DrFaustus666

You could possibly book an intensive course at one of the language schools in Europe (Apple Language School is one I know of). At their program, you study intensively, up to 6 or 8 hours per day, and live either in a college dorm or with a local family. For either French or Russian, I bet you could make some serious headway. And their price is not exorbitant (about $2500 for an 8-week course incl lodging, if I remember correctly). And you only need to SAY that you plan to do this (then actually DO it) on your SOP. As for GRE for history, no idea what WVU may want. Worldwide sores for 2003 (courtesy ETS) for incoming grad students in history: MA Verbal 510: 50th percentile 580: 75th percentile 660: 90th percentile 690: 95th percentile MA Quant 510: 50th percentile 590: 75th percentile 680: 90th percentile 710: 95th percentile Doctoral Q scores are only 10-15 points higher than MA scores (shocker to me!) Doctoral V scores are 560, 640, and 700 for 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile respectively

Hi Newms, I've taught CS (of all things, even though I have no CS degree at all!) in non-credit 5-day-courses (Intro to Computer Concepts, Intro to C programming, Intro to Java Programming, Relational DB Design) etc., to adults ... and I absolutely plan to put that into my "teaching experience" CV ... as well as the one year I taught junior high (!), which was probably before most people on this forum were born . I don't know how such experience will be received, of course, but I'm working on the theory that anything is better than nothing. John

If you go online and download Powerprep II, you'll find that about half of the verbal questions are like that. (PPII is of course for the NEW GRE, starting in Aug 2011). Some of the questions on PP-II have three blanks. There are also many more reading comprehension questions; and somewhat more difficult readings. The math section of PP-II has fill-in-the-blanks but otherwise seemed to be of the same general difficulty as the old Powerprep --- except of course that you can't use "process of elimiation" as an aid -- you have to work out the problems John

As my spirited opponent in the word game, newms, said, your V score is not a bad score. I just looked at ETS's statistics. For Political Science majors in the year 2003, 570 was 64th percentile, whereas 610 was 74th percentile. There is an important psychological advantage, I believe, if you can break into the top quarter for your field. Particularly at the most selective institutions. Remember, they receive applications from people all over the world, including so-called "international" students who have in fact lived in English speaking countries for many years, and thus would score almost as highly as native speakers. Bottom line: I agree with newms. It's worth it to you to try to push your 570 into the 600-650 range if possible. Good luck, John

Ditto everything everyone else said. On this forum and others, people have reported getting into top humanities programs with as low as 660V and 450Q. Humanities departments REALLY REALLY don't give a ratt's butt about your Q score, unless it's under about 400, for ADMISSION. However, sometimes the COMBINED score (and thus the Q-score) is used as a tie-breaker for FUNDING. BUT, you're sill very near the top of the pack for humanities majors. If you were applying for a PhD fellowship in astrophysics at MIT, I'd say, try again on your Quant ... but, short of that, you're doing fine. John

summ aht (phonetic spelling of northern British dialect: "some thing")

time travel

life time

fish and chips

ahoy mate

check mate

I'm not familiar with Princeton Review's essay grader. I do know that their regular Verbal and Quantitative tests are designed to score you LOWER than you would on the real test . . . the motive being for you to buy their books and sign up for their test prep classes. As to the two essay questions, both of mine were dull as can be; and I know I rambled, especially on the Issue essay, so I expect about a 4.5 and will be ecstatic with a 5 or 5.5. (edit) Oh gosh, I forgot, you asked how long it takes them to grade the essays. The answer: it's directly proportional to how badly you need a good score. Seriously, 3 to 4 weeks. (end edit) John

ooze out

primeval replication

I'd say your research experience should be front and center on your Statement of Purpose -- even if the kind of research you're doing now is not EXACTLY what you'd like to do --- the point is that you are an experienced researcher. Also, remember, I'm not in the sciences, and so am not absolutely the best person to comment on such things. My only real point with Quant scores is: At the top universities the competition is not stiff, it's ferocious. In my own area for example, I read on NYU's website (probably a top 20 or top 30 school in my hoped-for area, musicology), that they typically receive about 50 (doctoral) applications and accept 3 to 5 of those. So on pure statistics, one would have to apply to 10 or 20 or more such schools to be accepted at one of them. I have no idea what emphasis various programs may place on Subject scores. Except: I did read on this site, sometime ago, one professor is said to have said, "We only look at subject scores when we've never heard of the university that the applicant attended" ... the point is that not all 4.0 GPAs are created equal, and this prof used Subject test scores as a way of calibrating GPA. Does that help? John

Right you are newms ! I should have mentioned that. For example, my nephew, a recent Chem Ph.D graduate from a top-20 school, who immediately upon graduation took an Asst Prof position at a top-50 school---told me his GRE Q-score was in the upper 700s. But he had been listed as co-author of a couple of papers as an undergrad, and he was sure that's what got him in to the doctoral program, with full funding.

Yes, unquestionably. Remember (or here's some info if you didn't know it already), the top 6% of all GRE test takers earn an 800 in Quantitative. Many applicants at the top programs in sciences, my guess is, up to HALF or more, will have Q scores of 800.

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stone soup

town drunk

Thank you both, newms and StrangeFox ... I hope you're right

down town

Actually after the MA in German is done, I want to go back to musicology/music theory; Germanic studies as a discipline is all but dead in the USA. Most universities are cutting back or eliminating Germanic studies; or offering PhDs in G.S. where one reads the works of Kafka, Goethe, Schiller, etc., --- in English. AND my original love for music is unabated, despite the fact I've not played any music for decades. I still read scores, memorize themes, etc., just for fun. Right now I'm working on all of Mahler's symphonies. By the way, you being from Russia and living in St. Petersburg, did you know that Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (also from St. Petersburg) was the ONLY major composer ever to write a concerto for my instrument, the trombone? It's a fact. N.R-S, as you probably do know, was an officer in the Tsarist Russian Navy, but became a composer, and a brilliant orchestrator. He taught himself how to play all the instruments of the orchestra. (I see him and Gustave Mahler as being the strongest influences on Shostakovitch, for example.) Re: My studies: I have an idea for a Ph.D in what might be actually ground-breaking research: I want to try to write a computer model (after 20+ years as a computer programmer) that would read music and perform thematic (pattern recognition) etc. analysis on the music. That's the same stuff that musicologists and music theorists have been doing for centuries, by hand. The problem is, only a very few universities could fund such exotic research, and my C.S. credentials are not that great (only 30 undergrad credits); therefore I was hoping for a super score in quant, an 800 if possible. So my fallback plan is to try to write the SOP-to-end-all-SOPs, begin work on the computer model and use that as a research sample, and maybe that would get me into one of the half-dozen or so universities that might fund such an outlandish project.

Thanks! I MAY try one more time, I dunno.

There was a clearly identified experimental Verbal section, offering a chance to win $250.00 I declined, being tired and desirous to enjoy a lovely autumn day.