GRE for international applicants?

[starrystarrynight]

Hi, I've checked my GRE score online today and I'm really confused whether I should re-take the exam or not.

V158 Q169 AWA 4.0

(V570 Q800 for old GRE)

I'm planning to apply for Ph.D programs in socio-cultural anthropology this fall, which I guess hardly emphasize Quant scores at all. I'm even wishing that some miracle would occur and my Verbal and Quant score would exchange themselves....

I know it is below average among applicants of the top universities. My percentiles seem horrible, especially for AWA which doesn't even make up to 50%. It's more disappointing because I was expecting to get at least 160 for the verbal section. Then again, I'm an international applicant and I thought the committee would put some consideration to that... What would you recommend? Should I re-take the exam or should I just get over it and focus on my SOPs and writing samples instead?

Furthermore, has anyone seen statistics or information regarding international applicants?

My friends and I are suffering from lack of information. Replies would really help a lot! Thanks!

[Instigate]

Hey, I am an international applicant too and, yes the lack of information is horrible. Also, I know the verbal and writing parts of the GRE are horrible! From what I have been able to gather about phd admissions (in econ, but I think most of it is transferable) if you are applying for a top program they couldnt care less if you are international or not - everyone is in the same pot. For not-so-good programs they might not judge you as harshly if all other aspects of your application are great. And I mean great - much better than the average for the school.

So, my advice is - you still have time try taking it one more time. You might not be able to boost your writing score that much, but if you cram a lot of words then you will be able to get a nice verbal score.

[alf10087]

I'm an international applicant too and many people around here have told me that a not so spectacular Verbal Score can be leveraged with a stellar TOEFL score.

[starrystarrynight]

@Instigate

I'm pretty sure I can boost up by verbal scores by the next exam for I think I lost major points at the vocabulary parts rather than the reading parts anyway. Besides it was several points lower than the prep score... I was just hesitant because it does take a lot of time and efforts(plus money!) and deadline seems to be coming up at any moment. I might as well give it another try, though. Thanks for the reply!

I'm an international applicant too and many people around here have told me that a not so spectacular Verbal Score can be leveraged with a stellar TOEFL score.

I guess the word stellar is the problem of the day here unless you get 120 for TOEFL haha

Thanks!

[kaykaykay]

I'm an international applicant too and many people around here have told me that a not so spectacular Verbal Score can be leveraged with a stellar TOEFL score.

Well, do not bank on that. Most people have pretty good TOEFL scores who apply to good programs (and boy if you do not have good points that is a problem!). The major problem is the wide gap between the two exams.

starrystarrynight you have a brilliant quant score. I think it will help you especially if it is not usual in your field. Adcoms will stop to take a look.I think you should send these scores even if you retake for the verbal. AWA does not matter at all in most fields.

Edited September 12, 2012 by kaykaykay

[Azarashi1]

I have a similar problem - actually my verbal was surprisingly ok, but my AW is awful, I got a 4.0 too. On the toefl I have 116 (28 in writing) but come on... if you took the toefl you know that it is REALLY easy compared to the GRE.

Anyway, what I've been hearing from a couple of POI I've emailed to is that the cut offs for considering your application are around 70%, and usually only for verbal and quantitative. Don't know how true that is though.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Azarashi1

[aberrant]

I have a similar problem - actually my verbal was surprisingly ok, but my AW is awful, I got a 4.0 too. On the toefl I have 116 (28 in writing) but come on... if you took the toefl you know that it is REALLY easy compared to the GRE.

Anyway, what I've been hearing from a couple of POI I've emailed to is that the cut offs for considering your application are around 70%, and usually only for verbal and quantitative. Don't know how true that is though.

A 4.0 in AW is really not that bad -- 48% put you in to the "average" category.

You were right about the difference in TOEFL and GRE verbal, tho. TOEFL is a lot easier. But what you're missing is that even though grammar and format plays a role in GRE AW section, what weights more in that section is if you can follow the instruction to analyze the prompts and write essays that involved critical thinking and rational arguments and/or suggestions (depending on the task/section).

And 70% in verbal, for international students, might be quite challenging to achieve (unless you read and write a lot in English.)

V158 Q169 AWA 4.0

(V570 Q800 for old GRE)

....

I know it is below average among applicants of the top universities. My percentiles seem horrible, especially for AWA which doesn't even make up to 50%. It's more disappointing because I was expecting to get at least 160 for the verbal section. Then again, I'm an international applicant and I thought the committee would put some consideration to that... What would you recommend? Should I re-take the exam or should I just get over it and focus on my SOPs and writing samples instead?

