lastoftheromans

I think what many people forget about the AW is that it isn't a place to show off your vast vocabulary or how beautiful you write. Rather, the AW tests you on your critical thinking skills and your ability to argue persuasively. This means deconstructing arguments, identifying and explaining logical fallacies, and arguing effectively by backing your position up with detailed evidence. Anything else is superfluous and won't help you all that much. So even if I am only in the 86 percentile in the Verbal section of the GRE, my AW score of 5.5 puts me in the 96 percentile. Which is not to shabby considering I bombed the quantitative portion of the test

So a little background. I took the GRE in August 2010, without having studied at all. All in all, I thought I did okay. My Verbal Score was 550, and my Quant score was 650. My Analytical Writing Score was 4.5. After checking for the minimum requirements to gain entry in my university's Masters and PhD program for History, my scores were well above the minimum percentile scores for admittance. But as I ran out of time for my Quantitative section and wasted a lot of time in one of my Analytical Writing essays, I figured that retaking the test couldn't hurt. I figured I could better manage my time next time and would see an increase in my score in all three portions of the test. But as I had a full course load in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011, along with multiple projects at work (I work full-time as well), I could finally retake the GRE this month. Which I did today. ...It did not go great My Verbal Score did improved. From a 550, I got a 610 this time. But that's the only good news so far. But my quant score utterly collapsed this time around. I thought my time management would improve, and after taking a few practice test, I thought I would do alright this time. However, my time management was even worse this time, and from my 650 score last August, I got a 530. I simply ran out of time, and the initial questions ate up most of my time. I have to wait a few weeks until I get my analytical score, but I am confident I'll do better than last time. But again, my confidence didn't help this time around What I really want to know is how will this 120 point decline in my Quantitative score go over with the admissions board? Do they count the best scores of both test, the worst, or just the total scores of one test only? As I'm planning to apply to a history program, there is increased emphasis in the History department on the verbal score and analytical score versus the quantitative score. Still, while they may ignore a 10, 20, or 30 point decrease, I fear they are going to look at my latest Quant score and just think what the hell happened. Maybe I'm just freaking out over nothing. But I am still disappointed in myself for this horrible, horrible score and fear for any repercussions that may result. PostScript: the minimum requirement for my school's PhD Program (higher than for the Master's Program) are scoring at least in the 70th percentile of the Verbal section, at least the 40th percentile of the Quantitative, and at least a 4 in the Analytical section. Just to clarify, I exceeded all those requirements in my first test. I guess I shouldn't have taken it this time