Should I retake the GRE?

[neuropsych76]

I know I've littered this forum with my altercations regarding the GRE but I still do not know whether or not I should retake them. At most I'll i'd improve from a 520Q to a low 600Q. Is this worth it? I got a 580 on the V and probably would do about the same maybe worse depending if I got words I didn't know.

Applying to cog neuro programs...

rest of stats..

3.67 GPA, 3.96 psychology GPA

honors program and completing honors thesis cognitive neuroscience project

lots of extracurriculars, 6 honors societies, president of psych club and psi chi. i don't even know if any of this matters but it certainly fills up my CV.

a lot of research experience at my school. assisted with about 10 different projects there not including honors thesis. worked in a hospital for a summer doing neuropsych testing on patients. involved in several research projects there and got my name mentioned in a book and co author at 2 presentations.

worked in a cognitive neuroscience lab at an ivy league school. got great fmri experience there (i want to do fmri research) but too early for any presentations

overall, i have about 6 poster presentations, 1 publication in an undergrad journals, lots of lab skills and also i should get great LOR's.

so do you think i have to retake the GRE? will getting a 1200 or so greatly increase my chances? i'm applying to some good programs but only a couple top programs. will my 1100 totally ruin my chances?

thank you!

[pospsy]

You already have a strong application. But I have to say the competition is crazy.

I first took the GRE two years ago and got a very decent score. My undergrad advisor insisted that I needed to get above 1400 because apparently that's what strong programs look for.

Another advisor of mine allowed me to peek at the profile of the shortlisted applicants of several application cycles before (with all private info deleted), and none of them has a GRE less than 1400. And he told me applicants have only gotten more and more competitive. (I studied at a public Ivy for my undergrad.)

I personally think GRE has a lot to do with how much time you are willing to put into it.

I took it once after I studied ~700 words, and I got a score in the 500 range. I retook it after I studied perhaps around 1800 words and got a score in the 600 range. I honestly think I can get a score very close to 800 if I studied 3000 words.

And given your stellar GPA, I really think you have the ability to do greater than 600Q and 580V.

I personally think if the couple of the top programs are your "dream" schools, then you should retake it.

I know I've littered this forum with my altercations regarding the GRE but I still do not know whether or not I should retake them. At most I'll i'd improve from a 520Q to a low 600Q. Is this worth it? I got a 580 on the V and probably would do about the same maybe worse depending if I got words I didn't know.

Applying to cog neuro programs...

rest of stats..

3.67 GPA, 3.96 psychology GPA

honors program and completing honors thesis cognitive neuroscience project

lots of extracurriculars, 6 honors societies, president of psych club and psi chi. i don't even know if any of this matters but it certainly fills up my CV.

a lot of research experience at my school. assisted with about 10 different projects there not including honors thesis. worked in a hospital for a summer doing neuropsych testing on patients. involved in several research projects there and got my name mentioned in a book and co author at 2 presentations.

worked in a cognitive neuroscience lab at an ivy league school. got great fmri experience there (i want to do fmri research) but too early for any presentations

overall, i have about 6 poster presentations, 1 publication in an undergrad journals, lots of lab skills and also i should get great LOR's.

so do you think i have to retake the GRE? will getting a 1200 or so greatly increase my chances? i'm applying to some good programs but only a couple top programs. will my 1100 totally ruin my chances?

thank you!

Edited October 25, 2010 by pospsy

[neuropsych76]

You already have a strong application. But I have to say the competition is crazy.

I first took the GRE two years ago and got a very decent score. My undergrad advisor insisted that I needed to get above 1400 because apparently that's what strong programs look for.

Another advisor of mine allowed me to peek at the profile of the shortlisted applicants of several application cycles before (with all private info deleted), and none of them has a GRE less than 1400. And he told me applicants have only gotten more and more competitive. (I studied at a public Ivy for my undergrad.)

I personally think GRE has a lot to do with how much time you are willing to put into it.

I took it once after I studied ~700 words, and I got a score in the 500 range. I retook it after I studied perhaps around 1800 words and got a score in the 600 range. I honestly think I can get a score very close to 800 if I studied 3000 words.

And given your stellar GPA, I really think you have the ability to do greater than 600Q and 580V.

I personally think if the couple of the top programs are your "dream" schools, then you should retake it.

Thank you very much for your reply. I know that is competition is absolutely ridiculous and even though I'm on par with the rest of my app, my GRE's really stand out in a bad way. I'm applying to 8 schools and I'd be happy going to any of them. I guess it comes down to trying to make myself the strongest applicant I can be. If I can raise my score even 100 points it will only help me out.

So far it seems like I have no reason not to retake.

The reasons holding me back are that 1) I don't have a lot of time to study for it during the semester 2) my advisor said that I should be okay with my score and I trust his opinion a great deal 3) I'd be retaking mid november and I wasn't sure if i'd meet the December 1st deadlines. 4) i don't have a lot of money and I'm dipping into my savings to retake

Do those reasons outweigh retaking it? Probably not. I just hope I can do significantly better to make it worth it..

[TheDude]

You have a really strong CV in terms of research.

When are your application deadlines? Is this a case of you only having another 2 weeks to study...in which case do you think you will raise your scores that much?

Some thoughts.

Thank you very much for your reply. I know that is competition is absolutely ridiculous and even though I'm on par with the rest of my app, my GRE's really stand out in a bad way. I'm applying to 8 schools and I'd be happy going to any of them. I guess it comes down to trying to make myself the strongest applicant I can be. If I can raise my score even 100 points it will only help me out.

So far it seems like I have no reason not to retake.

The reasons holding me back are that 1) I don't have a lot of time to study for it during the semester 2) my advisor said that I should be okay with my score and I trust his opinion a great deal 3) I'd be retaking mid november and I wasn't sure if i'd meet the December 1st deadlines. 4) i don't have a lot of money and I'm dipping into my savings to retake

Do those reasons outweigh retaking it? Probably not. I just hope I can do significantly better to make it worth it..

[neuropsych76]

You have a really strong CV in terms of research.

When are your application deadlines? Is this a case of you only having another 2 weeks to study...in which case do you think you will raise your scores that much?

Some thoughts.

I think I can raise my Q to over 600. Verbal I'm fine with. I'm just worried schools will see my GRE and won't pay much attention to the rest of my app.

I'm applying to two schools that have December 1st deadlines. MIT and MSU. MIT said that its okay if my scores are a few days late...

I'm just concerned because a lot of applicants have scores 1300+ and the quantitative seems to be more important than the verbal for science programs.

[jhmoss1812]

You have a very strong application outside of your GRE. Your GRE is not bad, but the field is so competitive right now. I agree with the rest ITT that if you have the time to study for it, retake it. If not, your'e not going to make a marked improvement and it will just be a waste of money. I graduated from UVA with a 3.6, 1370 GRE and only got into two schools. One was my safety school and I was actually kind of dreading the fact that I might have to go there had I not got in to FSU. I am very happy where I ended up but you better be happy with all the schools you apply to and have a good range of schools. Unfortunately, the GRE is a HUGE part of the application and sadly it's a filter. The rest of your application better stand out to make you competitive against the high GRE people. Sadly, those people will have a lot of outstanding credentials outside their GRE as well...The only way to do better on the verbal is to memorize as many words as you can. My friend just took the GRE and she got a 1450 but she put so much time into studying that it paid off. She literally learned 2000 words at the least.....good luck

Edited October 26, 2010 by jhmoss1812