DrFaustus666

chocolate pudding

spicy vanilla

I can only speak for the University of Maryland. I am a (native speaker of English) graduate student in German there, and have tutored a number of graduate students who were preparing for departmental language proficiency tests. The tests seem pretty easy to me ... but on the other hand, to expect students to pass them after two or three "intense" semesters is asking a LOT. You will very quickly find out what's expected of you, but I think it's safer to err on the side of learning too much rather than learning too little. And yes, translation from German is probably more difficult than most of the Romance languages, because German syntax can be so convoluted--and because Post-WW-2 German is changing so rapidly (so many English words are flooding the language) that many Germans complain that their mind thinks, for example, Das Know-How before it thinks Die Fähigkeit. The point is, many books written only 50 or 60 years ago use words that already sound faintly quaint or old-fashioned, and may not be normally used by the native German teacher under which you take your 2 or 3 semesters of German.

food 4all

Hi, my name is John. I don't want to seem like a "pain in the a--" ... But you've asked many many questions. And for most of these questions you could easily find out the answers yourself (acceptance rates at various universities, costs at various universities). You're more likely to get useful answers on this forum if you narrow and limit your questions a lot. For example, "Does anyone know if NC state or Arizona State put a lot of emphasis on the GRE's AW scores? I scored 3.5 and wonder if I should take the test again." In my own very-un-expert opinion (I studied undergrad CS at the University of MD), your profile looks like a typical average graduate U-MD CS student ... your GRE-V and -AW scores are a bit on the low side, but you still could probably be accepted. But I don't think most members of this forum have the time to research all the questions you've asked. Again, sorry to be a pain in the neck and bearer of bad news. Good luck, John

I don't sit on any admissions committees either, but, as newms says, your application is a package. If your honors thesis is truly superb and also your recommendations and GPA (3.85 or over), then you're probably OK, from what I've read here and elsewhere -- though admission to Yale and its ilk is practically never guaranteed, even to the top 99.5th percentile. If any of your application is weak in any way (GPA under 3.6, or any course that is even vaguely related to your major with less than A-), then it probably wouldn't hurt to beef up the AW, and even more so, the Verbal. V-660 is about 93rd to 95th percentile I think, which means that something like 15,000 people or more around the world scored higher than you in Verbal. The AW is less of a problem. There have been numerous posts in here from working journalists and people who already have MA's in English from very prestigious institutions, who score only 4.5 AW or so, just because they don't understand ETS's silly grading rubric, NOT because they are poor writers or lack analytic insight. I do think most admissions committees understand that aspect of the GRE. So, ..., it's kind of an open question ... Sorry I didn't really add anything to what newms said, but ... well uh you know Good luck, John

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down pillow

I doubt you're the only person who ever did it, ever. But it's possible I suppose. In any event, I still think you shouldn't worry about skewing ETS's statistics on any experimental questions, or any other aspect of their experiment. People drop out of paid medical trials all the time. People in paid medical trials who don't drop out forget to take their medicine or placebo (as the case may be). They report symptoms on subjective scales that vary widely from person to person. They take double doses after missing a dose, even if they've been expressly told not to take a double dose. And on and on and on. The point is, there are a lot more important things to concern yourself with than some tiny statistical bump you may have (but probably did NOT) caused in ETS's research.

First, remember that something like 450,000 people take the GRE each year. If 50% of those get an experimental section ... that would be 225,000 (see all this math preparation is helping me ) ... and 50% of those experimental sections are math sections (112,500), I would estimate that probably at least one taker in ten (11,250) does the same thing you did, at least among those who know that the section is experimental (let's assume 50% are told it's experimental), which brings the number to 6,675. If their scoring algorithms are as sophisticated as they want us to believe, they'll surely have programmed into the analysis software some sort of discriminator that simply throws out altogether any exam that appears to be answered at random. And as StrangeFox says, the issue is far too insignificant for ETS to expend much effort towards resolution anyway. Think of all the accountants and comptrollers and business school types they need to keep track of all that money: 450,000 X 160 = something like 72 million US $.

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There's no question you've got a great record. Can you get Senator Feinstein to write you a Letter of Recommendation? That would be a big help. I believe your GRE scores are a bit problematic, particularly the Q score. I've read on this forum and other places that for the Ivies (even in their lesser-known humanities departments, to say nothing of the world-famous Kennedy School of Government), a 720-750 is "expected" in Quant, as is a 700 in Verbal. That's just gossip though. I have not looked at their website or applied there myself. John

WayTooOld wrote: What kinds of programs don't really look at quant, or view the verbal score as an indicator of ability? I have a friend who is happily studying Classics (ancient Greek and Latin, yes indeed!). She got an 800-V, a Q she'll only say is "very low" and an AW of 5 .... and she's also, just as we (me too) are, over 50 yrs old. I think she'll probably end up in academia one way or another after finishing the PhD.

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not very high (NOT MY ANSWER) covert intelligence

artificial intelligence

second string

Nikkatimbo, for what it's worth, the AW score is for me, at least, the most problematic part of the test. I took the GRE back in 2005 and got V-800 and AW-5.5. I took it again last winter, and beforehand, I used ETS's "Analytical Writing" online test (for a mere $12.00, you can write your essay and get their computer-graded score---one of the "readers" of your AW essay is a computer, if you didn't know that already.) I got a 6.0 ! I was psyched to get an 800/6.0 ..... and three days later, when I took the real live test, I got V-740 (OK, not so bad, but still 60 pts lower than 5 yrs earlier), and a AW-4.5. .... And I really thought I'd aced the AW --- I followed the "keyhole template" religiously, I wrote as fast as I could type, I put in "GRE words" like nascent, asseveration, billingsgate, rodomontade, and the whole nine yards --- all of the things that are supposed to guarantee one at least a 5.0 --- My point in all this is .... Don't worry about the AW score. Write a super Statement of Purpose and explain your situation (cogently and coherently). And make sure that every word you write in anything you write is correctly spelled and grammatically impeccable. Remember, as even Ph.D-English sometimes forget, that "it's" means "it is" .... "it's" is NEVER a possessive "It's remarkable clarity" etc is ALWAYS WRONG. Anyway, if your writing samples are clear, well organized, and English-grammatico-technically perfect, then you should be OK John