GRE Thread

[amazingtomatoes]

Hey all. I know this board isn't too busy right now, but I thought maybe I could get something going (for all of our own morbid curiosity).

GRE scores? How many times have you taken it? How did you prepare? Are you taking it again?

And, since we all clamor for information, what have you heard at your undergrad institution and elsewhere about the role(s) GRE scores play in graduate admissions?

My own experience:

[redacted]

I'm disappointed in the AW (really thought I hit that 5.5, at least) but pleased with the percentile I received on the verbal. I include percentiles because I've heard that in some admissions committees, it is not the scores but the percentages that are calculated into a function with GPA to rank applicants or to place applicants above or below a cutoff line.

Any thoughts on whether I should retake the test? I'm stratifying my applications, applying to (in Leiteriffic terms) one top-10 school, one-two 10-20 schools, one higher-20s school, a few schools clustered in the lower-20/upper-30 area, etc. I know that for at least the higher-tier schools, the low AW places more pressure on the other areas of my app. Will it prevent them from giving it a serious look, do you think?

[AllFiredUp]

Yes, so work hard on the rest of your application. At the top schools, ad. coms. get desperate during the endgame and look for any excuse to cut people. This is bloodsport. You must become Thrasymachus.

[amazingtomatoes]

Thanks for that vague, unhelpful reply. I did not need to be told it was "bloodsport" or any of that vague, anthemic talk. As someone applying to grad school I'd better know that it's tough. I was only trying to begin a conversation.

[studyordie]

Just like amazingtomatoes, I was uber happy with my percentile scores, especially verbal, but horrified when I got my AW score, 4.5. Are you kidding me? I got a bit creative on one of the prompts and I guess that hurt me. I'm currently debating spending 55$ to get the thing regraded (as well as debating with my wife whether or not we actually have 55$). I'm not going to take it again because I got a 790V and a 770Q and I don't want to bring those down at all, they are both signifigantly higher than where I had been testing at only days before the test (on Powerprep, Princeton Prep, etc. ...). I'm in theology, but I'm sure philosopy is similar in that we send in a writing sample. They can see how well we write within the discipline, so unless they want the dissertation as a series of in-class essays to inane prompts I'm hoping they look past my AW score. I also read that schools can look at your actual AW responses, that is the way they should really "grade" AW.

[demondeac]

You should probably retake it with just a 770 Q 790 V, after all you must have missed at least one question. I don't even need to see the percentile scores to be jealous. Congrats, I retook the test and was not uber-pleased but it should get the job done- 670 V 740 Q (still waiting on AW). That is really odd that your AW was so low, but you could always make the case in your personal statement (given your Q and V scores) that you were just too far above the grader's abilities, which given they are all Graduate students of varying capabilities may indeed be true. I didn't know you could have the AW re-graded, but I would definitely do that if you can afford it; I wouldn't do anything to possibly change those V and Q scores.

I know earlier in the thread it asked for how one prepared for the test, so I'll throw that in: I used the Kaplan book of 500 vocab words which was really helpful (and less labor intensive), the Kaplan Verbal Workbook (just for verbal) which was really not that helpful, and the Princeton Review Cracking the Test book, which I thought was even better than the Kaplan with a shorter chapter on each subject. Best of luck to all!

[studyordie]

Thanks deamondeac, not to be the theology student on the philosophy forum but I did pray beforehand.

I didn't see the how did you prepare question. I had a crap load of books (Kaplan comprehensive, Princeton "Cracking...") and I also went to snipe.com and downloaded some mostly older material that people from southeast Asia and India will scan and then upload (it's all free). The best thing that is there is the "Big Book" verbal tests that go for like 150$ on half.com (you don't need the quant b/c its old and it's way harder now), my buddy bought the current ETS book and he said it is the same thing, but you get more tests with the Big Book. A good vocab tool I think is dictionary.com's archives of their "word of the day." Some of them are way out there but if you've already got the Barron's list down it is a good place to keep working (Barron's list is on snipe.com). Snipe.com also had GRE NOVA, and I thought their quant stuff was very helpful because it is hard, yet realistic. If you do start downloading stuff from that website run virus checks on everything before you open it and stay away from executable files (I came across some bad ones), but then again if I had to tell you that your computer is probably already screwed.

[joemanderson]

I'm really bummed. I just got my scores from the test two and a half weeks ago. 740Q(81st) 680V(94th) AND 3.5AW(20)! I did a little better than I expected in the Q/V portions, but I am still shocked at the AW. I'm paying the $55 to have it re-graded. I was expecting 5.5 plus or minus .5.

I've heard the AW score is the least significant part of your application, but that's low. I've got a 3.86 gpa (4.0 in philosophy) unfortunately it's from a smaller state school (U of Central Florida). I did an honor's thesis on Leibniz, which may help; and I'm expecting really good letters. My writing sample will be a more polished portion of my thesis, and I'm only applying to programs with an emphasis on Early Modern Philosophy and a strong Leibniz scholar. But gosh, a 3.5! I really just don't understand what happened. In my Research Methods in Philosophy class, I got my first draft of my first paper handed back requiring no revisions. Other students had 2 rounds to do (professor had a reputation of being a bit of a stickler for writing). Can my letters fix this? How bad do you think it is? I'm applying to a wide range of schools, but I'll need funding.

My mood has gone from Leibniz to Kierkegaard.

