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On October 04 2010 19:15 KristianJS wrote:
Honestly, as a non-US citizen I find the GRE General a joke. Okay, I get that the verbal won't matter as I'm applying to maths phds, but the Quant stuff is absurd. I'll have finished a masters in mathematics doing courses in analytic number theory, elliptic curves, algebraic topology etc. and yet they still find it necessary to check that I can do sums and percentages. Cool...
I mean, I get why they do it, and I wouldn't really mind too much except for the fact that I have to pay shitloads to take the test and go travel by train and rent a hotel room for a night in my extremely busy term time just to do it.
I'm not even caring about the verbal section though to be honest. I find it extremely hard to believe that my mathematical merit will be judged by the extent of my vocabulary, so an average score ought to do it.
Again, I find it hard just to achieve an average score. Whatever the average is.
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If you practice a bit and go for it that should give you an average score I would presume.
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On October 04 2010 19:15 KristianJS wrote:
Honestly, as a non-US citizen I find the GRE General a joke. Okay, I get that the verbal won't matter as I'm applying to maths phds, but the Quant stuff is absurd. I'll have finished a masters in mathematics doing courses in analytic number theory, elliptic curves, algebraic topology etc. and yet they still find it necessary to check that I can do sums and percentages. Cool...
I mean, I get why they do it, and I wouldn't really mind too much except for the fact that I have to pay shitloads to take the test and go travel by train and rent a hotel room for a night in my extremely busy term time just to do it.
I'm not even caring about the verbal section though to be honest. I find it extremely hard to believe that my mathematical merit will be judged by the extent of my vocabulary, so an average score ought to do it.
oddly enough, don't you think the verbal section is more relevant to a math phd than the math section? I mean, you also have to do the specific math subject gre which will test the advance stuff, fight? and how often in a math phd program do you really need to do the basic arithmatic and geometry that the gre tests? Whereas you'll probably be reading a lot of papers, and if you're from a foreign country they have to check your english.
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On October 04 2010 22:44 Luddite wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 19:15 KristianJS wrote:
Honestly, as a non-US citizen I find the GRE General a joke. Okay, I get that the verbal won't matter as I'm applying to maths phds, but the Quant stuff is absurd. I'll have finished a masters in mathematics doing courses in analytic number theory, elliptic curves, algebraic topology etc. and yet they still find it necessary to check that I can do sums and percentages. Cool...
I mean, I get why they do it, and I wouldn't really mind too much except for the fact that I have to pay shitloads to take the test and go travel by train and rent a hotel room for a night in my extremely busy term time just to do it.
I'm not even caring about the verbal section though to be honest. I find it extremely hard to believe that my mathematical merit will be judged by the extent of my vocabulary, so an average score ought to do it. oddly enough, don't you think the verbal section is more relevant to a math phd than the math section? I mean, you also have to do the specific math subject gre which will test the advance stuff, fight? and how often in a math phd program do you really need to do the basic arithmatic and geometry that the gre tests? Whereas you'll probably be reading a lot of papers, and if you're from a foreign country they have to check your english.
My first language is English and I've taken my entire masters degree in England though, so that's not an issue. If your mother tongue is English you can read and write a maths paper; mathematicians don't use excessive vocab, they always strive for clarity and easy accessibility.
As for the subject test, I can understand that a lot more, but it's still annoying, since it's not advanced, it's stuff I did 3 years ago by now. Again, I wouldn't complain except it's expensive and time-consuming. But of course I see the rationale....the US get applicants from all over the world, and unis have differing standards, so even though I know my university is more than reputable enough to really make the GRE tests unnecessary, that's not necessarily the case elsewhere.
Sorry for the ranting btw, I'm taking both tests the end of this week and it's annoying me since I'm trying to do my masters project at the same time as relearning basic arithmetic 
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On October 04 2010 23:03 KristianJS wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 22:44 Luddite wrote:On October 04 2010 19:15 KristianJS wrote:
Honestly, as a non-US citizen I find the GRE General a joke. Okay, I get that the verbal won't matter as I'm applying to maths phds, but the Quant stuff is absurd. I'll have finished a masters in mathematics doing courses in analytic number theory, elliptic curves, algebraic topology etc. and yet they still find it necessary to check that I can do sums and percentages. Cool...
