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I am taking the General GRE on October 31st. I have been trying to learn new words for two months.
Today I opened the book I bought from Princeton Review (contains practice questions), did some of them, and my feeling right now can be described by the following pictorial representation.
+ Show Spoiler +
I am doomed. 
Here's an example (analogies):
+ Show Spoiler +Minutiae : Details A) queries : rejoinders B) quibbles : complaints C) particles : materials D) approximations : estimations E) cells : organisms Poll: Answer is...?B (41) 62% D (21) 32% A (2) 3% C (1) 2% E (1) 2% 66 total votes Your vote: Answer is...? (Vote): A
(Vote): B
(Vote): C
(Vote): D
(Vote): E
Here's a second example (I copied the question down correctly; it doesn't really tell me what the fuck I should be doing):
PIQUE:
A) aggrieve
B) dulcify
C) shirk
D) aggrandize
E) rouse
Poll: The answer is....E (22) 67% B (5) 15% C (3) 9% A (2) 6% D (1) 3% 33 total votes Your vote: The answer is.... (Vote): A
(Vote): B
(Vote): C
(Vote): D
(Vote): E
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The hardest part of taking the GRE? Rewriting a paragraph in cursive for the form you fill out stating you won't cheat or tell people the questions. Study up on your cursive or just scribble jibberish like I did haha
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What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed.
Is the answer B?
+ Show Spoiler +
Minutae is like a small detail
Quibble is a minor complaint
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On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed.
But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics.
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The best way to do it in my experience is to not even attempt to learn individual words. Just learn the latin bases and extrapolate from there. Since all the questions are multiple choice, if you have that foundation you can normally get a good idea and use that to pick the right option.
Also, the verbal portion of the GRE (the part that the word meaning is) is by far the hardest part to score well on, and your performance is based on percentiles, so as long as you beat everyone else you'll be fine :D
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On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics.
I was applying to mostly Computer Science.
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I just took it and I did OK.. not great by any means
But honestly people do really shitty on verbal in general, so don't feel too bad 
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On October 04 2010 04:22 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics. I was applying to mostly Computer Science.
Oh. I am interested in what schools accepted you.
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I think when I took it last year, 800 verbal was 92% percentile and up, and quant 800 was 99%. Just to give you some perspective.
Also, if you are taking the computer version, don't fuck up the first few questions (goes for both verbal and quant). If you do, the computer will think you are stupid and give you only easy questions...
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On October 04 2010 04:25 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:22 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics. I was applying to mostly Computer Science. Oh. I am interested in what schools accepted you.
I was accepted by CMU and Cornell. Got rejected by Stanford and UMich.
In general, I don't think your GRE scores matter too much. You just need to do reasonably well to let them know that you aren't an idiot. Unlike undergrad, you should have many more credentials when applying for grad school such as research, work experience, realistic future outlooks and aspirations, and more importantly, recommendation letters from professors.
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On October 04 2010 04:27 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:25 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:22 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics. I was applying to mostly Computer Science. Oh. I am interested in what schools accepted you. Cornell CS.
O wow.....
Like I said I have spent a lot of time learning new words. I have about 1k-2k written down. So far I think I have already memorized about a quarter of them. As I review them everyday I will raise that percentage to (hopefully) 50-75%.
What you said is what I fear right now. I suspect many schools won't even bother to look at my GRE score, making all the time I invested to waste. On the other hand, if I do too poorly I am worried that it may affect my applications. It's really a dilemma for me right now as I really could have spent all of this time for something else, like reading some paper and identify some area of research I am mostly interested in, or just take an extra course.
EDIT: would you mind sharing what verbal score you actually got?
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I edited my post. Read above.
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On October 04 2010 04:30 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:27 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:25 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:22 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics. I was applying to mostly Computer Science. Oh. I am interested in what schools accepted you. Cornell CS. O wow..... Like I said I have spent a lot of time learning new words. I have about 1k-2k written down. So far I think I have already memorized about a quarter of them. As I review them everyday I will raise that percentage to (hopefully) 50-75%. What you said is what I fear right now. I suspect many schools won't even bother to look at my GRE score, making all the time I invested to waste. On the other hand, if I do too poorly I am worried that it may affect my applications. It's really a dilemma for me right now as I really could have spent all of this time for something else, like reading some paper and identify some area of research I am mostly interested in, or just take an extra course. EDIT: would you mind sharing what verbal score you actually got?
