PerfidiousGerontion

All that lack of agency and pessimism about admissions makes this Christmas one of the dreariest I have had so far.

Do you think that 161 Q on the GRE is no longer enough for top programs? They like to rehash the figure of "top 80%", and 161 is now top 78%. At some unspecified point in the distant past, even 158 approached 80%.

I would not bother with their official information about the cut-off line. It is simply the score at which you stand zero chance and are automatically refused admission without any consideration. From what I have read in other threads, a Q below 160 may conceivably damage your chances, and anything below 156 or so makes admission unlikely. For a peek at realistic GRE results for admission, I suggest checking the results page. Northwestern has a bunch of recent admits whose Q is 158-159, but not below that. I'd also search for any mentions of Northwestern and other relevant schools in older application cycle threads that tend to outline the profiles of the applicants, including their GRE. I get the impression that GRE scores are steadily creeping up, unfortunately. You can see it well with Duke - a higher-ranked program, but it looks bleak, and it seems reasonable to assume that the situation is mirrored elsewhere.

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Test Date Verbal Quant AWA Manhattan mid-Jun 16 164 154 PowerPrep I late Jun 16 164 157 Kaplan early Jul 16 163 161 PowerPrep II mid-Jul 16 165 160 Real 2016 mid-Jul 16 170 158 5.5 PowerPrep I early Nov 17 168 161 Real 2017 early Nov 17 168 161 ? Also took ScoreItNow in early July, where I had 5.5. I scored 5 on all bonus essays there. When I was starting to prepare in June 2016, I didn't know many of the formulae, because my degree is in the humanities. I had also forgotten the properties of geometric figures. V168-Q161 is better for my purposes than V170-Q158. No idea about the AWA, but I'd surmise it should be either 5 or 6. I think it's a respectable score, given that English is not my native language. I'd say the Manhattan Prep book was probably the most useful tool, as well as the free GRE Math flashcards from Greenlight.