How important is GRE? I am taking it again

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi, I took GRE without really studying in August.</p>

<p>I got 500V(60% percentile) 660Q and 3.5 Writing.</p>

<p>I am retaking the GRE in less than 48 hrs now.. and I am just so nervous and worried... esp. after seeing a friend of mine doing WORSE on the 2nd exam.</p>

<p>(She got 680V on the first exam. She retook the exam because she wanted higher Q score. On her second exam, she did better on her Q. I think she got something like 730Q but her Verbal dropped to 400!)</p>

<p>I have been doing the practice test on the powerprep... and here are the results.</p>

<p>for verbal, I am getting either high 300's OR high 600's every time I try the powerprep.</p>

<p>It seems like the vocab part determines the score greatly in my case.</p>

<p>If I know the vocabs, I get high 600's. If not, I get 300's...</p>

<p>On the exam, if I find hard time with the vocab section, should I cancel the test?</p>

<p>Would cancelling be better than getting below 500 on the 2nd exam?</p>

<p>In this case, should I study more and give one more try in November?</p>

<p>How important is the GRE?</p>

<p>I am confused because some ppl say it's not very important, whereas other ppl has told me that GRE scores are crucial-it is as important as GPA at the LEAST. On some sites, they claim GRE can take up to 50% of the admission criteria.</p>

<p>If GRE is not that important, would I have some chances for a masters program(Education) in Harvard?</p>

<p>this is their data:</p>

<p>Master of Education students
Verbal Average: 592
Quantitative Average: 649
Analytical Writing Average: 5</p>

<p>For the GPA, it seems like mine is slightly higher than their avg.</p>

<p>Thank you</p>

2

<p>As far as boosting your scores, I hope you know that the first seven questions are the most crucial to get correct because of the adaptive nature of the test. It's been said that with those first seven (or so - basically the ones at the beginning) determine where your score lies within a hundred point range. Thus, depending on how well you do on those first few, your score has been narrowed down to a 700-800 (or conversely, a 300-400). The other 20 questions or so just narrow it down within that range. THAT could be the reason you may be seeing such inconsistency when taking the PowerPrep tests - perhaps spend a little more time on them than trying to race through to the others.</p>

<p>If you are having a hard time on the verbal section, especially by the seventh or eighth question, that could actually be a good thing! Not really sure about canceling it though - it's kind of a gut feeling. I canceled my first time taking it because I ran out of time and scrambled at the end. That's a different situation, and if I was rocking the test at that point, it probably wouldn't have made that big of a difference due to the adaptive nature again. But I couldn't take that chance. I don't know if that helps, but I'd wait to hear more responses about canceling before coming to some conclusion. Guys?</p>

<p>As for GRE usage by the department, it really varies. If you have stellar recommendations and some solid research/independent work, it might not matter as much. Then again, I'm a bio major going for my Ph.D., so I'm not really sure about humanities/education. Is ProfessorX around to answer this one?</p>

3

<p>For harvard you better have a good GRE score. Especially if your GPA is from an unreputable institution.</p>

4

<p>What's the "good" GRE score when the avg was 592 last year? </p>

<p>I think my undergrad institution has some good reputation..at least in North America. My CGPA is only slightly higher than Harvard's avg GPA, but that's because I had some poor grades in my 1st year science courses. Without those grades, my GPA is pretty high.</p>

<p>This program in Harvard is not research-emphasized program, so research work is not very relevant in my case. Rather, they see more practical work because the program is called risk & prevention which deals with children and students.</p>

5

<p>You should keep in mind, that when they say 592, that is the combination of all grad school students combined. Now let's say we were looking at a grad student going into Literature, then we could assume that their V would be much higher than their math. And if we looked at an Engineer going to grad, we would find their M to be much higher than their V. </p>

<p>The good GRE score depends on what you want to study</p>

6

<p>It says that the scores are for</p>

<p>"Master of Education students"</p>

<p>Verbal Average: 592
Quantitative Average: 649
Analytical Writing Average: 5</p>

<p>Will 600~650V be good enough for most Ed.d/Ph.D education programs in the future?</p>

<p>Will 590~600V be good enough if I only want the masters degree(Education) from Harvard?</p>

7

<p>If you hit pretty close to the average score, your GRE will fall in the "doesn't help or hurt range". Assuming your GPA is also in the right range your SOP, LORs, and writing sample will be the deciding factors. </p>

<p>Incidentally, do not confuse the EdD with the PhD. </p>

<p>The EdD is a degree for advanced practioners in the primary and secondary school system and sometimes as administrators at the university level. The PhD is a research degree targeted to those who will teach (future MEd and EdD students) and do research at the university level. They are not in any way equivalent even though they both contain the word "doctor".</p>

<p>Generally speaking the PhD applicant pool will have somewhat higher GRE scores than the EdD pool. </p>

<p>Good Luck on the GRE!</p>

8

<p>Thanks for the reply. </p>

<p>But isn't 500V far below 591V?</p>

<p>and isn't 3.5 writing far below 5 writing?</p>

<p>This is the reason I am retaking the GRE tomorrow</p>

9

<p>IntotheBlue - how did your GRE retake go?</p>

10

<p>WilliamC please check your PM inbox</p>

11

<p>I was thinking about taking the GRE and then re take it if the scores were too low. I would like to know what happened to you and if you retook it or not.</p>

12

<p>I was unhappy with my GRE scores and took it a second time, and the schools I applied to did not seem to mind. Because you receive your verbal and quant scores at the end of the test, it is quite useful because you decide after seeing your scores which schools you would like to send your scores to. Cancelling scores seemed to me too large a gamble, so I actually just chose not to send my scores anywhere the first time I took the test--I figured if I took it a second time and somehow did worse (after all, how you do on the test is basically a crapshoot), I could just pay the extra money to send the first scores off.</p>