villina

Good to know, Eigen. I'm not submitting anything just yet. I'm collecting information at the moment. What is the rate of submitted/published papers of professors? Anyone shares this type of information? I understand all the difficulties connected with my current position. I discussed the ideas and the result with some scholars. They are not anthropologists, though. It's quite a bewitched circle - papers could help you to get into gradschool, but you couldn't have papers unless you are in gradschool)

I had an impression that if you submit a paper, they will give you review no matter what? I never expected that editor should make a decision about whether he sends it for review or not.

I'm actually preparing to start big, long-term process of reading these journals, but of course with a thought about dealing with them as an author. I am, too, not sure how can they be approached "outside," since currently I don't have a professor with whom I can explore the topic. Maybe I should wait until (if) I'm admitted to the program. Otherwise, those professors with whom I tried to establish contacts so far were not extremely cooperative, however nice. I think that's not because they won't like to be, but because they are busy. I think one of the options is to send a paper to the journal, and see how it works. First, I should probably go to the library, and check the journals, how do they differ one from another. I appreciate your answers.

, Definitely. Thanks! I checked "Cultural Anthropology," and "Public Culture" so far, as they seem to fit my topic. At least, Physical Anthropology is not my field. How fast will they replay, does anyone know? Have anyone published a paper there?

What are the most cited Anthropology journals? Can anyone suggest?

It's hard to argue not having materials from the tests, however, the number of questions is limited anyway. So there is always a chance of meeting exactly the same question when you try to pass the exam three times in three months. I followed almost the same trajectory on my three tests. Additionally, I passed TOEFL in a class with about 17 computers (not the biggest possible number, some test centers have around 30 computers in one room), and I noticed that the girl in the next row anwers the same questions I had in my speaking section. Maybe someone else in the room had the same test as we did, I just did not pay attention, of course, as it was not among my tasks for the day.

The topic of the Argument writing was exactly the same. I am quite sure about the question that I'm talking about as well. Overall, the number of question made this impression on me. The other pool of questions indeed just strongly resembled the questions that I already encountered, and not only on previous exams, but on Magoosh and Kaplan tests as well, up to the point of déjà vu. If I may ask, how was your retake of Oct the 12th?

Hi there! My third attempt was remarkably similar to the first and the second ones. 154/154. The main inference is: current GRE is quite solid. Maybe that's why ETS allowed people to send only the best score, and thus to retake exams more often. This example shows that one can retake the test 3 times, and get exactly the same scores. Not even much worse scores, nor significantly better. I think I made a tactical mistake, when I scheduled the retake in one month after the first attempt. The interval should have been two months. The second time I received the score only 3 points higher than my first one, and got demotivated. Also, I felt a certain pressure connected with the fact that my preparation did not allow me to concentrate on the other parts of the application as fully as I wanted. I will not take GRE one more time this year, because if I do, I will not have a chance of taking it twice the next year. (No more than 5 attempts per 12 months, right?) The funny thing about this third exam is that I got exactly the same topic for Argument writing, and the whole bunch of questions, mostly math, but some verbal, too. It did not help a lot, but at least it means, ETS does not have a large number of questions and topics, and they renew the test not very fast. One of the math questions that I saw twice looked for me as though it had a mistake in it (no right answer among the answers listed). It struck me the first time, and I memorized it seeing it twice; I'm currently corresponding with ETS about this riddle, but it may very well be that I am wrong, we'll see. Nevertheless, I'm going to apply this year, in order to be acquainted with the procedure. Believe it or not, this test was fun. I never did standardized tests before in my life, and it was a challenge. I started with 130-and-something in both sections. After you cross the 150 or, say, 155 point, the movement forward become much harder. Although I stuck on 154-155, and thus did not crack the test, I am still sure I can do it if needed in future, because it is logical. The preparation for GRE was quite useful. I liked to read in English ever since I start to do it about two years ago, but I almost never used dictionary. While preparing for GRE, I gain a habit of learning new words (or at least by now I think I did). Best of luck for everyone! (Me included -)

Where did you get these percentile? I also have 155 in Verbal and it was only 65%, not 69 or close, two weeks ago. Do percentile still adjust?

Thank you for your reply. According to ETS table, those are 690 in Quantitative, and 530 in Verbal on the previous scale. How often the committee meets? Is it once in the application period, or twice-thrice? I invested some time and energy into other parts of my application and I think it has a chance. Unless they will not see it or seriously consider because my GRE-scores are below average for those programs.

