How consistent are your GRE scores?

[USF_Rockstar]

Mine don't seem to be consistant at all. After taking a diagnostic I knew I needed to improve a lot on verbal so I've been studying vocab and verbal strategy for almost two months now and had my lowest score on a practice test today which is discouraging. So far in chronological order my scores have been as follows:

400v, 610q

500v, 628q

440v, 603q

390v, 655q

Is that normal? Any idea how my verbal score fell so dramatically? With a verbal score like that a week out from the real GRE I'm beginning to get nervious. Thanks in advance.

[academiccricket]

Taking a diagnostic about two years ago, I was scoring at about 300 verbal, 400 math.

After two years of practicing every weekend, I knocked my practice scores consistently to approximately 700 verbal, 600 math.

On actual test day, my scores were:

590 v.

600 q.

So, I have no idea about the consistency of the practice scores now. I've read that Barron's practice books are harder than the actual test, whereas Kaplan and Princeton Review books are easier than the actual test. Since I practiced with the ETS book, I have no idea what to think. I sincerely hope you have the reverse experience (testing low, scoring high) than I had (testing high, scoring low)!

[latenight]

i had a similar experience, academiccricket. after studying for about three months (mostly with princeton review's book), and expecting a verbal score around 740, i dropped to 650 on the test day, whereas my quant score remained the same as during practice. i guess it's harder to anticipate vocab - i felt like that was what caught me a little off guard during the test, even though i had studied crazy words like subfusc and abulia.

[MAN]

I found Kaplan's book very helpful.

I studied for about 6 months. I focused mainly on the math portion of the test (verbal doesn't really come into play too much in Economics). I don't remember the exact scores I got on their tests, but they ranged from about 450-650 verbal and 700-750 quantitative. The quantitative score was very consistent, but the verbal was all over the place.

On the actual GRE, I ended up with 560 V, 800 Q, and 4.0 AWA (I probably should have spent a couple of minutes studying/thinking about the AWA in my prep, but I didn't. Oh well).

[achowa00]

I had the same experience--it's SO frustrating. I studied for about two months off and on, but focused heavily on the three weeks before the test. On practice tests, I got 640, 690, and 720 and so felt pretty good going into the actual test. I didn't really practice the math because it's not that important for religion programs. On test day,I came out with a 630 V and 710 Q--NOT what I expected at all!! It's been over two weeks and I still haven't gotten my writing scores. Unless those are perfect (not likely), I'll be re-testing Nov. 14.

I used Kaplan's book and the vocab cards which were extremely helpful on the practice tests. On the actual however, I still knew almost none of the vocab. So I'm not entirely sure how to prepare for the second time around other than more of the same...

[latenight]

i know how you feel, achowa. i've been contemplating retaking, but am hesitating for several reasons. a) i won't be able to retake before nov. 25, so about 4 schools (deadlines early december) won't receive my second scores. i'm dreading doing the writing and quant parts again - i'm not sure i could repeat the results i'm pretty satisfied with. c) i'm not entirely sure my score will go up, since d) i don't know what else to do to improve.

maybe studying latin and greek roots?

let me know if you have any other ideas.

[USF_Rockstar]

Thanks a lot for all the responces. I'm getting the impression the GRE might not be such a great indicatior since everyone's verbal scores are so inconsistant. I'm going to take the test in a week and I feel like I'm mainly relying upon luck to score well in that section. I've studyied hard for two months increaseing my vocabulary by several hundred words and based on my scores that effort was futile.

I have one suggestion that I haven't seen anyone else mention thus far for the writing section. I understand half of the writing section is based on analyzing an arguement and I think studying for the logical reasoning section of LSAT might be beneficial. The LR section of the LSAT is all about analyzing arguements and I think it might also get you more comfortable with agruementative verbage like "sufficent and necessary conditions" so it might be worth looking into.

[frankdux]

i studied for a solid 2 months beforehand. i got 800Q, 480V, 4.5 AW. (i was a math major) i studied my ass off for the verbal part cause i knew it would hurt me. i memorized about 150 of the common words found on the test. i think 2 of them appeared on the actual test. i also ran out of time cause i read slowly. that verbal score really hurts. but i'm guessing it would really only hurt me if i applied to the absolute top programs. how many math programs are really going to look at the verbal score (an almost exactly average score at that) as an indication of research capabilities in math anyways?

[uberskooper]

I took the GRE back in June and got a 650 on verbal, a 660 on quant, and a 4.5 for the written. My scores more or less mirrored the POWERPREP tools that ETS provided. They are probably the best indicator on how you will perform. All other practice tests I could get my hands on (Kaplan, Baron's, etc.) where either bewilderingly difficult of humorously easy.

My scores are not spectacular, but they're solid and slightly higher than those of the schools that I'm applying to. The verbal in particular. I attribute most of it to Kaplan's flash cards of 500 common words. Many of those words made it into my test.

[mpp2011]

Has anyone taken the free CAT on the Princeton Review website? I've had the same problem with my scores being all over the place. I've been studying for six weeks and my test date is in two weeks. I took both of the Powerprep exams and several from the Barron's book and CD. On Powerprep my highs were 630 verbal, 680 math. In Barron's I've ranged from 610-800 on the verbal and 480-630 on the math. I just took the Princeton Review CAT and got a 500 verbal, 530 math. Who else has had experiences with this test, and did you do better or worse on it than on other assessments?

