Revised GRE Scores... Are these okay?

[Paixe]

So I JUST got back from taking the revised test. Honestly, I don't really understand how scoring works, even for the old system. I was hoping someone could help me interpret the potential score ranges they gave me? I don't know what's "good."

I have an English Lit bachelor's, hoping to get into a grad program in English/Editing/Publishing.

These are the scores I got at the end:

Verbal: 750-800

Quant: 550-650

I'm a really humble person who mistrusts her own successes, so I don't want to celebrate too early, but 750-800 verbal is pretty good, right?

The Quant kicked my arse, of course. And I think they pick your weakest area to give you for the wildcard section (this might not be true, but EVERYBODY says they got an extra section of whatever they feared most). I didn't even get to look at the last 3 questions of the last quant section I got...

Also, for the writing sections, I feel like I did really well. My gut reaction is that I got at least 5. But in the threads I've read people have thought they did well only to bomb it.

I can't BELIEVE I have to wait til NOVEMBER.

[emmm]

Yes, 750-800 is excellent. Congrats! You will be over the 95th percentile, I believe.

[ThePoorHangedFool]

I don't think you need to ask whether a range of 750-800 is "good." The highest anyone can score on the either the Verbal or Quant. sections is 800, which you know, so don't ask questions like this. Regardless of whether you intended to initially (and despite whatever disclaimers of modesty you include), you end up just fishing for compliments in most users' eyes. And no one likes that. Just a tip; take it or leave it, really.

In regards to the Quantitative range, that one is worth asking about simply because there's an extra 50-point breadth that extends the possibilities of your exact score. A 650 would be more than fine if you're looking at English programs. I heard of someone who got into an Ivy Ph.D. program with something like a 250 on the Quant. section, and I think most people would agree with me when I say that they're primarily concerned with the Verbal and AW components. Even if you score a 550, that would almost never be *the* reason you got turned down from a program (though there are always snarky new ways they can justify rejecting applicants, so don't quote me on that statement).

If it puts any of this into context for you, or perspective, rather--I took the old GRE last October after studying for half an hour in my car outside the testing center. Literally. I was busy and had already decided I wasn't going to apply to programs till this fall, but it was too late to get a refund so I just took the test for practice. My scores with only a half hour's worth of flipping through an ETS guidebook were Q: 580, V: 660, and AW: 5.5. I am absolutely brainless when it comes to all things math, and I honestly guessed randomly on 90% of the questions and happened to do so pretty well that day. My verbal was so low almost entirely because of the antonyms questions, which aren't on the revised GRE, as you're aware, so hopefully it will be like the rest of the Verbal section, which was easy, simply sans antonyms.

I've never personally heard of anyone that got a full 6 on the writing. I don't anticipate getting any higher than my last score of 5.5, which I'm pretty sure might have been a typo, or else what I considered to be the two foulest essays I've ever written (aside from my grammar, which I checked about four times before hitting 'complete' or whatever) are actually great examples for how to please the graduate assistants that grade the GRE AW parts.

Hope some or any of this is useful for you.

[autumn_leaf]

just took mine this morning

V: 530-630

Q: 660-760

AW: messed that up horribly.

i also got the extra section in math which i was okay with. i thought i did about the same on both but was happily surprised with the math score.

[Suit0130]

Poor Hanged Fool, I find your response pretty uhm....interesting. Mostly annoying, but also interesting. Though the whole, "really humble person who mistrusts her own successes" may seem a little much to some she could be entirely genuine in it and I'd like to assume that instead of telling her to adjust her wording so that you like it better. Is she supposed to try to be entirely objective and sound like a computer program? Because you start out by complaining about her stating her modesty and then continue on to just make yourself sound like a tool. Even though you supposedly meant your suggestion to her in the most innocent and helpful way, if we're using your "assume the person has alternative motives and is actually a douche bag" method then well, you shouldn't have written that. I mostly like that you went on about how you barely studied and got such and such scores (while giving excuses for why you did so poorly, which you should know wasn't even poorly), basically proving how much you lack humility. I don't honestly give a shit if you're humble or not but just don't be mean to other people (because yes, you do seem pretty rude, and I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, like Paixe, for example) and then go on about how you got decent scores and barely prepared, which is basically going to make people who did that well or not as well after studying feel crappy.

Anyway, Paixe, yes, that is a very good Verbal score. The Quantitative probably won't be nearly as high percentage-wise but if you're going into an English program you probably don't need to worry about it cause it still isn't bad. It's really hard to say how the revised scores will compare to the old scores because even ETS doesn't really know how things will work out yet, hence why we won't get our scores until November (yeah, sucks waiting, but it was nice getting 80 dollars off haha). Plus with the old test the Quantitative and Verbal don't match up well as far as what they equal for percentages. Like a 720 was about 75th percentile for Q when I took it three years ago but 580 was about 75th too but for Verbal, so it's impossible to know how that will change with the revised test, especially since it's going to be on an entirely different scale anyway. Not matter how it works out it seems like you got scores that will work well for you, congrats! :-)

[habanero]

@ThePoorHangedFool, I don't think she was trying to gloat. She said that she didn't know much about the GRE.

Congratulations on your excellent verbal score! I am sure that your Q is fine for most programs you'd want to go to!

[ktel]

@ThePoorHangedFool, I don't think she was trying to gloat. She said that she didn't know much about the GRE.

I would expect someone to at least know what it's graded out of, or have the ability to look it up. It's pretty clear she wanted to brag about her verbal score, but asking about her quantitative score was legitimate. I think it's just this one sentence that does it: "I'm a really humble person who mistrusts her own successes, so I don't want to celebrate too early, but 750-800 verbal is pretty good, right?"