Advice needed (and appreciated)

[psycgrad37]

I'd like to preface by saying I would really appreciate any advice given for my particular situation. I have not received much guidance from my mentors regarding this matter so I am turning over my question to the grad cafe forum in hopes that I will get sound advice from people who have experience similar situations.

 

I took my GRE last year and did fairly well on the verbal but not so great on the math portion (40%). I had a couple of interviews and did receive an offer for a program but rejected it because it was not a good fit. I am looking to apply again and I am wondering whether I need to re-take the GRE or not. I have been studying to re-take it but I did a practice test and while I increased by one point on the math, I did worse on the verbal by 3 points. I am afraid a similar scenario will ensue if I do go ahead and take the GRE. Thus, I would only be wasting money (and time) re-taking the GRE to get a similar score than what I already have (or even a worse one). 

 

The schools I am applying to are fairly competitive but not extremely so (from what I gather their average acceptance scores are not too distant, some equal, to mine). Am I better off keeping the scores and working on other aspects of my application or studying for another month (getting very close to the deadline) and re-taking the test in hopes that in this month I will be able to improve my scores?

[Jay's Brain]

The difficult answer to this question is that it honestly depends year to year. The cohort varies, and sometimes there's applicants with high scores, and some with lower scores. Since you had a chance to take a look at past historical notes on GRE and applicant scores, that can at least let you know lower scores are not detrimental to your application.

Trust me, I know it's daunting and completely taxing. I took it THREE times (!) and ended up using my original score. From someone who wasted time, money, and energy to retake the GRE twice more times, I would say to not overlook the scores you already have. It's easy to compare scores, and think you can do more. Relatively satisfied with my first score, I decided to retake it and imploded on my second attempt. On my third attempt, my VR went up and my QR went down. If the rest of your application is solid, the GRE is not going to be detrimental to your overall application. It's only meant as a booster in most cases, because research experience tends to trump all. Ultimately, if you fit with the program, and your prospective PI wants you to be his or her graduate student, that will be more of the deciding factor in my opinion.

Good luck! 

[emilym123]

I think it is mostly just your own personal preference to re-take it or not, I myself have opted not to re-take it. From what I've read on the GRE website if you re-take it and do worse they will send your better scores not the scores of your most recent test (unless it has been more than 5 years since you have taken the test). I also agree with what Jay's Brain has to say, each year its a new applicant pool, although your scores last year may have been just under par last year, this year they could be well above what some other applicants have. Either way I wish you the best of luck!!

[psycgrad37]

Thank you very much to both. My main concern is the GRE being used as a tool to filter applicants. From what I am reading, the 50th percentile seems to be the "magic number" or rather the place where most of the schools I am looking at are willing to read through the applications and decide from there. So, since my quant score is below that, I have decided to go ahead and retake it. If my scores do not exceed my previous ones then I will not send them to the schools. I hope this is the right strategy :/

[TKYU]

I am in the exact same situation as you (don't worry you're not alone)! My quant score is below 50th percentile hence why I'm taking it again for the third time in November. Good luck to you!

[EdNeuroGrl]

The first time I took the GRE my quant was  below the 40th percentile... I retook it and improved up to a 157.

I did two things. First I didn't insist on getting my disability accommodations (which is a GIANT headache with ETS) the first time around. The second time around I got accommodations (which took me no less than 3 months to get approval for). 

Second, I took a GRE prep course. I feel like it helped a lot because the class gave me tons of strategies for decoding the questions and making smart decisions even if I couldn't find the answer directly. My verbal score stayed the same though... So depending on the situation, it can be helpful to study hard and retake, but it may not be either... it seems like mid-october is cutting it a little close though... so you may want to consider your time frame too.

 

Edited October 21, 2015 by EdNeuroGrl