Page 1 of 1

importance of GRE GENERAL?

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 7:50 pm
by pj29019
Hey guys,

I have taken math SUBJECT GRE a while ago, did fine, and was wondering,

HOW MUCH DOES GENERAL GRE MATTER?

I know know, they are REQUIRED, but given that MATH grad schools don't give s**t about things other than math (correct me if I am wrong), what is the importance of general test (unless you totally bomb on the quantitative part)?

Speaking of math-grad-schools-don't-give-s**t-about ~~, I was told by my advisor that graduate schools don't care GPA on subjects other than for which you are applying graduate school. Is it correct?

Thanks in advance.

Re: importance of GRE GENERAL?

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 12:21 pm
by sabq
From what I have read, the general mood in graduate school is that the general GRE is just a guideline, it hurts you if you do very bad.

Personally, I didn't prepare for it and just took it to satisfy the application requirements. I got something like 162 in the math, 158 in the English, and 4 in the writing. The test is a total waste of time and money. I simply refuse to retake it until it expires and hopefully I will never need it again. The math level there is that of sophomore in high school, so if you score 170/170 it means nothing as far as graduate school in math/physics/engineering are concerned.

Re: importance of GRE GENERAL?

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 10:11 pm
by Jenn
As far as I know Brown has a minimum score requirement on a verbal part of GRE General

Re: importance of GRE GENERAL?

Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:07 am
by sabq
Jenn wrote:As far as I know Brown has a minimum score requirement on a verbal part of GRE General
Exactly, there is a minimum score requirement; it probably corresponds to what a competent applicant would score in the GRE with minimum to no preparation for it.

The point is that scoring 170 in the quantitative section says nothing about the preparation of the student for graduate work in math: a high school junior can prepare for it and score 170 and a strong math major (taking the exam without preparation) can either miss a question or two or not get to finish the test (due to time limits) and end up with a 160.