GRE study strategy questions

[socme123]

Hey everyone!

I am planning to apply for sociology/policy PhD programs for Fall of 2011. Right now, I'm studying to retake the GRE. I took it last fall when I was thinking about masters programs in education, and I did it really stupidly - I signed up and had less than a week to study. I did OK on all but the quant: 670V, 600Q, and a 6 on AW. That probably would have been fine had I decided to stick with the masters, but I've decided to follow my true passion and pursue a Soc PhD. I am aiming for a tip-top program, preferably Harvard or Princeton's joint programs in sociology and social policy or Chicago, although I'm obviously applying other places.

I'm trying to decide how much time to allot to the GRE thing versus focusing on developing my research agenda, SOP, and most importantly, reaching out to profs I'd like to work with. All of the latter is more important, but I need to clear that GRE hurdle. I feel like I'll look like a decent candidate at first glance: I wrote two undergrad theses, I have a masters in a related field, a couple big scholarships, a law degree from a top Ivy, multiple publications, and I'm an underrepresented minority. BUT - that GRE quant score is NASTY and I'd wager that the mean/median verbal scores at my dream schools are higher than 670. I also have to recover from weird undergrad grades from an OK liberal arts college from almost 7 years ago: Soc was one of my majors, but my Soc GPA was lower than my cumulative GPA.

I've purchased test prep materials and am studying a little every day. I want to take the time to prepare this time and give the test the focus it deserves. But, given that I have a hectic job, etc. - how much time should I be devoting to GRE prep in comparison to other things, like talking about research, why I want to move from law back to sociology, building relationships, etc.?

Edited November 24, 2009 by profwannabemcb

[DrFaustus666]

I don't know what to tell you, except that you are not the only person in your situation.

Mine is similar, though I've never been to an Ivy school: I know I need top scores (700+, preferably 750+) in BOTH to pursue a multidisciplinary Ph.D. program (I want to build computer models for analysis of music) at a top school .... I took the GRE 5 yrs ago for my MA (Germanic studies) and got 800V/680Q ... and so I figured I would be OK with a bit of math prep.

So, I took the GRE again just a month ago and got very disappointing, no, shocking scores of 640V and 560Q .... which has me in a panic! HOW do I get my quant score up that much ??? (I choked on the verbal ... spent too long on one of the reading comp groups and suddenly found myself with 2 mins left and 8 questions unanswered, so I'm not too worried about the verbal) ...

But I've studied every piece of info I can find on quantitative, and my practice test scores keep bouncing all over the place .... sooooo ... hang in there, good luck, and know that you are not alone!

John

[jacib]

From what I've heard, the verbal section has gotten harder. Buy Barron's (it has the most comprehensive word list) and study maybe a list a week (reviewing your old lists when you're done). Get the old GRE test book, the one with official questions from the paper based test. It will be useful for practicing both the sections. As for timing, try to get your timing down using computer practice tests BEFORE you take the real one. Everyone takes longer in the real one (everyone wants to be "sure') so on your practice tests try to end with a few minutes left over. Also, if you come to a question you don't know how to solve, or you know how to solve it but it would take you more than two-three minutes, get rid of the illogical answers and move on. You can actually get quite a few questions wrong and get a good score, but they hate blank questions at the end.

Also practice writing like a robot because a computer grades your essay (use a lot of transitions, vary sentence structure, use key words, say what you're doing like "for example", "therefore", "in conclusion" and "this clearly show that" so the computer can understands)! Base every body paragraph around an example! Use an intro and a conclusion!