<p>Mobiusfrost, r u a native speaker?</p>
<p>Actually, I have a quick question regarding the GRE. I’m going to be applying to engineering school myself. I took the GRE earlier in the summer and scored 800 Quantitative and 6.0 on the writing. However, I only got a 450 on the verbal. I plan on retaking it next month. Is it possible to retake it by only redoing the verbal? I just see no reason in taking the other 2 sections since I did perfectly on both of them. However, I don’t know how a program would look at it if I skipped those sections the 2nd go around. If anyone knows that would be great.</p>
<p>You can’t do that.</p>
<p>You may be able to take just part of the test. From the ETS web site: “If you answer no questions at all in a section (Verbal, Quantitative or Analytical Writing), you receive a No Score (NS) for that section.” You’ll have to sit there for the entire time waiting for the clock to run out – but I don’t know how that will look to a grad school.</p>
<p>But Swavo1, with the 800 and 6.0, I wouldn’t retake since you are applying to engineering programs. But that’s just one opinion.</p>
<p>I woudn’t retake if i were you.</p>
<p>Well unless you apply to top engineering school and your GPA is only mediocre</p>
<p>I hope I did not detour from the OP thread. But yeah, I have a 3.7sumtn engineering. I was just hoping I would get above a 500 on the verbal and thought maybe skipping those sections which tire me out would make it easier to get a higher score. However, I just have no idea how a “no score” would look to a graduate program.</p>
<p>'I hope I did not detour from the OP thread. ’ yes, you kind of did</p>
<p>Mobius, I believe it would be bad if that happened. Both you and swavo have verbal scores that are weak for any top program except engineering ones, which may overlook the verbal score if the other parts of the application are strong. The scores are still on the low side, however. When you retake a test, the assumption is that you might not have studied the first time. They expect the same or higher scores with a retest. But if the results the second time are worse, that’s not good. </p>
<p>You can score higher on the verbal by figuring out what you got wrong and why. I suggest that you supplement Power Prep with a Barrons or Princeton Review study guide. Answer the sample questions and take the tests. Those books are generally good at explaining why one answer is correct and another is not.</p>
<p>i didnt realize it was so important to improve my verbal score. hence, last week right after my first GRE, i registered for the GRE test for next week! should i cancel it? i wanted to take it asap as school starts in less than a month</p>
<p>Relax, Mobius. You’ll do fine. But don’t you have to wait a month between tests?</p>
<p>i thought you could just take it in different months. so its ok to take it in late august and then retake it in early September, right? my registration went through, so it must be ok</p>
<p>The bottom line answer is: yes verbal scores do matter even for engineering majors. The admission officer of a top engineering department (Top 5) told me so himself. He was very honest and told me what he considers (I was asking because I am applying to grad school this cycle too). GRE scores are somewhat important and he takes them into consideration. An 800 in Q is preferred but messing up a bit is ok. To put in perspective I got a 770 and he advised me not to retake it but seemed hesitant about it a bit. Any lower of a score and I figure he would have probably told me tor retake it. Q score is also important though the demands aren’t that high. Anything in the 600 range seems to be average for students in that department and of the people that work in the lab I work in someone got a 550 but no one got lower than that. I didn’t ask about writing but I figure 5 or above should be acceptable. </p>
<p>Another useful source is cornell’s material science department’s FAQ: [MSE:</a> Frequently Asked Questions](<a href=“http://mse.cornell.edu/mse/grad/phd/faq.cfm#CP_JUMP_1390]MSE:”>http://mse.cornell.edu/mse/grad/phd/faq.cfm#CP_JUMP_1390)</p>
<p>the pertinent Q:
What are the minimum GRE and TOEFL test scores considered by the MS&E admissions committee?</p>
<p>In general, any GRE test with a combined verbal and quantitative score of 1335 or less plus an analytical score below 5.0 will not be competitive. </p>
<p>Sorry if I sounded overly harsh in my analysis but c’est la vie. Another thing to keep in mind is that this is going to be an especially competitive cycle due to the economic downturn…</p>
<p>well i took the GRE today again and got an 800 on the Q but… a 410 on the verbal. do I need to retake the GRE AGAIN?? or will grad schools just care that i got a 490 on the previous test and consider that sufficient?</p>
<p>Don’t take it again. You got the math score you needed.</p>
<p>i know people with V300+ got in MIT/Harvard (engineering), but again, you are talking about the top of the top, for them (Stanford/Berkeley) you never know, they can easily filter you our early on if you do not have anything special (publication, outstanding LoR, etc)</p>
<p>do remember this–this is huge difference between MS and PhD, for MS it’s much easier to get in</p>
<p>well i’m most likely going for a phD…</p>
<p>Talk to your academic advisor.</p>
<p>hey guys, i just took the gre today and got 790Q but 390V!!! i don’t know what happened with my verbal, i was getting around high 400s and 500s on practice exams.</p>
<p>should i be really concerned? will schools possibly over the low verbal due to my high quantitative? should i retake it? if i happen to go down in the quantitative will they just look at my highest scores?</p>
<p>i’m applying to PhD structural engineering programs at:</p>
<p>MIT
Cornell
GaTech
UIUC
Virginia Tech
Drexel
Lehigh
Columbia
UW-Madison</p>
<p>390V is too low. you better bring it up close to 500. </p>
<p>For PhD applicants, they expect you to have decent verbal skill, remember, you have to write good thesis for PhD program. 390 just won’t work. </p>
<p>For a non-thesis Master, then 390 may get you in, provided you are good on all other parts of application. But chance is low, I won’t count on 390.</p>