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Today I downloaded the PowerPrep ETS software and took one of the timed practice tests, scoring 165 on the Quantitative section and 167 on the Verbal section (respectively, 95th and 97th percentile). I know that both of my math mistakes were idiotic arithmetic errors (like 120/3=60, in my defense I spent half the test time chatting with people online) so I'm not so worried about that, I'll just grind some math problems for a while and I'll be fine.
The parts that I'm worried about are the Verbal section as well as the Analytical Writing section (which I skipped out of laziness as it can't be scored by the program). What are the best review books to purchase for Verbal and Writing? I was thinking of getting
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Words-GRE-Barrons/dp/0764144782/ Essential Words for the GRE (Barron's GRE) [Paperback]
http://www.amazon.com/Barrons-Verbal-Workbook-Philip-Geer/dp/0764142917/ Barron's GRE Verbal Workbook [Paperback]
but I have no idea what the best ones are (and I don't want to pay a lot of money for some kind of tutor or class). Does anyone have any suggestions?
Also, I landed potential math research as an incoming freshman. Pretty nice (｡◕‿‿◕｡; )
 
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Wait... I thought the minimum score was 200? Did you break the system? So they changed the way it's graded and now 170 is the top score.. your verbal section score is fuckinggggg good if you haven't realized (if you didn't cheat on it). For analytical writing, it helps if you had formal teaching in it. In Singapore, we have a type of English class in JC (the equivalent of senior high) that teaches critical thinking, and the analytical writing section was a cakewalk compared to our classes. The questions may change, but the format of analytical writing doesn't. See if you can borrow a book from your library (Singapore's libraries have a crap ton of outdated SAT/GRE guides) and study how to tackle the questions. It's pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it. The general guideline that I can give is to think about the big picture, not about yourself.
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If your scores are that good you don't need a class, the test prep industry is an enormous scam. Don't waste your time - go read a book or masturbate or something instead.
The writing section is bullshit, I doubt any admissions committees take it seriously. The prof I talked to recently said "writing section??"
edit: you're a freshman in college? Why are you prepping gre?
edit: seriously, I can't stress this point enough. Any admissions committee will look at that score you have, say "good enough" and go on to read the rest of your application. You get zero marginal utility in going from 97 -> 99.
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the gre website has enough information about the analytical writing section for you to prepare, including examples responses with critiques, how they score it, what they look for in scoring, and the entire pool of possible prompts
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sam!zdat: I was bored so I thought I'd just take a practice test to see how well I could do, and I was pleasantly surprised.
will respond more later going out to dinner brb, ty everyone
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On September 19 2012 09:52 meguca wrote:
sam!zdat: I was bored so I thought I'd just take a practice test to see how well I could do, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Don't be, there's no substantial difference between the SAT and GRE, except maybe the GRE goes all the way up through eighth grade.
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It's really easy. I just took it yesterday with little prep time (did one of the Powerprep practice tests + sat in the bookstore doing practice sections out of other books for a few days). You'll probably get around the same score (converted) you got on the SAT. Powerprep is a decent estimator; my estimated scores were higher than they were on the practice. Don't bother studying for it.
The biggest problem I had: As someone who suffers from RSI (CTS in particular), my wrists started aching after the two writing sections since the chairs weren't adjustable and the computer was too high up. Having to use the computer calculator did a number on my right wrist too. Too much clicking.
Honestly, the GRE is one of those things that can only marginally help you (like, for scholarships and stuff) and greatly hurt you. As long as you don't score too low, then there's little point to even trying to score above a 1400 (on the old scale, idk how much this is on the newer one).
EDIT: If you really really want to prepare, you should prep for like ... 1-2 weeks before your exam. Just do practice exams at the bookstore, and try not to fall asleep. Any more time spent prepping is a waste imo. Definitely don't waste money on prepping either.
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Yeah, with a score like that any more prep is likely a waste of time. What kind of program are you applying for? In Philosophy, GRE scores are very unimportant in an application, merely serving as a weedout measure (i.e. very low scores get dropped) while recommendation letters and writing sample are actually important in the graduate student selection process. You are well above any reasonable weedout cutoff, so if your program is like mine, you should stop trying.
