160 V, 130Q (yes, you read that right) 6.0 writing -- doomed?

[Fiz]

This thread is becoming too hilarious

[papergrader83]

Yes, go ahead and apply !!! 

 

If you got a perfect on the writing, then you're among the most elite writers in the world  . It depends on the school, too, and its standards, and it seems you're paying for your graduate studies by yourself, so that's another reason not to worry. 

 

If you have the time, though, you might consider deferring for a year, hitting the GRE-prep books, and upping that quantitative score?

[Sigaba]

Fuck math.

 

FYI, without math there would be no statistics. Without statistics there would not have been the multiple breakthroughs in historiography during the 1960s that invigorate the House of Klio to this day.

[EgQ54]

Dont feel bad! English major here too and I got a 140! Ive heard the quant score can affect your funding, but most English departments could care less...at least thats what Ive heard. Apply anyway!

Fuck math.

Lol you're an English major and you don't even know that it's supposed to be "couldn't care less," not "could care less." You have to care in order to be able to care less, which means you're saying that English departments do care.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Lol you're an English major and you don't even know that it's supposed to be "couldn't care less," not "could care less." You have to care in order to be able to care less, which means you're saying that English departments do care.

Apparently 'fuck English' too. 

[orthogonalcode]

I dated two people who were in the MAPH program, one of which ended up working for the program. Based on my knowledge of their scores and the scores of their classmates, I would say your score is quite low [even the verbal]. The writing is fantastic though! Do you have any published work? If you cannot retake the GRE, I really recommend you find ways to spice up your application. Me? I probably would not apply until I had a stronger GRE score.

[Loric]

You're right at the 290 (some places it's 310) cutoff that apparently several places use for cumulative. Anywhere that does a holistic app without an automatic cutoff will probably be willing to overlook it. 

Edited December 3, 2013 by Loric

[Fiz]

Man!!! I always type off my cellphone on this place. You really think im seriously caring about text grammar or proofreadijg which button i pushed on my cellphone? Heck yes i was an english major and i speaks ebonics past tense wut it says omg and all that cal! Who cares? Im not insecure enuf where i feel the need to look over everyhing i type when making a post. I know what I can and cannot do. I know my writing talent level. But more importantly, GRE scores aside, graduate school is a job more than anything, a profession. And the quality of ones character matters a hell of a lot more to admissions commitees than a meaningless math score that has no relevancy to ones study. And you, my friend, have quite the character issue. You have the audacity to come into a place and drop some line saying you cannot add, in a threat where a girl got a 130. You seem like a great guy. Furthermore, i question ur ability to succeed not only in grad school but in life if some meaningless joke such as, fuck math, irritates you so much. Ill say it again, fuck math. And i feel sorry for u.

Out.

Boom.

[TakeMyCoffeeBlack]

Man!!! I always type off my cellphone on this place. You really think im seriously caring about text grammar or proofreadijg which button i pushed on my cellphone? Heck yes i was an english major and i speaks ebonics past tense wut it says omg and all that cal! Who cares? Im not insecure enuf where i feel the need to look over everyhing i type when making a post. I know what I can and cannot do. I know my writing talent level. But more importantly, GRE scores aside, graduate school is a job more than anything, a profession. And the quality of ones character matters a hell of a lot more to admissions commitees than a meaningless math score that has no relevancy to ones study. And you, my friend, have quite the character issue. You have the audacity to come into a place and drop some line saying you cannot add, in a threat where a girl got a 130. You seem like a great guy. Furthermore, i question ur ability to succeed not only in grad school but in life if some meaningless joke such as, fuck math, irritates you so much. Ill say it again, fuck math. And i feel sorry for u.

Out.

Boom.

 

While I agree, Fiz, that it's a rather pedantic response to the topic, as a former English major you should be especially interested in presenting yourself as an educated participant in the forum. All the information we have about you is what you've posted here, and we are going to infer from that how intelligent you are and how serious we should take your thoughts and advice. Of course, I'm not all that bothered by you messing up a commonly misused idiom, and so this response is more general (and not necessarily to you - because I don't get the idea that you're not intelligent). Just a point worth sharing

[papergrader83]

Wow. That was NOT was I wanted forwarded to my email account.

 

I don't know; I just think grammar and math can find common ground. 

[orthogonalcode]

Wow. That was NOT was I wanted forwarded to my email account.

 

I don't know; I just think grammar and math can find common ground. 

 

I certainly think they can! I am a mathematician but I love reading and writing. Intellectual curiousity should branch out to all fields! If I were reviewing applications I certainly would not want to see someone completely disregard the quant section. At least put some effort in, you know?

