Best Guess on New Gre Percentiles

[contretemps]

I have just taken the GRE yesterday. The test is reaaaally draining.

Anyway,

I scored V550-650 and Q740-800 on the actual test.

Powerprep correctly predicted this:

V540-640, Q750-800 - taken a week ago

V540-640, Q750-800 - taken a month ago

looks like all the studying I did for verbal didn't work. haha.

[Kitkat]

It is really a draining test, it being 4 hours long. Did you get an extra verbal or did you get an extra quant?

[H24]

I am thinking that it will be more like a 1360 for you. I am thinking that it will be a bell curve thing for them, cover their bases on both sides. Although I am sure that if they were wrong with percentiles and you did better onto the high side I am sure no one would complain. But I think that over all, from the looks of it, you have better odds of doing higher then a 1300 then below it. Do the programs you are looking at break it down by section, by percentile on how they want people applying to do? It might be easier to compare by those metrics since the whole thing is changing ...

Gracias Kitkat, and great name. That all makes sense though, appreciate the feedback! The main program i'm interested in doesn't go into the specs per section, but that's a good call, i'll have to see if others i'm thinking about do....thanks again!

And to crater21 and the other new posts, great job on the final test!

[Kitkat]

H24,

As another note to you on your GRE score, based on the old scale, your verbal range is a really good score for the verbal. If you are planning on continuing with being in a field in social science, that could be a really good thing in your favor. It doesn't hurt at all that you also got an awesome score on your math. I think that the school just telling you a general 1300 total cut off score is just to let people know how competitive that the program is. If you think that the rest of your application is good, then you should be fine still applying to the program.

[contretemps]

It is really a draining test, it being 4 hours long. Did you get an extra verbal or did you get an extra quant?

I got an extra verbal section. The weird thing is, I almost ran out of time on the first verbal section while I have 5 minutes to spare for the 2nd and 3rd sections which I thought were harder than the first one (longer sentence completion, harder words, and longer passages).

[Kitkat]

I have just taken the GRE yesterday. The test is reaaaally draining.

Anyway,

I scored V550-650 and Q740-800 on the actual test.

Powerprep correctly predicted this:

V540-640, Q750-800 - taken a week ago

V540-640, Q750-800 - taken a month ago

looks like all the studying I did for verbal didn't work. haha.

Its still a good score on the test. I see that you're applying to chemistry programs. Did any of them want you to have a higher verbal score, or did you want a higher score just to be sure that it wouldn't keep you out? I think that the quant would be more important and I think you did as good as you could hope for on that section. Great job!

[Lox26]

I just took the Princeton test and am convinced I did awfully. I missed 13 Verbal questions and 7 math questions. I know that 1 math question definitely contained an error (See post #24 of this thread). Also, for two quantitative comparison questions, the images wouldn't load (both were in non-experimental sections). Best case scenario, that would put me at 1 omit, 33/40 correct. Oddly enough, at this point I may be more concerned about the verbal, which has historically been my strength.

I have no idea whether the scoring algorithm syncs with ETS's, but right now I am panicking because I am aiming for 165 in each section (whatever that looks like) and my test is in two weeks. Compared to my performance on other practice tests (post #34), my scores have gone down. If we can compare across test prep companies, a 155V is (hopefully) a tad below 95th percentile. A 158Q is below 80th percentile. This, of course, assumes that the quant still has a higher concentration of high-scorers than verbal. Hopefully, the new format will create more separation at the top and the percentiles will be closer to Daisy's estimate.

Finally, what is everyone's opinion of the Princeton Review test? Does anyone find it harder/easier than or comparable to other material out there? I read that the free tests from Princeton and Kaplan were much harder than the real thing for the Old GRE. I found Princeton's test to be harder than Kaplan's or Manhattan's for the Revised GRE.

Princeton Review: (313)

Quant: 158 (30/40, 3 omitted)

Verbal: 155 (27/40, 0 omitted)

So I found some more errors. Two sentences that I selected for the "Find the sentence that..." questions were marked as wrong even though they were correct. A third question's explanation supports the sentence I chose but says that the answer is actually another sentence ( something along the lines of "Find the sentence that introduces a term that needs to be defined later"). The sentence the answer key says is correct is actually the sentence with the definition, not the term. I think it may be a bug with the system. Did anyone else have problems with these "Select" questions?

