wardword

Mine was really fast! I got mine on the seventh day!

"Im under the impression that in order to achieve a high score, you need to do well on the first part of the test, so the computer can determine a low-ball score. Then in the second part, depending on how well you did, you'll receive harder questions." I did not notice any huge difference from part one to part two on the verbal. Yes, the test adapts to you, but the change in the question pool is not so noticeable that is distracts you. In fact, worrying about "huh, this question is hard. I must be doing well!" is actually pretty counter-productive. Trying to gauge the difficulty of your questions is just a waste of your time. As for "harder" tests, I agree completely that some tests are harder than others. I did significantly better my second time on the verbal. Why? I don't know; I retook to boost my quant score! I just got easier questions the second time. But when people talk about that, they're just talking about the luck of the question pool, and not some formula out there to receive the hardest questions to get the best score.

I think ETS has gotten all the money they're going to get out of me. I should mention that both times now, I've had 'frozen' tests, where I lose about twenty seconds to a minute. Neither one of them really affected me, so I didn't even bother trying to get a free test, but I can see how that could really screw someone over. And furtivemode, I'm gonna be honest, I think a lot of it REALLY is luck. My verbal questions were so easy that I thought I hadn't even made it to the highest difficulty questions. For some reason, I just got easier passages this time. But the math is just all over the place. The first time, I missed every single 'counting' and combination/permutation question. The second time, I didn't get a single one! I'll still think about if I want to re-take for the math score, but I am not optimistic at all that my math will get any better.

The first time I took the GRE, I took it without studying and got: V: 162 Q: 151 I was totally disappointed with how low the math score was and I know I stink at math. (I haven't taken a math class since high school and it was always my worst subject.) So I rescheduled, put the verbal on the side, and studied my butt off for math. Well, I just took the test today and I got: V:170 Q: 154 So NOT studying for the verbal actually gave me a perfect score, and all that work in math only gave me a lousy three points? At this point, I think I'm just going to keep my score, but I am VERY curious to know if anyone is considering taking the GRE a third time after minimal improvement in the area they want. Is it worth it to give it one more go and triple my efforts in math, or should I just accept my own limitations? I'm not applying to any high-ranked schools and I'm going for applied linguistics. I don't think it is that intense of a math field and none of the schools I am applying to give a range for GRE scores. Should I be okay?

Hi all, I've browsed gradcafe (sort of obsessively) for months, but I've never made an account until now. I sent an email to my POI mentioning my research. She sent an email back almost IMMEDIATELY (at about 11 PM, no less) asking a few questions about some terms and for some clarification of what I wanted to do. I waited until the next morning to compose my thoughts before answering with a clarification. She then responded pretty positively and said she would certainly be interested in my project and asked if I was applying. I'm having trouble knowing if I am supposed to reply. She ended with a question, ("Are you applying to X?") but I'd feel silly just answering, "Yep, I'm applying, thanks for answering" and leaving it at that. Is there something else I am supposed to do here? Finally, how common is contacting POIs in linguistics? I saw somewhere that it's actually not all that common in this field... edit: typos