Comments | p3nguin_pi3: The GRE

p3nguin_pi3

The GRE

Aug 07, 2006 21:33

So while I was home for my grandmother's 80th birthday this weekend, I took some time to look into graduate school information (specifically application deadlines and GRE testing dates). I went ahead and shelled out the $130 needed to register for the GRE, and will be taking it on Tuesday, August 15th. That's not the point of interest of this ( Read more... )

Comments 6

urwaytooexcited August 8 2006, 19:52:53 UTC

you're ridiculous. not because u care about these things. but because you actually figured out the numbers and posted them...

Uhhh... you do know what STANDARDIZED testing is, right? dabid August 8 2006, 20:47:20 UTC

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Standardized test scores are all based upon the results of the scores of a norm group of students who took the same test. If you scored more than two standard deviations better than the norm group's average, you got an 800 on that section. HOWEVER, the percentile is you ranked against the other people taking the test AT THE SAME TIME. So you can get an 800 and still only be in the 94th percentile if 6% of your opponents also scored two SDs above the norm group.

As for why the verbal average is so low--it's because the verbal section is hard as HELL. *I* only scored a 580 Verbal and a 760 Math, and I'm a fucking English teacher.

Re: Uhhh... you do know what STANDARDIZED testing is, right? p3nguin_pi3 August 9 2006, 20:20:31 UTC

Yeah, I realise it's graded against everyone else, but the percentiles on the verbal section are just ridiculous. There's no reason what-so-ever for the verbal to be THAT fucking hard.

ohtori_akio August 8 2006, 22:18:35 UTC

Whereas I've been having the opposite problem; physics majors tend to score within twenty points of perfect on the math portion, whereas we're all bad at the verbal... except for me, because I seem to be hovering around 720 on both. I'm hoping that kicking the verbal section's ass will convince some places that I will in fact be able to write a dissertation.

And personally, I find some of the math portion a bit ridiculous as well; I have never really seen the value of the "quantitative comparison" questions they're so fond of.

p3nguin_pi3 August 9 2006, 20:21:47 UTC

The "Quantitative comparison" questions are a joke though. One of the two I missed was because I mis-read the diagram they drew and took the cosine of 44 instead of 46.

ohtori_akio August 9 2006, 21:32:52 UTC

See, they're really not, is the thing, because I am horribly bad at plane geometry. (Gosh, I wonder why.) Multiple integration, great. I could fly through those. I actually come up against the time limit on the GRE math section because it takes me for-fucking-ever to decide if angle A is greater, less than, or equal to 75 degrees.