"Good" GRE verbal score?

[mikers86]

Guys, how much do these schools care about your quant score? I got a 160 verbal, 151 quant  just doing the diagnostic, but I've sort of cornered myself and only have a couple weeks to study now =[ 

What should I be focusing on? How much do English programs even care about the quant score?

 

The quant score *generally* matters less to English departments than it does to the Graduate school, their own requirements/idea(l)s for admittance, funding, or metrics for admission statistics. But in terms of the department, it's less of a factor.

[jhefflol]

When is everyone taking the general? Mine is this Friday. If I don't break 160, I'll retake it on Nov 15, but that's pushing it a bit close to the deadline. 

[Dr. Old Bill]

Focus on the verbal, and only the verbal at this point. 160 is "fine," but on the low end of "fine." As Mikers86 said, the quant is less important except for in funding situations. But usually cutoffs are amalgam scores (SUNY Buffalo, for instance, has a funding cutoff of 313 combined GRE, though I read somewhere that that can be fudged a bit). Aiming for 310 or above combined is probably a good idea. And since you're an English major, it's probably easier, more intuitive, and generally more sensible to work on getting that verbal up by a few points rather than getting the quantitative up. High scores across the board is the ideal, but in most cases it's chiefly the English department looking at your application, and they generally don't care if you can solve for x.

 

Guys, how much do these schools care about your quant score? I got a 160 verbal, 151 quant  just doing the diagnostic, but I've sort of cornered myself and only have a couple weeks to study now =[ 
What should I be focusing on? How much do English programs even care about the quant score?

[unræd]

When is everyone taking the general? Mine is this Friday. If I don't break 160, I'll retake it on Nov 15, but that's pushing it a bit close to the deadline. 

 

I took it a couple of weeks ago--the week right after the subject test, which was maybe perhaps not the finest moment in the history of standardized test scheduling. 

 

Just out of curiosity, when you say you'll retake it if you don't break 160, do you mean verbal or quant? I ended up with a quant score just over 160, but if I hadn't--which I certainly didn't expect to, given my practice scores--I honestly can't imagine wanting to retake the whole damn thing again just to try to boost that, especially given (as mikers88 points out) its relative unimportance compared with the verbal score. One of the reasons I took the test when I did, even though it was right after the subject one, was so that I'd have time to retake it if necessary--but I've heard so many stories of retakes going poorly (and in weirdly unexpected ways) that the thought of retaking it gives me the willies.

 

Honestly, I have half a mind to start a haunted house for English graduate school applicants, one room of which would have nothing in it besides a solitary desk, a stack of subject test and quantitative questions, and a very, very large clock.

[Dr. Old Bill]

Yeah, I can vouch for retake going poorly. I don't think I've ever wasted $170 quite so spectacularly (though a night at the River Rock Casino hold'em table comes close...)

[jhefflol]

 

Just out of curiosity, when you say you'll retake it if you don't break 160, do you mean verbal or quant? 

 

 

Oh no, I meant the verbal. I'm sure I'll be fine, but I'm a worrier and plan for the worst case scenario. See: applying for 20 programs.

Edited October 22, 2014 by jhefflol

[wetheplants]

How long have you guys been studying for this? I'm trying to decide how to strategize for this.
Plan 1: take in 2 weeks, take again in late November. Will hopefully have good scores to choose from for some of my Dec 15 deadlines?
Plan 2: take at the end of November, about a solid month to study, and buckle down. Hope for a good score. 
If not, retake in December and just sacrifice the first score for one of my schools with an earlier deadline? Right now, I think only UChicago and BC have early enough deadlines that I couldn't retake it again in December. So I could send the first score, take it again, and hopefully send a second better score to Columbia, Yale, NYU, etc.

Edit: nevemind, apparently option 1 wasn't available anymore! Looks like it's option 2 for me.

Edited October 27, 2014 by wetheplants

[jhefflol]

How long have you guys been studying for this? I'm trying to decide how to strategize for this.

