How's my GRE score?

[Romerowned]

Hi all,

I recently took the GRE and received a 158 V, 159 Q, and 5.0 AW.

I don't know how important the GRE is for PhD programs in Biology, but is this a solid score? Thanks.

[sareth]

I recently took the GRE and received a 158 V, 159 Q, and 5.0 AW.

I don't know how important the GRE is for PhD programs in Biology, but is this a solid score? Thanks.

The importance of the GRE seems to vary from school to school and department to department. 158 V and 159 Q are both 77th percentile (see http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table1a.pdf), while 5.0 AWA is 92nd percentile. So your AWA is stellar, while your V/Q are pretty solid (but not stellar).

In STEM fields my experience is (sadly for you) that programs care very little about AWA and prefer a strong Q score, while a strong V score is a nice bonus. I'd check and see if any programs you want to apply to have GRE minimums posted (IIRC, for example U of Wisconsin Madison chemistry posted that they required a minimum of 70%ile for last year...). As long as you make any cutoffs I wouldn't worry too much as long as the rest of your application is strong.

[emmm]

It is an average score -- for many of the more competitive programs, the Q score is probably below average. I have heard of some programs not seriously considering applicants below the 80th percentile.