What is the value of the GRE?

[sikyon]

After writing the GRE last year and looking at admittances this year, I am wondering what the value of the GRE is. While I did well on it, I don't think the questions really prove anything. Consider that the first section on math is high school level, the second section on verbal is primarily enhanced by vocabulary and the third section is apparently subjective.

Nobody really needs this stuff. If you are in a program that uses math, you're going to have to have much more math than the GRE to have gotten by. If you are in a program that requires lots of words... well it might indicate how well read you are but wouldn't reading comprehension and writing samples give a better example anyways?

Honestly I don't understand why the standardized test isn't the LSAT. The LSAT primarily tests logical reasoning and analytical abilities - skills required for every field. Personally, if i were a professor, I would give much more weight to an LSAT score if my applicants had that than the GRE.

[newms]

I agree that the GRE shouldn't be weighted that much, and at many schools it's not. I say that however, with a caveat, because many schools and programs have cutoffs for what they expect a student's score to be. Once you score above that then they look at the more important parts of your application, like your letters and your statement(s). I've read where schools sometimes look at your GRE scores in determining fellowship awards, but I'm not 100% sure of that. Keep in mind also, that there are a very few programs that don't look at the GRE at all, like MIT in Computer Science.

[UFGator]

The GRE itself is fairly useless, but don't lose sight of what it measures.

Vocabulary is a pretty good proxy for general intelligence. However, GRE scores are not necessarily correlated with graduate school success. I believe that high GRE scores are a signal of high intelligence, while low GRE scores do not necessarily mean low intelligence.

[was1984]

On the bright side, it seems like the GRE is slowly going out of favor. Even though many programs require it, less and less significance is being attached to the score. Eventually it will probably go away altogether.

[qbtacoma]

On the bright side, it seems like the GRE is slowly going out of favor. Even though many programs require it, less and less significance is being attached to the score. Eventually it will probably go away altogether.

In the meantime, we still have to pay for it.

[was1984]

In the meantime, we still have to pay for it.

Yep. I took it 2 years ago and I still had to pay over a hundred dollars just to get my scores sent to various schools. It's definitely a racket.

[Ludwig von Dracula]

Apparently, the GRE is worth $185 + $23 per school you apply to + whatever value you place on months of your study and practice time (thousands of dollars?). Not taking into consideration the possible value of getting into a school and getting funded, whatever role the score plays in all of that. I'm sure ETS would like us to think that it's a large role.

[Medievalmaniac]

Apparently, the GRE is worth $185 + $23 per school you apply to + whatever value you place on months of your study and practice time (thousands of dollars?). Not taking into consideration the possible value of getting into a school and getting funded, whatever role the score plays in all of that. I'm sure ETS would like us to think that it's a large role.

Yup. I second this to the nth degree. It proves you have $185.00, or enough credit to put $185.00 on a card. Plus however much you end up spending on score reports.

[Vacuum]

I think it is almost like your GPA. You can study study study for the GRE and do well and you can study study study in school and get a high GPA. Doesn't mean you will do well in graduate school. I think the schools just use it as another cutoff score to weed out more applicants. If a school wouldnt accept me due to my lower score on the GRE because I didn't know the definition of 'gerrymandering', I'd turn into the hulk.

[Eigen]

The value of the GRE is that it is a non-subjective measure of a few specific abilities. You could look at it as providing some specific "benchmarks" to your performance. Just like computing benchmarks, they don't necessarily mimic every day situations, or even give a full breadth of data on performance- but they do provide comparable standards between different systems/applicants.

Yes, the math is quite easy- that's why so many people score really well on it. But a low score on the Quant section tells the AdCom that either you don't test well, or you don't use the math covered on the quant section enough to be really familiar with it.

Verbal scores show something of the breadth of your vocabulary, and in the absence of studying hours and hours in preparation, give a good benchmark for how widely read you are (generally correlated with your GRE score).

Obviously, the use of these benchmarks decreases the more people take classes and study for them- the entire test is very "studyable".

But it's a piece of information about your performance under specific circumstances that can be useful in the absence of any concrete information on the program you are coming from.

Your grades/transcript/writing sample are the places you display more advanced knowledge of mathematics, writing, etc- either through your performance in classes or through samples that you worked more than 30 minutes on.

The GRE can be very useful, when accompanied by other application materials.

Edited February 14, 2011 by Eigen

[cherubie]

The value of the GRE is that it is a non-subjective measure of a few specific abilities. You could look at it as providing some specific "benchmarks" to your performance. Just like computing benchmarks, they don't necessarily mimic every day situations, or even give a full breadth of data on performance- but they do provide comparable standards between different systems/applicants.

Yes, the math is quite easy- that's why so many people score really well on it. But a low score on the Quant section tells the AdCom that either you don't test well, or you don't use the math covered on the quant section enough to be really familiar with it.

Verbal scores show something of the breadth of your vocabulary, and in the absence of studying hours and hours in preparation, give a good benchmark for how widely read you are (generally correlated with your GRE score).

Obviously, the use of these benchmarks decreases the more people take classes and study for them- the entire test is very "studyable".

But it's a piece of information about your performance under specific circumstances that can be useful in the absence of any concrete information on the program you are coming from.

Your grades/transcript/writing sample are the places you display more advanced knowledge of mathematics, writing, etc- either through your performance in classes or through samples that you worked more than 30 minutes on.

The GRE can be very useful, when accompanied by other application materials.

Absolutely agree with this. Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you want to look at it), this is in the ideal situation. In most normal situations, people dedicate at least 2 months time to study for the test, and possibly thousands of dollars in test prep. companies. GENERALLY, scoring high on the verbal means you're well-read and have a broad vocabulary, but in some extreme cases, it simply means you sat there for hours memorizing thousands of words. I have honestly read about 3 novels in the past 5 years (and I didn't even finish 2 of them ), and my vocabulary is mediocre at best. I memorized 3000+ words and took the test and scored in the (insert high number) percentile for verbal. On the other hand, someone who loves to read may score the same thing without ever actually having to memorize anything. Is this fair, and does it REALLY measure how "well-read" you are? Barely. But that's the flaw of this exam, that everyone knows what's on it, how to study for it. The only difference is whether someone is WILLING to study.

To me, if anything, the GRE measures how hard you're willing to work. I truly believe that if you're willing to work hard enough, anyone can ace the GRE. Although this is in no way measuring intelligence, but it does separate the overachiever from the normal students. If I were an adcom, I'd much rather take a hard-working moderately intelligent student than a lazy, nonchalant genius.

Edited February 14, 2011 by cherubie

[Eigen]

It's so funny (to me) reading on here the months and thousands people have spent studying for the GRE- at my undergrad, all of our professors told us it wasn't worth the time, and no one I know (either from undergrad or in my grad school cohort) studied more than maybe 2-3 hours a few days before the exam to familiarize themselves with the structure.

It wasn't until I'd been in grad school a semester and change that I started realizing how much some people put into studying- and how much you can do to "brute force" the test.

That said, I think (obviously depending on the student) the time spent studying for the GRE could be used to better the application in much more tangible ways- research hours, volunteer hours, advanced coursework, independent study classes, MIT/Yale open courseware graduate classes, etc.

[Jack Sam White]

After qualifying in GRE you can pursue hogher studies in USA. There are a lot of universities and college which gives preference to GRE qualified students.

Edited February 23, 2011 by Jack Sam White