 

 

I've been studying since July-ish. And by studying, I mean memorizing vocabulary. That's really all you can do, other than familiarizing yourself with the test format. I have a box of 500 Princeton review flash cards and I memorized all but about 50, and there wasn't a single question that included a vocab word that I did not know. Hope that helps!

[queennight]

How long have you guys been studying for this? I'm trying to decide how to strategize for this.

Plan 1: take in 2 weeks, take again in late November. Will hopefully have good scores to choose from for some of my Dec 15 deadlines?

Plan 2: take at the end of November, about a solid month to study, and buckle down. Hope for a good score. 

If not, retake in December and just sacrifice the first score for one of my schools with an earlier deadline? Right now, I think only UChicago and BC have early enough deadlines that I couldn't retake it again in December. So I could send the first score, take it again, and hopefully send a second better score to Columbia, Yale, NYU, etc.

Edit: nevemind, apparently option 1 wasn't available anymore! Looks like it's option 2 for me.

I did fairly well on my General GRE (165V, 156Q, 6.0A) with about a month of pure studying; it was my gap in between graduating and starting my summer job, so I luckily didn't have any other commitments (other than coffee - socializing at cafes takes up a significant chunk of your afternoon ). I think there are a couple of old threads floating around this forum that have tips for how to perform well. The one tip that I can't emphasis enough - stop dillydallying around, grab the Princeton book (Princeton prep books are equivalent to the Bible for GRE prep) and study the terms. Seriously - take about a day reading through the verbal section (because realistically the V section is the most important), and then memorize every single word/definition in the Princeton book.

 

if you do that, you'll be fine. Take about 2/3 weeks, use flashcards (I literally loathe flashcards at this point in my life) and quiz yourself (there are a lot of apps you can download to even get them on your phone).

 

If you care about the Q score I unfortunately cannot help you (as you can see by my atrocious Q section) because I didn't study for it because 1. I am lazy and 2. I don't care about math. In regards to the writing part, there's a lot of disagreement over how to do well, but know at the end of the day that ETS uses a computer to mark your section first and then a human - if there's a disagreement, a second human (I think? I remember reading this somewhere) will mark it again. How to do well on that section is up to you - I was decidedly more 'creative' in my approach, but the key is to always maintain a strong argument (basic essay format, not difficult), throw in a couple 'hard words' and keep it lengthy.

 

Most schools focus primarily on the verbal section, so if I was you (you have the same timeline that I did!), I'd practice primarily for that section. Memorize the Princeton words!!! I can't emphasize this enough. It'll save you a lot of time.

[wetheplants]

I did fairly well on my General GRE (165V, 156Q, 6.0A) with about a month of pure studying; it was my gap in between graduating and starting my summer job, so I luckily didn't have any other commitments (other than coffee - socializing at cafes takes up a significant chunk of your afternoon ). I think there are a couple of old threads floating around this forum that have tips for how to perform well. The one tip that I can't emphasis enough - stop dillydallying around, grab the Princeton book (Princeton prep books are equivalent to the Bible for GRE prep) and study the terms. Seriously - take about a day reading through the verbal section (because realistically the V section is the most important), and then memorize every single word/definition in the Princeton book.

 

if you do that, you'll be fine. Take about 2/3 weeks, use flashcards (I literally loathe flashcards at this point in my life) and quiz yourself (there are a lot of apps you can download to even get them on your phone).

 

If you care about the Q score I unfortunately cannot help you (as you can see by my atrocious Q section) because I didn't study for it because 1. I am lazy and 2. I don't care about math. In regards to the writing part, there's a lot of disagreement over how to do well, but know at the end of the day that ETS uses a computer to mark your section first and then a human - if there's a disagreement, a second human (I think? I remember reading this somewhere) will mark it again. How to do well on that section is up to you - I was decidedly more 'creative' in my approach, but the key is to always maintain a strong argument (basic essay format, not difficult), throw in a couple 'hard words' and keep it lengthy.

 

Most schools focus primarily on the verbal section, so if I was you (you have the same timeline that I did!), I'd practice primarily for that section. Memorize the Princeton words!!! I can't emphasize this enough. It'll save you a lot of time.

