CS_Freak Posted March 21, 2013 Posted March 21, 2013 Hi Guys! I gave my GRE a year back and scored 315 - 153 in Verbal (56th percentile) 162 in Quants (86th percentile); But I'm targeting for MS - Computer Science program in Top Schools like GeorgiaTech, UPenn, UCLA, NCSU etc... Is my GRE Score good enough? I feel I lack in Verbal a lot and also Quants a bit. Please respond on whether must I retake GRE. I will be applying for Fall'14. If I need to retake, how much should I boost my score? Also, please give me some tips to score atleast a 160 in the Verbal section. Thanks a ton in advance!
midnight Posted March 21, 2013 Posted March 21, 2013 From UPenn: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/grad/admission-stats.shtml If you do retake, you should aim for as high as you possibly can for quant and 80th+ percentile for verbal. My advice for verbal is to practice with different materials so you can gain exposure to more vocab words, and if you do decide to memorize vocab on its own, lump synonyms together in your mind since many of the GRE verbal questions are synonym-focused now.
tarrman Posted March 21, 2013 Posted March 21, 2013 I scored 157 in verbal and 162 in quant, and I was still able to get into top schools. If you've got time and money to retake, it doesn't hurt to try and boost your scores. Arezoo 1
midnight Posted March 21, 2013 Posted March 21, 2013 I scored 157 in verbal and 162 in quant, and I was still able to get into top schools. If you've got time and money to retake, it doesn't hurt to try and boost your scores. That's awesome. I think it shows that the admissions process is more holistic than we tend to view it here (not that your scores were "bad"!). queenleblanc and Arezoo 1 1
tarrman Posted March 22, 2013 Posted March 22, 2013 I spent a good week freaking out trying to determine if I should retake or not (I was happy w/ the verbal, but I know I could do at least 5 points better on the quant without any studying). I eventually decided that if my score could fluctuate +/- 5 points on the quant section, the admissions committee probably wouldn't view my scores any differently if I retook. I think at top schools, the GRE is sort of used as a filter; if your scores are below a certain threshold, they will toss your application out. Outside of that it doesn't affect your chances. MIT EECS doesn't even take GRE scores, I'm guessing because all of the students they admit have about the same scores. I've also heard they are more heavily weighted when coming a from school that is unknown in your field. My school is top 5 in the field I applied to, so I think much less emphasis was placed on my scores.
valkener Posted March 22, 2013 Posted March 22, 2013 (edited) I'm from a non-CS background (I'm a humanities major) and considering applying to the MCIT program at Penn because it's geared towards people like me. I took the GRE's today at got 157 verbal, 155 quant. According to their website, average verbal was 160 and quant 163 last year for the program. I'm expecting writing to be 5.5-6.0. I had almost no math training in undergrad but still feel like I could have done better because I'm usually better than 155 in quant. Unfortunately the deadline to apply is approaching (May 15th) and I don't want to be too close towards the deadline. the MCIT program is my "dream" program and I can't really apply anywhere else because of my family living near Penn. Option 1) Apply and hope it works out. 2) Apply next year with better GRE scores. 3) Retake the GRE's in 4 weeks and squeeze in right before the deadline. Thoughts? Edited March 22, 2013 by valkener
midnight Posted March 22, 2013 Posted March 22, 2013 valkener, honestly I think I'd practice like mad and retake just to up any chances now. Four weeks is enough time to improve, and you'll also have about two or three weeks to address any specific problem areas that show up on the GRE diagnostic service. I only say this because Penn is so competitive, and the GRE Q is a good way to impress them considering your background and the type of program. But if you don't have time to retake, then I say apply and hope it works out. Good luck! Tupamaros 1
na3eem Posted March 22, 2013 Posted March 22, 2013 I got like 140's on the quant. and 150's on the verbal and 4.0 on the writing... Lol... it was horrible.. and I got into NYU Arezoo 1
valkener Posted March 22, 2013 Posted March 22, 2013 Thanks for the input, I scheduled today and will repeat in 4 weeks. Currently I have Manhatten's Materials, Barron Vocab, Barron Revised Strategy, ETS Official Guide (With powerprep), Magoosh Subscription. I feel like I need more practice materials, possibly a question bank. Any advice? I've noticed that I have some blind spots in math coming from a humanities major. I'm very good with statistics and percentages but not so good with geometry and points/slopes etc. I need more questions to practice .
Tupamaros Posted March 22, 2013 Posted March 22, 2013 Thanks for the input, I scheduled today and will repeat in 4 weeks. Currently I have Manhatten's Materials, Barron Vocab, Barron Revised Strategy, ETS Official Guide (With powerprep), Magoosh Subscription. I feel like I need more practice materials, possibly a question bank. Any advice? I've noticed that I have some blind spots in math coming from a humanities major. I'm very good with statistics and percentages but not so good with geometry and points/slopes etc. I need more questions to practice . Do you have Manhatten's 5lb book? Combined with the strategy guides, 6 tests and the hundreds of questions on magoosh you should have enough with that?
valkener Posted March 22, 2013 Posted March 22, 2013 I don't have the 5lb book, I do have the strategy guides. Should I get the 5lb book or sign up for Kaplan's qbank (http://www.kaptest.com/GRE/Prep-for-the-New-GRE/On-Demand/gre-quiz-bank.html) ? I heard Kaplan is not hard enough. My target score is 163-165.
Tupamaros Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 I don't have the 5lb book, I do have the strategy guides. Should I get the 5lb book or sign up for Kaplan's qbank (http://www.kaptest.com/GRE/Prep-for-the-New-GRE/On-Demand/gre-quiz-bank.html) ? I heard Kaplan is not hard enough. My target score is 163-165. No experience with Kaplan, so can't advise you on that. The 5lb book obviously has plenty of problems, I've just started it. What I'm doing is going through a strategy guide completely (my first took about 3 days), then doing all the corresponding problems in the 5lb book. I will repeat this until I've the guides and problems complete. Then I plan to mix it up between the 6 practice tests and mixed up problems in the 5lb book. The standard seems pretty good thus far (is it just me or are the difficult quant questions at the end of each guide basically impossible? lol). Magoosh also rated the 5lb book as excellent for quant. It can be got pretty cheap online, so is perhaps an option for you.
valkener Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 Yeah the "hard" ones in Manhatten are very difficult and supposedly harder than ETS. I haven't done the hard ones recently but I also obviously wasn't satisfied with my Q155 this week. Magoosh also has a lot of questions that are harder than the original test. I think it's important to keep the real ETS practice tests (powerprep software and textbook tests) in mind to get a feeling for how hard the GRE is going to be. I found the Barron's 6 Full-Length Practice tests to be very close to the GRE as well, so I recommend them. Tupamaros 1
msb2012 Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 Can I have barron's 6 tests electronically? cracked from CD or something like that?
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