Should I retake the GRE?

[amethyst23]

I studied for a month and took practice tests through ETS and Manhanttan. On the actual test I scored the highest predicted by the practice tests which were: V 157 (74%); Q 161 (80%).

 

Since I did score the highest possible predicted by the practice tests, I'm not sure if I want to retake it again

 

I'm going to begin applying to programs next month and I'm still vacillating on whether I'll take the biochem subject test which I still need to study for, in addition to reading potential P.I.s' publications and contacting them. All of this takes time and I want to make the best investment since there is not much time before applications open.

 

My overall GPA is 3.498 and I have 3 years of research experience. I'm planning to apply to the biochemistry program at the following schools: Northwestern U, UIUC, UC Irvine, UCLA, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, UW, and also the biological sciences program at UCSD. 

 

Given the competitiveness of the target programs, the amount of time that is left until apps open, and other priorities I have, is it worth it to retake the GREs?

 

 

[iphi]

Well it's really the amount of time you have left until apps close, not open! I don't know much about biochem, but I would say with the competitiveness of the programs you'll be applying to it wouldn't be a bad idea to try to boost your quant score. If the rest of your applications are perfect then I would say focus on the GRE aggressively. Otherwise fix the other parts of your application and then come back to the GRE if you have time.

[bsharpe269]

Do you think that you can make a significant improvement with studying? Those were the exact scores that I got 3 years when I took the GRE before my masters. I wanted to retake it and improve before PhD applications so I took a couple practice tests in February to see my starting point and scored around 163Q, 153V consistantly (my MS is quant focused so it makes sense that I may have lost of verbal since I dont really write/read much outside of science nowadays). I spent 4-5 months, 5ish hours a week, studying with Magoosh. I did most of their practice problems and memorized 250 vocab words. I took the GRE a month ago and scored 168Q, 162V!

 

I highly recommend magoosh because they really prepare you for the hardest quant problems you will see so most of quant questions on the real test are much easier than their study questions. I found their verbal to be on a similar level as the real test. Memorizing vocab helped me so much as well. I didnt memorize as many words as some people do but I knew the 250 words that I memorized very well and could use them all in sentances. I think that it actually may have been waste of time to memorize much more than that... they seem to always use the same words so I was familiar with most of the vocab on the test from memorizing the 250 most common. Good luck!

[clickclick]

Do you think that you can make a significant improvement with studying? Those were the exact scores that I got 3 years when I took the GRE before my masters. I wanted to retake it and improve before PhD applications so I took a couple practice tests in February to see my starting point and scored around 163Q, 153V consistantly (my MS is quant focused so it makes sense that I may have lost of verbal since I dont really write/read much outside of science nowadays). I spent 4-5 months, 5ish hours a week, studying with Magoosh. I did most of their practice problems and memorized 250 vocab words. I took the GRE a month ago and scored 168Q, 162V!

 

I highly recommend magoosh because they really prepare you for the hardest quant problems you will see so most of quant questions on the real test are much easier than their study questions. I found their verbal to be on a similar level as the real test. Memorizing vocab helped me so much as well. I didnt memorize as many words as some people do but I knew the 250 words that I memorized very well and could use them all in sentances. I think that it actually may have been waste of time to memorize much more than that... they seem to always use the same words so I was familiar with most of the vocab on the test from memorizing the 250 most common. Good luck!

 

I second this, especially about the vocab section. I took the GRE this week and got almost identical scores to yours: 162Q and 156V. I barely studied vocab and only memorized the first 50 words on magoosh. Sure enough about 5-10 of those words were on my actual test.

 

I also have the exact same GPA as you and research experience! In addition, my plans are also to apply as early as applications open including several of the schools you listed, although in a different field and have contacted several of the professors in my field that I am interested in working with. Basically, from these points of our application we are exactly the same! I planned on retaking the GRE next month to boost my scores enough to get my goal which is 165Q and 160V. I don't want to sound like I am trying to compete with you by any means, as I hope we are both accepted to all the programs we apply to, but since our applications are so similar that does give me motivation to improve my GRE scores. If it came down to it I wouldn't want a slightly lower GRE score to be the reason for rejection. Its the one of the only things in the application process that we still have control over.

