GRE Dilemma

[barner]

So, after lurking on this board for the past few weeks I finally decided to join. Now, I'm facing a little dilemma and hoping that somebody will have some wise words for me about what to do...here goes:

I'm a mechanical engineering student at a decent state school (top 100 in engineering) with a 3.98, three years of research experience (including a summer at NASA JPL), and one second author publication. I took the GRE in November and received 800Q, 570V, and 5.0AW. However, I recently received a letter from ETS stating that my verbal section wasn't scored correctly - something about an incorrect algorithm. Anyway, they won't tell me how it affected my score but have offered a free retake of just that section, with my new score replacing the old. I've contacted the schools I've applied to in order to see if this will even matter since most of their application deadlines have past, and am awaiting responses. My question is, even if they do allow it, is it worth it to retake? On one hand, I feel like I can do better than this, especially since I can just focus on the verbal section and memorize words for the next week or so. On the other hand, though, I am dreading hitting "sumbit" just to see a lower score pop up (which seems quite possible, given the sporadic nature of this section).

I would imagine that the GRE Verbal section is a tiny aspect of my application, especially for engineering...but, at some of the top schools I'm applying to I would also imagine that every little bit counts. So, will the rest of my profile speak loudly enough that a mediocre verbal section is disregarded, or should I spend a portion of my Christmas break with my nose in a dictionary and take the risk? Thanks for any help!

[miratrix]

If I were you, I wouldn't bother - deadlines are past, your quantitative score is more important, your AW score is pretty good, and the verbal score isn't actually *bad*. Also, my verbal score was lower on the actual test than on all but one of the practice sections I did, so I think it's fairly unpredictable. On the other hand, I think my level of perfectionism is not as high as the average for this board....

[dowjonesindustrial]

If the schools will accept your 570 as such, and you are satisfied with the score, I don't see any reason to retake. I'm a lit applicant, and I know that many of the posters in our corner of the cafe have "taken the hit and ran" on the quant section.

That said, if you feel like this score underrepresents you, study to refresh, and retake the test. I know that my Quant score is at the bottom tier of importance to adcoms, but I also know that I have no problem with that level of math, and a 570 on that section would not have satisfied me.

So, if the score is legitimate, then it's really up to you to gauge where in your range it lies.

[Minnesotan]

A 570v isn't that bad for a science/engineering applicant. If you were in the humanities, I would say retake it or don't apply. For your app, they're probably only looking at the quant. section.

[MAN]

Here is the GRE's website's information on the faulty algorithm:

The GRE Program has recently implemented another review process of individual test performance for the computer-based GRE General Test Verbal and Quantitative sections. The purpose of the process is to analyze each test taker