PhD applicant with VERY LOW GRE Math score

[The Mosby]

I'm a PhD applicant with interests in ethics and ancient philosophy (mostly). I just took the GRE today. I got in the 90th percentile in verbal, but in the 35th in math! I know verbal is generally more important for philosophy, but with such a horrific math score, can that put my application in the trash? Even if it's assumed that all the other aspects of my application are very good, is it worth retaking the GRE?

[Red Bull]

I don't believe that your application will automatically be trashed, however, it is highly recommended that you retake the GRE. Buy one of the many GRE math workbooks or if you can afford it take a class. Retake the GRE and cross your fingers, unless you believe that you stand a significant chance of scoring much lower on your verbal exam if you take it again. Food for thought.

[emmm]

It probably is worth retaking. . .

[Two Espressos]

As someone in English with ancillary interests in philosophy and as someone who follows the field to some extent, I highly advise that you retake the GRE. Many philosophy programs seem to take the GRE more seriously than do programs in English, and to be blunt, I think your score will can your application at some places. Granted, there are great Ph.D. programs that don't even require the GRE, but they are rare. A general rule of thumb I've seen tossed around: aim for 1400-1500 on the exam, going by the old scoring system of course.

Were I applying to Ph.D. programs in philosophy rather than English, I'd have to retake the exam as well, as I scored rather poorly on the quantitative portion.

In short: retake the exam, as it's nearly a necessity for your field.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Two Espressos

[Eddie Kant]

I have similar concerns (and similar scores) to those of the Mosby. I'm finishing up my first year in a MA program in Lit and have realized that my interests lie primarily in continental philosophy. I'm hoping that the Ph.D. programs in philosophy that I apply to will not emphasize the math score as much given that they will be less analytically-oriented. However, it does not sound like this is a reasonable expectionation I'm going to retake the GRE this summer, but do not think that a big jump in my math score is realistic. Is there anything that can make up for this in my application, or am I just not going to make it past the initial filter of the GRE?

[blumenbergian]

For what it's worth, I had a lower math score than the OP and while it definitely hurt my chances with some of my applications I still got a strong PhD offer. 

[Taco Superior]

I have similar concerns (and similar scores) to those of the Mosby. I'm finishing up my first year in a MA program in Lit and have realized that my interests lie primarily in continental philosophy. I'm hoping that the Ph.D. programs in philosophy that I apply to will not emphasize the math score as much given that they will be less analytically-oriented. However, it does not sound like this is a reasonable expectionation I'm going to retake the GRE this summer, but do not think that a big jump in my math score is realistic. Is there anything that can make up for this in my application, or am I just not going to make it past the initial filter of the GRE?

 

a big jump in your math score IS realistic if you just study a half hour per day for a few months and then ramp that up to several hours for the last month or 2 weeks before the test--I raised my score about 40percentile points this way.

[eugvdeb]

I would recommend retaking the GRE to improve the math score. I had a lot of trouble improving mine, because I was just so out of practice (I was once able to do all of the stuff, took Calculus and had an A in high school). Some small studying will help you jump the score a lot--in the end, I still had a pretty bad score in the 65-70 percent range, but it was enough to get me an offer.