a fragrant plant Posted November 13, 2009 Posted November 13, 2009 So I woke up at 4:00am this morning to catch the plane to London to battle with the GRE (yes, this damn test only has one test center in the entire United Kingdom!) I'm back!!!! My verbal has improved by 100 points (540) and my quantitative is 520. I know my score is mediocre and uncompetitive but I'm happy that it's finally over! As a non native speaker I have encountered a lot of difficulties with the deluge of obscure vocabularies. I crammed over 1500 words in the past two months!!! I know some of you may say that you can't cram for the GRE because the test is to measure how well-read one is, not how much vocabularies one memorizes in a short period of time. Well, maybe this is true for the native speakers. But for a person whose first language is not English, I think the verbal part is a pure vocabulary test. Indeed, I doubt if I will make any mistake if the analogies and antonyms are tested in my native language! So yes it is a mediocre score but I have no compunction because I've worked my hardest in the past two months. My partner has been so supportive and caring during my study and I'm very thankful for that. Now it's time to focus on other aspects of my application and live like a normal person again! Sorry for the rant! I'm just really pleased. Anyone got a similar score? How do you feel about it?
Angelicasassy Posted November 13, 2009 Posted November 13, 2009 Congratulations, 100 points is a big increase!!
90sNickelodeon Posted November 13, 2009 Posted November 13, 2009 Hey, I'll take those scores!! Well done!
gremot Posted November 13, 2009 Posted November 13, 2009 I just got back from my GRE retake as well - had to go to another country to do that!!!! But I also managed to upgrade my score by 150 points. Now I have verbal 560 and math 750 --- I never wanna do this test again!!!! And I totally agree with you, peanut, for not native speakers the verbal part is an absurd vocabulary test. I also tried to memorize the whole dictionary (didn't have as much time as you did though...) but in the end it is still just like a lottery. Even though I did learn 1000 words, there are so many other words that I didn't learn. So I can just say that I guess I was lucky to recognize some of them during the test
a fragrant plant Posted November 13, 2009 Author Posted November 13, 2009 I think it will take a while before I receive my official score report. Can someone infer what percentile I'll be at? Just to get a rough idea. Thanks!
Tam Posted November 13, 2009 Posted November 13, 2009 I'm a native English speaker, got a 720 on the Verbal section, and agree it is almost totally a vocabulary test. There were a lot of words on there that I didn't know, and I have an excellent vocabulary (hence the good score). I guess there is some reading comprehension involved too, but I thought those parts were pretty easy. Anyway, I am sure it is harder for non-native speakers to know a million bizarre English words, but it's definitely a vocabulary struggle for native speakers as well.
Tam Posted November 13, 2009 Posted November 13, 2009 Peanut, it looks like your percentiles will be around 71st (verbal) and 31st (quantitative).
newage2012 Posted November 13, 2009 Posted November 13, 2009 (edited) I just came back a couple of hours ago. I raised a whopping *230* points since last time (See my sig for details). Edited November 13, 2009 by newage2012
dzk Posted November 15, 2009 Posted November 15, 2009 (edited) I just got back from my second try too. Raised my score 190 points! The tests were only a few weeks apart, too. Had a 610V/640Q and raised it to 690V/750Q. Pretty thrilled about that. I know that some of you think I'm silly for retaking it with a 1250, but I'm applying for really competitive programs and fellowships, so I need all the help I can get (and I knew I could do better). Only concern now is that I got a 6 on my AW before, and I'm not sure I'll be able to replicate it. But I'm happy that I don't have to worry about this anymore! Edited November 15, 2009 by iggy
gremot Posted November 16, 2009 Posted November 16, 2009 I just got back from my second try too. Raised my score 190 points! The tests were only a few weeks apart, too. Had a 610V/640Q and raised it to 690V/750Q. Pretty thrilled about that. I know that some of you think I'm silly for retaking it with a 1250, but I'm applying for really competitive programs and fellowships, so I need all the help I can get (and I knew I could do better). Only concern now is that I got a 6 on my AW before, and I'm not sure I'll be able to replicate it. But I'm happy that I don't have to worry about this anymore! congrats! that is a really great score
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