[fuzzylogician]

Everyone -- the level to which this thread has descended is inappropriate and unacceptable on the gradcafe. Please watch the language you use. If all you have to say is a put-down of someone else, save it. You are not helping the OP or other posters, you're just making the forum a less friendly place than it was before you arrived. Stop it now, before we are forced to deal with this more seriously.

[Fiz]

I wonder if this chick ever got in. Chicago is sending out acceptances

[orthogonalcode]

I am curious as well!

[turbidite]

I just read through this thread and find it curious. Anyone else think the OP is pulling our chain here (i.e. trolling)? I just find it hard to believe that she literally missed all 40 quant questions. Is it possible? Yes. Statistically speaking, however, it seems like it would be really difficult to pull that off. I mean even blind guessing would produce a better score. 

 

I apologize if this is indeed true, though. I'm not trying to bash the OP - just find the situation somewhat improbable.

Edited February 11, 2014 by turbidite

[hj2012]

Of course the situation is improbable. But it is statistically possible (somebody has to receive a 130 on a scaled test). I've worked with a number of students receiving improbably low scores on the verbal section of the GRE (I work in an international context where low quant scores are relatively rarer), so it does happen.

 

In this case, it might be best to give the OP the benefit of the doubt.

[Fiz]

I just read through this thread and find it curious. Anyone else think the OP is pulling our chain here (i.e. trolling)? I just find it hard to believe that she literally missed all 40 quant questions. Is it possible? Yes. Statistically speaking, however, it seems like it would be really difficult to pull that off. I mean even blind guessing would produce a better score. 

 

I apologize if this is indeed true, though. I'm not trying to bash the OP - just find the situation somewhat improbable.

Some people get them! There was some stat I read a while ago that showed the scores. Some get 130!

[skgarcia]

Why would I troll about this?  I'm fairly sure I have a learning disability, didn't study for it, and admittedly didn't try very hard on the math section.  It really was this bad.

Edited February 11, 2014 by skgarcia

[Maziana]

I really don't think missing all math questions = 130 GRE. Based on how much energy went into creating the GRE, I would guess that getting 20% correct (guessing; assuming 5 item m/c items) equals a 130... Since the GRE is adaptive, I'm sure the scoring system is more complicated than that, too. 

 

Anyway, good luck...

[Geologizer]

I really have nothing but an opinion to base this off of, but if I were on the adcom somewhere and saw such a lopsided score, it would pop out as a massive red flag. I too share some of the frustration (full disclosure, I'm a STEM person) with humanities taking a "devil may care" attitude with the quant section, especially with the excuse "well we haven't devoted time to studying math through our degree because it's not a crucial aspect." I think that's a cop out. Let's not forget, all math is not the same. The math covered in the quant section of the GRE is, by and large, math most STEM majors haven't seen and/or used much since high school, so the assumption that it is material fresh in the minds of STEM students isn't really a valid one. STEM students generally aren't studying the stuff covered by the GRE either, nor is it crucial to their research (it's really just a lot of esoteric principles that are forgotten). Yes, STEM students may be more comfortable with math and recalling those concepts due to their continued study of more advanced, albeit probably mostly unrelated, math, but I don't think it leaves the door open as widely as some humanities students would think. In light of that, I think should be critical for humanities students to put up at least a reasonable score - not asking to be on par with STEM students, I know we get some slack on Verbal scores in most fields - and not doing so should really be a cause for concern. 

Edited February 11, 2014 by Geologizer

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I really have nothing but an opinion to base this off of, but if I were on the adcom somewhere and saw such a lopsided score, it would pop out as a massive red flag. I too share some of the frustration (full disclosure, I'm a STEM person) with humanities taking a "devil may care" attitude with the quant section, especially with the excuse "well we haven't devoted time to studying math through our degree because it's not a crucial aspect." I think that's a cop out. Let's not forget, all math is not the same. The math covered in the quant section of the GRE is, by and large, math most STEM majors haven't seen and/or used much since high school, so the assumption that it is material fresh in the minds of STEM students isn't really a valid one. STEM students generally aren't studying the stuff covered by the GRE either, nor is it crucial to their research (it's really just a lot of esoteric principles that are forgotten). Yes, STEM students may be more comfortable with math and recalling those concepts due to their continued study of more advanced, albeit probably mostly unrelated, math, but I don't think it leaves the door open as widely as some humanities students would think. In light of that, I think should be critical for humanities students to put up at least a reasonable score - not asking to be on par with STEM students, I know we get some slack on Verbal scores in most fields - and not doing so should really be a cause for concern. 