[UKbound]

You know I'm wondering if there's something screwy going on with the AW section. I got a 750V 710Q and a 4.5AW(!). I actually did a double-take when I saw the score. I have a 3.9 cum GPA at a top-tier state school with a decent PGR ranking (and a dozen-and-a-half phil courses under my belt) so this really took me by surprise. Interestingly, I have been hearing more and more of scores like these. Is it possible the assessors are really not up to the task of fairly evaluating the writing samples of those of us with fairly rigorous philosophical training? I'm not going to bother retaking the test as I've already been offered spots at two of the programs I applied to, but I'm curious whether this trend will continue.

[feralaristotle]

Looks like I had the opposite experience. I didn't do as well as I thought I would on the verbal and quantitative (650 and 740 respectively), and I did slightly better on the AW than I thought I would (6.0). I have a typical philosophy resume--3.98 GPA, heavy philosophical courseload, very analytic undergrad department (UVA).

I suggested improvements to the argument in the critique part of the AW part, and I referenced Alasdair MacIntyre and Aristotle in the prompt. I didn't think I did anything special.

[sleepingdogmatist]

I ended up writing about Spinoza and Zen Buddhism at length in mine (I believe the question was something along the lines of "Do you believe it is necessary to understand the past to know how to act in the future?"), and received a 6. My verbal score was a 700, and I come from a medium-sized and relatively unknown state school with a predominantly continental department.

[OrestesMantra]

I got a 700v and a 710q with a 5.5 writing score. I was actually expecting my writing score to be higher, but whatever, I think my writing sample is going to be much more important than any ETS score.

[UnlikelyGrad]

I took it once after a lot of preparation. 790V, 800Q, 5.0 AW. I was hoping for a 5.5 AW but clearly didn't quite make the cut...

[sabana15]

my first time i was not very happy with my AW score either--i had a 5, but the 'average' for my top choices were 6 or 5.5 (!)--so i decided to retake the exam to try and up my overall score as well. I used www.number2.com and thought it was more challenging than some of the other resources out there--but they don't have full-length practice test (i don't think) which are a MUST. for the AW, i prepped a LOT and used a 15$ grading service from ETS to have THEM grade my essays. My first one was another 5 (!!) but then I did a second practice essay and got a 6. I also got a 6 as my official AW score. I would reccomend the essay grading service for anyone wanting a top AW score who just needs some tweaking. i honestly didn't take the AW as seriously as i could have the first time.

studyordie. if you wanted to try the essay prep (I can't remember its official name, but you can click around on ets to find it, i'm sure) and have it grade you, maybe that would settle whether you wanted to shell out for the $55 or not? that way, it's only $15 (or maybe $10??) and if you get the same score, then you'll know. if you get a 6, then you might consider having them redo it? just a thought.

[Hopelessly_Neurotic]

I imagine that philosophy departments might take the analytic writing score more seriously than departments in other disciplines, but ultimately I think that if you get slightly below the posted average in the department you are applying to, it's not going to be a deal breaker, especially if your app is very strong. I've heard that in general the AW section is not taken all that seriously. I just got admitted to a competitive program in psychology where the median scores were 670V 750Q 5.3AW. My scores: 690V 680Q 5.0AW. There is so much more to getting admitted to grad school than your GRE scores.

I also just wanted to add that perhaps the original poster should have applied to more top tier schools. I think we tend to sell ourselves short, believing that grad school is so competitive to get into and that we won't have a chance at the top schools. I'm not sure how philosophy compares to my field (I'm curious, actually), but my application definitely had some shortcomings (which I made up for in various ways), yet I've been admitted to a top school in my field. How glad I am now that I didn't decide against applying to this school.

[boxboss]

I'm not a philosophy applicant but I did do philosophy in undergrad so i was curious about this thread.

My scores were 770v/760q/5.5aw. I bought all the books (kaplan/princeton/barron's) for the practice exams, and used whatever resources online i could find (i actually found number2 to be quite helpful for vocab). For the AW, I really just followed the model set out by the books - nothing too fancy, write clearly, and use words like "furthermore" and "indeed" to connect your thoughts. I felt pretty lame actually writing it, and obviously I didn't do perfectly, but I figured that there was a lot to lose and little to gain by trying to be creative/actually interesting.

Do philosophy people just generally do better on the GRE? I feel like my scores are way above average over on the Anthro forums, but pretty normal over here. I am still very skeptical as to how much it matters, but I agree that a low score is probably used as an excuse to cut somebody when it comes down to the wire at the top schools.

[gotTOgetIN]

You're right, I think; as long as one writes clearly even if boring then the judges will like that and grad it better, it seems. But as to your quantity scores, those strike me as high. I would imagine that those are not common among philosophers.

[thm]

I'm not applying to PhD programs this year, but I thought I might reply anyway. I took the GRE with about a week's preparation and got 710v, 800q, 6.0aw. Was disappointed with the verbal score because I'd been scoring 790s on ETS's free test prep software, but the percentile was high enough, I suppose. I'd been majoring in the physical sciences before I switched, hence the quantitative score. For the aw section, I had the feeling that there were certain things the readers were going to be looking out for, and tried to provide it. Similar to what the above posters said: clear writing, etc. I might just have been lucky though.

At my undergrad institution -- which isn't in the Leiter top 20 but highly regarded in general, I think -- the sentiment toward GRE scores is that it won't help you if you do well, but it is likely to hurt your chances if you don't.

[monkeefugg]

The GRE is so stupid

standardized tests are evil and worthless

BAHH!!