Royally rammed by GRE.

[grekid]

I took the revised GRE today....and my score splits are as follows V - 440-540 Q 620-720.

I prepared well and somehow when it came to the real one, my verbal dropped like dow. I have consistently scored 600 V and 750 Q. My weakness was Quant and I have to say, I'm quite happy with my score....I really worked my ass off to get where I am, but looks like that negatively impacted verbal . I got a Quant section to start with and It was TOUGH, I freaked out but I hope it turns out to be the research section. I'm thinking that may have caused my drop in verbal perormance. In the end that was a research section....3 Quant sections and 2 verbal.

That said, I'm planning to apply second round for MBA programs - I am not even sure if I stand a chance with the above score. I think I've done well with AWA, and I'm hoping I'll get > 5.5. Do you guys think I can use AWA to strengthen my poor performance in Verbal ? I know AWA score is still a big If. I'll have to slowly gather my energies to focus on taking it second time.

Any thoughts, suggestions, rants wil be very much appreciated.

[fullofpink]

I took the GRE yesterday too, and I have to say that there were questions on that Verbal that not only kicked my butt, but there was one section where I doubt I got more than 1/4 of the questions right (I'm praying that that was the experimental, or I somehow magically got all the questions right on another verbal section). My Verbal is a bit higher than yours, but it still scored waaaaaaay lower than what I was practice-testing on.

Maybe we just got screwed? haha.

My verbal average needs to be a bit higher for the programs I want to apply to comfortably, but honestly, without knowing what the that range translates into on the new scale (or, probably even more importantly, what the percentile is), I'm hesitant to retake.

Are there any programs that show previous admission stats? Maybe you can see what the average scores are there, and move forward?

[grekid]

The programs that I'm looking at recommend a minimum of 85% percentile in each area (not combined) to apply. I think it's pretty obvious, in my case, that both the sections (Verbal - sure, Quant - very likely) are below 85% mark. Atleast based on scores that I've seen so far from others. I'm confused whether I should bother to write the essays and see if they accept my application or wait out to take the exam again and submit my application. If i do the later, I'd have to apply for Spring 2013.

You should be able to know which section is experimental, did you get 3 verbal and 2 Quant or the vice versa ? Was Quant score close to your expectations ?

BTW, your major looks cool - western painting 1700-1900, am i reading it correct ? I used to be a painter until few years ago, pretty good at it....slowly lost track of it... So, will you be studying history around that period ?

[fullofpink]

I know which area was experimental (Verbal), I'm just not sure which section of the Verbal was experimental: the really, really hard one I feel l did poorly on?, or one of the much, much easier ones (if it wasn't the hard one - then I feel like my score was NOT reflective of my abilities)?

The biggest problem in considering retesting or not is that we AREN'T sure what the percentiles are going to be. I do fear that a >500V is going to hurt a bit. However, from what I understand, the calculations are going to be based on the new scores of the test - rather than on the old numbers. It's weird to try your guesswork here because those who are on this forum seem to outperform many of the people I know who have taken the test (many of my friends - especially the ones who didn't prepare at all - didn't even break 1000). So, if the percentiles ARE based on the new scores, then you may find that averages are way, way down (although there is a decent possibility they may stay the same or go up slightly).

Since I'm not sure if I need to retake the test - especially since none of the departments I am applying to have released expected GRE scores for the new test - I'm doing some side studying (looking over vocab twice a week, doing a practice test once a week to stay sharp) in anticipation that when my scores arrive in November and are NOT satisfactory, then I'll be ready to resign up in late Nov for a quick test date, and have the test scored by the time my first applications are due in Jan. I think it's way more important for me to concentrate on the more lucrative aspects of my applications (writing sample and statement of purpose) than retaking the test.

Maybe this might work for you to? I'm not sure when your apps or due, but since they say that they can send out scores late Nov in Early Dec (testing the week of November 19, 2011 – November 28 will mail scores on December 8, 2011), retesting may definitely be a possibility and something to consider - only if your scores are too low (but you know, if somehow -magically- your scores are like in the 80th percentile, must you retest?)

BTW, your major looks cool - western painting 1700-1900, am i reading it correct ? I used to be a painter until few years ago, pretty good at it....slowly lost track of it... So, will you be studying history around that period

Yep! It's my passion ...if only I can get in! lol.

[grekid]

those who are on this forum seem to outperform many of the people I know who have taken the test (many of my friends - especially the ones who didn't prepare at all - didn't even break 1000). So, if the percentiles ARE based on the new scores, then you may find that averages are way, way down (although there is a decent possibility they may stay the same or go up slightly).

You make a valid point. I didn't know many who took the test, so I assumed that in general that everyone is breaking 700-750 barrier on revised GRE, and seemed like the norm.

(but you know, if somehow -magically- your scores are like in the 80th percentile, must you retest?)

Wishful thinking! It'd be great if the scores are above 70%...I have not touched the books since I took the exam, I am slowly coming back to reality - that I may likely need to re-test. My biggest weakness is RC, I do not know how to improve it.....I purchased Manhattan and other supplements, but nothing helped. I have hard time focussing....ADD.

