GRE

[Petro-Sooner]

How difficult is this thing? Whats the scoring range? Is it true that the better you do on it the less a school is to look at your GPA? I've got crazy thoughts in my head right now about actually attempting to try to get into grad school. :rolleyes:

[IronSooner]

Grad school? Drop out now! heh

The hardest part of it I thought was the fact that it took something like 4 hours. Toward the end I just got tired of being tested.

I bought the Princeton Review study guide and went through that before taking it. Probably as good a review as any. I forget what the scoring range is, or what I got for that matter, but whatever I got was good enough for UIUC.

[Petro-Sooner]

I dont have the shiniest GPA. AT. ALL. Those at school may even laugh at the thought of me wanting to get in. IF I was to attempt the test I would take a while studying to make sure I do well. For geologists, you pretty much need a masters to do the stuff I want to in the oil bizz. UGH.......

[royalfan5]

I dont have the shiniest GPA. AT. ALL. Those at school may even laugh at the thought of me wanting to get in. IF I was to attempt the test I would take a while studying to make sure I do well. For geologists, you pretty much need a masters to do the stuff I want to in the oil bizz. UGH.......
Is standardized testing something you excel at?

[Petro-Sooner]

I think I'm good at it. I'll pick up some study books and check into it. Is there a gre for dummies?

[Vaevictis]

I didn't find the GRE to be especially difficult. As IronSooner said, it gets tiresome towards the end of the test though.

The worst part was that I have a hard time doing math by hand quickly enough for those tests; I'm too used to using a calculator.

Just go out and buy a Princeton Review book or two with a bunch of practice tests and do them.

[IronSooner]

I think I'm good at it. I'll pick up some study books and check into it. Is there a gre for dummies?

The math section is mostly math for dummies if that helps. If you've had Calc you've had all the math courses they'll test you on already. (They don't include calc - mostly geometry/algebra)

English or verbal or whatever they call it is basically vocab - analogies and stuff like that where your vocab dictates whether you can answer or not.

Like I said, I got a Princeton Review book, but there were several to choose from. There probably is a dummies book by now given how many of those there seem to be.

Also, in case you didn't know, the test is adaptive, so when you answer correctly it gets harder, when you're wrong the next question gets slightly easier. This also means you don't get to skip questions.

[Ike]

It's a walk in the park. I took it hungover and kicked its ***. Not that it mattered because when I took it I had already been accepted into grad school. They just needed to have scores for me on file. Depending on what field you go into, they may not look at it at all....the general one that is. The subject specific GRE's however are a whole other ballgame. I know when I took the physics GRE, I wondered if I had mistakenly gone to the wrong room. They asked a crapload of questions about things I had never encountered at that point.

[Petro-Sooner]

I've had four semesters of calc. Not that I learned anything in it but I had it. Sounds like a lot of stuff to study for. Meaning they test over stuff that I prolly havnt looked at or used in a very long time.

I have heard that they changed or were going to change the formatting some way.

[King Crimson]

there's no calc on the GRE. at least when i took it.

[Vaevictis]

There was no calculus on the exam as of when I took it.

It was basically just algebra and maybe some trig.

[IronSooner]

I've had four semesters of calc. Not that I learned anything in it but I had it. Sounds like a lot of stuff to study for. Meaning they test over stuff that I prolly havnt looked at or used in a very long time.

I have heard that they changed or were going to change the formatting some way.

Bingo. I felt silly having to study algebra and geometry, but I hadn't had it in 6 or 7 years, so I definitely had to get refreshed. Just keep in mind it's a general test, so it's used for english majors as well as engineering and most stuff in between. They can't put Milton or 3-D Calc on it.

[soonerhubs]

Took the GRE in December. I've heard they made some changes for 2007. Nothing to panic about. I'd just make sure to practice the basic math. I used lots of flash cards to memorize analogy words and to rehearse geometry. KNow your triangles as well.

[Sooner Born Sooner Bred]

If it's computer based, be sure to get a study guide that has a computer based tutorial in it. That helped me a lot as far as doing sample tests.

