Cosmos

I think the idea is to explain your research interests in a light that will make you seem a good fit with whatever supervisor you want to work with. I was told to stay away from regurgitating what they list on their lab pages.. read through their stuff and offer specific areas that you might like to investigate that shows you have done your homework. I am really finding this the hardest part of the application process! You can mention professors in ways like this: "I find the work that Dr. X did on ____ to be a striking application of _____ etc"

How did everyone do?

Hey Contretemps, I was having the same problem. The trick is that the GRE Registration Number is a different one than is listed online on your account page. You are given a new number when you receive the score report in the mail, and you use this number to sign onto the diagnostic thread. So you will have to wait until it arrives in the mail. Hope that helps!

For me, Verbal: 169, 3 questions wrong (1 at level 3, 2 at level 4) Quant: 167, 2 questions wrong (both at level 4) Yes, the drop off for quant is steeper!

Everyone feels a bit academically insecure! I still read research papers and can barely get through them, wondering how I will ever be able to write one. I am told everyone feels a bit like an impostor when they enter grad school. You're going to do great! Believe in yourself. I started 'studying' 2 months before the exam, but really I was just reading vocab and doing some reading comp stuff. I did a few math practice tests and knew I had some work to do. I started actually studying about 10 days before the test. I probably did ~2.5 hours a day because I was also working full time and Gellert is right, your brain gets tired. Then I studied ALL DAY for the 2 days before the test, which was exhausting. I would not recommend this intense last 2-day part for anyone else - it was just a personal thing (I wanted to get through every single practice question in the Princeton book). Like you, I've always really enjoyed math. I like doing math puzzles and quizzes because I love the satisfaction of solving it. However, there were some question types that I would not have figured out without studying the Princeton book... For me, studying is about doing the practice questions and then reading the solution steps if I get it wrong. I am definitely an active (actually practicing questions over and over) learner. For the quant comparison questions (whats bigger, x or y) MAKE SURE you plug-in a negative value, 0, a positive value, and a fraction for each one. In the practice tests I made a lot of mistakes just plugging in one answer type and assuming that x>y incorrectly.

Get the Princeton Review book! It's the best, better than Barron's. With the GRE, it's not about being really good at math. It's about being really good at the type of questions they present to you, and this you can accomplish with PRACTICE! It's hard work, but eventually you will look at a question and know immediately how you solve it. Don't stress. That won't get you anywhere. Don't be discouraged if you can't figure out any of the questions in the beginning, that's normal. I think I could answer about 1/3 of the questions in the beginning, and near the end I started getting them all (Q 167). Lucky for you, the math they test you on is the stuff you learned in junior high and high school, so you don't need to have retained anything from your stats courses. Work with each question type and practice, practice, practice. Sounds like you have quite a lot of time to practice, so thats helpful. Keep a sheet of the math rules you normally wouldn't remember (triangle side ratios, equation for combinatorials, groups etc) to help you answer questions in the beginning. You can do it! Read the study books carefully and work through the questions slowly at first. Then, start using shortcuts like estimating. Plug in the answer choices if you can!! I really think you can do really well if you put the effort in. Don't be intimidated and don't procrastinate. Good luck!!

Same here, IRToni!

Me neither, and I took mine Aug 8... So we put in our 7-digit reg number, the month and year (mine would be aug-11)? and our birthday? And it should work?

I think you should just let it be. I am also applying in Psychology. I have terrible first year grades and I originally noted them on my SoP but my Honours advisor (who has been helping me with the application process) told me to cut that section out. The point is that you want to focus on your strengths. 159/147 is not that bad, but I think by trying to explain why you didn't ace it eyou are drawing attention to your weaknesses. I'm sure your application is very strong and you should feel confident in who you are and what you've done. For Counselling especially, they will care more about your volunteer experience and reference letters (about your character) than your GRE scores. Good luck!! An afterthought: Also, I think the "extenuating circumstances" section is meant for very serious discrepancies in your application, like failing all your classes in 3rd year or something. Your GRE score is perfectly fine.

Wow, awesome! That's good to know. Do you think it makes more of a difference in Canadian applications to have external (national) funding than American ones?

I very strongly recommend the Princeton Review book. It was fantastic. Know all the vocab lists in there and you'll be fine. Also, from my experience the best way to do well on the reading comp is to do a bazillion practice questions during the days right before... You will subconsciously be able to identify good answer choices without even really understanding the reading. Of course, it won't necessarily stick.. I bet if I took the test again today I wouldn't do well on the verbal, so it's good to cram that style in right before the test!

I am tailoring my SoPs and my CV, waiting on my last recommender to submit his pieces, and waiting for the schools to receive my transcripts. Feeling rather anxious about everything... Tailoring the SoPs is proving to be far more difficult than I expected, especially since the part that I am tailoring (research interests) seems to be the crucial piece of the document. This forum relaxes me.

I agree. Those are excellent scores, more than acceptable for classics and philosophy. With 170V and 6 AW it really seems like you are just trying to make people jealous or for them to commend you... but instead you are really just rubbing it in for lots of people that are disappointed with scores far below yours.

Hey, I'm no art major but I looked at your portfolio and I think your stuff is absolutely beautiful... If you did well in your art courses, I think graduate schools would understand if your GPA is low in general. You could always make a good case for yourself in your statement of purpose, too. The question is, why do you want to go graduate school? Wouldn't most advanced education in painting and ceramics be in art/professional schools? Do you even need a graduate degree to be a successful artist? I think you're really talented either way.

I think that a lot of the Canadian schools are very well respected. McGill is comparable to an Ivy League. In some ways, Canadian schools are the hardest to get in to because there are fewer, and so all Canadians (who don't have US citizenship) are trying to jam themselves in to the few good programs. The main difference is lack of funding... Canadian schools have less money, plain and simple. Getting a NSERC or SSHRC grant goes a long way on a Canadian application. I would say apply to Canadian schools if they have the programs you are interested in!

Good luck guys!!

Hi Aprivit, So you have to take the GRE, anyway, for other schools? In general, I think that giving a school more information about you is a positive thing. You really want to make your application stand out and give them a clear idea of who you are, and it could definitely help you with scholarships if the rest of your application is really strong, too. However, since it is optional, obviously it's only good idea if you get good scores. If I were you, I would wait to see my scores before sending them. It could be worth the extra $23 to send them later if you do awesome. I made the same decision myself regarding my Subject test scores: only one of the schools I am applying to requires them, so I am waiting to see how I did before sending them to the other schools where it is optional.

Wow. Took mine on August 8, estimated scores 750-800 Q, 750-800 V. Monitored this forum like a hawk because I couldn't honestly believe my score estimates. Scores: V: 169 (99th percentile), Q: 167 (95th percentile), W: 5.0 (87th percentile) I hope I get in to my freaking evolutionary psych program at UCSB or UPenn. !!!