Physics GRE Discussion Forums

My verbal scores are not very good.In quantitative I got 750 while in verbal i got 320.I have a GPA of 3.3...
I am finding it difficult to chose graduate schools due to my low verbal scores.
Can anyone suggest me some graduate schools where I can apply.I am from physics background,master in science in Physics from India.I want to do a Phd in experimental condensed matter physics.

i think you'll also be required to take the TOEFL, which will give you another opportunity to demonstrate your grasp of the English language

i got a terrible verbal score as well, 340... i'm an international student but i never thought i would do that bad. i've been trying to call different schools to hear about their policies for verbal scores for international students and it doesn't seem to matter that much. but still...

yale apparently accepted people with 330 last year. anyone knows about other places?

is it worth studying words like hell for a month and retaking the exam in december???

In my opinion, studying words for a month will not significantly raise your score. I don't know what the TOEFL tests, but if you can study grammar and such to score better on that test it might possibly be worth it. The verbal GRE is difficult, I think the TOEFL is more suited to show that you can speak and write in English. I think graduate schools care much more about this score than the verbal GRE.

yeah, the verbal GRE is almost impossible to prepare for. There are a few quick methods to learn to try to tease out an answer when you have no clue, but beyond that, you're sort of stuck with the vocabulary and interpretive insight that you've got, and very little can be done in any reasonable length of time to prepare you better for the test. I will say, however, that it's worth looking through a couple practice tests just to get used to the forms of the different types of questions, and you might catch a few words that tend to get recycled a lot in some root form or another.

I got 530 on verbal, 800 quantitative, will my verbal score hurt my chance of getting into a top school like Berkeley or MIT? I think 530 is about 67th percentile. How much weight do they put on it?

none, don't worry. just make sure your statement of purpose doesn't read like it was written by an 6th grader

@Tomar
Dude I got like precisely the same GRE score as you and I wasn't sorry about it at all. I knew I needed something in the 500's for verbal, and when I got my 530 verbal I was well relieved. It was significantly lower than on powerprep where I somehow managed 560 and 670, so they can't possibly take verbal too seriously on the admissions table. But even worse would be to eff up quantitative (like <80%tile), and not doing that was already most of the job done.

Schools won't scrutinize your verbal scores very closely if you're a domestic student. As always, standards are higher for international students...

What happens if I get 800 in quantitative and 450 in verbal? I thought it's terrible though most of the people I know say it doesn't really matter. Is that really the case? Seems that some schools do look at verbal; which schools would I stand no chance?