zeeek

I'll say a few things about this. First, the obvious: it's important to keep in mind that the GRE is a relatively minor component of the grad school application process. Letters of rec, transcripts, research history, essays etc. all receive more attention from admissions committees. If your application is superb in all areas aside from the GRE (where your score is also pretty solid), you should feel pretty good about your chances. But to answer your question more directly, it sort of depends on what Northwestern means when it specifies a "minimum score." It could be either of two things: it could be that the pool of admitted students historically has not frequently scored below that minimum, but it also could be that that is the point at which the admissions committee at Northwestern forms doubts about an applicant's ability to engage in PhD-level work. Obviously the latter would imply the former, but if it's only the former that is true, then I think your chances aren't particularly negatively affected by having scored near the bubble. Even the latter's being true isn't a death knell if other parts of your application are truly exceptional. With all of that said, if it is the case that you could succeed in a PhD program (in any discipline) at Northwestern, then it's also likely the case that you can score quite a bit higher than 148 on GRE-Quant if you had time and other resources at your disposal to prepare. If you find yourself in a position where re-taking the GRE is feasible and you think you can score around 155 or so, I would give that some consideration. Best of luck to you! Just know that, even if Northwestern doesn't accept you, you will surely get into another great program and thrive

Magoosh math problems tend to be harder than GRE questions insofar as they require somewhat more rigorous computational work. However, I would say that hard GRE problems challenge test takers to be thoughtful about what is being asked of you in a way that Magoosh problems do not. Doing Magoosh problems provides the most value to those who need work with things like manipulating equations/formulae, but the actual GRE questions focus less on manipulating formulae and more on sifting through intentionally obfuscating wording and determining which formulae are applicable for a given problem. As an aside, to add another data point for those who are currently preparing with Magoosh (or who are considering doing so), my Magoosh score predictor was between 164-168 (where I mostly only solved the "hard" and "very hard" problems), and I ended up getting 169 on the real thing.

I would think that GRE score is sufficient to not be the reason you are not admitted. Ideally, the quant score would be a couple points higher, but I doubt a couple GRE points (above an already-high score) will be the difference between your being admitted or rejected.

Total amount of study time: ~ 60 hours Resources: Magoosh membership, ETS Official Guide, Manhattan Prep 5lb, Powerprep Software Practice Tests: Manhattan Prep Free Practice Test (after 0 hours of study): 162 Verbal, 164 Quant (326 composite) Powerprep I (after ~20 hours of study): 170 Verbal, 167 Quant (337) Powerprep II (after ~55 hours of study): 166 Verbal, 168 Quant (334) Magoosh Score Predictor: 164-168 Verbal, 164-168 Quant (328-336) Real GRE: 166 Verbal, 169 Quant (335) Add me to the list of people whose score was accurately predicted by Powerprep. Definitely glad I'll never have to take the GRE again. This thread was super helpful in guiding how I prepared for the exam.