Edited September 13, 2011 by Lox26

[George2248]

I just took the Princeton test and am convinced I did awfully. I missed 13 Verbal questions and 7 math questions. I know that 1 math question definitely contained an error (See post #24 of this thread). Also, for two quantitative comparison questions, the images wouldn't load (both were in non-experimental sections). Best case scenario, that would put me at 1 omit, 33/40 correct. Oddly enough, at this point I may be more concerned about the verbal, which has historically been my strength.

I have no idea whether the scoring algorithm syncs with ETS's, but right now I am panicking because I am aiming for 165 in each section (whatever that looks like) and my test is in two weeks. Compared to my performance on other practice tests (post #34), my scores have gone down. If we can compare across test prep companies, a 155V is (hopefully) a tad below 95th percentile. A 158Q is below 80th percentile. This, of course, assumes that the quant still has a higher concentration of high-scorers than verbal. Hopefully, the new format will create more separation at the top and the percentiles will be closer to Daisy's estimate.

Finally, what is everyone's opinion of the Princeton Review test? Does anyone find it harder/easier than or comparable to other material out there? I read that the free tests from Princeton and Kaplan were much harder than the real thing for the Old GRE. I found Princeton's test to be harder than Kaplan's or Manhattan's for the Revised GRE.

Princeton Review: (313)

Quant: 158 (30/40, 3 omitted)

Verbal: 155 (27/40, 0 omitted)

So I found some more errors. Two sentences that I selected for the "Find the sentence that..." questions were marked as wrong even though they were correct. A third question's explanation supports the sentence I chose but says that the answer is actually another sentence ( something along the lines of "Find the sentence that introduces a term that needs to be defined later"). The sentence the answer key says is correct is actually the sentence with the definition, not the term. I think it may be a bug with the system. Did anyone else have problems with these "Select" questions?

Yes there are problems with the princeton tes, especially in select sentences questions. However they are good practice anyway. I do not think your scores are that bad, remember the percentile scale is supposed to be more distribute for the new scoring system. I think anything above 160 might be good.

About the kaplans test I jsut took the free one because I cant find any paid test, and they are the best in my opinion

[Lox26]

Yes there are problems with the princeton tes, especially in select sentences questions. However they are good practice anyway. I do not think your scores are that bad, remember the percentile scale is supposed to be more distribute for the new scoring system. I think anything above 160 might be good.

About the kaplans test I jsut took the free one because I cant find any paid test, and they are the best in my opinion

Thanks for the words of encouragement, George. It's just hard not to get discouraged when my scores are "not that bad." I'm hoping I can pull them up in time.

[djperry]

Some more numbers for everyone:

I took 5 manhattan tests and nothing else.

My Manhattan Scores were: V: 770, 730, 710, 690, 730 Q: 790, 800, 800, 790, 800

Took the actual GRE 2 days ago.

V: 750-800 Q: 750-800

Verbal felt similar but I felt like I was doing worse because of the pressure not necessarily because of difficulty. Reading comps were easier than Manhattan.

Quant was definitely easier than Manhattan, most of all in the time constraint. Data visualizations or whatever they are called with graphs were much much simpler than Manhattan.

[George2248]

Some more numbers for everyone:

I took 5 manhattan tests and nothing else.

My Manhattan Scores were: V: 770, 730, 710, 690, 730 Q: 790, 800, 800, 790, 800

Took the actual GRE 2 days ago.

V: 750-800 Q: 750-800

Verbal felt similar but I felt like I was doing worse because of the pressure not necessarily because of difficulty. Reading comps were easier than Manhattan.

Quant was definitely easier than Manhattan, most of all in the time constraint. Data visualizations or whatever they are called with graphs were much much simpler than Manhattan.

Ive heard that math is deffinitly easier than Manhattan and I hope that is true.

But your results bring me another question: since you are prob. very close to the 800, according to your practices tests, is this range 750-800 the highest range right now? or have anyone gotten a better score range than that in the actual test? (like 770-800)

Congrats on those scores also, I guess you expected them with those practice test scores...

[djperry]

Ahh, you saw right through my post My advisor essentially has been telling me for the past year that there's no excuse for someone looking to do an EE Ph.D. at a top school not to get an 800 on quant. So obviously, I sort of care if that 750-800 is a 750 and not an 800 lol. It would be nice to know if someone has gotten a higher score range.

As for expecting the scores, I try not to expect things, just tried to stay relaxed.

[Kimmo]

I took the GRE today and scored worse than every practice test I'd taken.

