GRE "Splitters"

[lordtiandao]

Would a significant gap between Verbal and Quant score look bad to admissions? My Verbal is 161 but my Quant is only 148. I'm wondering if I should retake the exam.

[laleph]

2 hours ago, lordtiandao said:

Would a significant gap between Verbal and Quant score look bad to admissions? My Verbal is 161 but my Quant is only 148. I'm wondering if I should retake the exam.

As others have mentioned (page 1 of this thread contains a lot of good info), quant is much less important for history programs than is verbal, especially at private schools. It comes down to whether you want to expend the time/money/effort to retake the exam given that your verbal score is within the range of acceptable for the schools you're considering. You might try perusing the gradcafe results page to see what scores applicants who were accepted to the programs that interest you earned.

But srsly, the GRE is WWAAAYYYY down the list of priorities, as @hats recently pointed out. If not retaking it will give you a good chunk of time to work on your SOP or fine-tune your writing sample, don't retake it. Those bits are so much more important to admissions teams than is your quant score.

Edited July 13, 2017 by laleph

[lordtiandao]

1 hour ago, laleph said:

As others have mentioned (page 1 of this thread contains a lot of good info), quant is much less important for history programs than is verbal, especially at private schools. It comes down to whether you want to expend the time/money/effort to retake the exam given that your verbal score is within the range of acceptable for the schools you're considering. You might try perusing the gradcafe results page to see what scores applicants who were accepted to the programs that interest you earned.

But srsly, the GRE is WWAAAYYYY down the list of priorities, as @hats recently pointed out. If not retaking it will give you a good chunk of extra time to work on your SOP or fine-tune your writing sample, don't retake it. Those bits are so much more important to the admissions teams you're considering than is your quant score.

Thank you for your answer! I don't really want to retake it either, but I was just worried that such a huge gap between verbal and quant might look bad. I think I'll use my time to work on aspects of my application instead (unless I do really bad on my essay).

Edited July 13, 2017 by lordtiandao

[maelia8]

@lordtiandao I basically went into the GRE with a goal quant score beforehand, and promised myself that if I fell lower than another predetermined point that I'd retake it (in my case, my reach goal was to break 155, but my minimum was to break 150 or retake. I got 152, so I didn't retake it). As long as you pick a range that you are comfortable with and that is realistic for you based on practice exam scores and manage to hit it, then I wouldn't retake. It's not about the size of the gap between Q and V, it's about knowing your abilities and being able to accurately assess whether retaking the exam could conceivably result in a significantly higher score within the time that remains before you have to submit your application. If not, and you're not wildly off the acceptable range for your school, I wouldn't worry about it.