I'm pretty sure you will make it into the program, just don't give up, stay positive ! This is test is only 1 piece of the equation.

[fullofpink]

lol thanks! I'm sure you will do well too!

The reading comprehension is the worst - I fail to see how poorly structured paragraphs are related to grad school work. I mean, when I read those things, I feel like I'm reading Freshmen writing on topics they don't really know about and it's my job to seek their meaning. Ugh. I hate it! But, it will get better.

What I liked about the new test was the fact that I could return to a question. Since most of the RCs happened in the middle, if I found that the passage was REALLY long or that the questions didn't make much sense, I just marked them and came back to them after I completed the more sane portions of the test. I think that helped me out A LOT.

Good luck!!

[Prithviraj]

I just wrote my GRE 3 days back. I was never really comfortable with Verbal. Never understood how to crack the RC's. :S

I just managed to hit a 350-450 in verbal. On a positive note, i hit the 740-800 in quants. Thats really got me thinking of a taking a re-test.

I'm planning for MS in Computer science. From what i've read on some forums, provided i have a decent TOEFL score, universities may ignore my pathetic verbal score. Someone please correct me if i've got it wrong.

[habanero]

The biggest problem in considering retesting or not is that we AREN'T sure what the percentiles are going to be. I do fear that a >500V is going to hurt a bit. However, from what I understand, the calculations are going to be based on the new scores of the test - rather than on the old numbers. It's weird to try your guesswork here because those who are on this forum seem to outperform many of the people I know who have taken the test (many of my friends - especially the ones who didn't prepare at all - didn't even break 1000). So, if the percentiles ARE based on the new scores, then you may find that averages are way, way down (although there is a decent possibility they may stay the same or go up slightly).

Yeah, it seems that the people who would study hard probably self-select for forum posting!

[Huckabees]

I just took it today, and had the opposite problem to you! I'm not a math person AT ALL and found the first quant section I got incredibly hard. Then when it got too easy in the second section... well, I knew I'd done pretty dismally on the first. I got a higher quant score than I needed for my courses--which I know is most important--but it was by a pretty slim margin. Hoping my (99 percentile) verbal makes up for it.

And good point about the likelihood that the scores quoted on this forum are probably above well average! Sometimes when I'm on here for advice I get discouraged by the level some people seem to be at--publishing papers in undergrad etc.--even though I'm not applying to an Ivy or anything.

[grekid]

@ fullofpink - I totally agree with you on th RC. I'm not sure how to improve my RC and Critical reasoning skills. I've seen people recommending daily news papers and magazine, I'm not sure how effective that would be. I'm also slightly worried that the test may get more difficult once they calibrate the scores...so a new pool of questions may be added. I applied the mark and review logic to Quant section, it was VERY helpful. I intentionally did not do it for verbal, because I get too discouraged to read lenghthy passages, even painful if I had to read all of them at the end!. But I do see your point though, I can selectively choose to move one or two passges to the end.

@ prithviraj - It really boils down to what schools you are targeting. Usually you can use your AWA and Toefl score to support your verbal downside to certain extent, but a really poor score will utilmately impact your application. That said, you may want to wait for your percentiles to get a better idea. I am in the same boat.

@ Huckabees - Awesome. I hope you dont have to re-take the exam! Goodluck!

[Robosagogo]

I'm also slightly worried that the test may get more difficult once they calibrate the scores...so a new pool of questions may be added.

I also heard that the first round of scores after the introduction of a new test end up being lower than average, though.

[bluejay16]

I took the revised GRE this past Saturday and wound up with scores that were lower than I had anticipated.

I also thought that the questions I received were 'too easy' compared to the practice questions I had taken from my study books, which led me to think during my exam, that somehow I was experiencing a ceiling effect for a specific difficulty level.

To me, both the quantitative and the verbal were not as difficult as I had anticipated and with the test being section adapted versus question adapted, I pretty much got frustrated that I couldn't increase the level of difficulty for the next question when I felt the previous one was too easy to answer. I just wanted a way to increase my chances of getting a higher score but with the test being section adapted, I felt that mid-way through the exam, my score range was already cut off at a certain level.

I guess all we can do is wait for percentiles to be official. I know I'm definitely disappointed with the scoring method of revised GRE though.

[bigant]

The reading comprehension is the worst - I fail to see how poorly structured paragraphs are related to grad school work. I mean, when I read those things, I feel like I'm reading Freshmen writing on topics they don't really know about and it's my job to seek their meaning. Ugh. I hate it! .

You're not the only one! There's another topic heading about how the GRE is flawed because of the badly written RCs.

@prithviraj I suggest you re-take. Even a good TOEFL score will probably not make up for low verbal because the GRE and TOEFL test different things. I think average verbal and average quant scores are better overall, rather than extremely high quant and extremely low verbal. Once you get to a cut-off, other things come into play, but we have to make the cut-off depending on the college.