I bought the Barrons on the recommendation that had a better math section than the Princeton, but I don't like the way it's written very much. Time for Book 2 I guess! This is all very helpful, thank you!

[1Q84]

I was lucky enough to get a 169 V on my first shot (we shan't discuss my Q score :/) but I have a degree in Latin.

I honestly thought being able to puzzle out vocab words with Latinate roots really saved me a lot of time to concentrate on the other aspects of the V section. To that end, I personally would suggest getting to know Latin prefixes and suffixes and other common etymological relationships (one that always stuck out to me was silva meaning forest or woods in Latin, which gives us Sylvia, Transylvania (literally on the other side of the forest), silvan, etc.) 

YMMV!

[zanmato4794]

I think above 160, most programs will generally give you a nod, and then above, say, 166, they'll give you a plus one, so to speak. (Similarly, shall we say, to how most programs will be like "all right" if you get above a 580-ish on your subject test, and be like "surf's up dude" if you get above 650.)

 

If anyone wants study tips: I got a 170 because my two favorite authors are Nabokov and Coetzee, and when I read them, I make a flashcard of every word I don't know. I did not have to do any studying separate from that process. I am not kidding.

Edited October 28, 2014 by zanmato4794

[wetheplants]

I was lucky enough to get a 169 V on my first shot (we shan't discuss my Q score :/) but I have a degree in Latin.

I honestly thought being able to puzzle out vocab words with Latinate roots really saved me a lot of time to concentrate on the other aspects of the V section. To that end, I personally would suggest getting to know Latin prefixes and suffixes and other common etymological relationships (one that always stuck out to me was silva meaning forest or woods in Latin, which gives us Sylvia, Transylvania (literally on the other side of the forest), silvan, etc.) 

YMMV!

Honestly, I am routinely astonished as to how helpful my four years of high school Latin have been in recognizing vocabulary. I wasn't even particularly good at it or anything, but it has been SO helpful in both the SAT and GRE for knowing words.

[queennight]

I think above 160, most programs will generally give you a nod, and then above, say, 166, they'll give you a plus one, so to speak. (Similarly, shall we say, to how most programs will be like "all right" if you get above a 580-ish on your subject test, and be like "surf's up dude" if you get above 650.)

 

If anyone wants study tips: I got a 170 because my two favorite authors are Nabokov and Coetzee, and when I read them, I make a flashcard of every word I don't know. I did not have to do any studying separate from that process. I am not kidding.

 

NABOKOV IS LITERALLY THE GREATEST AUGH sorry I just had to say that. I literally am in love with him. Coetzee is another great. That's an amazing combination of two authors to be your favourites and also probably describes your good taste! (Bias: I repeat, I am in love with Nabokov.)

[Dr. Old Bill]

Another vote for Nabokov being fantastic. In so many ways.

[xolo]

I was lucky enough to get a 169 V on my first shot (we shan't discuss my Q score :/) but I have a degree in Latin.

I honestly thought being able to puzzle out vocab words with Latinate roots really saved me a lot of time to concentrate on the other aspects of the V section. To that end, I personally would suggest getting to know Latin prefixes and suffixes and other common etymological relationships (one that always stuck out to me was silva meaning forest or woods in Latin, which gives us Sylvia, Transylvania (literally on the other side of the forest), silvan, etc.) 

YMMV!

I do not consider myself a person with a particularly large vocabulary, but I have had this theory that knowing Latin roots, especially of low frequency words, as evident in a modern version of Latin, helped me. I got a 168V (and we shan't discuss my Q either)

Edited October 28, 2014 by eyepod

[quena]

umm, a quick question: does the AW matter much? is a 4 AW really low for someone who's applying to literature programs? (this has been bothering me for a month..)

 

As for the verbal, I guess 160-165 should be fine. (at least I hope so)

[Dr. Old Bill]

Nope, AW doesn't seem to matter much. 4.0 is fine. After all, they'll have a lengthy sample of your analytical writing right there in front of them.

 

160-165 verbal is perfectly fine too. Good enough to apply pretty much anywhere, at least.