The 700 Club

[fermiboy]

This thread is for people who got 700-790 on the physics GRE. I am the Reverend Fermiboy and I can heal your pain. The only thing you have to do is accept Garden as your savior. Oh, one other thing, please donate at least 10% of your money to the club for our great works, such as buying me a car.

[fermiboy]

Instead of televangelicalism this is intertubevangelicalism.

[marten]

Heh, that includes me, 750. Although I'm actually satisfied with my score, it might be one of the only things that helps to get me accepted. I had to show that I know some physics, considering that I'm coming with an engineering background. I don't mean to trifle any other physics student that scored in that range, but I studied my ass off, starting in June for the November test. The first practice tests I took, I was scoring between 500 and 550, with unlimited time. (Granted, these were from the purple book, but still....)

Maybe if we had known about garden back then, we could have performed the ritualistic sacrifices and chants before taking the test. I can see next years Physics GRE students walking in to the test with garden robes and garden incense.

[twistor]

You could have found a better name for this thread. It feels wrong just posting here.

[twistor]

Maybe if we had known about garden back then, we could have performed the ritualistic sacrifices and chants before taking the test. I can see next years Physics GRE students walking in to the test with garden robes and garden incense.

I don't know why I didn't see this before. I say we start a website selling these items.

[jdhooghe]

Can I just bend over? Oh wait, that's catholicism.

Oh I can hear the PCs now

[twistor]

It's only a matter of time before one of them reports your post and you are banned for thoughtcrime.

[hpharty]

AWWW YEAH!

Alright, I'm not actually that excited. I did, however, get a 750. It feels good to be a part of something this big.

[VT]

This club is for those people who were accepted to ( at least one )TOP 10 school with a PGRE in the range of 700.

I am not a member of this club yet.

[dlenmn]

@ VT

No. Don't kick me out of the 700 club... it's my most prized acceptance...

EDIT: I mean that I don't have any top ten acceptances -- which are now required to join the club, but that ETS had previously sent me an invitation to the club, and that was my most prized acceptance...

[VT]

hehehe, which one is it? okay, I let you in.

[LucasWillis]

I did pretty well with my 700 physics GRE score. I never know what the top ten schools are, but I was accepted to University of Michigan, University of Colorado Boulder and Yale with my score. Boulder is #1 in AMO, which is my chosen field, and Yale and Michigan are pretty damn good, too.

However, I was rejected from MIT and Princeton. I'm sure that my 700 did help in those decisions. I sent in some application materials late, so there will always be that question... but I'm pretty sure it was the 700.

[JWalker]

I did well enough with a GRE score in the 700s. The only top 10 school I was accepted at was UIUC, but thats more than good enough for me.

[Fanaticus]

Wait, getting in the 700s is bad?!? Isnt that the top 45-15 percent?

This is disheartening, because I am struggling to get in the 600s. Do the bottom half of scorers simply not get into grad. school?

[marten]

No, 700 isn't bad. I believe the club was meant for people who scored in the 700s and got into a top ten school.

Getting into a "bottom 90" grad school with 700 or less happens all the time. You can check out the AIP data at gradschoolshopper.com, lots of places have average PGRE scores of 700 or less.

I think that 700 is a good score.

Marten

[quizivex]

Scoring in the 700s is fine, it's above average and they all get into schools, often very good schools. 600s is ok and 500s isn't the end of the world either..., they still get into schools though not too many of them post on this forum after seeing so many higher scores. In my undergrad school, many of the grad students had scored in the single digit percentiles. Just try your best when reviewing the material and practicing problems, almost all of the problems on the test are very doable.

[Fanaticus]

Ok, that is a little reassuring... thx guys. I dont think I will be applying to any top ten school. The most prestigious school on my list is UofC @ Boulder, and that is ranked only 20.

I got only 510 on 8677, but that was 3 months ago with no studying. Im gonna go take 9677 right now, hopefully get in the 600s.


Maybe Ill make a 600 club thread in 6 months.