[Tritonetelephone]

Last year, I studied intensely for a few months, focusing on the math (only because I like math more). My scores weren't good enough for the programs I wanted...

550 V

690 Q

4.5 A

I barely studied at all this year. My new scores:

660 V

650 Q

TBD, but felt better about it

What I did differently was ONLY use ETS's PowerPrep to study the day before, which resembles the actual GRE test exactly. I tried to control my environment so that the real test wouldn't feel too different from the practices, and I would advise anyone to do the same. Since I didn't have time to study this year, I didn't learn any new words or significantly increase my verbal ability. I looked closer at the strategies for the Verbal questions and the writing section because I was told those needed to improve, but I never practiced the math. A composite 1340 isn't going to hold me back this year like 1230 did last year.

[USF_Rockstar]

Has anyone taken the free CAT on the Princeton Review website? I've had the same problem with my scores being all over the place. I've been studying for six weeks and my test date is in two weeks. I took both of the Powerprep exams and several from the Barron's book and CD. On Powerprep my highs were 630 verbal, 680 math. In Barron's I've ranged from 610-800 on the verbal and 480-630 on the math. I just took the Princeton Review CAT and got a 500 verbal, 530 math. Who else has had experiences with this test, and did you do better or worse on it than on other assessments?

I'll probably take it tomorrow and let you know. So far I've just taken 1 power prep and 3 REA tests.

Last year, I studied intensely for a few months, focusing on the math (only because I like math more). My scores weren't good enough for the programs I wanted...

550 V

680 Q

4.5 A

I barely studied at all this year. My new scores:

660 V

650 Q

TBD, but felt better about it

What I did differently was ONLY use ETS's PowerPrep to study the day before, which resembles the actual GRE test exactly. I tried to control my environment so that the real test wouldn't feel too different from the practices, and I would advise anyone to do the same. Since I didn't have time to study this year, I didn't learn any new words or significantly increase my verbal ability. I looked closer at the strategies for the Verbal questions and the writing section because I was told those needed to improve, but I never practiced the math. A composite 1340 isn't going to hold me back this year like 1230 did last year.

The verbal strategies I learned haven't had much of an impact on my scores. If you don't mind, could you breifly summerize the strategy you found most effective? Thanks. I feel like I've got a pretty good vocabulary now but something is just off so I'm trying to pin point it.

[USF_Rockstar]

Well, I scored a 390v and 655q 11 days ago on an REA test. Today I scored 520v and 650q on the real GRE so it seems like the verbal section really is inconsistant or REA's test is somehow flawed.

[evan]

I just took the test and was hopelessly dismayed with my results: 530 v 480 q. Not to concerned with the quant., math isn't really paramount for the ancient historian. I was really surprised by the verbal, however. I took Kaplan's prep course, studied vocab, took over five practice tests, and studied intensely for over two months. In addition, I also know ancient Greek (four years) and Latin (two years)... I was hoping at least this would give me an edge on those tricky vocab questions. Based on my experience, I would not waste time studying roots (maybe a few ad-, ex-, -ology, etc.). On the practice tests I was scoring at least 100 points better than my actual score. Guess I choked up, or something. Anyone have any thoughts?

Anyway, Ill probably be retaking the damn thing in a month. Here's hoping that I do better.

[t_ruth]

I think the Verbal scores are extremely hard to predict. I used books from Barron's and ETS and was getting a verbal range mostly 730-800 and a quant range mostly 710-760. When I reviewed my answers on quant sections it was mostly stupid mistakes and I did not find the practices stressful or hard.

I took the Power Prep practice test and scored 740v 710q.

The day of the test the math was awfully hard! like pull your hair out hard and frustrating. I'm guessing what happened is that I answered the early questions correctly and quickly ramped up to a lot of stuff unlike any of the practices as I still ended up with a 760.

I had a super hard quant section first (believe was experimental section) and by the verbal was exhausted. Most of the words I had never seen before, which was very frustrating. I ended up with a 650, well below my practice average and range.

writing TBD, I should get the scores this week

[frankdux]

Mine don't seem to be consistant at all. After taking a diagnostic I knew I needed to improve a lot on verbal so I've been studying vocab and verbal strategy for almost two months now and had my lowest score on a practice test today which is discouraging. So far in chronological order my scores have been as follows:

400v, 610q

500v, 628q

440v, 603q

390v, 655q

Is that normal? Any idea how my verbal score fell so dramatically? With a verbal score like that a week out from the real GRE I'm beginning to get nervious. Thanks in advance.

and to top it off, you misspelled 'consistent' in your thread title. :wink:

[USF_Rockstar]

Thanks for the input...

[rokxal]

1.5 months before the June exam, I started out with a 560v, 790q with Power-prep. Did some practice with Big Book, princeton review, kaplan, and GRE bible. Half of the time was spent roting vocab from a combined list (1.5k semi-familiar to unknown words) from the aforementioned sources, and the other spent taking practice exams. On the June exam, I took a 690v, 790q.

