To Ace the GRE: A Chimera

[DrFaustus666]

A quick update for my friends and anyone else interested.

After almost two years of attempting to ace the GRE, I finally got a decent quantitative score, 770, up from a low of 640. Woo-hoo. It IS possible to significantly increase one's quantitative score, even for a liberal arts person.

However, in the same sitting, I also got my worst-ever verbal score, 680. Not a bad score certainly, but I (once!) got an 800, and hoped to hold onto it. WRONG.

Conclusion: it's not worth it. Yeah I know, many people realized that after one or two takings

Cheers and good luck to all.

[qbtacoma]

Thanks for sharing - this is an excellent example of the difficulty of measuring ability in a test.

[newms]

Congrats on your awesome quant score! It's too bad that the verbal went down this time, but wouldn't the schools you apply to see your previous 800? Also, when I was applying some schools allowed me to list my best verbal and best quant scores, so maybe you'll be able to put 800 V 770 Q when you apply. Those would look great on an application!

Good luck to you too.

Edited June 7, 2011 by newms

[DrFaustus666]

Congrats on your awesome quant score! It's too bad that the verbal went down this time, but wouldn't the schools you apply to see your previous 800? Also, when I was applying some schools allowed me to list my best verbal and best quant scores, so maybe you'll be able to put 800 V 770 Q when you apply. Those would look great on an application!

Good luck to you too.

Of course you're right. What's so confusing is how the same person's score can vary so much from one sitting of the test to another. I think these couple of data points may show a bigger picture: that this silly test, no matter how much some few of us obsess over it, is nothing more than a general indicator of our ability---and a highly flawed one at that.

Edited June 7, 2011 by DrFaustus666

[runonsentence]

Of course you're right. What's so confusing is how the same person's score can vary so much from one sitting of the test to another. I think these couple of data points may show a bigger picture: that this silly test, no matter how much some few of us obsess over it, is nothing more than a general indicator of our ability---and a highly flawed one at that.

I have to say I'm not terribly surprised. The exam, IMO, has absolutely no bearing on the kind of thinking graduate school works to cultivate. The idea that my capacity to do scholarly work in writing studies could be predicted based on the number of vocabulary words I can memorize is laughable.

Two of my schools last application round didn't want to see GRE scores at all; i wish more schools would move in this direction.

I wonder if anyone has numbers on the statistical reliability of GRE exam results?

[nz32n]

Hey DrFaustus666,

Congrats on your high quant score! I think you can present V 800, Q 760 to grad schools as well.

What do you mean by "not worth it"? Not worth it taking the test twice? I am taking mine on July 19th, and is a bit nervous if I need to take it again.

Btw, the "three mexicans" profile pic looks good!

A quick update for my friends and anyone else interested.

After almost two years of attempting to ace the GRE, I finally got a decent quantitative score, 770, up from a low of 640. Woo-hoo. It IS possible to significantly increase one's quantitative score, even for a liberal arts person.

However, in the same sitting, I also got my worst-ever verbal score, 680. Not a bad score certainly, but I (once!) got an 800, and hoped to hold onto it. WRONG.

Conclusion: it's not worth it. Yeah I know, many people realized that after one or two takings

Cheers and good luck to all.

[DrFaustus666]

Hey DrFaustus666,

Congrats on your high quant score! I think you can present V 800, Q 760 to grad schools as well.

What do you mean by "not worth it"? Not worth it taking the test twice? I am taking mine on July 19th, and is a bit nervous if I need to take it again.

Btw, the "three mexicans" profile pic looks good!

Thanks, it's by Picasso. I have a print of the same work on my wall.

As to "not worth it," let me re-phrase: People on this forum have been accepted at Ivies with lower scores, and rejected from 2nd- and 3rd-tier schools with higher scores. It might have been a better use of my time to do more research, another conference or two, etc.