extempore Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 Thanks very much CalmLogic for alerting that the scores are available by phone. I scored 860, the 95th percentile. (No raw score over the phone; I hope it's in the mailing.) In one sense this is a little disappointing because when I put my pencil down I thought I had a chance at 99th percentile, but on the other hand, had some omniscient being offered me 90th percentile before the test began, I would have jumped at it. On the regular GRE (I took it the day before the subject test) I scored 800/760/5.0, which was similarly disappointing-but-not-really. One would think these scores would get me where I want to go, but I have little else to accompany them and I'm concerned they won't be enough by themselves. I will soon seek input on that subject in a more appropriate forum. Thanks to everyone who has participated in these forums - CalmLogic especially! - as they were of great help during my test preparation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDK Posted May 10, 2008 Share Posted May 10, 2008 Congratulations, this is a great score. I think these scores would definitely get you into top 10 universities. All the best dude :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalmLogic Posted May 11, 2008 Share Posted May 11, 2008 Wow! Some people would kill for that score, literally :) I think these scores would definitely get you into top 10 universities. I agree. One would think these scores would get me where I want to go, but I have little else to accompany them and I'm concerned they won't be enough by themselves. I will soon seek input on that subject in a more appropriate forum. BTW, the 2009 FLAIRS conference is accepting papers, including 2-page poster papers, until November 23rd. Their acceptance rate is slightly above 50 percent from what I have seen. One would get notification of acceptance/rejection by late January before the universities make their decisions for Fall 2009. (The good thing about papers pending acceptance is that one can still list them in one's resume as "in progress" or "submitted to..." and get LORs to mention them...and maybe even attach the paper to the application if it is impressive-looking enough.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rachid Posted May 12, 2008 Share Posted May 12, 2008 Wow! great score congratulations !! are you applying for MS or PhD? again congrats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handsome_94 Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 Wow great score. Congrats!! Can you please write a "Guide to agre?" . It'll just take an hour. All of us really appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rachid Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 Yeah!! it'll be a great for future takers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalmLogic Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 While it is true that people, in the past, have written study guides for the GRECS, I think those days are over. For one thing, even if such a guide was perfectly legal, what matters is ETS's unpredictable perception of what may be against the confidentiality agreement. To be clear: - ETS does not want anyone saying anything about the test they took, especially the Subject Tests. And any comments made after taking the exam (except "it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be") may be suspect. - Employees at ETS are known to read this forum and have at least temporarily canceled scores of a couple people suspected of revealing test content: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/announcements/62194-do-not-violate-copyright-post407140-2.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handsome_94 Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 By GUIDE I meant not that GUIDE, I meant a guide to how to prepare for AGRE!! That should include books that he referred to, time he gave to it and stuff!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalmLogic Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 Yes, it would be nice to know which textbooks Extempore used and how he ranked compared to his CS peers in college. Extempore has addressed some of the other issues in his first post: I graduated with a CS degree in 1996 so I was quite rusty on the fundamentals. I spent about three weeks preparing for the test, studying hard for 4-6 hours per day. I had formed the impression that the official practice test lulled people into a false sense of security, so I prepared very thoroughly (at least as thorough as one can be in three weeks.) As it turned out, the 4/12/08 test was in my opinion substantially easier than the practice test, and much easier than most of the exercises I did. That's not to say I'm sorry I overprepared - of course I'm not. Anyone who doesn't like CS enough to overprepare for the GRE probably shouldn't be going to grad school. But if you're sweating the test like I was, be advised that, this once at least, the difficulty of the practice test reflected that of the real one. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre-computer-science/89008-anyone-take-cs-gre-april-12-2008-a.html If you ask me, Extempore is a mathematically-inclined (obviously smart), highly-motivated guy who probably spent most of his study time solving problems rather than reading about them. There are people who study for months and get scores below 750, but one never really knows how much time they are really working on problems and how much of that time is spent overfocusing on certain topics at the expense of others. Of course, I'm sure there are other contributing factors to Extempore's performance, like his good insight into the importance of overpreparing, and, probably most importantly, I'm sure his CS education was really solid rather than the watered-down CS education that some (if not most) students get. On a related note, some advice from 3 other people who also scored above the 90th percentile: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/526688-post2.html http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre-computer-science/78897-post-agre-post513709-11.html#post526711 http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre-computer-science/62746-advice-needed-gre-cs-prep-test-april-14-2007-a.html#post490329 It is interesting that at least 2 of the above 3 people got their CS degrees 4 to 8 years prior to taking the GRECS. So when you combine that with the fact that Extempore got his degree over a decade ago, that does speak well for those who don't rush off to go to grad school right away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handsome_94 Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 All are geniuses!! 3 weeks?? WOW!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalmLogic Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 All are geniuses!! 3 weeks?? WOW!! That was my initial reaction as well. Certainly, I think these are the kindof people who could beat me by a longshot in math competitions. OTOH, if one's CS education is super rigorous, then additional months of study may have diminishing returns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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