How important is the quant section of the GRE for a PhD program in anthropology?

[youngcharlie101]

A friend of mine suggested retaking the GRE in efforts to get a higher score for my PhD applications this fall. 

 

So, I bought the Manhattan Prep books and am slowly working my way through the Verbal section. 

 

However, just out of curiosity, how important a factor does the quantitative (math) section play in admissions decisions? 

 

Overall, how important is the GRE to admissions committees? 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[bsharpe269]

We can give more advice on whether you should retake or not if you give us your score!

 

In general, science/math fields care more about the quant section and humanities and social science fields care more about verbal. I wouldn't say that schools ignore the less relevent field though. You may be able to get in with a low quant score but applying with an average to high quant score can only help.

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

Verbal measures your memory and language competence.

Quant measures your reasoning competence.

[youngcharlie101]

We can give more advice on whether you should retake or not if you give us your score!

 

In general, science/math fields care more about the quant section and humanities and social science fields care more about verbal. I wouldn't say that schools ignore the less relevent field though. You may be able to get in with a low quant score but applying with an average to high quant score can only help.

 

I bow my head in shame... Lol. I'm a miserable test-taker. My verbal is too low (150s), so I definitely need to retake. 

[victorydance]

We can give more advice on whether you should retake or not if you give us your score!

 

In general, science/math fields care more about the quant section and humanities and social science fields care more about verbal. I wouldn't say that schools ignore the less relevent field though. You may be able to get in with a low quant score but applying with an average to high quant score can only help.

 

Actually, fields like economics, psychology, and political science place more weight on the quant score.

Edited August 15, 2014 by victorydance

[TakeruK]

And I would actually say the Quant score is not very helpful for very computationally intensive fields like Physics since 1) the math tested in the GRE Q is at the high school level, 2) the Physics subject GRE tests much higher and more relevant mathematical ability, and 3) almost all applicants will have very similar scores. Fields like Physics would still have some minimum cutoff for the GRE Q because a low score on that would be troubling but I don't think they are graded competitively. The GRE V might be considered the same way in Physics-like fields, or maybe even used to distinguish some applicants since there would be a larger range of GRE V scores. However, for fields with subject tests, I think the subject GRE score will almost completely overshadow General GRE score, so for these fields, just score above the cutoff!

[smg]

It better not be important for Anthro cause I'm gonna F it up no matter how hard I hit the books.  I hate math and I hate tests. 

[youngcharlie101]

It better not be important for Anthro cause I'm gonna F it up no matter how hard I hit the books.  I hate math and I hate tests. 

 

AMEN TO THAT!

[xolo]

It better not be important for Anthro cause I'm gonna F it up no matter how hard I hit the books.  I hate math and I hate tests. 

 

Best not put that in your SOP, it might not come across as very scholarly.