Quantitative Woes

[lastoftheromans]

So a little background. I took the GRE in August 2010, without having studied at all. All in all, I thought I did okay. My Verbal Score was 550, and my Quant score was 650. My Analytical Writing Score was 4.5. After checking for the minimum requirements to gain entry in my university's Masters and PhD program for History, my scores were well above the minimum percentile scores for admittance.

But as I ran out of time for my Quantitative section and wasted a lot of time in one of my Analytical Writing essays, I figured that retaking the test couldn't hurt. I figured I could better manage my time next time and would see an increase in my score in all three portions of the test. But as I had a full course load in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011, along with multiple projects at work (I work full-time as well), I could finally retake the GRE this month. Which I did today.

...It did not go great

My Verbal Score did improved. From a 550, I got a 610 this time. But that's the only good news so far.

But my quant score utterly collapsed this time around. I thought my time management would improve, and after taking a few practice test, I thought I would do alright this time. However, my time management was even worse this time, and from my 650 score last August, I got a 530. I simply ran out of time, and the initial questions ate up most of my time.

I have to wait a few weeks until I get my analytical score, but I am confident I'll do better than last time. But again, my confidence didn't help this time around

What I really want to know is how will this 120 point decline in my Quantitative score go over with the admissions board? Do they count the best scores of both test, the worst, or just the total scores of one test only? As I'm planning to apply to a history program, there is increased emphasis in the History department on the verbal score and analytical score versus the quantitative score. Still, while they may ignore a 10, 20, or 30 point decrease, I fear they are going to look at my latest Quant score and just think what the hell happened.

Maybe I'm just freaking out over nothing. But I am still disappointed in myself for this horrible, horrible score and fear for any repercussions that may result.

PostScript: the minimum requirement for my school's PhD Program (higher than for the Master's Program) are scoring at least in the 70th percentile of the Verbal section, at least the 40th percentile of the Quantitative, and at least a 4 in the Analytical section. Just to clarify, I exceeded all those requirements in my first test. I guess I shouldn't have taken it this time

[runonsentence]

I wouldn't worry so much about the discrepancy; most academics are well aware of how capricious a measure the GRE can be. You've done well on the quantitative once, and that's good enough; note also that because you're going into the humanities, your adcoms aren't going to give two hoots about your quant skills (apart from ensuring you make university minimum requirements). They're going to be much more concerned with your verbal and analytic writing scores. (And even beyond that, the GRE is not as important a part of your application package as your SoP, letters of rec, and writing sample.)

Although your schools will want for you to send them a score report from the ETS (which will report all of your GRE general scores, both good and bad), just about all of the applications I filled out last year only asked me to report one set of scores on the application (leaving me to choose the best scores I wished on the form).

I'd imagine that most adcoms will either take your best scores or, at worst, average them together. They're surely not going to take your worst scores.