<p>I just took the GREs today. I received a rather low score on the verbal section, a 430, but achieved a 730 on the quantitative section - so an 1160 overall. I have not received my Analytical Writing score yet. However, I am a bit concerned about my verbal score. I'd like to apply to a few PhD programs for social psych. I have a 3.85 undergraduate GPA entering my senior year and a 4.00 in my major. I will be completing an internship this year in my school's counseling, health, and wellness center. I will also be a TA for Personality Theory and will be working on two research projects. Do you think that my other credentials are enough to outshine that poor verbal score? Or should I retake the GREs in hopes to raise that score? Please provide me with some feedback!</p>
<p>I usually advise students not to stress about the GRE, but here I think you have to retake. Your verbal score does not reflect your academic success. My gut feeling is that your AW score will not be great, either, not because you can’t get a good score but because you might not have prepared adequately for the test.</p>
<p>I suggest that you take again in September – and work hard studying for the test. (Don’t neglect the quantitative section because you don’t want to go backward with that.) Take lots of sample tests and whenever you get an answer wrong, figure out why. This way, you can get an idea of what the test is looking for. </p>
<p>Although you can expand your vocabulary in a month, don’t get too hung up on memorizing word lists. Most students find at most one or two words they memorized in the weeks leading up to the exam. Instead, review roots and word groups. Learn how to take the test. For example, it’s often important to identify whether a word is an adjective, noun, verb, etc. even though you don’t know the meaning of the word itself. And read academic writing every day between now and then. It will help you get into the mindset necessary to read some of those dense passages.</p>
<p>As for the AW, go to the ETS site to see what they are looking for. It’s not enough to write well. You have to be able to analyze.</p>
<p>The good news is that psych PhD programs value your Q score a lot more than your V score. The bad news is that your V score (and your sub-1200 score in general, likely) are too low for most programs. Study for the Verbal section again and retake. If you can bump that score up at <em>least</em> 150-200 points (higher is always better, of course) and keep your Q score in the 700+ range, your GRE should be get you past most (but maybe not all) initial score cuts. How much research experience do you have? Any posters, presentations, publications, etc?</p>
<p>1200 is generally the cut-off for most respected Ph.D. programs in Psychology. Don’t know of any school that has a higher one for administrative purposes.</p>