Poperprep score (I took this before studying or reading anything about the GRE)

V: 650-750

Q: 750-800

Kaplan (taken after memorizing the Kaplan 500 words, and some from Baron's words)

V: 620-720

Q: 750-800

I also took a paper-based practice from a book released by ETS with roughly similar results.

Score from the real test:

V: 460-560

Q: 730-800

So it seems like I've wasted many many hours memorizing words and trying to prepare, when I could have walked into the test not having done as much as a single practice problem and scored the same, if not better than what I received today.

Guess I'll be retaking this in November, or as soon as they allow me to retest--60 days?

[George2248]

Ahh, you saw right through my post My advisor essentially has been telling me for the past year that there's no excuse for someone looking to do an EE Ph.D. at a top school not to get an 800 on quant. So obviously, I sort of care if that 750-800 is a 750 and not an 800 lol. It would be nice to know if someone has gotten a higher score range.

As for expecting the scores, I try not to expect things, just tried to stay relaxed.

From what Ive seen I believe 750-800 is the maximum range right now, and your score should be closer to 800, it would be good if anyone have seen a higher rank to post it here...

[mo mo]

Hi all,

I just took the GREs today and these were my scores:

Quant: 700-800

Verbal: 690-790

I actually started by studying a 2010 version of Princeton Review's GRE study guide, and then studied more with the Barron and Kaplan's new GRE study books. I am OK with these scores, and they match pretty much exactly what I got from on the Powerprep practice test that I took last Saturday, but don't really know what they translate into, in terms of percentiles or the new scoring system.

Hopefully this is good enough to get me into where I wanna go!

And hopefully this is helpful for you guys.

[habanero]

I just took the exam and got V: 740-800 and Q: 730-800. I need a 750 Q for any grad program I want to attend, so I'm a little annoyed that I need to wait until November to find out if I will just get a 730. I wish that we could get more information! I'm going to be worried sick for 2 months.

[BlackHatGuy]

I took a number of Kaplan tests prior to taking the exam. The math sections were fairly in line with those of the real GRE. The Kaplan verbal, however, was quite a bit harder.

Lowest Q: 700-800

Lowest V: 680-780

Highest Q: 750-800

Highest V: 750-800

I also took the PowerPrep test a week before the actual exam, and my scores on the actual test were identical:

Q: 740-800

V: 750-800

[Karajan]

How have people found that the Manhattan Prep verbal sections compare to the actual GRE verbal sections?

[habanero]

Oh, I should add that I found Powerprep II's verbal to be much harder than the actual exam and the quant to be much easier.

[crater21]

I found Manhattan verbal to be significantly harder than the actual test. On Manhattan, I scored all over the place, including a 680 and a 690. On the actual test, I got 750 - 800.

[Karajan]

Thanks for the response, crater. I've been getting scores all over the place on Manhattan verbal, too. Glad to hear the actual test is a bit easier; sounds like the math sections are easier than Manhattan's as well.

[Robosagogo]

I know that our score reports will include actual scores according to the new scale and estimated scores according to the old scale (to ease the transition from one scale to the other), but does anyone know if our scores according to the old scale will be presented as a single number or as the same range we were given at the end of our tests?

[kolja00]

I know that our score reports will include actual scores according to the new scale and estimated scores according to the old scale (to ease the transition from one scale to the other), but does anyone know if our scores according to the old scale will be presented as a single number or as the same range we were given at the end of our tests?

Id assume they are just going to translate the percentile that you scored in to give you an old test score.

[George2248]

Ok so I ask one last time to see anyone can help:

This is my last week and I am taking the test on monday. Ive already taken 1PP, 3 Manhatan, 4 Princeton and the free Kaplant test. I really need one more good practice test before monday but I cant find a good one (free or bought). I wanted to buy a kaplan test but I dont see where I can do that on the website.

I really appreciate some suggestions,,,, Thanks.

[crater21]

I know that our score reports will include actual scores according to the new scale and estimated scores according to the old scale (to ease the transition from one scale to the other), but does anyone know if our scores according to the old scale will be presented as a single number or as the same range we were given at the end of our tests?

Hey, my understanding is that if you took the revised test, your score report will ONLY show scores on the new scale (and the percentiles). It will not show scores based on the old scale.

If, however, you took the old GRE, and you're submitting scores after November, your report will show the old scores and the estimated scores on the new scale.

Look at page 4 of the following:

http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/14521_0ETSS036_supplement.pdf