Yea, I think I got 510, or something terrible. lol
What I dreaded the most, afterwards, was that I spent like 2 months studying GRE words, and spent literally 1.5 hrs on quant (did two practice tests) and got 800/510. w/e. It's all in the past.
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On October 04 2010 04:19 Thegilaboy wrote:
The hardest part of taking the GRE? Rewriting a paragraph in cursive for the form you fill out stating you won't cheat or tell people the questions. Study up on your cursive or just scribble jibberish like I did haha
that took me so long
omg
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
iirc I was accepted to Cornell EE masters with 800 math 660 verbal.
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I freaking HATE this test...and I have to take it again after my masters when I apply to PhD programs...Blah =\
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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 =/
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On October 04 2010 04:45 Slaughter wrote:
I freaking HATE this test...and I have to take it again after my masters when I apply to PhD programs...Blah =\
Isn't it good for 5 years?
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yeah this test is retarded. if you are applying to math or engineering programs, though, don't sweat the verbal. I got 580 verbal/760 quant (yes I fucked up the quant) and was accepted to umich masters, georgia tech masters, and brown masters. My friend got 460 verbal / 800 quant and was accepted to stanford's EE phd program.
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On October 04 2010 04:55 AcrossFiveJulys wrote:
yeah this test is retarded. if you are applying to math or engineering programs, though, don't sweat the verbal. I got 580 verbal/760 quant (yes I fucked up the quant) and was accepted to umich masters, georgia tech masters, and brown masters. My friend got 460 verbal / 800 quant and was accepted to stanford's EE phd program.
Right now I can hardly do half of the verbal questions correctly. Sometimes I doubt I can even get, say, 460 on verbal.
owel, still got a month, I guess...
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I voted D but was torn between D and B.
After looking up quibble, though, the answer definitely seems to be B.
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No one voted for C. I guess I am the only one who thought C was a valid answer.
I am retarded. Sigh.
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Do a practice set and see what you get. Unless you read a lot, I think it's pretty hard to get over 600 verbal even if you cram your brains out. A lot of this is based on luck.
The reading comprehension part is also a bitch. I had three passages, and I didn't get a single technical paper. They were all a mixture of history, social science, racism and feminism. I raged so hard after the test
Edit:
One trick I use to do these A:B :: C:D questions is I try to describe A wrt B (or B wrt A), and then see if one of the choices fits directly into that description. But obviously, you have to know enough words to do this =.=
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On October 04 2010 05:03 Cambium wrote:Do a practice set and see what you get. Unless you read a lot, I think it's pretty hard to get over 600 verbal even if you cram your brains out. A lot of this is based on luck. The reading comprehension part is also a bitch. I had three passages, and I didn't get a single technical paper. They were all a mixture of history, social science, racism and feminism. I raged so hard after the test
Ironically I am quite familiar with history, social science, psychology, and .... (I am serious) feminism. For non-academic reasons, I attended three semester worth of Womens' Studies lectures. I know all about those things!
O well, I haven't even gotten to the reading part yet, but what you said about "technical" may not help you. I remember reading a "math passage" from an MCAT practice test before; I didn't understand a single bit of it.
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Braavos36373 Posts
Doing well on the verbal section of these types of test is really all about how much you read books / newspapers when you were growing up. It's incredibly hard to improve on the non-reading comprehension parts, and studying vocabulary is a huge waste of time. If you need to cram verbal, focus on how to read the passages and extract the key information better, as the questions are very formulaic and you can improve your score greatly if you're just familiar with the material.
You have time. Do a full practice GRE test every day 5 days a week until your test. If you're confident in the math part, instead of the normal breakdown, do 1 section of math and the rest verbal. I realize this is a lot of time, like 4-5 hours a day, but you can do it. Because if you do, and you do it diligently under "true" test conditions (no breaks, simulate real test as much as possible), you're going to destroy this test at the end of the month. It's just a matter of how hard you can push yourself to do practice tests.
