<p>Hello I am planning to apply for graduate school in social psychology Ph.D program this fall.
I just took GRE and did really poorly on verbal part, so I am concerned about getting into any program. Here are my profile.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.98 overall & 4.00 Major (Honors at Big Ten university)- took several graduate level courses in psychology.
Research experiences: 2 yrs of experiences in 3 different psychology labs.
LORs: Letters from three influential psychology professors
GRE: 152 verbal 162 Quant, writing score is not available yet</p>
<p>I am a rising senior and expect to graduate in Spring 2014 with Summa Cum laude.</p>
<p>I do not worry about factors other than my GRE score on verbal part. Because I am aiming top 10+ schools (e.g., Stanford, Yale) I am not very confident about getting into those schools. Should I retake it? But I am not so sure either if my score will get improved any better even if I retake it..</p>
<p>Do you know what percentile your verbal score was? Do the programs that you are looking at list average scores for their applicants or students? Do you know if there are any cutoffs for GRE scores? I would wait until you get your writing score, because an excellent writing score may be able to compensate for a below average verbal score.</p>
<p>I think you sound like a competitive applicant. Your GPA is excellent, and you have demonstrated that you can handle graduate level coursework in psychology. You have research experience in the field, and as long as your letters of rec and SOP are solid, you should have a good shot.</p>
<p>Perhaps you could ask your professors if they can comment on how important GRE scores are in your field. From what I have heard, GRE scores tend to be used as cutoffs for applicants, but I do not have any hard evidence for that. I doubt a low verbal score alone would keep you out of programs that you are a good fit for, but you have time to retake the GRE if you are concerned about it. There are prep books that focus entirely on the verbal section, which may be helpful, and I’ve found that reading is generally the best way to improve vocabulary. I was most concerned about the verbal section, so I got a verbal section prep book and ended up scoring higher on verbal than quant.</p>
<p>A 152 verbal puts you at the 51st percentile, according to the GRE tables. 162 quant is more like 81st percentile quantitative. I disagree that excellent writing scores can compensate for low verbal scores, although they can buttress your application a bit.</p>
<p>The GRE is the least important part of your package; every other part is a much better metric of what kind of student and researcher you will be. GRE scores tend to be important to appease the graduate school instead of the department. That said, different departments have different requirements. My advisor was the DGS of my top psych department when I got here, and he told me flat out that they tend to not consider students with less than a 1200 (on the old GRE; not sure what the conversion would be). Some departments may be more willing to bend the rules for otherwise outstanding students.</p>
<p>Here’s the thing - only retake the GRE if you think you can improve significantly. If you think you need a class to improve and have time to take one, do that; if you need some weeks or months of dedicated study, do that.</p>
<p>If you don’t think you can improve your GRE score, just apply. Everyone has a blemish or two on their record - mine was a 3.4 cumulative GPA that I thought would never get me in anywhere. I’m in a top 15 psych program/top 5 public health program (joint). Nobody is the perfect candidate, so apply. If you don’t get in anywhere by April and you ask why and you hear it’s the GRE, then you have the summer to prep and raise that GRE score so that you can reapply for Fall 2015. I don’t think that will be the case, though, at least not solely for the GRE.</p>
<p>Thanks for responses! I’ve talked to one of professors whom I work for and he said although my scores aren’t that bad (due to high score on math), I should consider retaking it because there are always applicants who have much better scores than me.
Although I am not quite motivated I think I should restart studying focusing mostly on verbal part. Any suggestion for verbal workbook? I have used one from princeton review which in my opinion pretty hard (harder than actual test).</p>
<p>I used Barron’s GRE workbook because the 3500 word list is the best. It has vocabulary that appears with great frequency on the actual exam.</p>
<p>Princeton Review’s book is also very good. I didn’t like Kaplan’s - the words were too easy for what was on the actual exam.</p>
<p>I had a different experience than juillet–I used the Kaplan verbal workbook for the new GRE and got a 167 in verbal (which was a surprise because I’m very much not a verbal person). I thought the vocabulary was of a similar level, and I studied mostly by doing a lot of sample questions. I also had the Barron’s Essential Words for the GRE (don’t know if they have an updated list for the new GRE, but I just got the old edition) for the word list, but I ended up only doing a couple of units.</p>