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Hello, I am applying for the same admission cycle as well. My understanding is that the GRE averages range from school to school. A lot of schools that I've checked out mention that they do not have GRE cut-offs but have scores that they like to see. From professors and advisors I've talked to the general comment about the GRE is similar, adding that, if anything, doing poorly will potentially hurt an applicant, but if other areas of an application are strong, you still have a chance. Your scores seem fine, several of the top M.Arch programs mention wanting to see 600s and I think architecture GPAs jump a lot depending on how tough your school is. I think the most important element of an application, especially for M. Arch programs, is the portfolio. Good luck!

I am planning on applying to about 6 programs. This was after I made the decision to not focus on applying to my undergraduate institution's program because it doesn't specialize in my research interests. I will narrow down one less school though, because I've heard that most professors at my school are willing to fill out about only 5 or so recommendations. Each school has a form to send though, so I can see why it would be more annoying than copying the same letter.

I talked with a friend who works as a test prep tutor when I was making a decision whether to take the old or new format about this very question. For the new format, since there still are sentence completion exercises that require vocabulary, it still is beneficial to study up on a variety of words if that is not your strong point. I am not entirely familiar with all of the new changes (I learned about the new format almost half a year ago). I think if you need to brush up on vocabulary and you don't have a lot of time, maybe try some of those private testing company flashcards? I used Barron's Essential GRE words for the old format and it was really helpful too. There are a lot of sentence completion practices, but be apprised that there are about 80 sections to the book -- it takes a long time to get through everything.

There was an option to have a score report released to your undergraduate institution if you are applying to the same one you did your undergrad at.

I've seen a few CVs from previous students from my school. After seeing three or four CVs with the same course sequencing for our closed major listed, in my opinion it looked like a filler. I think if you have taken classes related to research interests or classes that are somewhat unusual to take for your major, it might be relevant to include. I noticed in the ones that included coursework sections, the list itself was probably the length of several sections in length. Blogs, I don't know... I think a personal blog might be a bit too informal for a CV, but if you are a contributor or something to an established blog such as a student organization, I could see that as being possibly relevant.

I just checked, and it is called Hyperlearning MCAT Verbal Workbook. I tried finding a link on Amazon, but there are only used copies in various editions. The one I borrowed from my friend was a few years old, so I think that edition no longer is printed.

Okay, so I am relieved I'm not the only one who made that mistake! I went back to the testing center this week for more info and they directed me to call the ETS help service. Allegedly the undergraduate institution, and any of the other schools you've requested scores for, are NOT listed on score reports -- which makes sense, I guess, since it's really not relevant for other schools to know where else you've requested. But my concern was that I had mistakenly listed an undergraduate school and then ended up putting on one of the institutions to report my scores to. (I think) If you've requested for duplicate schools only the one report will be reported. I'm a tad annoyed they didn't end up correcting anything on my profile, because the UI is still listed incorrectly, but the person I talked to assured me that it wouldn't impact anything. It might be worth calling and asking just in case? Let me know what they tell you!

Luckily the new format will get rid of a lot of the vocab, so antonyms and analogies won't be on the new format! I think you should try to retake it if your field is English (unless there are not cut-offs for your desired school, of course), because your other qualifications sound really strong. As for strategy, I'm also a really bad test taker and I tried to apply Kaplan/Baron's strategies with only mild success. I think doing a lot of practice exams (I took about 15 full-length exams) under timed conditions really helped me get out of my test-taking anxiety. I was more familiarized with the format by the time I was in the actual test room, so even though I was jittery, there weren't major surprises. Also, were you having trouble with the passages? A buddy of mine was studying at the same time to take the MCAT, and the MCAT verbal reasoning passages are very similar to the GRE, only they're a bit longer in my opinion. He lent me this one book published by the Princeton Review (it's a few years old), but it had 43 practice verbal passages which were excellent practice. Since it was for the MCAT, there were quite a few dealing with "scientific" texts which were my weakest passages from the practices. Anyway, good luck!

I just checked on some applications for schools that I am applying to this fall, and realized I can't access online applications for another month. I am worried about not having any record of my name in their systems when my scores show up in a week to ten days. Has this happened to anyone else?

Powerprep was a fairly accurate for me as well. I scored V 610/Q 730 and V 610/Q720 on the Powerprep exams. For my actual scores I got V 660/Q 790. Personally, I think the quantitative seemed considerably easier for the actual exam; verbal was about the same difficulty.

Ah, thanks!

I noticed the same inconsistency as well on my account, and its says I never showed up for a time that I never signed up for. Does it fix itself when scores are posted?

Crap, that's what I was worried about! I think I put the wrong institution down because I thought it was for where I wanted it reported, but after it only let me put one and I had progressed to the next screen, I didn't make the connection. I don't know why I was so nervous for today's test. *banging head on keyboard*

Hi everyone, I just got back from the exam, and I already have a question that is perplexing me... After the tutorials at the beginning of the test, can someone tell me what was the purpose of selecting an institution on the form...? I was incredibly anxious during the beginning of the exam, and for some reason I thought they were asking me where I wanted to report my scores, I looked over the instructions and it was just the spiel about how to pick from the schools list. If it helps, I remember answering questions about ethnicity and such after, which further confused me, because I thought I had clicked the decline button for the search service... Anyone have any ideas?