The magic 300 GRE score

[Southwestspeechie]

Hello everyone! 

I am an out of field applicant and I recently took my GRE test and got a 157 verbal, 143 quant (ouch!) and a 4.0 for the essay. I plan to retake my GREs in december and hope I can get a 150 for the quant. However, I am not feeling too confident! If somehow I do not end up improving on the quant, will schools look past it since I achieved the 300 total score? 

Thanks!  

[2020slp]

So I think the only thing “wrong” with your scores is that there is a gap. If I were you, I would focus on quant only for the entirety of your studying and then super score if for some reason you get a lower verbal. At the same time, 300 combined is what we are all told to aim for...it’s definitely good that your verbal score is high. Are you applying for next fall? Asking because if so, December is kind of late to take it again.

[Southwestspeechie]

43 minutes ago, chloslp said:

So I think the only thing “wrong” with your scores is that there is a gap. If I were you, I would focus on quant only for the entirety of your studying and then super score if for some reason you get a lower verbal. At the same time, 300 combined is what we are all told to aim for...it’s definitely good that your verbal score is high. Are you applying for next fall? Asking because if so, December is kind of late to take it again.

That is what I have been doing so far; I only bought the magoosh math prep, and not the verbal portion. I am applying for next fall and am signed up to take the GRE on december 2nd. Most of my schools have the FEB 1 deadline. Do you think this is still pushing it too close? Thanks for the help! 

Edited October 24, 2017 by Felice
Forgot one sentence

[samman1994]

I used the 5lb GRE book for the quant section. Overall, I found it very helpful for simple tips and tricks and practice for helping speed up my test taking. However, this method does take quite a bit of time. It took me about 3 weeks to go though the problems and effectively address my problems. Haven't retaken the GRE yet, but I do expect to score better. 

[2020slp]

On 10/23/2017 at 11:36 PM, Felice said:

That is what I have been doing so far; I only bought the magoosh math prep, and not the verbal portion. I am applying for next fall and am signed up to take the GRE on december 2nd. Most of my schools have the FEB 1 deadline. Do you think this is still pushing it too close? Thanks for the help! 

Are any of your schools on CSDCAS and have a Dec 15th deadline? If any of your schools are on CSDCAS and have deadlines before Feb 1, I would suggest taking it earlier because when you submit CSDCAS, you submit every school on there at once. That means you have to have all schools completed even if their deadline is later. Now, if your schools are not on CSDCAS then I would assume it's very different. 

[Southwestspeechie]

17 hours ago, chloslp said:

Are any of your schools on CSDCAS and have a Dec 15th deadline? If any of your schools are on CSDCAS and have deadlines before Feb 1, I would suggest taking it earlier because when you submit CSDCAS, you submit every school on there at once. That means you have to have all schools completed even if their deadline is later. Now, if your schools are not on CSDCAS then I would assume it's very different. 

 Hm...When I go on CSDCAS it has an option to submit one at a time and an option to submit all my applications at once.  Thank you for all the help though :)!

[Hcrain]

On 10/23/2017 at 9:53 PM, chloslp said:

So I think the only thing “wrong” with your scores is that there is a gap. If I were you, I would focus on quant only for the entirety of your studying and then super score if for some reason you get a lower verbal. At the same time, 300 combined is what we are all told to aim for...it’s definitely good that your verbal score is high. Are you applying for next fall? Asking because if so, December is kind of late to take it again.

Are there schools that superscore?

[2020slp]

4 hours ago, Hcrain said:

Are there schools that superscore?

I think a lot of schools do. But it's just that you have to send both scores to CSDCAS which can get pricey. 

 

On 10/26/2017 at 2:42 PM, Felice said:

 Hm...When I go on CSDCAS it has an option to submit one at a time and an option to submit all my applications at once.  Thank you for all the help though :)!

I just checked and you are right! Thanks for confirming this. For some reason, one of my classmates told me this wasn't possible. 

[futureSLPhopefullylol]

Magoosh is the best prep for the quant section. I went from a quant score in the low 40s prior to studying to a 152 after studying because of Magoosh and I am HORRIBLE at math. 

[Southwestspeechie]

4 hours ago, futureSLPhopefullylol said:

Magoosh is the best prep for the quant section. I went from a quant score in the low 40s prior to studying to a 152 after studying because of Magoosh and I am HORRIBLE at math. 

How long did you study for if you don't mind me asking? 

[futureSLPhopefullylol]

10 minutes ago, Felice said:

How long did you study for if you don't mind me asking? 

So I took the GRE twice. I studied for 2 months then took it the first time and got a 304. I took it a second time after another month of only studying quant and got a 310. So about 3 months total.

[Southwestspeechie]

1 minute ago, futureSLPhopefullylol said:

So I took the GRE twice. I studied for 2 months then took it the first time and got a 304. I took it a second time after another month of only studying quant and got a 310. So about 3 months total.

Thank you :)! I am currently only studying quant and have about a month to go!