<p>Hey everyone, I just attempted the GRE a second time. I had to cancel again because I'm pretty sure I did terrible on the math part (had to guess for the last 7 problems due to time constraints). First of all, does the fact that I canceled two GREs count against me? Should I have the score re-instated (you can write ETS and do this apparently)?</p>
<p>Furthermore, I need some dire help on the math. I've bought and studied the Kaplan, Nova, and Barron's workbooks, yet I keep freezing up on the actual GRE. It seems like the problems on the GRE are much harder than the ones in the book. Any advice? Thanks!</p>
<p>People seem to say I’m not telling the truth but I keep saying the questions in the GRE Math ARE getting harder.</p>
<p>I wrote it twice (640V,720Q) and (670V,800Q) and notice that there were AT LEAST 3-5 questions that were harder than anything I’ve seen in any of the books.</p>
<p>If you’ve also covered Nova IN DETAIL, there is little more you can do.</p>
<p>7 questions in a row is bad. It may be because you are spending too much time on earlier questions. Maybe you need to learn to know when to guess and move on.</p>
<p>I had a friend who swears he must have screwed up 1/4 of the answers—if not more and he scored a 760.</p>
<p>However, those were dispersed. 7 questions wrong in a row (maybe 5 or 6 cuz u could have guessed some of them correctly) is pretty bad though.</p>
<p>If you know you got every question prior to these 7 correct, then you should reinstate it.</p>
<p>There is no use in cancelling unless you KNOW you bombed to high heaven because most schools take your best score or latest score and a few average them.</p>
<p>I’d have to disagree. I didn’t think the questions were harder at all. I think you just have to make sure you cover <em>all</em> the topics that are tested, which Barron’s does not do. </p>
<p>When I did it, I thought I did horribly. Seriously. I was so scared. I guessed last 2, but man I know I got more wrong than that. Still, I scored 800Q. I would suggest to make sure you answer the first questions thoroughly and then just go through the rest at a good pace and don’t worry about guessing last 2. You might be scoring much better than you think. </p>
<p>I also didn’t know the first verbal question, and a ton of others… like the second verbal question. And I still got 670 (95%ile) for some reason. You might be doing better than you think.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I’m going to reschedule for early December. That gives me a few more weeks to prepare. No matter what I’m going to keep the score I get next time. I have the GRE Math Bible so I will go through that one more time. In addition, I never had a chance to use the PowerPrep software. I will have to borrow a PC from someone as I am a Mac man… sigh.</p>
<p>I hope you are referring to the Nova Gre Math Bible.</p>
<p>The other one that is not from Nova is total ****. I don’t understand how you could have written the GRE previously w/o trying the powerprep practice CATs.</p>
<p>MasterMoe, just wondering, but why did you take it twice when your first scores were good enough for most schools and why did you spend so much time and money on the GRE? Is it really important for the program you are applying to / applied to?</p>
<p>I didn’t spend that much time and money on the test.</p>
<p>My first try was in late August and I had spent 3 weeks on and off studying for it. I spent wayyy too much time on verbal. I just used Barron’s and Powerprep for math and that was not enough. I didn’t cover standard deviation and a few other things covered in the GRE. I also didn’t feel too well the day of the test.</p>
<p>I rescheduled for mid-September and simply memorized a few more words, did a few more verbal tests, and covered the Nova Prep course book for Quant and did a few practice CATs.
I was also feeling much better my 2nd time around.</p>
<p>The money wasn’t an issue. People pay thousands to take single courses in college and often bomb an exam and forget about it like it is no big deal. In comparison to that, the GRE is cheap and even if it isn’t a huge deal in grad admissions, it is definitely more important than any test one will ever take in undergrad. And how often does one get a chance to write a test they have forever to study for and can repeat? Frankly, I don’t see any valid reason why one should apply to grad school with anything less than an impressive GRE score–whether it is crucial or not.</p>
<p>I’m also an international student --University of Toronto- Canadian resident. So admissions is a bit more difficult for someone in my position. I will be applying to 10+ schools next year and the process will cost thousands. I don’t want to be in a position where I get rejected from a school and I am forced to wonder whether things would have been different if my GRE scores were higher. </p>
<p>I’m also applying to top bioscience grad schools and the few schools that do post average GRE scores for admitted students usually have an average Verbal of 580+ and a Q of 740+. Maybe that means they were admitted for other reasons and they all happen to have good GRE scores or maybe the GRE scores did play some role. I’m not going to make any assumptions.</p>