No, I did not do it. Almost the same score, 154 Q, 155 V. (according for the ETS table, 60 and 65 percentile respectively). Only 3 points difference. The day before I scored 162 V on Kaplan practice test (a big fat smile icon "extremely annoyed"). Should I retake the thing in October? I was thinking about applying early. Does it make any sense - apply early with scores like that? However, does it make any sense to retake it once again? Maybe only to score the same for the third time. Maybe I can apply, and, if the third score is significantly higher, to write them and to ask to change the scores in the application? Which idea is more absurd, what do you think?

Thank you for the advise! I just checked the percent of the questions I did right on the exam (in the GRE diagnostic center online https://grediagnostic.ets.org/GREDWeb/gred/signIn.jsp). First math section was medium, and I did right 8 out of 20 questions, and the second one was easy, I did 16 out of 20. The funny thing is, I perceived the second section as more difficult. I was really tired during the second part of the exam. The second part of the verbal was indeed a little more difficult, and I did the same number of the right questions as in the first one (11/20). I am surprised that it is enough to do this relatively small number of questions correctly to receive at least mor than 150. (I thought I did better than that.) On the practice tests that I do the second section in math is usually more difficult, than the first one (and I miss lots of questions). I misread tasks in a most beastly way. For example, I can solve the question correctly, and than mark another option - not A, but B. If only I can fix the tiredness and the lack of attention on the 4-hours exam. Obviously, I still need a lots of preparation, but time is elapsing.

I think it worth to give it a try, I mean applying. The new GRE seems to be very solid. Lots of practice tests that I took are all around the same (not very promising) scores. I am sure they achieved this through the careful balancing of the topics and types of questions. I have been studying since February, I did lots of preparation, and it was pretty thorough. It's been improving, but very slowly, and by the end of my attempts I probably will not see major improvement. However, I am sure it won't hurt to apply.

Thanks for the tips! And for the good mood. I should try Princeton and Cliff then. I think tests are quite accurate as they correlate with each other. They do not let me the hope that they are wrong -)

Once again I tried the practice test and got exactly the same, 152 Q and 154 V (on Kaplan). I tried also Manhattan and got 152 in Q and 156 on V. It is the fail! I am going to retake in the middle of September, there is no way I can significantly improve those scores in the remaining two weeks. On Verbal, I've got most of the sentence equivalence and text completion questions right (it is only because of the studying of the words, I bought nice book 'Verbal Advantage' by Charles H. Elster), but somehow I failed most of the text comprehension questions. Previously I mostly struggled with sentence equivalence type of questions, now it seems that 'comprehension' will be most difficult. I understand texts but fail to give right answers. In math the picture is always the same: I have most of the problems right in the first part, and in second one, which is usually more complicated, I fail almost everything. It is interesting that I did a lot of studying, I feel that I am doing better and better still, but it does not affect my scores at all. I am haggard by the end of the writings sections already, not to mention first 2 sections of Q and V. I miss even medium difficulty questions in the last sections, which I definitely can solve, as I do not miss them in the beginning. -/ I am discombobulated. I have a temptation of throwing all attempts to prepare whatsoever. Have no idea what else should I do in order to crack this exam, which turned out to be so difficult to me. As long as I apply some dilligence, I can defeat it - that's what I thought. However, it actually looks as though I should study for another year or two simply to hit the inaccessible '160' line! How on earth do you do that?! Of course, I was very ignorant half of the year ago in terms of mathematics (well, probably, verbal too), but still.

True, because these preparation practices are so lengthy, I did not really checked the answers. I only checked the answers when I did separate questions on Kaplan and Magoosh. This is a good idea to start mastering conceptions by heart from one to second and then from second to third. I still have a feeling that vocabulary is a big part of success on Verbal part. I only started to learn words about a month ago. I was a confident opponent of learning words, because it only gives you false experience, not a real one, which you can gain through reading. However, prior I saw a question with five words as the variants of an answer, and only knew one or two of them, now I do not know one or two. Not so drastic improvement as I would like to have, but at least something.

Yes, I mean the Powerprep, first full-time practice. Since it so neatly correlated with actual test, I think I will save the second one for the last week before my second effort. Thank you for the information about standart deviation, probably, Princeton Review has some internet-access with full-time practices, too?