If you really care about this, you'll make sacrifices and work. Stop talking or analyzing or figuring out how to do it. Just do the work. Do 20+ full practice tests this month. I guarantee you'll get a good score, or at least much better than you'd expect.
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On October 04 2010 04:26 Cambium wrote:
I think when I took it last year, 800 verbal was 92% percentile and up, and quant 800 was 99%. Just to give you some perspective.
Also, if you are taking the computer version, don't fuck up the first few questions (goes for both verbal and quant). If you do, the computer will think you are stupid and give you only easy questions...
Don't you mean the other way around? 800 quantitative is usually around 92-93 percentile.
Last year I got 800 quantitative (92 percentile I think), 710 verbal (97 percentile I think), and 5.0 writing (83 percentile I think). I crammed the top 200 list of words and saw 3-4 of them on my exam, so I was lucky.
I only took two practice exams and am not sure that taking more would have helped me out more. If you're confident in pacing yourself, learning more words, roots, suffixes, prefixes, connotations, etc. is more important than practice exams I think.
As an undergrad applying to direct-entry Ph.D programs--or Masters when not available--in EE, I got into Clemson, UCSD, and UIUC with decent financial offers. Got rejected from MIT and Stanford. One friend in CompE also in communications had lower scores and less research experience, and got into Stanford Masters -> Ph.D. Another friend in EE got into Cal Berkeley (actually, every top-10 school in EE he applied to but MIT and Stanford, which was 6/8 of them) on something like 550 Verbal and 760 Quant, all direct-entry Ph.D. where possible.
edit: And don't a lot of humanities-area majors get a higher score (not percentile) on quant than verbal? One of my friends who studied sociology who has read a lot of books, previously studied creative writing, and wants to be published one day got like 770 quant, 610 verbal, 5.0 writing. By her own admission, she sucks at calculus 1 and "real" math.
My point is that the test makers have no idea wtf they're doing in terms of balancing the test and have no idea what they're measuring.
GRE scores are definitely not all that count--and rightfully so--so don't sweat it too much.
I also got owned by the cursive...
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Don't sweat it too much, just make sure you don't fuck up math section. Most universities know that the GRE verbal section is pretty out of date, and will generally not care much about it if you aren't a humanities major. After all, in the information age we can just look up the definition of a word online in less than 5 seconds.
I thought the analogy section on Princeton Review was pretty helpful. The part where it's saying how you relate the first two words (characterized by, opposite of, etc...). It's a good practice to get you away from the innate sense of doing analogy by saying A is like B as to C is like D, which doesn't actually eliminate many of the choices.
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oops, accidentally clicked the quote button.
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I'm taking this test in one week. Does anyone know a good site I can get free practice tests? I've sort of given up memorizing vocab, so I'm just reviewing geometry rules and plan to take a ton of practice tests.
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I really feel like the math should be easier for me but I kinda struggle with some stuff... the verbal is maddening. I've read SO MUCH and there are still words I've never seen before, or I see words I know vaguely, but sometimes you need to have such a precise definition to get the context of what they're asking you for, its really annoying.
Does anyone know what kind of average scores top schools for IR require? I.E... would I get into Georgetown with a 1400? A 1500? Etc?
I'm trying to get an estimate of what I should be shooting for and how much work I should put in TT!
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On October 04 2010 04:19 Thegilaboy wrote:
The hardest part of taking the GRE? Rewriting a paragraph in cursive for the form you fill out stating you won't cheat or tell people the questions. Study up on your cursive or just scribble jibberish like I did haha
hahahaha THIS. it took me like 20 minutes to write that crap out
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On October 04 2010 04:19 Thegilaboy wrote:
The hardest part of taking the GRE? Rewriting a paragraph in cursive for the form you fill out stating you won't cheat or tell people the questions. Study up on your cursive or just scribble jibberish like I did haha
Yup, that cursive writing was a huge pain. I swear 2 people started a few minutes after me, and still finished before me.
