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17069 Posts
GRE scores aren't as useful as your undergrad research, to be honest. There's probably an expected score that you should be over, but beyond that, virtually all grad programs would rather know more about your undergrad experience than some test results.
Duke's stat grad program is very Bayesian oriented, as in CMU's. If you showed undergrad research in Bayesian stat methods, it would be much more useful to the admissions committee than a Verbal GRE score that's significantly higher.
By the way, the introductory grad course on probability/measure theory at Duke is absolute hell. It's usually taught by Robert Wolpert (who's a fucking genius) and problem sets take forever and are difficult as fuck.
EDIT: Here, try the midterm! (from last week): http://www.stat.duke.edu/courses/Fall10/sta205/exams/205f10mt.pdf
Class average was an 82. Can you beat the curve?
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Curse you all and your talent for quant btw.
Here I am trying to get into Econ and I'm demolishing the verbal section without effort but having trouble breaking 700 on quant ¬¬
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On October 31 2010 10:05 Divinek wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2010 08:41 Sufficiency wrote:On October 31 2010 07:52 selboN wrote:
Any reason why you didn't use the internet to discover Duke's location? There is no internet there. On October 31 2010 07:56 deafhobbit wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Got me into a MA at Georgetown. That is a really good score, but... It seems to me that GRE is just formality. I don't see how getting a good score shows my academic ability - not for the general test, anyways. the gre is entirely a formality, and for the general tests at least from the school admissions ive talked to they literally just have two piles, people who score over a certain range and those who dont lol. And the verbal cut off is verrry lenient
To my understanding, this is only true to a degree. Yes, most schools start with just a cut off score, but later on scores can be tie breakers for selective schools who need to cut down the number of applicants they're accepting. Likewise, how lenient the verbal cutoff is depends on the school and the program you're applying for, it's likely to be a lot lower for a math program than for, say, Political Science. Furthermore, at the point where an 800 in Q only gets you in the 94th percentile, high Q scores aren't that special for good programs in subjects where you'll be expected to do a lot of math.
All that said, the GRE is not a perfect predictor of grad school performance, but it does have a reasonably strong predictive power. GRE scores by themselves don't say much, but combined with undergrad GPA's, recommendations, submitted work, and experience it can give a decent picture of how you are likely to perform.
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That's actually what I got and was disappointed by my verbal score. 800, I thought, was easy for engineering majors cause the highest math they test you on is trig that you took in high school. GL on your apps.
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On October 31 2010 10:25 Entropic wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2010 10:06 ChaosWielder wrote:
I'm thinking about re-taking the GRE to improve my score(760 verbal feels low for me, honestly). Should I care about trying to improve? Do Grad schools care that much? I did very well at the University and have great letters of recommendation, but I feel like I could do better on the GRE.
I never studied for the GRE or did any practice tests, so I wonder if anyone thinks it is a good idea. Thanks in advance!
(also, sorry if this derails a bit from the OP's post--not sure if I should make a new blog or not) :/ lol... I dont know if it was your intention but your post came off as a very brag-in-disguise. Now assuming you are serious... Your verbal score matters for little honestly if youre trying to into grad school in sciences/maths/economics (I don't know what other fields look for). As for the quantitative section 760-800 is what you should be aiming for.
Yeah, I'm serious. I'm sorry if it came off as bragging, really--I suppose there was just no other way I could word the response. So, sorry about that. :/
I got 500 in quantitative and I'm looking at philosophy programs(not philosophy of logic or science, for those curious). I guess I'm just really nervous about the application process, seeing as how I have no idea in hell what I'll do if I don't get accepted.
Thanks for the info bbq. That was kind of my impression as well, but I just wanted to be sure(or reassure myself). I'm stressing like no other over this, so any info is appreciated.
(and, yeah, again hope this isn't too much of a derail)
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EPT
