Jump to content
Urch Forums

Is it a good idea to take the GRE Math !Subject! Test?


bonbon

Recommended Posts

I asked this in the Business forum but would like to ask it here too. Assuming the result is in the 80 to 85 percentile, would it help boost your profile at all? The general GRE Math doesn't seem to say much about how good you are with college level math... Thanks for your inputs.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Short answer, no...

 

This thread comes up about once a month and a quick search will give you more elaborate answers you might want.

 

In the end the rationale boils down to the fact that

 

a) doing well on the subject test still does not allow them to compare you to other applicants... i.e. you may have 80th percentile in the subject test, but that doesn't mean others wouldn't have scored better

 

and

 

b) the effort to prep for the Math subject test would be much better spent on getting an A in an advanced math class and getting a LOR from the professor of that class...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks tm_guru for the reply. I just did a search on the topic too.

 

I actually did a Math major in college. You can see my profile here: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-business/119496-another-profile-feedback-question-phd-finance-business-economics.html

 

There are 2 reasons I thought about the subject test:

 

1) Even though I did a few advanced math courses my school offered, I have been out of school for 3 years and want to prove that I haven't forgotten things.

 

2) There's one program I'm interested in at CMU (PhD in Mathematical Finance) that *requires* the Math Subject Test. It'll probably be the only program I'm interested that *requires* it, so if I apply there, I'll have the Subject test score available to send to other schools if needed. Of course I might just not apply to this program at all because the effort to study for the Subject test for only 1 school is large

 

The program website: Department of Mathematical Sciences

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks tm_guru for the reply. I just did a search on the topic too.

 

I actually did a Math major in college. You can see my profile here: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-business/119496-another-profile-feedback-question-phd-finance-business-economics.html

 

There are 2 reasons I thought about the subject test:

 

1) Even though I did a few advanced math courses my school offered, I have been out of school for 3 years and want to prove that I haven't forgotten things.

 

2) There's one program I'm interested in at CMU (PhD in Mathematical Finance) that *requires* the Math Subject Test. It'll probably be the only program I'm interested that *requires* it, so if I apply there, I'll have the Subject test score available to send to other schools if needed. Of course I might just not apply to this program at all because the effort to study for the Subject test for only 1 school is large

 

The program website: Department of Mathematical Sciences

 

The Math subject test does not pass a cost-benefit test for Econ admissions, however, if you are 'required' to take it for a program that you are very interested in it is not going to 'harm' your Econ applicaitons if you send it in.

 

A word of warning; I know nothing about that particular program, but I know CMU is not easy to get into, and I imagine if they 'require' the math subject test, then they'll expect a seriosusly good score, well in excess of the 80th percentile. You may question putting that effort into just one application.

 

As anyone on this forum will tell you, CMU is notoriously uber-selective, taking only a handful of students into each of their small graduate programs each year from hundreds of super-qualified applicants...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...