Taken the GRE 3 times

[naima21]

Hey guys

I need some advice. I have taken the GRE 3 times. Twice during college for the masters portion of my program in 2011 (combined program they just needed a really basic score) and once a couple of months ago. My verbal scores went from being in the 50% to being in the 80% (non native english speaker so for me that greeaat!) but unfortunately my math scores only improved by 2 points. I am really bad at standardization testing math and ended up being on 25%. That being said my overall score is over 300, I got a 4.5 in the writing section. I am interested in special education and communication disorders Phd programs. I was already rejected from the one school I applied to for this fall, so I'm kinda worried. Do you suggest I take the GRE again before I apply to other school or is it a waste of time since I have taken it 3 times? Should I focus on making other parts of my application look better?

Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

[Danger_Zone]

What are the scores exactly? And what does the rest of your application look like? How many schools do you plan to apply to?

The GRE is only one part of the application package, so if you have a weak application a strong GRE may help, but if you have a strong application I don't think a lower quant score is going to break your application (I'm not the graduate committee though, so I cannot tell you for sure how your GRE score will affect your chances.)

If you'd like to take the GRE again, can afford it and have the time to study for it, then by all means do it, but not if you are sacrificing the rest of your application in order to study for it. Also take a look at how you've been studying, because you may need to change things and perhaps seek outside help if you are not able to improve your quant score by much. Are there particular questions troubling you or is it the quant section in general? Try some practice questions/tests and pay attention to what you are doing wrong, and note this for the next question of that type or the next test. A lot of the questions are similar in nature, so you should eventually be able to recognize your mistakes and recognize how you go about answering that type of question. (This is coming from somebody who is terrible at math and managed to improve by 5 points.) If you still struggle then maybe you can seek help from a tutor or another grad student. It may be a waste of time to take the GRE again if you don't recognize where you are struggling and how to improve it.

Hope that helps. Congrats on your great verbal score!

[naima21]

I have been in contact with a few professors and they agreed I have a solid background and that will really help me. One professor even told me they really didn't focus on quant scores at his school so hoping for the best! Thank you for your help!

[Danger_Zone]

2 hours ago, naima21 said:

I have been in contact with a few professors and they agreed I have a solid background and that will really help me. One professor even told me they really didn't focus on quant scores at his school so hoping for the best! Thank you for your help!

No problem, that's great then. I'm sure you have nothing to worry about. I was told I wouldn't have to worry about quant much either (what a relief that was!) Good luck with applications!

[Sigaba]

On 5/11/2016 at 5:34 PM, naima21 said:

Should I focus on making other parts of my application look better?

 

Yes.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Sigaba