Different standard evaluation on GRE verbal?

[bongin]

I'm from Pacific Asia preparing GRE these months, and it's very frustrated to memorize lots of "weird" vocabulary that sometimes even English native speaker never use it! If I can get 500 on V, that's just fine, 550 better, 600 above is just like a dream for me!

So I'm wondering why some applicants who got about 600 or above on V still worry it's not high enough?

Does admission committee may consider every applicants' native language and adjust the evaluation of GRE verbal??

PS: Welcome everyone who feel frustrated on preparing GRE, just share your mood in this thread.

[purplepepper]

I think you are right about that...non-native speakers of English are given a whole lot more lenience when it comes to the verbal section. A friend of mine who went to an american uni for her BA, albeit a non-native english speaker scored somewhere in the 500s and is going to Harvard.

For native English speakers the standard is much higher. Don't stress too much about it, as they'll see your toefl scores, which is much more important, and your writing samples.

[HisRoyalHighness]

I got a 630 on the verbal which was fine with me - that was 50 points higher than my practice test and above the mean for all the schools to which I applied.

GRE is overrated as a predictor of academic success. Thank God I'll never have to take it again because I hated studying for it and I hated taking it.

[bongin]

Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate it.