Officially Dislike New GRE!!!!!

[ktwho]

I studied some this summer and just this past week reviewed for it, but, MAN, this GRE is SO DIFFERENT. I'm freaking out. I barely have time to take it one more time before deadlines, but my verbal has NEVER been this low:

V: 152

Q: 144

I always scored in the mid 700's verbal. What in the world?!?!

I'm applying to Stanford, Berkeley and Davis for Spanish. Does anyone have any idea if this will even get me past DGS?

I have a 3.9 undergrad GPA in Spanish, a 3.7 grad GPA in it and have been out of the Spanish field for a while. I moved over to TESOL/ESL, where I have published and been pretty active.

Thoughts?

[Darth.Vegan]

ok. That is V:490 (53rd percentile) and Q: 500 (20th percentile) on the old scale. Most minimums are around 1000 and at top schools I doubt they have ever admitted anyone under 1150. You really need to bring up both of those scores. At the very least I would think that you need Q:150 and V: 158-161

[iowaguy]

You have to embrace the new format & roll with it... Need to buckle down & try to improve those scores if you're shooting for Stanford, Berkeley, etc...

[ktwho]

Yeah, I already knew that. Greeeeaaat. Happy Birthday to me!

[midnight]

What do you hate about the new format?

[Darth.Vegan]

Keep in mind, your quant score does not matter as much more than likely. My quant score is relatively low, but in sociology quant scores tend to be lower as I am sure they are even more so in spanish. What is important however is your V score. You will want a combined score of at least 1200, but more likely 1300+. It also helps if you have a mediocre (say 150) quant score but can mitigate it with a very high verbal score.

[viggosloof28]

Keep in mind, your quant score does not matter as much more than likely. My quant score is relatively low, but in sociology quant scores tend to be lower as I am sure they are even more so in spanish. What is important however is your V score. You will want a combined score of at least 1200, but more likely 1300+. It also helps if you have a mediocre (say 150) quant score but can mitigate it with a very high verbal score.

Absolutely right. Most of the top programs I've been looking at refuse to state a minimum requirement, but will say something euphemistic like "a score of less than 1200 is unlikely to impress." Of course, the verbal score is the most important one for those of us in the humanities, so there may be a little wiggle room...doesn't seem to be much, though, unfortunately!

[ktwho]

I'll definitely take it again. I know people in a couple of the programs who didn't have 1200+, but I like to do my best and will retake it. Plus, I've never, ever, ever scored higher in Quant, so I'll review a few formulas to get it up 6-7 points, but my focus will definitely be on verbal.

I posted in the Lit section about the format and may just paste it here.