ihatetests

i thought the actual exam was easier. just got out of it

780Q is excellent. the verbal is ok but it's not the end of the world. I was speaking with the UCLA aerospace admissions office and they said they look at the Q first, then the writing section, then the verbal. you can re-take it just for the hell of it and see how you do. Just don't send the scores right away. See how you do and you can always just send in the old scores if you do worse the 2nd time

i think that's a good enough score for stats at A&M. you've got a great GPA so you're good. don't bother taking it again. also, if you're going for your Phd anyway you need to discuss with them whether you should apply directly to the Phd program or not. A lot of times profs who are looking for research assistants like the Phd applicants better because they will be around for 5 years as opposed to 2. Well...that is if they offer research assistantships in stats, im speaking for engineering

if you have any questions just reply to this post and i'll get an email. i'll respond!

I've been studying for about 3 months. The last practice test I took...powerprep.... 740Q and 520V. As you can see I am very happy about the verbal score. The other powerprep test I bombed. Let me explain. Usually the way i've been going about attacking the test is to focus more on the first 15 questions because they say those are weighted more heavily. But I always run out of time, so I thought I'd instead try to blow thru and answer with the first word/thought, gut feeling or without doublechecking the math. I scored 650Q/450V. Obviously that's a bad idea. So MORAL OF THE STORY...focus more on the first 15 questions and hope they ask the words you memorized. haha I memorized the Barron and Kaplan's most commonly used word list and Kaplan's "toughest GRE word list". About 800 words total. Before I memorized the words I was scoring between 450-500. Which is pretty sad considering english is my first language! There were at least 2-3 words in each question which I picked up from my memorization. I may have been lucky in the sense that the majority of the words i saw on the test were one's that i memorized. Also, you gotta memorize them in context so you can understand the different tenses. There were lots of different tenses... The math i thought was pretty easy I just ran out of time. Two questions on probability none on counting or polynomials. I thought the questions on the kaplan's practice tests were harder. Now that I think about it, shoot I should have scored higher. I focused heavily on the first 15 questions then started to guess about every other one to make sure i could finish the test. there was no "experimental section". Just the writing, then the verbal, then the Q, then the voluntary section. I declined because I really wanted to see my scores. haha anyway i soooooo nervous especially since they are changing the exam in august and i'd need to re-work my studies had i not scored well enough. I think the nervousness kept my adrenaline up because i was very attentive. my suggestion would be to NOT drink like a redbull beforehand. PS. the hardest part of the day was writing those sentences in #$()*#)%(*$ cursive when you sign in. hahah! All in all, I felt the test was easier than any of the practice tests I had taken. So be optimistic and good luck!!! Now I'm off to the bar to celebrate with $1 PBRs

Someone told me I need to buy GRE: Answers to the Real Essay Questions: Everything You Need to Write a Top-Notch GRE Essay. However, amazon doesn't appear to have it in stock and i saw some other website had it in stock, but listed at $88

you should take the current version. Scores on standardized tests drop after a test version change. Happened with the GRE in 2002, MCAT in 2007, and SAT in 2005

I could be wrong but here's what i think. Man A can do 1 job in 2 hours and 2 jobs in 4 hours. Man B does 1 job in 4 hours. Together they can do 3 jobs in 4 hours. That means they can do 1 job in 4/3 hours also written as 1 hour and 20 minutes.

i did my undergrad in CS at UIUC thru the engineering college, not LAS. It was difficult. If it says anything about math and CS, I took so many required math classes that i was only a class or two away from getting a minor in math.

are you doing Phd or Masters? I can be odd starting an MS or Phd in the spring. some classes aren't offered in both spring and fall and the schedules are catered to students entering the program in the fall....i would keep working and saving money then start school in the fall.

What Phd schools rejected you? Generally speaking if you got accepted for master's you would have been accepted for Phd had you applied. Were the Phd schools ranked higher? I would call up the schools which accepted you with a master's and tell them you want to do Phd.

get a Phd from UIUC

you should be fine at those schools

i did my undergrad at Illinois-Urbana Champaign in CS. ended up spending 5.5 years there. I liked the town. I also applied for a Phd in math there a while ago. Got accepted, but couldn't get funding. Funding is hard to find in math. I'm not sure what financially they offered you, but the town is cheap and inexpensive to live in.

try to raise your verbal score. either way you should be able to get into those schools.