But anyways, to my knowledge nobody really cares about GRE as long as you don't bomb it. I think I got 790/600/5 and 860 on the subject one as well. I was actually impressed I did so well on the verbal/writing since I don't read much, and didn't study near as much as I wanted. Lol I had a power outtage during the test too. Got in everywhere I applied for Chemistry/Chemical Biology (except Stanford lol), but I really doubt the GRE had any influence. I'm honestly guessing that most of the comittee members didn't have give a second glance to the GRE.
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On October 04 2010 05:43 benjammin wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:19 Thegilaboy wrote:
The hardest part of taking the GRE? Rewriting a paragraph in cursive for the form you fill out stating you won't cheat or tell people the questions. Study up on your cursive or just scribble jibberish like I did haha hahahaha THIS. it took me like 20 minutes to write that crap out
Seriously, who the fuck even uses cursive? Why do we even have to learn it?
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On October 04 2010 05:23 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:26 Cambium wrote:
I think when I took it last year, 800 verbal was 92% percentile and up, and quant 800 was 99%. Just to give you some perspective.
Also, if you are taking the computer version, don't fuck up the first few questions (goes for both verbal and quant). If you do, the computer will think you are stupid and give you only easy questions... Don't you mean the other way around? 800 quantitative is usually around 92-93 percentile.
Yep, you are right. I swapped the two around.
Seriously, GRE is just an idiot bar. Very rarely (if ever) does your GRE score make or break your application, talking about 1300 (arbitrarily chosen) and up.
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10387 Posts
Wait, what are the answers to the questions?? I chose a&e..
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On October 04 2010 07:23 ArvickHero wrote:
Wait, what are the answers to the questions?? I chose a&e..
The answer to the first question is B.
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On October 04 2010 04:46 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:45 Slaughter wrote:
I freaking HATE this test...and I have to take it again after my masters when I apply to PhD programs...Blah =\ Isn't it good for 5 years?
It is but I only got like a 1200 something and the profs here say that in my field they basically won't look at your app if you have under 1300 for PhD programs. So need to get it up ><
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On October 04 2010 07:47 Slaughter wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:46 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:45 Slaughter wrote:
I freaking HATE this test...and I have to take it again after my masters when I apply to PhD programs...Blah =\ Isn't it good for 5 years? It is but I only got like a 1200 something and the profs here say that in my field they basically won't look at your app if you have under 1300 for PhD programs. So need to get it up ><
What kind of program is it.?
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I just finished one set of diagnostic test.
For math, I got 28/28
For verbal, I got 10/30
FUUUUUU
OK back to memorizing words..
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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
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On October 04 2010 08:24 illu wrote:I just finished one set of diagnostic test. For math, I got 28/28 For verbal, I got 10/30 FUUUUUU OK back to memorizing words..
Lol, you remind me of myself, just a year ago.
GL!
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On October 04 2010 05:21 Hot_Bid wrote:
Doing well on the verbal section of these types of test is really all about how much you read books / newspapers when you were growing up. It's incredibly hard to improve on the non-reading comprehension parts, and studying vocabulary is a huge waste of time. If you need to cram verbal, focus on how to read the passages and extract the key information better, as the questions are very formulaic and you can improve your score greatly if you're just familiar with the material.
You have time. Do a full practice GRE test every day 5 days a week until your test. If you're confident in the math part, instead of the normal breakdown, do 1 section of math and the rest verbal. I realize this is a lot of time, like 4-5 hours a day, but you can do it. Because if you do, and you do it diligently under "true" test conditions (no breaks, simulate real test as much as possible), you're going to destroy this test at the end of the month. It's just a matter of how hard you can push yourself to do practice tests.
If you really care about this, you'll make sacrifices and work. Stop talking or analyzing or figuring out how to do it. Just do the work. Do 20+ full practice tests this month. I guarantee you'll get a good score, or at least much better than you'd expect.
