Please Help: GRE Scores for Top 5

[ttcoaching]

Hi all,

Assuming a candidate has a very high/perfect quant score and a strong CV with several research papers throughout undergrad, what is the lowest acceptable Verbal GRE score at the Top 5 for an immigrant (came to US at or around teenage years)?

Thanks!

[anonecon]

I just skimmed through some profiles and results. It's hard to tell because verbal score tends to be positively correlated with the quality of the applicant. Anyways, I'd say if you can do 157+ (77%ile), you shouldn't worry. If you can do 160+, you should rest easy. These values, of course, decrease as the quality of the rest of your application increases ;-).

I hope that helps.

[jrdonsimoni]

if you've a high enough toefl, it should make up for it, assuming you're not too far below 157-159

[ttcoaching]

Accidentally posted in a new comment, look below

[ttcoaching]

I just skimmed through some profiles and results. It's hard to tell because verbal score tends to be positively correlated with the quality of the applicant. Anyways, I'd say if you can do 157+ (77%ile), you shouldn't worry. If you can do 160+, you should rest easy. These values, of course, decrease as the quality of the rest of your application increases ;-).

I hope that helps.

if you've a high enough toefl, it should make up for it, assuming you're not too far below 157-159

Thank you both! I got 152 verbal (55th percentile ) on my practice test with Kaplan before any studying. What is the most efficient way of getting up to 160? Just to be clear, I won't be taking the TOEFL, since I am a US Citizen (immigrated to the US 10 years ago).

[anonecon]

For vocab, I would say that the order of what you should try:

(1) PRACTICE. Take practice tests. Figure out what you did wrong. Take more tests. Most vocab questions can be partially answered by context clues without knowing what many of the words mean. But, it takes practice seeing the patterns. Also, the reading questions almost always ask the same few things [What is the author's main point? Which of these is implied by the author? etc.], so if you get used to reading the passages with these questions in mind, it should drastically improve your performance.

(2) Memorize vocab. This is painful, but I know people who have seriously increased their score by memorizing the definitions for a few hundred words that pop up. The vocab list used in the GRE is actually reasonably short. If you're willing to dedicate yourself, you could definitely have memorized about 70+% of the words that pop up.

(3) Build a time machine, go back in time, and read lots of books when you were younger.

[Nonsequitur]

For vocab, I would say that the order of what you should try:

(1) PRACTICE. Take practice tests. Figure out what you did wrong. Take more tests. Most vocab questions can be partially answered by context clues without knowing what many of the words mean. But, it takes practice seeing the patterns. Also, the reading questions almost always ask the same few things [What is the author's main point? Which of these is implied by the author? etc.], so if you get used to reading the passages with these questions in mind, it should drastically improve your performance.

(2) Memorize vocab. This is painful, but I know people who have seriously increased their score by memorizing the definitions for a few hundred words that pop up. The vocab list used in the GRE is actually reasonably short. If you're willing to dedicate yourself, you could definitely have memorized about 70+% of the words that pop up.

(3) Build a time machine, go back in time, and read lots of books when you were younger.

#3 is actually the best option. Pity. Youth is wasted on the young.