[amethyst23]

bsharpe269 and clickclick, how much did you study before you took the test the first time? 

 

I'm skeptical about improving with more studying because I remember exhausting myself trying to do ~1800 GRE problems the month before the test. And the problems in Manhattan are much more difficult than the actual test also --this helped me go into the test more anxious than confident the first time. I memorized a significant number of vocab too and it was actually the vocab that helped my verbal since I'm worse at reading comp.

 

There is plenty of time before apps close so I suppose I could give it another shot.. 

Edited July 25, 2014 by amethyst23

[bsharpe269]

In my experience, the GRE isnt something you can cram for. I improved by developing an intuition sort of for what the the test takers thought the answer should be (especially for verbal). It took around 3 months of consistant studying before I started noticing an improvement in the number of practice questions answered correctly. If I were in yoru situation, I would schedule the test a bit further out (like october) and then spend a few hours a week on test questions. This method worked REALLY well for me.

 

To answer your question directly, for my first test I probably spent 1-2 hours a day for a few weeks studying. The number of hours studying probably didnt even change between the 2 test thats much but the slow consistant approach made a huge difference for me. This wasnt just a lucky test day difference either! I took a few practice tests in the few weeks before I actually took the test and I was consistantly scoring around 165-170Q and 160-165V which exactly matches my actual scores.

[clickclick]

bsharpe269 and clickclick, how much did you study before you took the test the first time? 

 

I'm skeptical about improving with more studying because I remember exhausting myself trying to do ~1800 GRE problems the month before the test. And the problems in Manhattan are much more difficult than the actual test also --this helped me go into the test more anxious than confident the first time. I memorized a significant number of vocab too and it was actually the vocab that helped my verbal since I'm worse at reading comp.

 

There is plenty of time before apps close so I suppose I could give it another shot.. 

 

I took it last year and did poorly because I did not study AT ALL (definitely not suggested). I took it again after 2 months of studying. Breaking down the schedule, the first month I studied about 1-3 hour a day on average, the second month I studied anywhere from 6-10 hours a day from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep. First I focused on how to answer certain problem types then once I was getting them right all the time I focused on timing. Then I focused on the problems that I was consistently taking too long on or getting wrong because I was getting tricked. On my practice tests I was getting 164-166Q, unfortunately when I took the real test I had a lot of test anxiety and felt tired half way through the test. This is actually a major thing that I didn't consider enough and will prepare myself for next time around.

 

Had I taken another month to study I would have been prepared more for the verbal section, which I barely studied, and been more confident during the real test.

[clickclick]

Also, I'm a firm believer that you are only limited to what you limit yourself too. With the mindset that further studying will not improve your scores, then you likely won't improve your score. However, if you approach studying with a strategy to recognize why you are not improving and learn how to fix those issues then you can only be limited by the highest score. Of course that also depends on the effort and time you are willing to put towards studying. The GRE isn't testing math and verbal skills, its testing how well you can take the GRE.

[bsharpe269]

 On my practice tests I was getting 164-166Q, unfortunately when I took the real test I had a lot of test anxiety and felt tired half way through the test. This is actually a major thing that I didn't consider enough and will prepare myself for next time around.

 

 

Test anxiety can MAJORLY affect your scores. The most recent time I approached the GRE with the midset that it was a just a practice GRE and if I didn't do as well as I wanted to then I would retake it the following month. Grad schools only see your best score so there is no reason to feel pressure. Going in with this attitude helped me a lot. Also, the test drags on foreverrrrr. I recommend bringing a coffee or energy drink and sugary snack (or whatever helps you focus) and leaving it in your locker to take during the halfway point.

[clickclick]

bsharpe269, thanks for the advice! yea I planned on having an energy drink ready in the locker, I couldn't believe how worn out I was because every time I took a practice test I felt fine. I need to adopt your mindset that it is just a practice test, because that was the killer for me. I was so stressed that it was like all the strategies I had ingrained in my brain were completely non-existent. Using magoosh I was able train myself to do each problem in less than a minute on average in the powerprep tests, leaving me 15 minutes to go over each problem and check my work, but during the actual test I had just enough time to answer each question without looking them over.

 

Congrats on your great scores btw! What was your study strategy to achieve them other than using magoosh?