V167, Q159, should I retake the GRE for top programs?

[Applemiu]

Hi all,

 

I have just taken the GRE and I am a little disappointed. I know that the verbal is very good, but I hoped to do better on the quant. I would like to apply to some top 15 social psychology programs, among the others, and my GPA is not that high as well, 3.67 (3.98 Psychology GPA). I am a double major in Psychology/Statistics, and what brings my GRE down are actually some high level classes in mathematical statistics. That's why I hoped to do better on the quant.

Honestly I did not study so much for this test, about one week, mostly for the quant. Do you think I should retake it? 

Again I know these are good scores overall, I just wished they were a little better.

 

Thank you!

 

[Munashi]

When I applied, I was in a similar situation to you - GPA was not perfect due to some high-level math (physics/math minor, yay for quant backgrounds).  I had the exact same quant score you did.  It ended up being fine in my case as I'm in a top program in my field, but as always, ymmv.

 

Obviously we're in slightly different subareas, and social is really competitive (hell, what isn't these days).  In the end, it's up to you if you want to retake.  If you have the spare cash to retake it, I don't think it would hurt.  Worst case, you do worse and just don't send out those scores.  But on the other hand, if your score is already on-par/above averages for admitted students, you may be fine as you are.

[Applemiu]

Thanks a lot, that's a good point, I'll do that.

[EastCoasting]

If you have a recommendation letter address your score, and counter it with evidence from a prof saying how strong your quant abilities are, I imagine you'd be fine. My quant score was only a couple of points higher than yours, and my verbal a couple lower, and I am in a top 15 social program

[Applemiu]

I retook and got 163V and 162Q, and I am satisfied with that. Thank you guys for your advices.

 

By the way, I did not study a lot more, I just did a bunch of problems on Magoosh. But I was much more focused and organized and that helped me a lot.

This is what I did:

 

- When I practiced on Magoosh, I did so solving 20 questions at a time (like in the test), but I set the timer to 30 minutes, to train myself to go fast. I only did "hard" or "very hard" problems, about 200 of them. I wasn't able to solve all of them of course! But I felt this was good practice, at least for me and for the level I was at.

 

- Also, practicing, I divided my sheet in a grid and I did the problems in a ordered way, numbering them. This made me feel focused and organized. On test day I did the same. This way, if I felt I needed to skip a question after trying for a bit, I could easily go back later to what I had done. The first time I took the GRE I just wrote all over and that did not help me.

 

- Finally, during the actual exam, before starting the math section, I wrote a few formulas on the front sheet to give myself a tiny formula sheet. I did so in particular for formulas that I tend to forget (like interest and compound interest). I figured out that trying to remember those formulas during the actual test, under time pressure, I would have been more prone to mistakes.

 

I would recommend Magoosh to everybody, in particular for practicing (but the video lessons are good too). I really wished I had bought Magoosh in the summer, I think it would have helped me a lot.

Edited October 19, 2014 by Applemiu