This. I took a ton of practice SAT tests in high school, like >150 so I'm pretty practiced with these kind of questions and they are extremely formulaic. If you haven't taken too many practice tests then do that first because 75% of beating the SAT/GRE isn't knowledge of vocab or math but of recognizing the question. After you have a comfortable grasp with recognizing what kind of questions are asked and how to answer, just memorize words because you're going to need them for verbal. When I studied for the GRE I just sat down and stuided the most used words for 2 weeks and I was able to go 800 quant 720 verbal (92 percentile and 94 percentile respectively).
Edit: x.x I misread your thing. I don't think you can discount the need for verbal since so many questions are straight up analogies/antonyms =/, though its true though that a lot of your ability to do well on the passages depends on familiarity.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
On October 04 2010 04:55 AcrossFiveJulys wrote:
yeah this test is retarded. if you are applying to math or engineering programs, though, don't sweat the verbal. I got 580 verbal/760 quant (yes I fucked up the quant) and was accepted to umich masters, georgia tech masters, and brown masters. My friend got 460 verbal / 800 quant and was accepted to stanford's EE phd program.
haha I remember my korean friend being super stressed out b/c he only got 520 on verbal or something (then got into Stanford Physics PHD).
I definitely agree that unless you show that you're a moron via these tests, it won't make or break you. (GMAT / LSAT / MCAT will though)
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
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
well I imagine your GPA is super high though 
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How does GRE equate with SAT usually? I wrecked the SAT (2210 first shot no practice) but I'm a little more concerned with the GRE since I know absolutely nothing about it. Granted I still have some time before its a concern but if it's like the SAT then I really don't think it'll be a big deal.
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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)
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On October 04 2010 07:53 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 07:47 Slaughter wrote:On October 04 2010 04:46 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:45 Slaughter wrote:
I freaking HATE this test...and I have to take it again after my masters when I apply to PhD programs...Blah =\ Isn't it good for 5 years? It is but I only got like a 1200 something and the profs here say that in my field they basically won't look at your app if you have under 1300 for PhD programs. So need to get it up >< What kind of program is it.?
Biological anthropology, with an emphasis on human osteology/forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology. Also maybe some paleodemographic stuff.
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Am I the only one who thought this was about Generic Routing Encapsulation?
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On October 04 2010 10:08 Floophead_III wrote:
How does GRE equate with SAT usually? I wrecked the SAT (2210 first shot no practice) but I'm a little more concerned with the GRE since I know absolutely nothing about it. Granted I still have some time before its a concern but if it's like the SAT then I really don't think it'll be a big deal.
The SAT has changed a little bit since I took it. I took both old format and new format but remember the old format (only math and verbal) better. I think they took analogies out of the SAT verbal for the new format, but they're still on the GRE verbal. Also, the GRE writing is just 100% you writing your own stuff based on a prompt. But the kind of questions asked on both are very similar in general.
The quantitative is very slightly harder on the GRE and covers a few more high-school level concepts, but it's still easy enough that anybody going to graduate school in a technical area should be getting (just about) everything right, just like for the SAT.
The verbal is much harder on the GRE, mainly because the vocabulary words are even more obscure.
It's mainly the format and length that are different--the GRE is a shorter exam. Most people take the computer version, where the questions get harder or easier based on how well you're doing. As a consequence, you're not allowed to skip questions and return to them, so pacing yourself is slightly harder.
All in all, the GRE is not something to worry about much if you did well on the SAT.
edit: On October 04 2010 08:47 KOFgokuon wrote: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
I've heard this from multiple sources as well. This GRE threshold sort seems to be common practice.
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On October 04 2010 11:04 R1CH wrote:
Am I the only one who thought this was about Generic Routing Encapsulation?
.....What?
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if you're applying to a program that is using GRE thresholds, you probably don't want to go there. so many other things are so considerably more important
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On October 04 2010 10:11 Xeris wrote:Show nested quote +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
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On October 04 2010 14:48 benjammin wrote:
if you're applying to a program that is using GRE thresholds, you probably don't want to go there. so many other things are so considerably more important
Most programs with a very high number of applicants use base gre scores as their initial screening process.
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On October 04 2010 11:04 R1CH wrote:
Am I the only one who thought this was about Generic Routing Encapsulation?
Probably yes.
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I really don't think they will care much about your GRE verbal score in a statistics program.
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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.
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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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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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