<p>Oh man I wish I’d read this before I took my GRE. The exact same thing happened to me – I had 5 minutes left to do 8 questions, and ended up with a 760. Likewise I was also consistently getting 800 on the Powerprep practice tests.</p>
<p>I’m inclined to say that beyond a certain level of preparation, really the only thing that stands between you and that 800Q is how well you’re able to manage your time under fatigued, high stress situations. One factor that led to my screwing up time management was my exhaustion (both mental and physical) by the time quant rolled around. That 75 minute essay section was REALLY taxing, and kinda makes me wish I’d actually practiced going through the entire thing in Powerprep rather than skip the section.</p>
<p>Son is a 2009 engineering grad who is looking to do a terminal CS masters. He took his GRE for the first time yesterday: 800 Q, 620 V and waiting on the writing portion. Having no idea what those number meant, I did some searches. I came across the following interesting link with “representative GRE Scores for leading US colleges”: [What</a> is a good GRE Score? Required GRE scores for colleges - Test-Guide.com](<a href=“http://www.test-guide.com/what-is-a-good-gre-score.html]What”>What is a Good GRE Score? | Guide to GRE Scores | Test-Guide)</p>
<p>It was interesting to see. Apparently GRE scores and SAT scores are not parallel.</p>
<p>Average GRE verbal, of ALL GRE test takers, is below 500. (Because a lot of foreign students take GRE than SAT, i.e. there are more foreign applicants for grad school than undergrad. ) </p>
<p>So if you apply for engineering program, somewhat below 500 is ok. But if you are below 400, you have to retake the test to get over 400.</p>
<p>Most engineerings programs don’t care about the AW section. Since the GREs are just qualifiers and don’t determine admission, I’m sure he’ll be okay. That said, the AW section is tricky if test takers don’t prepare for it, mostly because they don’t know what it tests.</p>
<p>Here is what Caltechs mechanical engineering department says:</p>
<p>In a typical year, between 200 and 250 applications for graduate study in Mechanical Engineering are received, and 20-25 offers of admission are made. Admissions decisions are made by the faculty, and are determined both by the research opportunities in the applicant’s area of interest, and the competitiveness of the applicant’s grades, class standing, GRE scores, and letters of recommendation. Most admitted students rank at least in the top 5% of their undergraduate class, and have an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.5. The average GRE scores for current students at Caltech are 651 Verbal, 763 Quantitative, 727 Analytical, and 761 Subject for students from American universities. For foreign students, the average scores are 544 Verbal, 777 Quantitative, 685 Analytical, 838 Subject, and 617 TOEFL or 90 TOEFL-iBT.</p>
<p>Here is what Michigan’s mechanical engineering department says:
There are no specific minimums, however, the successful applicants are those students who are strong in at least 3 out of the 4 areas below:
Average GPA in the 3.2 - 3.5 range on a 4.0 scale</p>
<p>GRE scores in the 80th-90th percentile</p>
<p>Strong letters of recommendation</p>
<p>Strong Statement of Purpose</p>
<p>You can look some others up online, but only some schools give this information. In any case, you need letters of recommendation. So, as Momwaitingfornew says, talk to a professor in your area and ask for advice. Since that person knows you, he or she will be in a better position to advise you.</p>
<p>^ I am definitely confused. I am new to understanding the GRE but the website states that Analytical is on a scale of 0-6. How can average for american universities be 727 Analytical. What am I missing? Sorry if I am being dense.</p>
<p>I got an 800 on the verbal section of the GRE, and all I did was look at Barron’s word list and play some vocab quizzes online. There wasn’t a single word on the GRE that I hadn’t seen before. Barron’s rocks!</p>