GRE preliminary results not amazing, not sure what to do

[Alcoori]

Hi everyone,

So I'm planning to apply for PhDs in Biomedical Engineering for next fall and I took the GRE last Monday.

My preliminary results are 590V and 740Q. The writing part was ok, I think I should have a decent score.

I was particularly disappointed with the quantitative score, for some reason I ran out of time towards the end and answered 3 or the 28 questions randomly. It kinda threw me off my game for the verbal part that came afterward but I guess I managed to score reasonably, especially considering English is not my first language and that I had no idea what half the words meant...

I checked the score averages for the different schools I'm applying to and they were all around 770/780Q and 550V.

I'm wondering if I should take it again in order to improve my Q score or not.

I've got a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from my engineering school in France and a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London (UK). The Bioengineering masters ended with a research project and my supervisors are recommending me for research.

So I guess in short my question is, is 740Q really bad and are the scores somehow nuanced with respect to your background? Also, if I were to retake it, would they only consider the latest score or would they do some sort of averaging?

Thanks guys.

[DrFaustus666]

It's been a couple of days and nobody has responded to your question. I know absolutely nothing about biomedical engineering, but I do have the insight that comes from having followed this forum for some time.

Thus I will take a semi-informed shot at your question.

It probably is worth it to try for a 770 or above, on two points of "conventional wisdom."

(1) international students need higher scores and stronger profiles generally than U.S. citizens; and

(2) all flavors of engineering students, especially PhD students, need the highest quantitative scores they can possibly muster.

Your 590 in Verbal is probably fine, though an extra 20 or 30 points there (i.e., over the psychological 600-mark) would be good too.

Good luck

John

Edited October 27, 2010 by DrFaustus666

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

I agree with the above post. The Quant section is tricky in that all Math, Physics, and Engineering college majors are held to the expectation that they get 770+. As an international student, I think your Verbal score is very good (80-something percentile, right?), so if you retake and get similar you shouldn't have to worry there.

Usually, the GRE scores are not the end all be all, but with an engineering field and as an international application, you are probably going to be held to a higher standard in the Quant section.