[marten]

Two of my first practice tests in test like conditions were 500 and 550. With some dedicated studying, I bet you can raise your score significantly. Good luck with the applications,

Marten

[grae313]

I took my first practice exam with no studying one month before my exam date and scored around the 50th percentile, and brought it to 70th percentile using only the 4 old exams online and http://grephysics.net. If I had spent the summer previous studying basic physics I'm sure I could have done much better. On the other hand, quiz took his first practice exam cold as well and score in the upper 90's percentile, so yeah... but not all of us are quizivexes

[quizivex]

Haha I'm not quite that special, I never took a practice exam cold. I doubt that most people who scored tops on the real test would've done so without any review, since senior physics majors just woudn't remember everything about stuff like lens systems and thermo problems do be able to do them quickly on test day. Also, many of us haven't had any exposure to certain topics. For instance, I had zero knowledge of stat mech, and very little quantum/solid state/AC electronics, so I had to learn the basics of those things or I would've missed a lot more questions.

One thing all of you preppers should remember is that the practice problems are far more helpful and instructive once you know most of the material on them... so don't try to take them too early just to see how high you score. I originally printed out the practice tests long before I started reviewing that summer and had looked at a few random problems here and there but I waited until I was done most of my review like a week or so before the test to go through all the problems. Most of my mistakes were from computation errors or missing a detail of the problem, not because I was unfamiliar with the topic, since I had already done my reviewing. I only "took" one test (8677 or 9277, forget which) start to finish and that's when I got the upper 900s score... I was mostly just checking to make sure my pace was ok... I knew I "could" solve nearly all the problems based on my success when I'd try random problems (though I often made silly errors)... but when I did that I wasn't timing myself at all, just taking my time and then looking up the answer. So I had to check my timing with an old test, but I still didn't consider that a prediction of what I'd get on the real test, especially since I had taken it in a half-assed manner in my bed with an AIM intermission and I had seen a few of the problems before etc, and most importantly because to me the tests seemed so drastically different from each other given the scoring. I found the 9677 test to be easy since there were a lot of conceptual problems that I'm good at and the very generous score scaling, and I think I could've easily gotten 990 on that, but for me I was very scared cuz I had an awful tiime with 0177 and wouldve bombed that one miserably if I had to take it for real, and since it was the most recent test and the one everyone says their test is similar to, I was very nervous

[its_me]

.

[HappyQuark]

Hi

I'm an international student and my PGRE score is 730 (61%).... would really appreciate if someone could give me an idea about what kind of grad schools I should apply for? I have a GPA 3.65 (top in my class of Physics majors), and GRE general score 1260 (q-790,v-470,analytical-3.5)... I have one year of research experience, and it's submitted for publication at the moment...
Will get pretty good LORs (1 really good!)

this is the list of schools I was planning to apply for, (no top 10 schools though!)
Washington State - Pullman
Rice University
Vanderbilt
University of Massachusetts
Baylor University
UConn
Iowa State University
Texas A & M

I was thinking of adding New Mexico State U, and Old Dominion U to the list....
SO what do u think guys? should I go with the list, or drop some ... ?

really looking forward to a reply !!!!!! thought you guys could help me out, since u all may know where 700s get...

There is no need to double post.

[choice-cs]

I just prepared it less than 1 weeks, and I got 700. I hate myself not spending much time to it!

What you guys mean top 10 university? USNEWS PHYSICS RANKING?

[HappyQuark]

I just prepared it less than 1 weeks, and I got 700. I hate myself not spending much time to it!

What you guys mean top 10 university? USNEWS PHYSICS RANKING?

In this context, top is being used in the same way that a person would say "Top of the morning, gov'nuh!"

[WhoaNonstop]

I just prepared it less than 1 weeks, and I got 700. I hate myself not spending much time to it!

What you guys mean top 10 university? USNEWS PHYSICS RANKING?

Well, I'd say rankings in general. I don't think you even need to use a ranking system to take a stab at what the top 10 schools are. Once it gets further down the line, it's harder to rank/compare programs.

-Riley

[cortney458]

I scored a 700 on the physics GRE, probably because I didn't set aside enough time beforehand to study. I know that this will reflect badly on my grad school applications, since scoring well on this test indicates a favorable level of dedication.