Need Advice From Any Masters/PhD Students

[victoriamunoz]

Hi all. I'm in my 4th year of undergrad (Psychology) and want to continue my studies and get my Masters in Psych as well as a PsyD. I am so confused about how long I should study for the GRE General Test for and am looking for any advice from individuals who have already taken it. Was it hard? How early did you take it before graduate school? How many times did you take it? Did you do it online or on paper, do you get to choose? I'm nervous because I am entering my last year of my bachelor's degree. 

[Edotdl]

You should probably take a practice test and use that to determine how long you need to study to reach your desired scores. I went from ~155 to 162 in verbal in about a week. I took it only once online the August before applying.

[TakeruK]

I can help answer some of these questions. But remember that some of it will really depend on each person.

1. How much to study? I studied for about 2 hours per day, 3-4 days per week for 2 months leading up to the General GRE, I think. About 35 hours was spent on the GRE Verbal because that was my weakest point. I just tried to memorize as many words as I could and then tried to answer sample GRE questions using the same words I just tried to memorize. This helps prepare both the vocab and the type of question. I probably spent a total of 5 hours on the Quant section because I felt really comfortable with that. What I did was to take several practice GRE tests to make sure there weren't any surprises and reviewed all of the example question types. I only spent 2 hours on the essay part, which was, in hindsight, not the best idea. However, I don't think my AW score prevented me from getting into any school. Hard to know though. Finally, the remaining chunk of time (15 hours or so?) was spent getting familiar with the test. Use the software on the ETS website to simulate an exam environment. Get used to the buttons and how the menu works etc. Do some practice exams. Read over the ETS materials that describe the test and the correct answers. I find it really helps to get "in the head of the test creator" because it helps me understand what they are looking for. Training for the test helps a lot more than simply studying!

2. Was it hard? I found it difficult enough that even though I feel confident in the abilities that the GRE tests, I felt that extra studying was necessary. That is, I didn't think it was a test that you just took when you felt like it. However, best possible performance on the test isn't the goal---for me, I just needed to score high enough that I didn't think my test scores would hinder my applications. Tough to say how "hard" it was and that's subjective anyways.

3. How early did you take it before applications? I submitted most of my applications in December 2011 and I took my test in June 2011. I did this so that I could use the summer to study for the Physics Subject GRE. I was in a MSc Physics program at the time and that summer was also a quiet time in my program (In May 2011, my building went under construction so I lost access to my office for a month, so it was a good study month). Also, the GRE was undergoing a change to the Revised GRE in August 2011 so I wanted to take the test prior to the change (since all study materials I had access to were from the old format). If it were not for these factors, I might have waited until August to take the test.

4. How many times did you take it? Just once. I planned to just apply with whatever scores I had. I didn't have time or money to take it multiple times and also like I said, it doesn't matter as much for my field. Oh, this was also before ScoreSelect so if I took it twice, they would have seen both scores. 

5. Online or on paper? The General GRE is administered as a computer test unless there are very special circumstances that require you to take a paper test. For me, I actually had to take my test in Toronto (where your "location" says you are) at a test center downtown (they do computer tests for all sorts of exams). This meant I had to pay for travel to Toronto and spend a night in Toronto prior to the exam, making my costs go up even more! 

If this is your last year of your Bachelor's degree, then you will want to be applying this winter for grad schools! Reserve about 15 business days for your General GRE scores to be available to the schools you are applying to. 

Also, do you need to take the Psychology GRE Subject test as well? I remember when I was taking my Physics GRE subject test, there were a ton of Psychology test takers in the room as well! All of the subject tests happen in the same room at the same time. The Subject tests only happens at 3 specific times per year, in 2016, it's a single Saturday each in April, September and October. April has already passed and it might be the case that the September test date is full. If you require the subject test, I highly recommend signing up for it on the ETS website right now! In my experience, standby testing for Subject tests are pretty reliable. You just have to show up on the test date with the fee + $25 and if there is room (usually yes, but you won't know for sure until the day of). So if you need to do the subject test, I'd sign up for the October date and if you want a chance to do it twice, do standby in September as well.

 

Good luck!