I mean, I get why they do it, and I wouldn't really mind too much except for the fact that I have to pay shitloads to take the test and go travel by train and rent a hotel room for a night in my extremely busy term time just to do it.
I'm not even caring about the verbal section though to be honest. I find it extremely hard to believe that my mathematical merit will be judged by the extent of my vocabulary, so an average score ought to do it. oddly enough, don't you think the verbal section is more relevant to a math phd than the math section? I mean, you also have to do the specific math subject gre which will test the advance stuff, fight? and how often in a math phd program do you really need to do the basic arithmatic and geometry that the gre tests? Whereas you'll probably be reading a lot of papers, and if you're from a foreign country they have to check your english. My first language is English and I've taken my entire masters degree in England though, so that's not an issue. If your mother tongue is English you can read and write a maths paper; mathematicians don't use excessive vocab, they always strive for clarity and easy accessibility. As for the subject test, I can understand that a lot more, but it's still annoying, since it's not advanced, it's stuff I did 3 years ago by now. Again, I wouldn't complain except it's expensive and time-consuming. But of course I see the rationale....the US get applicants from all over the world, and unis have differing standards, so even though I know my university is more than reputable enough to really make the GRE tests unnecessary, that's not necessarily the case elsewhere. Sorry for the ranting btw, I'm taking both tests the end of this week and it's annoying me since I'm trying to do my masters project at the same time as relearning basic arithmetic
Sigh. It's really questionable of whether or not University of Toronto is "reputable". Owel.
As for the subject test, I have forfeited it already even though many schools "recommend" it. I have a master's degree in mathematics. I hope they just buy that so I won't have to take the math sub 
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What was nice about the program that im at now for my masters is that the fdepartment here does not require the GRE since they say its a student indicator of a students potential in grad school.
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On October 04 2010 14:51 Divinek wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 10:11 Xeris wrote:On October 04 2010 08:47 KOFgokuon wrote:
lol the math section of the GRE was the biggest waste of time of my life
and to be honest, I probably would have done better on the GRE verbal if I'd taken it the day after I took my SAT's
Either way, 800/680/perfect on writing, got into every grad school that I applied to
I spoke with the grad admissions officer at my undergrad department, he basically told me the way that he handles GRE's is that he just throws apps in 1 pile or another, if you get above a certain threshold (he didn't tell me, prolly 500 verbal 700 math) then that's all that matters what was your GPA and what programs did you go to ? (Law school if i remember right? or am I thinking of Grinq) i bet good money he went to MIT for chemical engineering, or im sure that's very close also i have to take the GRE next year, this sounds painful
stalker lol
yea MIT chemical engineering phd
I got into...MIT stanford UC berkeley carnegie mellon michigan upenn princeton...GPA I think i had a 3.94
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United States16368 Posts
On October 05 2010 02:23 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 23:03 KristianJS wrote:On October 04 2010 22:44 Luddite wrote:On October 04 2010 19:15 KristianJS wrote:
Honestly, as a non-US citizen I find the GRE General a joke. Okay, I get that the verbal won't matter as I'm applying to maths phds, but the Quant stuff is absurd. I'll have finished a masters in mathematics doing courses in analytic number theory, elliptic curves, algebraic topology etc. and yet they still find it necessary to check that I can do sums and percentages. Cool...
I mean, I get why they do it, and I wouldn't really mind too much except for the fact that I have to pay shitloads to take the test and go travel by train and rent a hotel room for a night in my extremely busy term time just to do it.
