Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hi all,

I'm a prospective Astrophysics Grad student, and I took the Oct. Physics GRE. Overall, I felt good about the test. I skipped some (10 or so) more involved problems that would just take up time, but I still only got to number 79. Now if I got everything right, that'd be a decent score, right? But should I still take the Nov. GRE? I thought I'd know the scores by now to decide whether to play it safe or bid GRE worries good bye. Thanks for any advice.

I would suggest you to take the November exam and cancel it before you leave the test room. Wait for your October scores and if you have not got what you think as a 'good' score, then you can go ahead and reinstate your november scores. You might waste a couple of hundred dollars by doing this, but I still think its worth it.

If it was me, I'd only retake if I thought the first one was a fluke or if I had done some serious studying in the intervening month. And yes, if you got 69 questions right and none wrong, that would be a very respectable score, for me at least Of course, if you're really anxious about it, it can't hurt to pop the hundred dollars and do the whole score cancellation/reinstatement thing.

mike164 wrote:I would suggest you to take the November exam and cancel it before you leave the test room. Wait for your October scores and if you have not got what you think as a 'good' score, then you can go ahead and reinstate your november scores. You might waste a couple of hundred dollars by doing this, but I still think its worth it.

Does this really work? I see contradictory language on the ETS website: For $30, "scores canceled by you can be reinstated if your request is received at ETS within 60 days after your test date," but ETS also says "canceled scores cannot be reinstated" just above that (here). Do you know of someone who has successfully tried this?

[/quote]
Does this really work? I see contradictory language on the ETS website: For $30, "scores canceled by you can be reinstated if your request is received at ETS within 60 days after your test date," but ETS also says "canceled scores cannot be reinstated" just above that (here). Do you know of someone who has successfully tried this?[/quote]

I just called them today. Both the statements, "scores cannot be reinstated" under 'Cancellation of Scores' and "Scores can be reinstated within 60 days" under 'Reinstatement of Scores' seems to be correct, atleast, according to the ETS representative. She told me that the first statement implies that you cannot just cancel it and reinstate for free and the second statement implies that, if you still want to reinstate it, you should pay a thirty dollar fee. It's all about money.

If the scores cannot be reinstated, I am terribly screwed. I cancelled my October scores even before opening my October test booklet.Believe me, this really helps to keep yourself cool throughout the test.I managed to complete 85 questions. I came back home, checked my answers to question that i was doubtful with my undergraduate textbook and I have sent them a request to reinstate my Oct score. I will take the Novemeber test and cancel it. I will reinstate the November score, if the need arises.

Sorry for bringing this old topic back (last post was about a year ago); I searched about "reinstate" on the forum and found this one.

Same question: does this really work? (hoping mike164 is still around, or anybody else kind enough to share their experience )

Pretty annoying, this ETS contradiction is. "Once a score is canceled, it cannot be reinstated" is clearly written on your answer sheet, but they said they still have that $30 reinstatement service..

You may actually be able to get your scores by phone the day of the november test.

Hopefully. ETS mentioned in its webpage to call on or after Nov 9. But I think I will try to call them before Nov 7 test.

Last year they had scores on the phone system before the date they said they would on their website.

hk wrote:Sorry for bringing this old topic back (last post was about a year ago); I searched about "reinstate" on the forum and found this one.

Same question: does this really work? (hoping mike164 is still around, or anybody else kind enough to share their experience )

Pretty annoying, this ETS contradiction is. "Once a score is canceled, it cannot be reinstated" is clearly written on your answer sheet, but they said they still have that $30 reinstatement service..

You should be able to reinstate your score for a $30 fee within 60 days from the test date. I have reinstated my score for the October 2008 test. However, the whole process is pretty annoying. You cannot just call ETS and reinstate your score by paying the fee over the phone. You should send in a written request by mail or fax them your request along with your credit card information. I send the request by mail and called ETS after 5 business days to confirm whether they have received my request. The ETS representative was not able to confirm it. I send them another request by fax and still they were not able to confirm it. It seems that there will be no confirmation from ETS that your request has reached them, neither you will see the credit authorization in your credit card until the score is reinstated . And finally, I was not able to hear the test score on the day it was available for other test takers over the phone. My score was available to me only after a week.

Do not send multiple requests to ETS. You run the risk of being charged a $30 dollar fee for each request.

