GRE Advice_Cognitive Psychology App

[CogPsych97]

Hello, I have taken the GRE twice now and received the same score (154V, 157Q). I am very disappointed but I also realize that the score is not the worst thing in the world, especially since it could have gotten worse. I have several questions I was hoping someone could help me with:

• If I were to retake the GRE (hoping to hit 320 this time) what courses/strategies would you suggest?
•  Is it even necessary if everything else in my applications is competitive? I'm looking at schools like NYU which are more computational modeling focused.
• How necessary is the GRE Psychology Subject Test? (most of my schools don't ask for it but one or two "recommend" it)
• Best source for cognitive psychology program GRE ranges

Please let me know. Thank you. 

Edited July 6, 2018 by CWRUPsych97
Extra question

[ResilientDreams]

Hello!!

From the professors and current grad students I've talked to, the GRE is a very small component of your grad school application. They just want to make sure that you're reasonably competent. I wouldn't look at that score and think that you're incapable of reading/doing math, so I think it's fine.

If you pay $20 you can access the database of grad schools on the American Psychological Association website and see what the average GRE scores are for the schools you're interested in. You should really go more by that and not by the overall percentile. 

The GRE Psychology Subject Test is borderline useless. The only situation it might make sense to take it is if your undergrad degree is in something other than psych.