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Top pure math US programs GRE Score

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2016 12:21 pm
by zarka
Hello everyone,

I took the GRE few days ago and got Q166, V155. All of my simulations were 169+ in Q (1 incorrect answer) and I really don't know what went wrong. I am planning on applying to top15 math programs in the us including (mit, princeton, stanford, harvard, ucla, berkeley, etc.).
I am confident that I can get a better Q score if I retake the test but I am not sure I want to spend the time and money on it (at least another 3 days including test day).
Do you think I will make the top universities cutoffs? Should I retake? Can this score be the tie-breaker in some cases and lead to me not getting accepted?

Thanks...

Re: Top pure math US programs GRE Score

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 8:20 am
by danieloliveira56
Take my advice with a grain of salt, I don't know much about grad admissions, as I still an applicant and I'm overanxious about it.

With that said, I would retake. I believe you will make the cutoffs, but there may be many applicants above your mark.

I took the GRE General last week and got Q168 V165. On test day I set to myself Q167 as the minimum score to report. I will be applying to operations research PhD programs. My scores should be enough for most programs, but I couldn't find people with less than Q170 for MIT and GATech in gradcafe, maybe I don't have a chance in any of them, but I want to give it my best shot, so I will be retaking it in November, after I take the math Subject.

But the difference is so small that I believe I could have reached 169 or 170 only if I didn't get 3 quantitative sections. I got QVQVQ, if the first one was the experimental section, it definitely did harm my score. But is hard to say.

If you want additional encouragement to take the test again, consider that if you succeed in getting at least the same score, you would be spending only $97 ($205 - $27x4) as you would need to spend 27 per additional score recipient anyway, assuming you will apply to at least 8 institutions.

Re: Top pure math US programs GRE Score

Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 5:55 am
by zarka
Thank you! any other opinions?