does the GRE require serious prep?
Almond
1,427 Posts
Job market is dismal, I'm set to graduate from college in a few months, so fusk it, I'll apply to grad school. Never planned to, have crappy grades, and now I have a shitload of stuff to catch up on.Does the GRE require any serious prep?
Comments
Note: many schools don't even give a f--- about GREs.
If you say so stallyn.
Study a lot and take the practice exams.
I can get into a state school fine and live at home and have a curfew of 6 pm until I'm 25. But at the moment, I'd like to think I'm capable of a little more.
Whoa.
I would recommend picking up a princeton review book and reading it, then take several practice tests over about a month. Spend 6-8 hours per week on studying. ETS offers for free download Powerprep, which lets to take several review and scored tests (with the exception of writing, which obviously isn't automatically scored). This will also give you experience taking the computerized test.
A hard science will value the quantitative almost exclusively - it's not unusual to see international students admitted with 400s in verbal - while a history or english program will value verbal over quantitative. And like O said, many programs don't put much stock in the GRE. See if the grad program you're applying to releases stats on average GRE/GPA. That should give you some sense.
The GRE score range varies greatly based on the competitiveness of the program. Generally, you won't stand out without a combined score at least in the 50th percentile. Below 1000 combined may track you out of consideration. In a Ph.D program at the school I teach at, 1375 is about mean. But the average for one of the Master's programs is high 1100s (this is all public info, BTW).
Also, some students just naturally test better. I've known several people who test nearly perfectly (high 1500s combined). If you look at the curve of GRE quantitative scores, a good number get 800s. I did okay when I took it, but I tested consistently higher (nearly 100 points) on verbal without time constraints.
I would brush up on many of subjects: Geometry, Trigometry, Pre-Calculus, and your english basics.
Get the study book, study for three months, and do all the practice tests you can.
I remember the first question came up, I had never seen this calculus problem before, I thought I was fucked, it turned out well.
apparently the math is easier than SAT math. i dont remember a calculus question. i also had a writing section. igot790 verbal (99 percentile) and 760 math(80percentile). note that you have to be near perfect in math to score in a high percentile. i guess theres a lot of heads acing that shit.
long story short...read the study books start to finish and take practice tests. good luck. i had fun with it
Yeah, deadlines have passed, but the good thing about them is they come up again a year later. Every year. Now you have time to prepare properly. If you want to go back to school, its going to be harder now. Everyone is thinking like you, and many schools have reduced the admission rate due to losses in funding. However, you can still get in.
If you can afford a Kaplan test then do it. They're usually around a G, but the participants in these courses basically set the standard for scoring expectations.
When I did it I bought a practice book, as well as a vocab kit.
Look into your schools first, and figure out if you even have to take them, and if you do how they rank the scores when they review applications for admission
Almond: what kind of graduate program are you contemplating? Econ?
Having been on a graduate admissions committee before, here's how we factored in the GRE:
The first thing any committee wants to do is winnow the field. So there's a baseline GRE score and GPA that we're looking for - anything that falls under either can be (though not always) automatically disqualified.
But the inverse isn't true: an exceptionally high GRE or GPA won't help your application in the same way a low one can hurt it.
My advice would be to research the programs you're applying for and find out how relevant the GRE is for it. I think you could put the time and money into scoring really high on the GRE but to what aim? I think it's more rational (not to mention affordable) to see how you'd score in general and figure out if that's "good enough" to make that baseline cut.
Obviously, it depends on the program. If you're applying for math program, obviously, expectations would be different. However, most liberal arts programs probably won't really care so much either way.
the way the GRE works is simple - applications that score under a set number get disqualified automatically (same goes for GPAs).
But again, it comes back to whether the econ programs she'd be applying for really value the GRE for anything besides an excuse to dump an application into the "no" pile.
Personally - and this is just me - it's not worth $1000 and time/trouble to pay Kaplan to get a higher score that ultimately may not factor in so much.
Ethnomusicology programs require a 4-5 page statement of purpose. As do a lot of the other programs in the grey areas of the humanities.
If Econ programs are anything like JD programs, then the scores are pretty important. Both of my sisters are in law school, and apparently once you get your score you can determine what schools you'll get into.
Ah, I was used to the "3 page max" on statements of purpose but I might be misremembering that. Funny that to get a job in academia, you're expected to limit yourself to just two pages but with grad school, you're expected to go double that.
I think the LSAT (or MCAT) for that matter are weighed differently than the GRE tends to be. But again, I'm not an economist.
Big Stacks is though, no? We need him to weigh in here.
but yeah, im in grad school for chemistry now, our admissions are pretty much just looking for do you surpass the minimum GPA/GRE score, then they look at your letters of rec/research history.
LOL.
How's employment prospects for attorneys these days, anyways?
Either way practice exams are the way to go. Take them over and over til you are getting the score you want. Tons of questions get repeated that you will see on the practice exams and it will get your speed and confidence up. And take a break from this place so you aren't distracted... bad grades related.
LOL. One crackpot theory does not spoil the entire discipline (and heck, as a sociologist, I'm not even supposed to like economists).
This may be one of the craziest things I've ever read at SS.....I hope your documentary is about parents who have a 6 pm curfew for their 25 year old son....I'd watch that for sure.
There's beef between sociologists and economists?
Oh sorry in further detail I would like to say I think most academic disciplines in which grey matter analysis dominates over ideas and creativity are bordering on useless. I know I know I'm sorry, they are nice people, some even good friends of mine, but they waste a lot of paper, I mean when I go to the thrift store I am amazed at all the discards of the obsolete texts from some of these fields, economics, sociology, behavioral anthropology. The idea that they serve to perpetuate any growth or good through analysis has always been suspect to me. Uh oh.
Not as bad as, say, evolutionists and intelligent design advocates but sociologists and economists tend to accuse the other of being too reductionist to their respective, core theories.
I mean, sociology comes directly out of a response to Marxist theory and I don't get the impression that "Das Kapital" is that well respected in economics. As well, sociology tends to look to either gov't intervention and/or social movements as the key forces for social change whereas economists value the power of the free market as the fundamental social force guiding change. (I'm being quite reductionist myself of course, but these have been my impressions).