 

I agree. I'd add that the more high-level math you know, the harder the GRE might be. At least this is how it was with me. I did a linguistics BA and I only took math classes my very first semester of college. When I studied for the GRE, reviewing the stuff I forgot in College Algebra 3 years prior was very easy. It all came back to me very quickly. Then I got a second degree in computer science. I spent the next two years taking nothing but math and programming classes. I went up through Calculus 1, 2, 3, Discrete Math, and multiple upper-division probability and statistics classes. When I started studying for the GRE the second time, I found the math questions so basic that I had a hard time not over-thinking them. It would ask for a slope of a line and I'd be trying to calculate the derivative in my head. I had to unlearn everything in order to study for it. This was much more difficult, in my opinion, than when I relearned everything the first time. 

[alyoshakaramazov]

I would recommend a retest. A 160V is not a bad score, but your competitors may have verbal scores ≥165. Also, you may be doing some quantitative analysis (hard to believe, I know), depending on your grad program. A few days ago, I heard an NPR report from an English professor in Toronto who performed quantitative textual analyses on Agatha Christie's work to examine dementia's effect on her writing. Fascinating stuff, but it required some mathematical expertise – from an English department.

 

Granted, I'm in the social sciences world, so I'm no expert on English programs. Good luck!

[Fiz]

I would recommend a retest. A 160V is not a bad score, but your competitors may have verbal scores ≥165. Also, you may be doing some quantitative analysis (hard to believe, I know), depending on your grad program. A few days ago, I heard an NPR report from an English professor in Toronto who performed quantitative textual analyses on Agatha Christie's work to examine dementia's effect on her writing. Fascinating stuff, but it required some mathematical expertise – from an English department.

Granted, I'm in the social sciences world, so I'm no expert on English programs. Good luck!

This is so incedibly rare and true only because the scholar wanted to study that ish. If that chick came in wanting to do quantitative studies on literary authors, then yea i guess she shud know math, but is probably going to have a hell of a time being accepted anywherr with that interest.

She wil do....no math at all.

And on the topic of ppl ad comms wud do this or if i were on an ad comm it will raise a red flag that. You are not on ad comms. You are not even close to being on one. You are just a graduate student. That is it. And even worse, you are not even an English graduate student, so why should ppl who score low on math and study English listen to you?

Chicago chick! No worries. Like I said before I got a 140. Months later, I now have TWO acceptances from top 30 schools and i havent even heard back from several other programs yet. The gre is such bullcrap and so overblown. If a school rejects u for ur score--math or english--id say screw them. I wudnt wanna invest in a program that places so much emphasis on tests. Ive never believed tests were in anyway indicative of anything. And if a program does, then that program is not for me.

Edited February 11, 2014 by Fiz3583

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

This is so incedibly rare and true only because the scholar wanted to study that ish. If that chick came in wanting to do quantitative studies on literary authors, then yea i guess she shud know math, but is probably going to have a hell of a time being accepted anywherr with that interest.

She wil do....no math at all.

And on the topic of ppl ad comms wud do this or if i were on an ad comm it will raise a red flag that. You are not on ad comms. You are not even close to being on one. You are just a graduate student. That is it. And even worse, you are not even an English graduate student, so why should ppl who score low on math and study English listen to you?

Chicago chick! No worries. Like I said before I got a 140. Months later, I now have TWO acceptances from top 30 schools and i havent even heard back from several other programs yet. The gre is such bullcrap and so overblown. If a school rejects u for ur score--math or english--id say screw them. I wudnt wanna invest in a program that places so much emphasis on tests. Ive never believed tests were in anyway indicative of anything. And if a program does, then that program is not for me.

Sure, I don't disagree that tests are silly. Hell, even grades are silly. I got a linguistics degree and then pursued a computer science degree later on. I had linguistics and language/English professors who said standardized tests were silly because math and arbitrary vocabulary doesn't say anything about your comprehension, creativity and writing ability. I've also had computer science professors who said grades are silly because you can have a 4.0 and still be a shitty programmer. But it's silly to say "screw a school" because they have some kind of minimum cutoff. Schools don't know you. No matter how special you might think you are. They need to have some kind of standard. Accepting students is really just a guessing game. There's really no way to know who will come in and excel. They need something to look at. Grades, test scores, writing samples, recommendations. I can't hate a school for having some kind of requirement. I might be bitter if a low this or a low that kept me out, but I can't blame them. 

[skgarcia]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

 

I'm definitely prepared for, and expecting, a rejection from University of Chicago.  I applied to other schools I feel more hopeful about, but this school would've been my dream acceptence. 

 

As far as the importance of test scores.. I do adamantly believe I am much more intelligent, creative, and capable of research/abstract reasoning than my test scores give me credit for.  I'm a strong visual-spatial learner, and generally, visual-spatial learners have a harder time with memorization (vocabulary) and mathematics computation, but are especially skilled at the "whole picture," identifying the underlying purpose, and understanding abstract concepts.  I can only hope my letters and writing sample shine.