Retaking the GRE

[Maiya]

Hi everyone,

First of all, I would just like to say that this is such a great website, especially for aspiring graduate school applicants such as me. Reading through the forums and threads has certainly helped me a lot in knowing more about graduate schools in the US.

Which is why I am really hopeful that you can advise me on this. I am currently an aspiring Ph.D applicant into the biomedical sciences, such as immunology, infection, and molecular microbiology. I have actually taken the GRE thrice since 2006, the first in 2006 with a cumulative score of 1200 (Quantitative - 660, Verbal -540), and the second in 2007 a cumulative score of 1030 (Quantitative - 620, Verbal - 410). In both exams I was given 4.0 in the analytical writing section in each. As I was currently enrolled in a master's course then, I decided not to push through with the applications. Now that I have graduated (last 2009), I feel that I am ready now to apply for a Ph.D program in a respected university. Unfortunately, the GRE scores that I got for the third time weren't higher than my previous scores, with a cumulative score of 1130 (Quantitative - 610, Verbal - 510). But I do feel that I haven't done my best for that exam, I was too lenient when I should have been devoting more time to study and review. With that in mind, I am more inclined to retake the GRE a month after, just in time for the applications to open.

So my two questions are:

1. Is it worth retaking the GRE? I have heard that retaking was not encouraged, because scores end up either the same or even lower. But if perhaps I devote more time and energy into studying and doing practice tests, would it be possible for me to raise my score to at least a 700 in the quantitative, and a 600 in the verbal?

2. And knowing these scores, what are my chances in getting into the schools that I want to get into? I am actually a graduate of Master of Science in Microbiology, and I am currently working as a Research Assistant in a government-funded medical research project. My list includes: Duke University, Columbia University, New York University, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Baylor College of Medicine.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[lifetimestudent]

It is definitely worthwhile to re-take it, but it looks like you have already done it a bunch of times. I am not sure how good it will look for grad schools to see that you take the test so many times. That being said, doing it a month later will not do so much good unless you really take the time to study. I would normally recommend at least 3 months between exams so you can do some real work to improve your score, otherwise it will be the same brain against the same test - as opposed to a better brain against the same test.

That being said you should think about the score as each component separately - not the combined score. Your potential program probably only cares about the one score which is applicable (math vs. verbal).

Hope this helps!