llcooln6 Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 ETS AND the GRE are just away for schools and ETS to make money.Anyone agree, it is all BS and a scam.
Dreams Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 ETS AND the GRE are just away for schools and ETS to make money.Anyone agree, it is all BS and a scam. Weren't able to incite enough of a riot in the Psychology subforum? :twisted:
DEClarke85 Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 ETS is just one money-grubbing system. I do not really need to pay $20 for EVERY score report sent out. I would be willing to pay less and NOT have my score reports sent to me. Do I really need one for every school that got one?
llcooln6 Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 LOL, I am not trying to start a riot, but maybe it is time for a change?Anyone? Plus more people in this forum!!lol
GirlattheHelm Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 I totally agree. The test is fun in its own creepy way though - like, a self appointed challenge. But it's hardly a reflection of anything. But, what are you going to do? If you fight it you can't apply, so they've got you by the short and curlies. Nobody said life was fair. PS - I BOMBED my GRE's after 5 months of hardcore studying (I had a panic attack during the test). Figures.
DEClarke85 Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Like I said... give me the option of paying less, even if it means I will not get a copy of my score report. For instance, I applied to 7 schools, I do not need 7 extra copies of my score report. Let me pay $10 and you can e-mail me an electronic receipt.
llcooln6 Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 Well....there has to be something we can do....
Dreams Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Well....there has to be something we can do.... We can all try to persuade Fall 2010 or 2011 entrants to hold off on grad school for a year and skip the GRE. The lack of income will force ETS to declare bankruptcy and shut down. No more GRE
DEClarke85 Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 We can all try to persuade Fall 2010 or 2011 entrants to hold off on grad school for a year and skip the GRE. The lack of income will force ETS to declare bankruptcy and shut down. No more GRE As great as that sounds, ETS would still make more than enough money of the TOEFL, SAT, and more. :roll:
Dreams Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 As great as that sounds, ETS would still make more than enough money of the TOEFL, SAT, and more. :roll: Bleh! Hmm we could persuade the high schoolers to take a gap year. But I don't know about the foreigners. Spread a propaganda campaign that tuition will be astronomically high with no hopes of funding. Wow talk about cataclysm. Then the universities would go bankrupt too!
feisty Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 The GRE is bogus. I mean obviously I don't have anything to substantiate that, but I was totally irritated that I had to take it, did terribly (really), and guess what I still got into grad school, no thanks to the ETS.
ewurgler Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 While I find the adaptive test to be horribly nerve-wracking and I hate taking on the computer rather than paper, I do think there is some value. BUT! I think it should be pass/fail, or like 5 tiers. Yes, there needs to be some sort of evaluation that is identical for all applicants, as we all know how inflated/deflated GPAs can be, but it is wildly imperfect. If I made up the scoring, it would be a scale of 1 to 5, with 3 as "average" (what all undergrads should come out knowing), 5 being amazingly brilliant, and 4 being not quite there but definitely serious grad school potential.
anthcat Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Spread a propaganda campaign that tuition will be astronomically high with no hopes of funding. You mean that's just propaganda?? :wink:
llcooln6 Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 I have an MA lots of research experience, and a job doing marketing research.The stupid GRE has screwed me out of so many schools.I got rejected because of my score.I think the GRE is just a snap shot and time and does not predict you ability to do well in graduate school.All it does is predict that ETS will and continue to make lots of money.
DEClarke85 Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 The GRE measures nothing. Just like the SAT, you can study and learn how to take the test and earn a perfect score. It does not measure ability, intelligence, or anything. It's a complete waste.
feisty Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 I have an MA lots of research experience, and a job doing marketing research.The stupid GRE has screwed me out of so many schools.I got rejected because of my score.I think the GRE is just a snap shot and time and does not predict you ability to do well in graduate school.All it does is predict that ETS will and continue to make lots of money. Agreed. Also the only thing more annoying than the GRE are schools that actually take the GRE seriously.
llcooln6 Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 The worst part is, I know some schools, did even read my entire application becasue they saw my GRE score....had they read my application who knows...lol.......
Tonights Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 I've heard it said that the GRE is no measure of what kind of grad student you will be - it's only a measure of how well you've been trained to take the GRE. I really think it should be done away with as a serious measure of our capacities, not to mention that the cost of their services financially disempowers some folks from being able to apply to graduate programs at all. It's an expensive enough process without $150+$20 for every subsequent wee bitty piece of paper. Why not institute all-electronic reporting? Oh, 'cause then they wouldn't make as much money off poor academics. I forgot. Standardized tests always make me feel like a dancing organ grinder's monkey, anyway. DANCE, MONKEY, DANCE!
llcooln6 Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 I don't have the money for expensive GRE classes and I have to work full time...So right there i am screwed.....do you think schools take that in to consideration??? The answer is NO
slowbro Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 The worst part is, I know some schools, did even read my entire application becasue they saw my GRE score....had they read my application who knows...lol....... Did these schools tell you that, out of curiosity? I ask because my current program -- not in psychology, admittedly -- reads through every applicant's file regardless of the GRE score. (Unfortunately, the files I've seen as a student reviewer with the lowest GREs were also the poorest overall, even without the GREs.)
llcooln6 Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 Yes they said that they tossed it becasue of my GRE score. My GRE was not super low, just average.....the programs I applied to are not the best or the top anything ....
synthla Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 The GRE measures nothing. Just like the SAT, you can study and learn how to take the test and earn a perfect score. It does not measure ability, intelligence, or anything. It's a complete waste. If this is completely true, then I would expect to see more perfect scores on here because you can buy some pretty comprehensive prep books for under $30 and spend weeks studying for the exam before taking it. But I don't see many perfect scores. Now whether the GRE measures anything worthwhile is debatable, but the blanket statement that you can just study, learn the test and earn a perfect score is a bit overblown.
Dinali Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Two of the top departments in my field don't even require GRE scores, which really makes me scratch my head about what the others think is so beneficial about them (although for another one I think they only require it as a school policy; the department doesn't look at them). I think ETS is like the Ticketmaster of higher education -- until sufficient numbers of bands/universities stop using/requiring them, they'll have the advantage.
DEClarke85 Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Yes they said that they tossed it becasue of my GRE score. My GRE was not super low, just average.....the programs I applied to are not the best or the top anything .... I often wonder if this is a major factor in my three (so far) rejections. My Verbal is 560, Quantitative is 650, and Writing 4.0. Unfortunately, the first time I took the exam (and didn't take the writing seriously) I got a 5.5 on the Writing, a 430 Verbal, and a 540 Quantitative.
feisty Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 I've noticed that for PhD programs in history, a few program websites (Chicago and Stanford, I remember) say, in not so many words, that they don't actually care about the GRE. From these I get the impression that it might bolster an otherwise weak application, but won't destroy an otherwise strong one. Really I have never been so outlandishly annoyed and curmudgeonly than I was the night before I had to take the GRE. It was absurd. If I recall correctly (I don't, obviously, because it was like 10 in the gd morning and I was in a weird room in Penn Station and I had to pee) all of my scores were below 600 or maybe 500 and I only looked at my writing score because I had to put it on my applications. Now I've gotten all started on the GRE.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now