Can't say much for the quants but regarding the verbal.

The last GRE power-prep gave me a 700v (pretty spot on)

Kaplan was unforgiving (650-730 near the end)

Princeton review was a bit inflated (700-750ish)

Big book (A lot of practice exams, 20+. Did 1/2 of them without the reading comp, the other half completely) fluxed from 690-800 depending on how the reading comp faired.

GRE Bible started with 500ish but eventually got consistent 800s (reading comp questions were too easy and the scoring system wasn't refined)

[lotf629]

I took a couple of paper tests from the Big Book and was getting 800 V/700-710 Q. Then I started taking Princeton Review's online tests and both scores dropped to 680. I stopped practicing with PR Verbal because I felt like it was a little flaky. When I took the ETS PowerPrep test, I got a 750 V/760 Q. I memorized about 300 words before the real exam. (Before you hate me for studying to raise a 750, know that I am trying to compensate at least partially for some extremely low grades during undergrad.) On the actual test, I got an 800 V/750 Q.

Just as an aside, I think that it's really important to use a good vocab list, especially one that is not too hard. A lot of GRE lists (especially long ones) contain really random words that you're not going to see on the test.

[latenight]

just re-took the GRE general last week. i studied verbal for 2 days beforehand - the entire powerprep thing plus a little vocab review - and briefly looked over my math notes, and my scores went up pretty surprisingly:

verbal: from 680 to 720

quant: from 670 to 770 (wtf?? i'm a literature student)

i chalk it up to familiarity with the test, and not being stressed out day-of. i think the programs i'm applying to probably will, too.

[commcycle]

I think the Verbal scores are extremely hard to predict. I used books from Barron's and ETS and was getting a verbal range mostly 730-800 and a quant range mostly 710-760. When I reviewed my answers on quant sections it was mostly stupid mistakes and I did not find the practices stressful or hard.

I took the Power Prep practice test and scored 740v 710q.

The day of the test the math was awfully hard! like pull your hair out hard and frustrating. I'm guessing what happened is that I answered the early questions correctly and quickly ramped up to a lot of stuff unlike any of the practices as I still ended up with a 760.

I had a super hard quant section first (believe was experimental section) and by the verbal was exhausted. Most of the words I had never seen before, which was very frustrating. I ended up with a 650, well below my practice average and range.

writing TBD, I should get the scores this week

I had the same thing happen - I was testing at around 700 on the verbal, but got much lower the day of. I think the time pressure hurt me a bit. I ended up with a quantitative of 730 and verbal of 630, writing 5.5. Around 80-90th percentile all around, which I was happy with, but still... you always want to be up another 5% or so, right? :wink:

[mpp2011]

Has anyone taken the free CAT on the Princeton Review website? I've had the same problem with my scores being all over the place. I've been studying for six weeks and my test date is in two weeks. I took both of the Powerprep exams and several from the Barron's book and CD. On Powerprep my highs were 630 verbal, 680 math. In Barron's I've ranged from 610-800 on the verbal and 480-630 on the math. I just took the Princeton Review CAT and got a 500 verbal, 530 math. Who else has had experiences with this test, and did you do better or worse on it than on other assessments?

I posted this message a couple of months ago, and wanted to give everyone an update. Just as I suspected, these practice exams can be way off the mark. In addition to the results posted above, I took a written practice exam at a Kaplan testing center six days before my test date and scored a 580V/530Q. My results on test day were 700V/780Q/5.0W, and my percentiles are very consistent with my ACT scores from years ago so I don't consider this to be a fluke. The GRE Powerprep exams are the only ones that came close to predicting my score. Anyway, if your scores are low on these practice exams, don't worry about it too much. And make sure you study the writing section. I didn't spend too much time on that and it cost me.

[biogirl84]

Mine are also very inconsistent - on practice tests and actual GRE.

On practice tests I've got:

420 - 700 V

600 - 800 Q

On the actual GRE I got a slightly lower deviation, I took it 3 times so far. I do think that practice tests "predict" how you do on the GRE, even if they're inconsistent... so is the GRE.

[Minnesotan]

Well, I scored a 390v and 655q 11 days ago on an REA test. Today I scored 520v and 650q on the real GRE so it seems like the verbal section really is inconsistant or REA's test is somehow flawed.

Of course the verbal sections are inconsistent -- it is measuring your overall verbal ability by testing your familiarity with randomly-chosen difficult words within a pre-selected pool. The only way there could be any consistency is if you learned all the words, or none of the words, in the pool. Right now, you know some of the words, so your only chance to do well is to be lucky enough to have the words you know show up on the test.

You want a strategy for the verbal? Learn more words.

It really isn't a difficult test.

[wazi]

Well, I scored a 390v and 655q 11 days ago on an REA test. Today I scored 520v and 650q on the real GRE so it seems like the verbal section really is inconsistant or REA's test is somehow flawed.

I would second that the REA books are bad. I did 6 or 7 of the practice tests from an REA book and was averaging somewhere around 1100, because the questions are poorly written. On the actual GRE I got 780V/720Q.