76th percentile on CS GRE... does this hurt me or just not help me?

[DJLamar]

My school has recently retooled the CS curriculum so that everyone gets more depth in a couple of chosen areas (mine are intelligence and theory) and much less depth in everything else. I took the CS GRE with barely any knowledge of systems and networking, and I didn't even know that I should have studied any Java-specific stuff. I've had little reason to use Java since my freshman year. None of the prep materials or info provided by ETS suggested that I would have to remember how/if you can define a function in an abstract class, or whatever idiotic thing it was that they asked on the test. Also, I wasn't finished with all my theory classes yet so there were some easy theory problems that I missed.

As a result, even though I studied some systems stuff from books I bought, I still probably missed some systems questions, I know I missed a few Java questions, and I messed up some theory problems as well. I got 76th percentile on the exam.

I didn't bother submitting the CS GRE score to most of the places I applied, but for some reason when I was applying to Princeton I got the impression from the information on their site that they really wanted it, so I went ahead and submitted it there. Do you think this score will hurt me or will they probably just not care? I go to a very well known school by the way (Georgia Tech).

[punkybugsy]

I'm not a CS person, but I know in biology there are subgroups. How were your percentages in each subgroup. If you aced the subgroups aside from systems and networking, and you don't plan on applying for a systems and networking heavy program, I think you are fine and could justifiably submit them. If the percentages across the board are 76 then I would ask more CS people.

[Mumbet]

Don't feel bad, I got a 61%. Why? I was powering through the questions, feeling great about each and every single one, and when I got to the halfway mark (question 35 of 70) I looked up and.... time was almost up.

If I had to take it again, obviously I would do much better on it simply by knowing not to take my time. The admissions comittees will never know that though.