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How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:26 pm
by physicshbar
Hi,

I am in my junior year now, I realize the I have to apply for graduate school by the end of this year. I have not taken any of the GRE test yet.

I plan to take the general in April, then the Physics in October or November.

I kind of worry the general verbal one, since i am not native English speak (even I were, the test would still look ridiculous). So Iwonder how heavy is the general test weighted in general comparing to the physics test?

Thanks

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:38 pm
by coreycwgriffin
I feel like it's least important of the four grades, with order of importance being Physics GRE, Quantitative, Analytical Writing, and then the Verbal.

I put analytical writing before verbal because I personally feel like being able to write English in a coherent manner is more important than memorizing analogies.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:47 pm
by tmc
It's not really weighted, but if you get very bad grades (especially in quantitative and writing) it could keep you out.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:59 pm
by admissionprof
We consider the GRE quantitative exam to be quite important (but don't worry about a few percentiles). The verbal is pretty meaningless, and the analytical writing is even less meaningless. The GRE subject, of course, is more important.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:53 am
by Theoretischer
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Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:22 am
by physicshbar
Hi,

I may have not research enough about GRE, I wonder what is the different between the quantitative and the other verbal part? Do you mean the math part is quantitative part? Sorry all those terminologies confuse me.

Sincerely,

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:57 am
by tmc
math is quantitative

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:06 am
by twistor
admissionprof wrote:We consider the GRE quantitative exam to be quite important (but don't worry about a few percentiles). The verbal is pretty meaningless, and the analytical writing is even less meaningless. The GRE subject, of course, is more important.
This varies from institution to institution. I was told by several people in my department not to worry about general GRE scores due to my research experience and grades.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:14 pm
by physicshbar
How can I know what score does each institute requires?

What will you say the requirement for Princeton, MIT, or Caltech, etc?

Thanks

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:18 pm
by grae313
physicshbar wrote:How can I know what score does each institute requires?

What will you say the requirement for Princeton, MIT, or Caltech, etc?

Thanks
All schools with very little exception require the physics GRE, and the general GRE (all sections: quantitative, verbal, writing)

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:24 pm
by cato88
grae313 wrote: All schools with very little exception require the physics GRE, and the general GRE (all sections: quantitative, verbal, writing)
That is not precisely true. All Top 80-100 schools require the physics GRE with very little exception. There are more than 150 graduate physics and most of the other schools do not require the PGRE.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:44 pm
by mhazelm
This is directed at admissionprof if he sees it, but I'm wondering: for those of us who, for whatever weird reason, got a low score on the QGRE but have otherwise good applications, is it likely to be a for-sure dealbreaker? Has anyone ever been admitted with sub-par general GRE scores, with an otherwise stellar application?

My score is an accident - I really can do basic math! - but I haven't the money to retake it just yet, and it would have been too late to get the new scores to schools in time anyway. Anyway, I know that if I don't get admitted anywhere it will be due purely to QGRE and PGRE scores. :( It all depends on whether they can be weighted less compared to recommendation letters and other good things.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:01 pm
by admissionprof
mhazelm wrote:This is directed at admissionprof if he sees it, but I'm wondering: for those of us who, for whatever weird reason, got a low score on the QGRE but have otherwise good applications, is it likely to be a for-sure dealbreaker? Has anyone ever been admitted with sub-par general GRE scores, with an otherwise stellar application?

My score is an accident - I really can do basic math! - but I haven't the money to retake it just yet, and it would have been too late to get the new scores to schools in time anyway. Anyway, I know that if I don't get admitted anywhere it will be due purely to QGRE and PGRE scores. :( It all depends on whether they can be weighted less compared to recommendation letters and other good things.

No, it isn't a dealbreaker. It's only if we have some concerns about the student's ability (such as few math courses--or poor grades in them) that it matters. Yes, people with horrible QGRE scores but the rest good will be admitted---it's just that if it is close, the QGRE can make the difference.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:26 am
by physicshbar
So what is the average score for the GRE test? Would 500 consider really bad?

I need to have an idea what score should I aim for. I know I should not be too ambitious.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:00 am
by cato88
500 for Quantitative is dismal since its nowhere near the average for physics and engineering majors.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:53 am
by happymonkey
However 500 on verbal is definitely acceptable - roughly 60%, probably >= 50% is adequate for most purposes, but this is a very naive assessment. For instance I have a 660 - 94% or so - and it's basically worthless in helping me get into physics grad. school - a 50% would most likely have done me just as well as the 94%.

A terrible quantitative score will almost always be overlooked for a good PGRE score but reverse the percentiles and it's trouble, a low PGRE score will not be overlooked, this is of course a generality there are always exceptions - again this is a naive assessment of what I've observed looking at profiles and my own decrepit attempt at getting into grad. school at least so far :).

Also as you're an international applicant there may be even greater standards required from your performance on the PGRE, though > 50% on the verbal portion of the GRE is still roughly what you want to obtain. What I've written so far depends also upon what school you are aiming for. For instance MIT's average general PhD graduate student population had a 660 verbal and a 797 quantitative score, but that's MIT :).

For physics admittance it seems fare to write that it is more dependent on your PGRE than general GRE. Best of luck

stuff taken from http://www.mit.edu/~orc/academics/admission/stats.html

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_R ... xamination

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:06 am
by WakkaDojo
I'm a white, domestic student, and scored 500 on the verbal section. I have gotten some excellent acceptances so far, so I'm guessing the schools don't care much at all about the verbal GRE scores.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:13 pm
by physicshbar
so would the letter of recommendation and research experience help even with a low Verbal GRE? I worry the verbal part the most, so...

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:23 pm
by nonick
physicshbar wrote:so would the letter of recommendation and research experience help even with a low Verbal GRE? I worry the verbal part the most, so...
Don't worry too much about the verbal part. As it has been said, 500 is sufficient, and i believe everybody that has been through the SAT-s and 4 years of college should be able to score above 500. Letter of Recommendations and research experience are, on the other hard, by far the most important component of your application, so definitely concentrate on that instead.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:23 pm
by cato88
The worst part about having 90%+ in GRE verbal is that it is so much like the GMAT so unless you have 80%+ on PGRE you know you have a better shot at getting into Harvard Business School then Harvard Physics or just into an MBA program in general were after you graduate after 2 years your bound to make at least 50K+ more than with a physics PhD after 5 years.

Re: How important is the GRE general weighted?

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:25 pm
by Helio
cato88 wrote:The worst part about having 90%+ in GRE verbal is that it is so much like the GMAT so unless you have 80%+ on PGRE you know you have a better shot at getting into Harvard Business School then Harvard Physics or just into an MBA program in general were after you graduate after 2 years your bound to make at least 50K+ more than with a physics PhD after 5 years.
actually if you pick the right company you make about the same... well not anymore thanks to economy.