psychdork

black pepper

I took my test on Oct 11th, and it looks like ETS reported my scores on the 19th. I would imagine that the schools would see my scores within a day or two of the report date (so because of the weekend let's just say this Tuesday the 23rd). After I took the test I believe the directions said 7-10 days to report my scores (mostly so they have an adequate amount of time to review your essays), but everything I'm reading online is saying 10-15 days. My guess is that 7-10 days to electronically report scores (I can see my scores online now) but the 10-15 day range refers to when we will be sent a paper copy of our scores in the mail. One of my schools with a Dec 1st deadline strongly recommended that applicants take the test no later than Oct 31st to make sure scores are sent in time. So I think it depends how late in November your exam is scheduled and when your first deadline is. Also, some schools start looking at apps right away whereas others might wait a week or two, so it just all depends. At this point unless your test is a week or two before your first deadline, just don't worry about your scores until you need to. Do your best on the test, and then go from there.

I hit the 20 pound weight loss mark yesterday. For a while it was because I was sticking to a diet and making sure I worked out a lot, but around March I came down with a cold and had to eat differently and eventually just dropped the whole thing. For the past two months, although I've been wanting to go back to my original diet/workout plan I haven't found the motivation, and yet I'm still losing weight (a pound or two a week, so it's healthy) so I can't complain. Like everyone else I've just been too busy to eat, though I do make sure to eventually eat a decent amount so my body doesn't go into starvation mode. I'm also a stress eater (I gained around 10 pounds my first year of grad school), but have been really watching that this past year, and now it looks like instead of over-eating when stressed, I just don't eat. I know, not good, but I'm working on it. I still have about 30-40 pounds to lose (though fortunately, it only looks like maybe 15-20 to others) so I still have some work to do, but I'm loving this grad school diet right now.

I took the GRE the other day and scored in the mid-700s (old scoring version). All of the polynomials I was given I was able to solve simply by factoring them, so as long as you can do that, then I wouldn't worry about memorizing the quadratic formula. I'm pretty sure the GRE quant books I skimmed never went into using the quadratic formula. I'll have to think about what formulas came in handy but off the top of my head definitely make sure you know: -area & perimeter of a square and rectangle -area of a triangle (including how to solve for 45-45-90 and 30-60-90 triangles -area and circumference of a circle

ETS will only send your Psych GRE scores if you request them to be sent. For instance, most of my schools won't require the Psych GRE so I am only sending my subject test scores to the schools that do require it (I took the subject test back in 2009 I believe) and the rest of my schools will only see my General GRE scores. Now if you listed any schools for the four "free" score reports you get for taking the subject test then these schools will see your scores. But if you didn't list any schools, then no one will see your scores unless you specifically request that they see your scores. Good luck!

The system allows you to search for the school's code when you report your scores. So no, you do not have to memorize the school codes. All you need to know is what schools you plan to send your 4 codes to, and if they want you to send your scores to a specific department or not.

I started my master's program at 24 and hopefully I will start my PhD program next fall when I'm 27. Although I am not happy that I will be basically starting a PhD program at an age where I was hoping I would be close to finishing, it is what it is. Like other posters, in some ways I am glad I will be starting in my late 20s instead of my early 20s just because of how much I have changed in the past several years. I really think that if I had started a few years ago I would not have gotten the same things out of grad school that I get out of it now (and hope to in a PhD program). I am more focused with work, I can handle issues better now and overall I just have a better handle on myself and what I can and can't deal with than I did several years ago. I'm sure some (if not all) of this is due to things I've gone through in the past few years, and as cliche as it is, if I hadn't gone through them I wouldn't be who I am now. So although I am not content with the age thing (and yes I realize I'm not that old, but I'm also trying to juggle dating/marriage/starting a family worries) I think it will be the best thing for me in the long run.

I think I have spent anywhere from 10 - 20 hours writing mine, including revisions. However, I absolutely hate writing SOPs so I might take longer to get a final version than others.

I agree. I actually had one of my LOR's address an issue in my background because every time I tried to explain it, it just sounded like I was making an excuse. As an observer, he was able to state what had happened and point out how I overcame it, without making it sound like an excuse. If you can find a way to mention your TBI in your SOP like lewin00 said then go for it, otherwise see if one of your LORs will address it.

