ahk5289

Hi guys,
So I just finished taking my GRE and received scores of 142V 155Q. I know these scores are abysmal, but I'm considering applying to stats/math programs out of the top 50 range (Case Western, Rochester, etc). I graduated from a accredited university (UC Berkeley) and have won several awards. My overall GPA is 3.11.
Any advice if I should retake or not?

dhara2391

I would def retake it if you can. Your Math score is decent, It's about a 700 in the old score. If you're a math major there's an expectation to score above a 700/800 because almost all the engineering students in the top 50 school score in the mid 700's. The verbal is really REALLY low..I get that math/science students are supposed to be better in math. But a 142 verbal is like a 340/800. Not competitive at all for top schools. I'd work on getting the verbal up to atleast to a 500/800. I personally think you can't really study for the verbal passage comprehension questions, but you CAN study for the vocab. Go through barron's top 800 GRE words. You prolly know half of them already so its mostly 400 words.. it has all the words that you've prolly seen on the GRE u took like equivocal, erudite, placate, assuage, prodigal, disparate, etc. Just memorizing the barron's vocab can increase your score to a 500.

ahk5289

Hey thanks dhara,
Ya I will definitely look into that. You're right, I know a good amount of verbal words already. I'll try and keep practicing more vocab I guess. I also heard though that most stats/math programs don't look into verbal score because many international students apply and they receive low verbal scores. What's your take on that?

b@r!um

I'd consider a retake. Your verbal score is so low that the admissions committee might have concerns about your communication skills. When I applied to PhD programs in math, I was told that verbal scores don't matter as long as they are sufficiently high so that they don't raise concerns. "Sufficiently high" was most frequently defined as at least 500 points (on the old scale).

Your math scores aren't great either. Definitely a concern for a prospective math/stat student.

Your GRE scores together with your GPA draw the picture of an applicant who's either ill-prepared for graduate school or lacks motivation to do his work. Not the image you'd want to portray.

ahk5289

thanks b@r!um for the response. I will retake it again.