practice books that i was reading and there wasn't that many q's on the ETS test they sent.

But I answered almost all of the q's (except 10) and i got like 34 wrong... still got 710. definitely still plausible to get over 80th percentile.
 
chasingadream said:
How did everyone think it went? I thought it was much worse that any of the pratice tests. I was acing the practice tests and I think I may have bombed this one. SO frustrated!
Click to expand...


Me too 🙁 I was doing pretty well (scores I was happy with) on the TPR practice exams. But the real exam was SO much more difficult. I do not feel that I did well either. Mine was much more heavily focused on classes that I have not yet taken than the practice tests were. I am frustrated too, but I am hoping that the score will turn out decent enough to still apply to schools this year :xf:
 
Psy01 said:
I took it today. I thought there were WAAAY too many questions pertaining to memory and language, so much so that about halfway through the test when questions within those categories would come up, I'd think, "Another one?!"

There were also quite a bit of questions on medications as well. I think there were only two that had to do with therapy.
Click to expand...


Mine too!!! I also didn't think there were enough questions about developmental and some other areas compared with the practice exams I took.
 
Oh jeez, I forget... I believe they say the date on the website. I posted a thread here back in the day when I was able to hear my results (I took the Oct test as well).

Edit: Checked--it was Nov 17.
 
chasingadream said:
How did everyone think it went? I thought it was much worse that any of the pratice tests. I was acing the practice tests and I think I may have bombed this one. SO frustrated!
Click to expand...

Felt fine to me. Only had 2 that I skipped; could eliminate at least one answer on everything else I wasn't sure on.
 
Just curious, is the psych gre test in October- exactly the same test/ questions, etc as the test in Nov and April?
It couldn't possibly be right? because then they would probably not allow you to retake it.
 
Hey, I just discovered the forum a couple of days ago and have been reading quite a bit, but decided to make an account tonight!

I'm going to be taking the subject GRE in November and have a question for those of you who have taken it (probably most people): Are there a significant number of questions where all they give you is a name and ask you to match it up with one of a number of studies or theories?

There are quite a few like that in the Kaplan review tests but I'm curious whether or not the actual GRE will be the same.

I ask mainly because my memory isn't great for names and if they aren't as important then I could focus more on firming up all of the other important information.
 
Schazz said:
Hey, I just discovered the forum a couple of days ago and have been reading quite a bit, but decided to make an account tonight!

I'm going to be taking the subject GRE in November and have a question for those of you who have taken it (probably most people): Are there a significant number of questions where all they give you is a name and ask you to match it up with one of a number of studies or theories?

There are quite a few like that in the Kaplan review tests but I'm curious whether or not the actual GRE will be the same.

I ask mainly because my memory isn't great for names and if they aren't as important then I could focus more on firming up all of the other important information.
Click to expand...

I can't remember a single question like that on the actual GRE - just took it in October.
 
I found that there were barely any with names. I read something a while ago saying that the test has shifted to testing knowledge of theories and applications more than names. Although you aren't directly asked names, it helps to know them because sometimes they're part of the question. I found that the Kaplan book had a lot more name questions than the actual test--I only remember 1 or 2 from the real test (although keep in mind that could be different for the Nov administration).

There were, however, a lot of questions about terms where they give you the definition and you have to name the term or vice versa. I found those to be a little more difficult than expected.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.