Mocha001

Hi everyone! I really enjoy this site and I appreciate nice comments. I took the GRE and I bombed the verbal section. I got 780 on the math section, but my verbal score was 450. By the way, I am not a native speaker. I got 3.5 on the writing section. I am pretty disappointed. I major psychology and I want to focus on statistics. Should I retake it? or should I take the TOEFL and score really high? My GPA is 3.9. And I am planning to apply for the state university. Nothing like Ph.D oriented schools like UCs.

Hi everyone. Which one do you think is better current GRE or new GRE? I am trying to decide if I should prepare for the new one or old one. I am thinking about retaking the GRE in this summer. I personally hate the current verbal section. I am not a native speaker and I have been trying to do my best to improve my vocabulary. I had studied for over 10 months for the verbal, and my score was still 450. I was so disappointed. I memorized countless words. But I did not get almost anything of those words on the test. I do not know if I should change my strategy and pay more attention to the new gre. Any suggestions?

Thank you so much. That was what I have been concerned. Since I do not really need to retake the GRE for my MA, but I need a better score for my PhD. I do not want to study for the GRE while I am in the MA program. I prefer to concentrate on my classes and thesis. Right now I have more time and my GRE memory is fresh. Once the new test comes out in August, I am not sure if I can improve the score significantly compared to now. The good thins is that the new test does not have antonyms and analogy. Those are tough sections.

Also the reason why I want to retake and score as high as possible is that a new GRE will start in August. I have heard that it will be a lot harder than current one. I need the GRE score for my Ph.D anyways, so I decided to take it right now and get done with it. Since the score will be valid up to 5 years, so when I apply for PhD, I do not have to retake it.

I wish I could be a science major, but I am a communication major. So my verbal score can be important. I am not really sure because a lot of schools requires no minimum or over 1000 on the combined score. Still, 450 on the verbal is pretty low and I try to improve to at least 550.

Hi, I am sure some of you retook the GRE. When you took it the second time, how was your experience? I have fear that I may score lower than the first time. I scored really high on the quantitative (780) and my husband thinks that I should not retake it because I might score lower than 780. But, my verbal was only 450 and I want to raise it as much as possible. Did you actually do better than the first time? Psychologically, you have less pressure than the first time? Please share your experiences

I am in the same situation. My undergraduate GPA was 3.9. By the way I am communication major (not mass media). I mainly study human behavior like psychology. I took the GRE and my verbal was 450 and quantitative was 780. I was shocked. Well, I am not a native speaker, but I expected my verbal score to be a little bit better than that.

Hi Everyone. Do you know any good websites to study for the GRE? Which one is really close to the real test? Any good GRE words sites?

Do you know any good websites about GRE words based on meaning?

Thank you so much. I am planning to retake it in the middle of January. So one and half months now. I am focusing on vocab right now and planning to do some prep tests.

Hi, I am not a traditional student. It has been over 4 years since I graduated. Now I am trying to apply for graduate school. I was able to find two former professors I can ask for letters for letters, but I cannot find another dependable person. I am thinking about asking my boss. I work in major hospitality industry and I do a lot of things such as serving, bartending, translating, guest service etc. Since my major is communication studies, I think that asking him to write a letter of rec including my work ethics and applying my BA in guest service and employee training. I do not hold anything fancy titles such as a research assistant or whatever. What do you think ? I am sure I am not the only one working full time and trying to pay some of debts and preparing for graduate school. I wish I could have gone to grad school right away, but I never had enough money.

I am on the same boat. I was out of school for 4 years and I finally found three faculty members, But one of them does not seem dependable. So I have to ask my boss at work to write it. I have been working with him and he agrees to write it for me. Two of my programs will be fine with the letter from my boss. Since they are programs at state university, but one program is more research oriented MA/PhD combined program, so I do not think my boss's letter won't be so strong.

Wow, that's nice to hear. I should practice more examples. I should brush up my guessing skill. I wasted so much of my time just trying to figure out the exact meanings of those vocabs.

I think the other parts of your application are pretty good. I think you can get in if you make your statement of purpose strong. I included my background as an international student and also being a trainer at major hospitality industry and my interested in teaching and training. By the way I am a communication studies major and my focus is instructional communication. So as long as you can make your statement of purpose supports your interest in the field. And stating your research background is always good. Unfortunately I have no research experience. I straight went into working in hospitality and retail industry. So my working experience is heavily on training and customer service.

Hi everyone. I was so nervous when I took the GRE last month. I tried to breathe and be relaxed as much as possible. But, I was just way too overwhelmed. Especially when I started the verbal section, the first a couple of questions were pretty tough and I was freaked out. How did you handle the stress? Maybe my second time taking the test can be a little better. I try to do yoga and try to stay calm, but you know, it is always hard.