(Just kidding.) I passed GRE recently and got 152 on Quant and 154 on Verbal. I have not yet seen percentiles and AW score. Now, I am going to retake it at least twice, as time permits and as one should not necessarily show all the scores at once, as on previous version of the exam. I used Kaplan and Magoosh, perused Barron's book with 1100 words, and toyed with the application Painless GRE for Android (all fine resources). Did I miss some other highly useful things? My actual test scores highly correlated with ETS practice (I did 154/154 on the last), and were little higher than on Kaplan practices, which might support the claim that Kaplan makes things just a little bit more difficult. Among unexpected things on a test, were at least 5 questions on standart deviation, which I had not see on Kaplan at all and have not checked yet on Magoosh, maybe Magoosh has something. Also there was one text completion from which I was not able to make any sense even after the test. I read a lot, but it looks like I should read twice as much to be able to score above 160. My improvement on Kaplan practices in previous half of a year was very slow. If this rate will persevere, I will not be able to score high. I have one month before retaking, and two months before final effort, which I plan maybe for too late (the middle of October). I actually planned to start the application in September. Can I finish the application and say - I will report scores later? Will it undermine my chances, or, on the contrary, will allow them to look more carefully on the rest part of the application, as scores are not the strongest part of it? So, do you have any thoughts about the early application and later sent scores, and is there any additional ways to improve these scores in two months? Any suggestion is appreciated.

Despite the fact that many suggest reading relatively short articles, I would say reading the voluminous books helps me more. While reading thick book you are more engaged, and better understand the context and thus can infer the meaning of new words. An author usually repeats even rare words, and by the end of the book you are usually acknowledged with his vocabulary. I found an abundance of GRE words in Dennett, Russel, Bronte, Dickens, and so forth. The only secret of the useful reading is the interesting reading. Also, I found helpful the recommendation of Magoosh to force oneself out of the field of comfort, if you are interested in biology and had been reading lots on this subject, try to switch and start to read about politics and vice versa.

The resulting percentile of your test may be even higher than that was two months ago, depending on how next people will pass their tests.

I actually heard from one PhD student in molecular biology, that the major part of the whole application is Personal Statement, but if writing samples in some fields are equally important, I hope it will galvanize me a little -) On the other hand, one often hears that universities use 'cut off's' by GRE scores. Probably the chance, that an applicant will have an impressive writing combined with an average GRE-score, is negligible... Can anyone share an experience when his or her magnificent writing turned out to be more important, than average GRE? Or, when his or her average writing actually closed the door, despite the crushingly high GRE-scores? I was under the impression that in the latter case the first and only thing to blame is an unsuccesfull Personal Statement.

I was wondering, how important writing sample in your packet of documents at all. It looks like everyone is busy with GRE-preparation, learning words, seeking for good recommendations, and so forth. It looks like writing sample should be, if required, just to accomplish the number of documents, and that no one going to read it. Or, if someone is going, it is not something decisive - only another chance of being rejected, but never the chance to overwhelm relatively poor GRE-score -) Is there any scientifically acknowledged situations, when writing played a great - well, in fact, any - role?

I finished my 'specialist' degree (as we hadn't Bachelor's and Master's back in those times yet) in Russia and currently doing 'PhD' (again, 'candidate', which is supposedly the analogouos degree) in Philosophy in one of Moscow's University. I am supposed to finish it approximately in 2013. As my husband now studying Economics in Texas University in Austin, I am thinking about applying for Anthropology programm there and for several other places as it won't hurt. (Everyone has a right to be rejected by Stanford once, right?) I have a feeling that I would not have good enough recommendations, because I really doubt American Professors would know ours. In addition, the fields that I'm choosing (Anthropology in some places and Slavic Studies in others) are not very closely related with Philosophy, so even if some of my teachers are comparatively well-known figures in Philosophy (again, which I doubt), there is possibly no chance someone will know them in Anthropology or in Slavic Studies Depts. I actually have the agreements with our dean, with my scientific advisor and with a head of foreign relationships' department of Philosophy Department (hm, did I make myself clear?). They all Professors and all, but should I go with them? During the year of living in Austin I didn't succeed in building strong frienships with Professors who teach here, partly because I am busy with 3-year-old son, partly because they are really hard to deal with, while you are not a student. They typically didn't respond to my emails, arrangements about the meetings failed without explanaitions, and so on. I have only one good friend who is willing to give me recommendation here in US, but she is not Professor, only a lecturer, and I wasn't her student - we actually only shared some thoughts related to our common subject, she is just willing to help. She knows some of my publications, so I am not denying that she possibly can give me a good recommendation. At least, she knows the rules, what would be hard to say about my Professors - some of them don't even have their own email-addresses. Would they be able to fill the forms? Should I ask her? Should I stick to my old dear Professors? The Universe, give me your answer. I'm waiting in the darkness for your replay.