You may want to consider the post your profile in terms of percentiles instead, because your percentiles play a more significant role in determining your standing compare to other GRE exam takers who took the same exam. As for the numbers, it looks pretty good to me, but then I'm in STEM field so I can't tell you specifically how good your are for your interested program(s). On the other hand, I would advice you to focus on your SOP / PS and get strong LOR instead of the GRE though.

ps. I was an international applicant and I'm an international student.

[starrystarrynight]

starrystarrynight you have a brilliant quant score. I think it will help you especially if it is not usual in your field. Adcoms will stop to take a look.I think you should send these scores even if you retake for the verbal. AWA does not matter at all in most fields.

Thanks for the comment! I'll keep that in mind. I just hope they won't make strange deduction from the wide gap between my verbal and quant scores...

You may want to consider the post your profile in terms of percentiles instead, because your percentiles play a more significant role in determining your standing compare to other GRE exam takers who took the same exam. As for the numbers, it looks pretty good to me, but then I'm in STEM field so I can't tell you specifically how good your are for your interested program(s). On the other hand, I would advice you to focus on your SOP / PS and get strong LOR instead of the GRE though.

You're right, I should have had posted percentiles instead. Verbal was somewhere around 75% (I can't recall the exact figure...) and the writing was like 49%. Half the people around me is advising me to re-take GRE, while the other half says forget GRE and move on to SOP/PS. The programs I'm planning to apply for do put some emphasis on verbal/qualitative (dunno what 'qualitative' is supposed to mean, though..) parts in GRE... hmmm...

Thanks for your comment, though. I should really be working on my SOP/PS, as you said. Every word really does help a lot.

[ynori111]

Hi guys!

I just took my GRE last week too. But the results are not great- 163 (91st percentile) for verbal, 162 (86th percentile) for quant and 5 (92nd percentile) for Analytical writing. The thing is I am looking at Economics programmes at schools like LSE which require extremely good scores, especially in quant.

My quant scores especially seem to be lacking..

Should I be re-taking the test? Can someone from Economics programmes reply please, as to what generally is the cut off for top schools. I have a GPA of 4/4 and good recommendations. So all things considered, what should I do?

[Instigate]

My advice is to retake it. You only need to improve your quant score though - you would need at least 164 for LSE.

[ynori111]

The thing is I do not know how to improve it. I do not think I did mediocre in Math because I was not thorough with the concepts or lack of practice. The first section was a cake walk, and the second one just got me off-guard. The questions were very unconventional, and I could not figure out what skills of Math ETS was testing for. For example, I had a question like:

'If a triangle and a square has n common points, then n cannot be which of the following?'

Options a) 2 4 c) 6 d) 8

I have not come across such questions in any of the practice tests I did either in ETS, Kaplan or Princeton.

Also, does anyone know what could be the possible number of wrong answers for a 90th percentile plus for quant?

[ynori111]

* that smiley over there is supposed to be option 'b'

[pemdas]

what's ur background and how you came to score 98 percentile in math?

[ynori111]

I did my Masters in Economics.

And I would not be posting here if I scored 98 percentile in Math. I got 162 which is 86th percentile. So!

[starrystarrynight]

I did my Masters in Economics.

And I would not be posting here if I scored 98 percentile in Math. I got 162 which is 86th percentile. So!

I think pemdas is asking me... though I need your verbal score! Take my Quant score and gimme your verbal percentiles! aaaaahhhh

You know what, I think your percentile's rather nice if you're an international applicant w/ English as a second language.

what's ur background and how you came to score 98 percentile in math?

I majored anthropology which involved no mathematics whatsoever throughout my undergraduate years.

To be honest with, my friends and I do find quantitative section rather easy. It's just the language. I do handle English language better than most of my friends and it made my quant score stand out among theirs. (but my verbal and AWA score.... *sigh*) I guess I should be thanking the math curriculum provided by my country up till high school...?

I guess learning the basic concepts and ideas are the most important thing in GRE quant section. I think they do not try that hard to mislead people into wrong answers. Well, at least not at the quant section. I felt that they put a lot of emphasis on the idea of ratio so make sure you are confident about it, though I don't see why should anyone have fundamental problems with GRE questions on ratios. Don't get too complicated while you thinking, and do not panic. They usually do not make things that obnoxious. For me, practice questions (in order to get used to their problems) and reviewing basic stuffs at the last minute did help. (especially the English terminologies!)