Too bad we never found out the results of his test and whether he opted to re-take it. It would have been interesting to find out if he managed to get a perfect score on the questions he did complete. Currently, I'm preparing to take a gre practice test[/url] and I'm just wondering what my options will be if I do badly. I feel like I need as much info as possible just to boost my confidence level.

joeleitz wrote:Too bad we never found out the results of his test and whether he opted to re-take it. It would have been interesting to find out if he managed to get a perfect score on the questions he did complete. Currently, I'm preparing to take a [url=]gre practice test and I'm just wondering what my options will be if I do badly. I feel like I need as much info as possible just to boost my confidence level.

Can I ask you a question? This is something I'm legitimately curious about. How much does a site pay to have people try to establish a presence on message boards and then link them in a way that seems innocent? Is it a full time job and do you work for a lot of different sites or just something that you do on the side? The reason I'm interested is that it's hard for me to imagine that kind of advertising is cost effective since it's so much more labor intensive than buying ads or using spambots, but the evidence clearly proves me wrong if it's being done. I guess it has the potential to pay off since people might actually take it seriously if it's done subtly enough, although here it's not really very subtle. Is it more intended for people who come across the thread via google without wider context?

kroner wrote: Can I ask you a question? This is something I'm legitimately curious about. How much does a site pay to have people try to establish a presence on message boards and then link them in a way that seems innocent? Is it a full time job and do you work for a lot of different sites or just something that you do on the side? The reason I'm interested is that it's hard for me to imagine that kind of advertising is cost effective since it's so much more labor intensive than buying ads or using spambots, but the evidence clearly proves me wrong if it's being done. I guess it has the potential to pay off since people might actually take it seriously if it's done subtly enough, although here it's not really very subtle. Is it more intended for people who come across the thread via google without wider context?

wow... he has 4 posts so far and two of them were linked to the website(I unlinked them). this is the most ridiculous way of web-advertising! how much time he has to read the threads and post something related to the subject? what Im thinking is that he is not doing so for business. the website is probably for a dude and he only help him out start the website. anyways, when you see this kind of posts simply report them please.

General advice for the Physics GRE exam: >> www.stanford.edu/group/sps/PhysGRE.htm

Hi,
I am a 4th year chemical engineering major at UC Berkeley. I want to attend graduate school for the same subject. Here are my stats:
GPA: 3.65
GRE: 690 Verbal; 800 Math (don't have writing score yet)
2 year of research in an old group.
1 summer and this fall semester in a new research group.

The question is should I retake the GRE? The verbal score is low, although I know it is considered high for engineers. I am just concerned because my GPA isn't high enough to compensate for it. Should I retake the test?
phone Card Calling Cards

gladys65 wrote:Hi,
I am a 4th year chemical engineering major at UC Berkeley. I want to attend graduate school for the same subject. Here are my stats:
GPA: 3.65
GRE: 690 Verbal; 800 Math (don't have writing score yet)
2 year of research in an old group.
1 summer and this fall semester in a new research group.

The question is should I retake the GRE? The verbal score is low, although I know it is considered high for engineers. I am just concerned because my GPA isn't high enough to compensate for it. Should I retake the test?

The title of this website is "PhysicsGRE.com: for prospective and current physics graduate students". The title of this topic is "Retaking the Physics GRE". So... why are you asking about the General GRE for Engineering? Nearly all the members here don't know anything/don't care about Engineering grad stuff. This is not the correct website if you want to ask questions pertaining to Engineering grad school applications.

To answer your question, I would say that its a waste of time for you to retake; your Q score is the maximum possible and your V score puts you in the ~97th %tile.

Put the 80 bucks you'd waste in retaking the GRE into applying to some dream school, it'd be a better investment. A 650-800 are treated essentially the same.

bfollinprm wrote:Put the 80 bucks you'd waste in retaking the GRE into applying to some dream school, it'd be a better investment. A 650-800 are treated essentially the same.

Or they could pay me 80 bucks to curb stomp them.

-Riley

WhoaNonstop wrote:

bfollinprm wrote:Put the 80 bucks you'd waste in retaking the GRE into applying to some dream school, it'd be a better investment. A 650-800 are treated essentially the same.

Or they could pay me 80 bucks to curb stomp them.

-Riley

I'd prefer a good tubthumping.