<p>Hi, I was wondering what the range of scores is that would be considered "competitive" for the Math Subject GRE test. I believe that the overall scale is 200-990, right?</p>
<p>Specifically, what would be a competitive range for schools like Berkeley, U of Chicago, MIT, Princeton? </p>
<p>Also, about how many questions can one miss to stay in this range?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p><strong>The following is all based on what I've heard others say</strong></p>
<p>Hey. The Math GRE Subject Test is very different from most other standardized tests because of who you're competing with. There are a lot of students who already have (or are working towards) their masters degrees, so they generally have a year or two advantage over everyone else. There are also a lot of international students who learn the material more rigorously, and they also tend to score higher. Because of this, most graduate schools seem unwilling to tell students what a good score is, but I can probably give a good answer to this.</p>
<p>The first thing that must be mentioned is that GRE Subject Test scores are not the most important thing for graduate school admissions. From what I've heard from various sources, professor letters of recommendation are by far the most important, followed by your statement of purpose, and then your grades. I've heard the breakdown is roughly as follows:</p>
<p>40% - Professor Recommendations
30% - Statement of Purpose
20% - Grades and Coursework
10% - Subject GRE Scores</p>
<p>This is not to say that one should blow off the GRE, but there are many more important things. A student can have great letters of recommendation, write a brilliant statement of purpose, have done well in all of their classes, but have had a bad day and done poorly on the GRE. Most grad schools can overlook a lower GRE score when the applicant has a strong application otherwise. I have a friend who scored in the 20-something percentile because she had a really bad day, but she's in grad school now with a fellowship.</p>
<p>As far as spitting out numbers as to what a "good" score is, I'm going to have to give the only number that I have. At a graduate school talk in the NYU math department, a representative for the graduate school said that a <em>great</em> score would be in the 70th percentile or above. However, I've heard that they have admitted students with scores below the 30th percentile as well (you must keep in mind NYU's graduate school in math is one of the best in the country). So it's really a toss-up. I'd say that if you get a score in the 90th percentile of above, it can probably help your application, and if you get a score in the 30th percentile or below, it can probably hurt your application. But anything in between those probably won't make a huge difference as long as the rest of your application is strong.</p>
<p><strong>I have a question for people on this board</strong></p>
<p>The one thing that angers me about the subject test is that I don't know anyone to compare scores with, to see how others have done. I got in the 77th percentile, which I'm perfectly happy with, but I would love it if anyone would be willing to post their scores so that I have some sort of basis for comparison.</p>
<p>I took the GRE Physics subject test... which was ABSOLUTELY BRUTAL.
My score was 800 (on a 200-990 scale) which put me in the 76th percentile... At first, I thought that was bad and consulted with my academic advisors... I was an undergrad at Harvard... my professors said that 76th percentile was a GREAT score (for an American-born student)... they told me that all they care about was that a student did above 50th percentile... and that even a little lower was OK.</p>
<p>Emengee brought up a good point (which is exactly what my advisors said): the pool of applicants who take the GRE subject tests in Math and Physics are the absolute best students in the country... and I was told that international students usually rock on the GRE subject tests and have much higher scores (the reasons I was told for this varied from that they spend an inordinate amount of time prepping for the kinds of questions that appear on these tests to speculation that there is wide-spread cheating on standardized tests in foreign countries).</p>
<p>That said, with my 3.67 science GPA (3.55 overall) and my 76th percentile, I still got into CalTech, Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Chicago, and Columbia.</p>
<p>I think the reason I got in everywhere was that I was told that the most important factors are: recommendations, research, then grades... with test scores a distant, distant fourth. I had a close relationship with my research advisors and wrote a senior thesis that was eventually published in a top journal... and my research advisors wrote me kick-ass recommendations. I was worried about my grades and scores at first, but my advisor told me that research and recommendations mattered more.</p>
<p>I was a double major in Computer Engineering and Mathematics at UIUC, and had a 3.95 in math classes. I scored a 51st percentile on the Math Subject GRE, partly because I didn't have time to study and partly because I wasn't applying to math grad school. I'm now a EE PhD student at Stanford.</p>
<p>wow awesome. congrats to everyone, and thanks for the information! very much appreaciated.</p>
<p>…sob…sob…
gre scores were my only hope…and now I have no chance at all then</p>