Thankfully my math portion didn't count towards being accepted to the Focker College because I suck at math.

[Mjcpr]

I used lots of flash cards to memorize analogy words and to rehearse geometry.

Howzit will take Analology for $200, Alex.

[C&CDean]

I've got a Master's Degree from OU hanging on the wall behind my head as I type. I've never taken an SAT, ACT, GRE, or EIEIO in my life.

[Paperclip]

Who's degree is it?

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

ZANG!!!

[Ike]

I've got a Master's Degree from OU hanging on the wall behind my head as I type. I've never taken an SAT, ACT, GRE, or EIEIO in my life.

The curmogendry department has less strict entry requirements :P

[royalfan5]

I dont have the shiniest GPA. AT. ALL. Those at school may even laugh at the thought of me wanting to get in. IF I was to attempt the test I would take a while studying to make sure I do well. For geologists, you pretty much need a masters to do the stuff I want to in the oil bizz. UGH.......
What programs have you looked at? Most places will tell you what they need from you. Plus, it depends on how not shiny we are talking, especially if you don't have work experience. Do you have professors that are willing to write letters of recommendation saying that you are not an idiot and will work hard at school?

[Petro-Sooner]

Havnt looked at any programs. Got this little seed planted in my head this afternoon by a friend that is looking at taking the GRE at some point. He was saying the better you do on it the less the GPA matters. I just graduated with my bachelors and said I was done forever. It took me a while to get those degrees. But for some reason I have a small desire to go back. Does being out of school a while help if you want to go back? Having on the job expereince? IF I was to go back it would be a yr. or two at the least. I want to get my hands dirty right now. Give school a rest. Just curious about the whole GRE and grad school thing.

[BajaOklahoma]

Lil Baja took the GRE in November in OKC. She had a Princeton Review book that she looked over last summer.
She did well on the math, surprising not as well on the verbal (she did very well on the SAT verbal section) and did exceptionally well on the writing section. And the writing section was the area they looked at for her major.
Her GPA was fine, but she got in because she had worked as a TA for the anatomy lab.

The oldest son took the GMAT last Fall. His GPA was right at 3.0 and the GMAT scores were fine. He got in because of his letters of recommendation - one of whom was his favorite professor and on the admissions board for the MBA program.

The younger son is an automatic acceptance because of his GPA, though he will have to take the GRE(?) in the next year as a formality.

So the bottomline is it depends on what you are going for, where and when. Good luck.

[Vaevictis]

Havnt looked at any programs. Got this little seed planted in my head this afternoon by a friend that is looking at taking the GRE at some point. He was saying the better you do on it the less the GPA matters. (...) Does being out of school a while help if you want to go back? Having on the job expereince? IF I was to go back it would be a yr. or two at the least.

1. It depends on the program. You want to talk to the admissions officers at the school.
2. Most admissions processes de-emphasize the GPA after some time in a job in the real world. This is not to say that they don't look at it, but they're more willing to overlook it. How much varies by department, job experience, and how much time has passed.
3. How big a factor the GRE scores are varies from department to department. Some look at it heavily, some of it just use it as a "pass/fail" to filter out asshats, some require it just as a formality, and others don't care at all.
4. Recommendations matter. Make sure you get good ones.
5. If you really think you're THAT badly off on the metrics, go down to the school you're looking at and find out who's on the graduate admissions committee. Audit some classes with them as a special non-degree seeking student. Make sure they know who you are. Make a good impression. Talk to them about grad school. Hopefully when the application comes up at the committee meeting, they'll have good things to say about you and vote your way. (For example, after inventing a new technique in the graduate chair's field and discussing it in his class, getting admitted was no trouble at all for me, in spite of my awful undergraduate GPA. :) )

[RacerX]

I bought the Princeton Review study guide and went through that before taking it.

This is all you need to know.

I took the GMAT. The princeton review book was great. The Kaplan book's benefit is the timed tests on a cd.

I had been out of school for 14 years and the prep books were a great help.

[StoopTroup]

Don't you need your GED before you get your GRE?