How do these GRE scores translate? Some questions

[gm45]

Hi, I just took the GRE and got a Verbal: 163 and Quant: 156. I'm interested in pursuing intellectual/cultural history. Is my verbal score competitive enough for a top program, or should I retake. I think my quant will do for a humanities field. 

 

Also: In retaking, can I report the highest scores from two different tests, or can I only report one whole test? I'm a bit confused about this part.

 

Lastly: If applications are due in December, when is the latest I can retake the exam.

 

Thanks for your help!

[iphi]

163 is 91st percentile in Verbal for the new GRE, so I think it should be fine. Don't forget that your Writing will count too. A 163 Verbal with a 6 in Writing is excellent, with a 4.5 in Writing it's good, but not stunning. Your Quant is fine. ETS allows you to report whichever scores you want, so if you take it again and do better, no one need see your first attempt (and vice versa).

 

You can retake every 21 days, no more than 5 times per year. I believe that ETS recommends 4-6 weeks to allow your full score report to become available/sent to schools. This is a conservative estimate, as I have also looked for answers on the subject and have not found any. You would think that once your Writing score becomes available (10-15 days after your test) they could send it right away. I would say no later than one month before your earliest application deadline, just to be on the safe side.

 

I think your score is good enough and you should probably work on perfecting other parts of your application that will matter more. If absolutely everything is done, maybe you can try again but it's probably not worth the effort. Most likely you'll just stress yourself out and not see a significant change in scores with this little time left to prepare.

Edited October 15, 2013 by iphi

[gm45]

Thanks for that response! My question with score reporting was related to picking and choosing. Could I, for instance, choose to report a high quant score from Test Attempt A, and a high verbal score from Test Attempt B? In other words, can I report a composite score from two separate attempts? Or does one GRE attempt need to be looked at as a whole unit?

[Scarf in the wind]

Thanks for that response! My question with score reporting was related to picking and choosing. Could I, for instance, choose to report a high quant score from Test Attempt A, and a high verbal score from Test Attempt B? In other words, can I report a composite score from two separate attempts? Or does one GRE attempt need to be looked at as a whole unit?

 

You cannot pick and choose parts of a score. You must pick the score associated with the particular day you took the test.

 

Say you take the test on Monday and receive scores for the 3 sections of the test.

 

Then you take the test on Friday and received scores for the 3 sections of the test. You can only choose to send scores associated with either Monday or Friday, not pick a certain score from Monday's test and certain scores from Friday's test. Either Monday or Friday, not an amalgamation.

[iphi]

Thanks for that response! My question with score reporting was related to picking and choosing. Could I, for instance, choose to report a high quant score from Test Attempt A, and a high verbal score from Test Attempt B? In other words, can I report a composite score from two separate attempts? Or does one GRE attempt need to be looked at as a whole unit?

 

Oh, sorry, guess I read too fast. As Scarf said, you have to choose one test to report, you can not combine scores from multiple tests.

[gm45]

I ended up getting a 5 in the writing with a 163 verbal. I wonder if it's still worth retaking for a competitive humanities Ph.D program or not?