[Mikey01]

I am to understand that the enterance test for a Masters Degree is a "GRE" in name? Is this correct? Also, my youngest daughter took the test for the first time, just to see how hard it was and how much work was needed. She scored an 1150. Is this good, bad, or average? She graduated this spring at University of Cincinnati, majoring in Communications. She would like to do her Masters there as well or maybe Ohio University. Is this GRE point score good enough to get in, along with the professor recomendations ect.? Thanks, Mike

 

[jpr703]

Entrance exams scores are relative, depending on the degree progam and the school she's applying to. Most grad schools publish the average scores of their entering students. You can probably even find the info online if you go to that particular Grad School's web page. If not, a quick call to Admissions will do the trick.

 

[daba]

Depending on the school, the GRE can mean a lot or a little. If you take a top tier school, like Harvard, Berkeley, Yale, etc., nearly all accepted applicants get a near perfect GRE score (either 1600 or very close to it). If you're looking at a less competitive school, getting a very good GRE score can help a lot.

 

[Claus1100xx]

total GRE scores are not very important. what matters is what sections she scored her points on. Each program puts a different weight on the various sections or might not even care about some sections.

 

[nysulli]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Claus1100xx total GRE scores are not very important. what matters is what sections she scored her points on. Each program puts a different weight on the various sections or might not even care about some sections.

totally right, i took the gre a few years ago, before they changed the logic section for the writing one, i scored a 440 verbal, average for an engineer, but a 740 quantitive and 770 analitical, both of which were above average for an engineering student, so its all relitive

from what i can tell, gre scores mean less in getting into grad school as compared to SAT scores and getting into undergrad, her activities and gpa are just as important if not more so, better determining factors of how good a student she is

but without knowing the split, an 1150 looks to be pretty decent, heres a link with some more info

http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/m...0022f95190RCRD

average scores for 2005
http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/01210.pdf

 

[Dimitris]

As already said by all some people above. It doesnt matter as a whole but you need to see the respective sections of the exam. The highest score you can get per section is 800 (top 1-2% tier). To have an idea of what it takes 480 verbal, 800 quantitative, 800 analytical got me in Cornell Engineering a couple of years ago. The verbal section is by far the most difficult english i have run into (perhaps with National Geographic magazine). At 1150 I think she should work more and get the test again if she wants to get in a good university. As everything in this world with a bit of work she should be able to make it.

 

[atomic]

GRE = Graduate Record Examination. Required for many post-baccalaureate programs.

It seems to be different depending on which type of program and the caliber of schools you're applying to. Most of the time, the GRE is not that important - recommendations and undergraduate work are usually more important, and as long as your GRE score isn't super low (1150 is fine) it probably won't affect you either way. For Communications, well, I'm not really sure, but since she took it without much preparation, taking it again after some practicing could really help.

Also, there is no longer an Analytical section, there is now Analytical Writing - 2 timed essays. The writing is on a scale of 1-6.

I took the GRE 2 months ago, and I scored: Verbal 650

, Quantitative 780

, Analytical Writing 4.0

...that's what I get for being a science major. Never written a timed essay in my life before practicing for this darn test.

I'll be applying to Biochemistry programs at good schools, probably not Harvard, but Brown, Tufts, Wisconsin, possibly UChicago, possibly even Johns Hopkins. For Biochemistry PhD programs, the basic GRE is required pretty much to make sure you understand English and can do basic math. Undergraduate work, recommendations, and research experience are MUCH more important.

I wish her luck!

 

[Teerawit]

Good luck with the GRE. I'm taking the MCAT this April, so I know how stressful it feels to be preparing for one of these tests.

 

[blip]

Pretty much like everyone else says... There is no such thing as a "good" GRE score (except for perfect

) because it really depends on what you are doing with it.

For example, when I took it I got a fairly average Quantitative score (can't remember what it was exactly) but it was an insanely good one for an incoming history PhD. candidate. (Something like 95th percentile). But that didn't matter because in my program they don't care if you can add two plus two... My verbal score was near perfect but I was only in the 92nd or 93rd precentile for my program.... But that one actually mattered!

Anyway, the other thing to keep in mind is that a lot of schools have come to really doubt the efficacy of the GRE. From the people I've talked to, most academic programs just use it to weed out people with very low scores. After that a lot of places ignore them. (Or at least that's what everyone in my field says, different fields have different rules.)

 

[chych]

So here are my understandings of the GRE:

The verbal is ludicrously difficult, using many words you will never ever use. I believe something like a 720 is 99%. Furthermore in some countries in Asia (China, Korea particularly), there was a period where students would copy/memorize answers and share, and they would get some impossibly high scores. If you look at the average GRE verbal score for English majors, it's in the 500s... English majors!

The math, however, is very basic high school level math. At top schools in math oriented disciplines (i.e. engineering), it can even look bad if you don't get an 800 (which is ~92%) or very close to it.

Not sure how the analytical writing stacks up though.

And it is very close to impossible in getting a perfect GRE score (particularly the verbal). It isn't quite like the SATs.

Furthermore, GREs do not get you into a grad school, rather, they can keep you out of one.

(My scores from October are 510V/62%, 800Q/92%, 6.0W/96%, I'm an engineer applying for grad schools for PhD currently)

 

[viator122]

My girlfriend just got a 1560 on the GRE: 780, 780 and 5.0 on the writing ( I think)

Best thing is to take some time off and just concentrate on the exam. 1150 really isn't fantastic but it's not awful either. If your daughter took it unprepared she should definitely get prepared and take it again.


My GF took the princeton review course but I think she thought it was a waste.
What she does recommend is to make tons and tons of vocabular flashcards. She has 2 boxes of them when she was studying.

 

[Mikey01]

Thanks for the replies.