Verbal Reasoning Score

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AriAstronomer
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 4:53 pm

Verbal Reasoning Score

Post by AriAstronomer » Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:00 pm

Hey guys,
I did my first revised general GRE test, and the range they gave me was 450-550 on the Verbal Reasoning. Would you consider that good enough so that grad schools in physics wouldn't frown upon it, or that it at least wouldn't be held against me?

Ari

Minovsky
Posts: 99
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 10:05 pm

Re: Verbal Reasoning Score

Post by Minovsky » Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:51 pm

So that's like a ~150 on the new scale? From what I've seen, that even schools like Harvard and Columbia have average scores in the mid to low 500s for the verbal section. I wouldn't worry about it. How did you do on the quantitative?

Since the test was reformatted, schools may interpret scores differently. ETS has said that the new test is potentially harder than the old test.

AriAstronomer
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 4:53 pm

Re: Verbal Reasoning Score

Post by AriAstronomer » Sun Aug 14, 2011 1:08 am

Again, they gave me a range, for the quantitative I got 750-800, which I feel is the best range they can give you, so I'm pretty happy about that score.

siroy.sam
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:57 am

Re: Verbal Reasoning Score

Post by siroy.sam » Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:22 am

How do you find this new revised test? Do you find the verbal and maths section tougher than the previous format? Would you consider this new text completion and Sentence equivalence questions slightly challenging as compared to the earlier vocabulary test? Please share your views and analysis as it will be very helpful to all the people who would be taking the test in near future including myself.

AriAstronomer
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 4:53 pm

Re: Verbal Reasoning Score

Post by AriAstronomer » Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:48 am

siroy.sam wrote:How do you find this new revised test? Do you find the verbal and maths section tougher than the previous format? Would you consider this new text completion and Sentence equivalence questions slightly challenging as compared to the earlier vocabulary test? Please share your views and analysis as it will be very helpful to all the people who would be taking the test in near future including myself.
Yeah, I'd be happy to share my opinion. So I have never done the general GRE, but comparing the formats, I think the revised one is much better, at least for physicists.

Quantitative: For starters, it makes the math alot easier for physicists. I mean, assuming that they keep it at the high school math level, regardless of the question they throw on the quantitative, we'll have the best chance of solving it, but with an on screen calculator it makes percent problems and big multiplication problems easy peasy. My most likely cause of doing badly on the quantitative would be careless errors, and the calculator solidifies that. Not to mention, you don't have to spend extra time memorizing timetables and whatnot.

Verbal: Again, I haven't done the old test, but it seems a bit more to our advantage to have words in context of sentences than just flat out definitions and comparisons. A word in the context of a sentence can only ever help you (I feel like). There were some long passages on my practice test that were really long and challenging, and I cannot say if they were harder/easier than the non-revised general test, but my intuition says that you're going to find hard questions on either test.

Analytical: Since it was an online computer marked practice test, they didn't give me an analytical score, so can't tell you much about that. I also think this is probably the section that has changed the least between the two formats.

Extra: I think it's really advantageous for us to take the revised also because it doesn't 'choose as you go' so to speak, but you are given e.g. 20 math questions to answer in 35 minutes, and you can scroll through, go back to questions, etc. When I took my practice test, in both sections I had used this, and specifically in the quantitative section it made the difference probably between a 750-800 range and 700-750 range. On four separate questions I didn't understand them right away, came back to them after doing the other questions, and solved them all before the time ran out. If i was forced to answer those questions before seeing another one I think I would have panicked a bit, not to mention probably have gotten them wrong, and then given an easier question to solve next, vs. predefined chosen questions.

Maybe I'll start a separate thread with this so more people will visit.



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