I'm not even caring about the verbal section though to be honest. I find it extremely hard to believe that my mathematical merit will be judged by the extent of my vocabulary, so an average score ought to do it. oddly enough, don't you think the verbal section is more relevant to a math phd than the math section? I mean, you also have to do the specific math subject gre which will test the advance stuff, fight? and how often in a math phd program do you really need to do the basic arithmatic and geometry that the gre tests? Whereas you'll probably be reading a lot of papers, and if you're from a foreign country they have to check your english. My first language is English and I've taken my entire masters degree in England though, so that's not an issue. If your mother tongue is English you can read and write a maths paper; mathematicians don't use excessive vocab, they always strive for clarity and easy accessibility. As for the subject test, I can understand that a lot more, but it's still annoying, since it's not advanced, it's stuff I did 3 years ago by now. Again, I wouldn't complain except it's expensive and time-consuming. But of course I see the rationale....the US get applicants from all over the world, and unis have differing standards, so even though I know my university is more than reputable enough to really make the GRE tests unnecessary, that's not necessarily the case elsewhere. Sorry for the ranting btw, I'm taking both tests the end of this week and it's annoying me since I'm trying to do my masters project at the same time as relearning basic arithmetic Sigh. It's really questionable of whether or not University of Toronto is "reputable". Owel. As for the subject test, I have forfeited it already even though many schools "recommend" it. I have a master's degree in mathematics. I hope they just buy that so I won't have to take the math sub
Toronto is definitely a reputable school, it's one of the top schools in Canada, so I really wouldn't worry about that aspect. If you think you can score well on the subject test, you should take it; otherwise, it's often okay to ignore it if it's not required.
Also, although people (myself included) repeatedly claimed that verbal does not matter, you should still try to get at least 400, otherwise, it just looks bad...
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The funny thing I found about the general GRE is that once you start getting verbal questions correct it start pounding you with harder and harder ones (on the computerized version). Quant was super easy but I can imagine some people would have problems finishing it in time.
I'm taking the math subject GRE this Saturday and I feel quite bad about it. I'm a discrete optimization major, but I'm tested on pretty much everything that I DON'T study, like complex and real analysis, point set topology, differential equations, etc. It's frustrating to study for those things and to be expected to know them when I never use them in my major.
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On October 04 2010 04:46 Cambium wrote:
This is what my room-mate told me to "console" me when I was bitching about verbal:
At least you can cram words, you really can't cram maths.
I guess it's fair =/
It's the truth! Math you actually have to know. Words, you can often eliminate a couple things without actually having any idea what the word in question means.
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Like most people said, I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you're doing engineering or compsci(get at least 550 IMO. Make sure you get 800 on the math section though. I was definitely stressed out when taking the GRE last year and didn't do as well as I wanted on verbal, but I still got into the schools I applied to. GPA is more important than a great verbal score. Good luck.
If your practice scores are really really bad then I would suggest memorizing some words from barrons word list ( i memorized about 800 words in about a week and I saw maybe 5 show up in the actual test, but it was worth it imo)
If you need any advice feel free to ask. It's stressful but you'll get through it
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If there was one thing that I was lucky about for grad school, it's that I didn't have to take any subject GRE exam. Those things are so freaking hard haha
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I studied verbal with the barron's guide. their master list had bolded word that was common in past GREs, I actually found that maybe 1/3 of the verbal volcab questions I got right because of those 300 or so bolded words. maybe I'm just lucky though.
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How is the first question's answer B? The analogy is clearly using synonyms:
Q: minutiae (precise details) : details (an individual or minute part)
B.
quibble -- an instance of the use of ambiguous, prevaricating, or irrelevant language or arguments to evade a point at issue.
complaint -- an expression of discontent, regret, pain, censure, resentment, or grief
D.
approximation -- a guess or estimate
estimation -- approximate calculation
Answer should be D... 
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On October 05 2010 11:45 paper wrote:How is the first question's answer B? The analogy is clearly using synonyms: Q: minutiae (precise details) : details (an individual or minute part) B. quibble -- an instance of the use of ambiguous, prevaricating, or irrelevant language or arguments to evade a point at issue. complaint -- an expression of discontent, regret, pain, censure, resentment, or grief D. approximation -- a guess or estimateestimation -- approximate calculation Answer should be D...
A minutiae is a small detail. A quibble is a small complaint.
That's what it says on the book.
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You are all like the reverse of me ;_;
I rape the verbal and always make retarded mistakes on the math :/
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EPT
