Scored 1130

[Asaucier]

I've just completed the GRE and managed a score of 610/520. I fully expect a 6.0 in the AWA. After reading a few of the posts on this forum, I see that many people assume a score less than 1300 is terrible. However, the test administrator indicated to me that my scores were more than sufficient for application to most universities. Certainly nothing Ivy League, but my intention from the beginning was to jump into a top phD program afterrecieving my MA. Indeed the department chair of the university that is now accepting my application stated to me that my score was fine in relation to other applicants he had recieved in the past year.

Also, after researching the cut-off's of a number of public universities, I've found that most such programs cut-off between 450 and 590 in the verbal section, and 500-600 in the quantitative.

I suppose the long and short of this is, I made it with a score of 1130, and I'm perfectly happy with that.

[Oldman]

Congrats!

I think you are right on the money. To me, score what you need to and move on...there are more important things in life. I did the exact same thing. I found what I needed to score and have set a goal.

However, I do have to say that if I had known I was going into a PhD at your phase, I would score what I needed to get into the PhD from the get go for a few reasons:

1) I wouldn't want to take it again. Especially after being out of college algebra for a few years.
2) The format could change. Schools tend to get very conservative in the selection process whenever test makers change the layout of the exam. The reason is, the programs aren't familiar with how to translate the scores.