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On September 19 2012 09:44 sam!zdat wrote:
If your scores are that good you don't need a class, the test prep industry is an enormous scam. Don't waste your time - go read a book or masturbate or something instead.
The writing section is bullshit, I doubt any admissions committees take it seriously. The prof I talked to recently said "writing section??"
edit: you're a freshman in college? Why are you prepping gre?
edit: seriously, I can't stress this point enough. Any admissions committee will look at that score you have, say "good enough" and go on to read the rest of your application. You get zero marginal utility in going from 97 -> 99.
I agree with everything in this post. No one actually care about the GRE, it's a slightly harder SAT. MIT doesn't even require it anymore. I think the only thing they might do is if you score below 50th percentile in something they'll look at you funny but it's almost certainly the least important factor for getting into a good grad school, after research, recommendations, grades.
(Disclaimer: I am not in grad school, I applied last year to a few schools but then decided I wanted to wait a year so here I am about to apply again. But everyone I have talked to about the GRE has said the same thing. I actually basically skipped the writing sections, just wrote a short paragraph for each prompt and moved on, and I still got 74th percentile for that, because I knew that for engineering they're not even going to look at it.)
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165 is 95th percentile for quant? I was under the impression 175-180 is standard for strong math grad hopefuls, 180 being the mode; oh well grats on your scores!
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The writing section is completely useless, because you basically never do serious timed writing again after HS in most cases, and grad schools don't give a fuck about whether or not you can answer two dumbass prompts well in an hour. What they care about is if you can put together a well-researched, well-organized, decently well-written research paper over a period of months.
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On September 19 2012 13:24 babylon wrote:
The writing section is completely useless, because you basically never do serious timed writing again after HS in most cases, and grad schools don't give a fuck about whether or not you can answer two dumbass prompts well in an hour. What they care about is if you can put together a well-researched, well-organized, decently well-written research paper over a period of months.
Word.
Seriously, the best word choice for how I feel about standardized test essays is "apoplexy"
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On September 19 2012 13:24 n.DieJokes wrote:
165 is 95th percentile for quant? I was under the impression 175-180 is standard for strong math grad hopefuls, 180 being the mode; oh well grats on your scores!
170 is the max lol
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GRE is a joke, don't waste your time studying for it, especially with such a high score on a practice test. As others have said, it's pretty low on the importance list for grad schools. As long as you aren't getting anything "too" low it won't really be a factor. I'm taking mine next week and can't even motivate myself to take a single practice exam. Well, I'll probably do some studying eventually, just to get into that test taking mindset (summer has done a great job making me lazy) but honestly, my scores aren't going to significantly improve. Only thing it might help with would be preventing dumb errors.
Writing might be useful to practice if you aren't confident in your ability to write essays on the spot. For objective, I just read the prompt, decide on your thesis, think of 2-3 examples (tip: these examples can be completely made up lol) and have a paragraph for each example, then conclusion. Argument essay might be a little more difficult but the prompts tend to have one blatant, gaping logic hole so focus on that and then approach it from different angles as to why it's bad logic. Personally, I have enough confidence in my writing to just wing the essays.
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Alright; I won't worry too much about it, then, and I think I'll try to get it over with soon. I got 11/12 on the SAT essay so hopefully I'll do decently on the GRE Writing.
Anyone have any tips for grad school admissions for ochem/organic synthesis/biochem/pharmacology?
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practice guessing! it's easy to get the math right as long as you're careful, but memorizing words is a pain. that's not to say you shouldn't brush up on vocabulary, but guessing will patch up the last few points for you (I don't think you need perfect answers for a perfect score)
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On September 19 2012 16:11 meguca wrote:
Alright; I won't worry too much about it, then, and I think I'll try to get it over with soon. I got 11/12 on the SAT essay so hopefully I'll do decently on the GRE Writing.
Anyone have any tips for grad school admissions for ochem/organic synthesis/biochem/pharmacology?
That's a wide range of subjects. First worry about narrowing down what you want to do (not only which area but which sub-focus, what type of research, etc.) before you even start thinking about grad school. Tbh all you can do with such wide, general interests is get as much experience as you can in a lab that does stuff that sounds interesting to you. Just email profs, make connections, and learn to ask for positions/sweet-talk your way into them.
Overall for grad school: your SOP, recs, and research/lab experience >>>>> GRE scores.
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EPT
