Am I being absolutely absurd?

[ColoradoRoman]

Hi everyone,

I've been happily lurking around this forum for ages, and swore I would never be "that guy"...but here I am, angsting away with the best of them and looking for a little perspective. I took the GREs today for the first time this morning. I'd been getting regular 790s on the verbal on Kaplan's practice tests, and about 680-710-ish on the math (after lots of prep). I'm really a more of a verbal guy (2 humanities majors with only 2 A-s in the whole four years of undergrad), and I'm planning on applying for humanities PhD programs. Finished the test feeling ok, and clicked to see my scores.

Verbal: 730

Math: 740

Massive double-take. Math is higher than expected (good...) but verbal significantly lower than I'd hoped. I'm worrying that I need to re-take, since I'll be shooting for top-5 PhD programs in my field and don't want to hurt my chances. My roommate says that I should leave it well enough alone, and that I'm being an idiot (and I'm afraid he may be right). Of course, I won't know about the AW for a couple of weeks yet. Still, I could use your perspective...

Retake or not? How respectable is a V730 for top-5s in the humanitites, especially U.S. History? How about the Q740? How much does any of this stuff really matter for admissions? Are V750 cut-offs at all common?

Thank you! I'd really appreciate your thoughts... I need a realitiy check. Too many GRE math problems have addled my poor old brain.

Roman

[TMP]

Yes, you are being a total idiot, however bright you are with standardized exams. It's the percentiles that matter. Anything over 90th is just fine.

Focus your energies elsewhere like your SOP, which is even MORE important than the GRE.

[eucalyptus]

You are definitely freaking out over nothing. There's no such thing as a 750V cutoff. It's conceivable that some science/math programs have a 750Q cutoff, since 750 is around 80th percentile in Quant. However, your 730 is 98-99th percentile in Verbal, and there's no way that'll be less than a cutoff score. They use GRE cutoffs to get rid of SOME of the giant stack of applications, not 99% of it!

Here's your much-needed perspective:

Don't retake. It is very respectable. Nobody cares about your Quant score, but if they did, they would like your 740. Your GRE score would matter if it was poor (it's not, so it doesn't matter). There's no such thing as a 750V cutoff.

[ColoradoRoman]

Ticklemepink and Eucalyptus,

Thank you both so much for your responses and the much-needed perspective. I really appreciate your insight. I guess I just needed to hear it from someone else. Now, to turn my energies to more productive things than ridiculous anxiety. Thank goodness someone has a sensible head on their shoulders. (I'll try to learn...)

Man, but I'd trade some of those points for the wisdom not to freak out over nonsense...ultimately, that seems to me to be worth a lot more.

Thanks again for your help, and best of luck to you both.

Roman

[DrFaustus666]

Ditto everything everyone else said.

On this forum and others, people have reported getting into top humanities programs with as low as 660V and 450Q.

Humanities departments REALLY REALLY don't give a ratt's butt about your Q score, unless it's under about 400, for ADMISSION.

However, sometimes the COMBINED score (and thus the Q-score) is used as a tie-breaker for FUNDING. BUT, you're sill very near the top of the pack for humanities majors.

If you were applying for a PhD fellowship in astrophysics at MIT, I'd say, try again on your Quant ... but, short of that, you're doing fine.

John