Hey Everyone!
OK. So I am looking for some objective feedback. I am about to paint a somewhat abysmal picture...so...get ready
I recently took the GRE as a bit of a practice run to get acclimated to the testing experience and determine my weaknesses. I scored over a 1200 on the two Princeton Review practice exams that I took prior to test day and was feeling pretty good. After receiving some advice from several graduate students, I decided that I would choose to accept my score, regardless of how I felt I did. After all, it would help me to be better prepared for what I considered to be my "real GRE" in a month. Unfortunately, I was not aware of two important facts...1-the first five questions (approx) on the GRE are by far the most important and 2-you ARE penalized for not answering questions at the end. Admittedly, these are things that I should have known but, as I said, did not. My fault entirely. Time management issues and anxiety played a massive role in this situation as well, both of which I am already working to improve.
As I am sure that you have guessed, I foolishly accepted my scores (even though I did not complete 10 of the verbal questions and 8 of the math questions) and did abysmally...we are talking in the 400's for each section. This is in no way a reflection of my actual abilities (even in terms of the GRE) and I am very confident that I will score between 1150 and 1300 on the exam I have coming up in the near future. Furthermore, to ensure this I have gotten a personal tudor for Math, several 1 on 1 sessions with a Kaplan employee, and will be dedicating around 4 hours a day for the next 25 days in preparation.
My main question is this...Can I overcome this horrible score? I am interested in applying to doctorate programs in Clinical Psychology this year and the rest of my application is quite strong. I have two years of solid research experience (in a salaried position) at a respected university, multiple posters/presentations and 1 publication (with multiple in the works), FANTASTIC letters of recommendation, and an undergraduate GPA from a respected university in the 3.7 range. As I mentioned before, I am hoping to tack on a 1200 GRE score to the end of this resume at the end of the month.
It is my understanding that schools primarily take the highest or most recent of an applicant's GRE scores so it could be a moot point (while I will still have to report both of them). Furthermore, I am hoping that the 300 to 400 point discrepency between the two scores, as well as the dramatic and almost laughable lowness of the first score will (if looked at) indicate that the first attempt was a fluke, and not an accurate representation of my abilities.
Any comments that can be made are tremendously appreciated! Thank you all so much and I apologize for the length of this post...I'm kind of freaking out
OK. So I am looking for some objective feedback. I am about to paint a somewhat abysmal picture...so...get ready
I recently took the GRE as a bit of a practice run to get acclimated to the testing experience and determine my weaknesses. I scored over a 1200 on the two Princeton Review practice exams that I took prior to test day and was feeling pretty good. After receiving some advice from several graduate students, I decided that I would choose to accept my score, regardless of how I felt I did. After all, it would help me to be better prepared for what I considered to be my "real GRE" in a month. Unfortunately, I was not aware of two important facts...1-the first five questions (approx) on the GRE are by far the most important and 2-you ARE penalized for not answering questions at the end. Admittedly, these are things that I should have known but, as I said, did not. My fault entirely. Time management issues and anxiety played a massive role in this situation as well, both of which I am already working to improve.
As I am sure that you have guessed, I foolishly accepted my scores (even though I did not complete 10 of the verbal questions and 8 of the math questions) and did abysmally...we are talking in the 400's for each section. This is in no way a reflection of my actual abilities (even in terms of the GRE) and I am very confident that I will score between 1150 and 1300 on the exam I have coming up in the near future. Furthermore, to ensure this I have gotten a personal tudor for Math, several 1 on 1 sessions with a Kaplan employee, and will be dedicating around 4 hours a day for the next 25 days in preparation.
My main question is this...Can I overcome this horrible score? I am interested in applying to doctorate programs in Clinical Psychology this year and the rest of my application is quite strong. I have two years of solid research experience (in a salaried position) at a respected university, multiple posters/presentations and 1 publication (with multiple in the works), FANTASTIC letters of recommendation, and an undergraduate GPA from a respected university in the 3.7 range. As I mentioned before, I am hoping to tack on a 1200 GRE score to the end of this resume at the end of the month.
It is my understanding that schools primarily take the highest or most recent of an applicant's GRE scores so it could be a moot point (while I will still have to report both of them). Furthermore, I am hoping that the 300 to 400 point discrepency between the two scores, as well as the dramatic and almost laughable lowness of the first score will (if looked at) indicate that the first attempt was a fluke, and not an accurate representation of my abilities.
Any comments that can be made are tremendously appreciated! Thank you all so much and I apologize for the length of this post...I'm kind of freaking out