<p>i have a near perfect undergraduate record (all As except two courses, with the highest score possible for a B), and the masters i'm doing right now seems to be going the same.</p>
<p>but i'm not confident about my GRE scores. I didn't take it yet, but on all practice ones I do I score low on the maths section and only a bit over average on the verbal. I want to apply to do an english phd... I think my problem is that I'm in a country where standard and multiple choice testing is never done, and I do find it odd somehow. I'm trying to improve, but I doubt I'll ever get very high scores. </p>
<p>Will that ruin my chances of acceptance? I'm sure I can get very good references and write good statements too. I want to apply to Cornell, Yale and Chicago I think.</p>
<p>While low GRE's will not ruin yur chances, the rest of your application will need to demonstrate to the graduate admissions committee a high degree of scholarship and future potential. If the English departments at any of those universities use GRE scores for cutoff purposes (not reaching a predetermined score gets your application thrown out), you should try to make contact with department faculty who you might wish to work with/for and see if they can shepherd your application through the process. If your references have personal relationships with faculty at any of these universities you might ask for a personal letter/email of introduction to them.
Poor GRE scores do not carry the kiss of death that poor SAT scores do. BEing very proactive and aggressive in the application process is necessary.</p>
<p>GRE scores are over-rated. I had a 4.0 when I applied to grad school, but my GREs were pretty bad: 490 verbal and 770 math. I didn't do any preparation for the exam because I didn't have time to with work and classes. </p>
<p>I just got accepted to 5/7 of the places I applied, including Ivies and top UCs. I had one interviewer ask me abut my score, and she said "this just goes to show what a poor measure the GRE is of verbal and writing abilities".</p>
<p>I am a science major, but writing is still important because you have to write publishable papers. Still, for English, I assume they take the verbal score far more seriously. </p>
<p>Don't worry about your GREs too much . . . even if they are below the 50% mark it won't ruin your chances as long as you are outstanding in other ways. A master's will help you a great deal and your GPA, research/work experience/coursework, and letters of rec will be the major deciding factors. </p>
<p>It is also a great idea to contact faculty at the universities you are applying to, and you can contact the admissions office via a letter or email, and explicitly explain your situation with the GRE. They should make allowances for a poor score, especially if you were not schooled in the US.</p>
<p>I studied in the UK for a year, and I know the amount of writing students have to do over there. In the US, I never had to write essays except for english classes, but in England all of my science exams were 15 page essays. Whereas here, it's been more short answer and MCQs . . . go figure!</p>