Basically, what it means is that if you do really well on the first verbal section, then your second verbal section will have questions of higher difficulty than if you had done poorly on the first verbal section. Same for the quant (math) section. So your performance on the first section determines your second set of questions. The actual order of the sections is randomized by ETS and is not determined by your performance on an earlier section. Basically, just do your best on the test and don't worry if the questions on the second section seem really easy/difficult, you won't be able to tell what difficulty level you got anyway.

I was the graduate student representative for my master's program's admissions committee for the past 2 years. Although everyone on the committee preferred a minimum 3.0 gpa (and I believe that is what is listed on the website), if an applicant had a gpa that was lower than a 3.0 we did take into consideration the other aspects of their application (gre, research experience, etc.). A 2.95 is not that much lower than a 3.0 so I would imagine you will be fine...we were more concerned when someone had a 2.3 gpa, or something of that nature. Now there are no guarantees, but if other parts of your application are strong, I would not worry (much) about it.

I just finished emailing my POIs last night. For the record though, I'm only asking if they are taking students, nothing more.

Just wanted to say thanks for everyone's responses to the question I posted above. I'll post a link to my blog once I get everything set up.

Same as Eigen. I wear different hats so to speak (grad student, tutor, lab manager), so I tend to customize my signature to the situation, that is if I'm emailing a potential lab assistant, or a student asking for tutoring, etc. Otherwise, I either sign off with just my first name, or my full name.

I've been thinking about starting a blog for some time now and after reading the posts for this topic I think I'm finally going to start one. This might be a dumb question (and if it is, I apologize in advance) but is there a major difference between blogspot and wordpress? I used to use livejournal years ago but barely anyone I know uses it anymore so I want to use a different platform. Most of my friends use blogspot but I see a lot of people here use wordpress.

I think the best way to find out whether your GRE scores are "crappy" or not would be to take a practice test and go from there. If you score relatively well on the practice test, then schedule the actual test. If you unfortunately don't do well on the practice test then either take the actual test and hope for the best, or take a year to study for it.

I agree and I think that this is where they add some number of additional points to your score. I've taken two full length practice tests and what I calculated for the verbal section was on Test #1 I was given 2 additional points, and on Test #2 I got 3 points. I had scored much better on the first section of Test #2 so I'm guessing I got a harder second section which is why I was given 3 points instead of 2. I'm not sure what the formula is to determine the number of additional points but this is what I've found from my practice tests.

When I took one of the PowerPrep practice tests I figured out that the way my score was determined was basically 1 point per correct answer + 130 + 2 additional points. The additional points were probably due to the difficulty level of my second section (at least that is my best guess). Therefore, say I got a 17/30 on both sections, I would be scoring roughly a 166 (17+17+130+2). Obviously, your experience might be slightly different (in one practice test it looked like I was granted 3 additional points instead of 2).

I've been having trouble motivating myself to get started as well. Like stereopticons, this is not my first (or second) round of apps and facing this process again is...well rough. I've been studying for the GRE quite a bit, which is progress but as far as everything else I am no where near where I was this time last year. On the plus side, after working on this (on and off) for about 3 weeks I finally finished researching a total of around 130 possible schools and made the first round of cuts down to 27. I still need to cut that list down to 8-10 but that's for another day.

As it sounds like you will know about the PhD program very soon, I would wait until then (assuming you don't need to let the masters program know before then) and see what happens. If you don't get in, then go for the masters program and if you do get in, well you will have a decision to make. It's no use trying to make a decision that you might not have to make (though with that being said I am hopeful that you will get accepted). It sounds like to me this is just cold feet (I've been there) and really it is only 4 years. Don't focus on the 4 years of misery (and from my experience, grad school isn't all misery) but focus on what's after grad school. Here's a different way of thinking about this...let's say you do get accepted to the PhD program and you turn it down, do you see your future self regretting this decision? No matter how frustrated I get, and how many times I want to quit my masters program and just forget about a PhD program, I know that if I give up on this I will regret it.

Congrats Yoshite! Also, Gneiss1: I love your username! I'm still waiting on two schools (both of which had deadlines in early January). One I'm waitilisted at, the other I have no idea. For the second one, I've emailed the department grad secretary twice, once in early March and once in early April and I never got a response. I'm trying my best to hold out from calling them until Monday just to give them time if they are sorting out the waitlists, but this is crazy. I knew it was possible but I never thought I would still be waiting after April 15th.

sesame street

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