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Hi. How hard is to score 640-660 in GRE Math Subject? I am an econ undergrad.

Prompt: A teacher’s ability to relate well with students is more important than excellent knowledge of the subject being taught. The issue at hand is that a teacher’s ability to relate to students is more important than her knowledge with the subject she is teaching. The is a complex issue which allows the writer to take a nuanced stand as teacher in a primary or high school must have a different set of characteristics compared to the teachers in colleges. But under most circumstances the ability of the teacher to understand the needs of her students and teach accordingly is much more important than the knowledge she possesses in the subject that she is teaching. A teacher working in a primary or high school will have students of different capabilities which will include quick learners as well really slow learners. A teacher’s role in a school is to make all the students understand the concepts being taught in the lectures which is more important than having a vast knowledge in a subject. The sound knowledge of a teacher in a particular subject she is teaching does not always translate to efficient teaching of that subject. A teacher who might not have in depth knowledge in a particular subject might be able to teach the concepts in a manner that all the students in a class can understand than the a teacher who has great knowledge in a subject but is unable to deliver the concepts to the students efficiently leaving the students in the lurch. When an Economics teacher teaches the concepts of fundamental theory of economics to high school students she must know what her students want to learn from this topic, do the students have a basic knowledge of the topic or not. Since the topic is being taught in a high school it is important to note that all the students might really have a fair knowledge of the subject. Hence the teacher must teach to cover the “Lowest common denominator”, that is she must teach in way that even the most dull student in the class is able to understand the subject that is being taught. If the teacher teaches in a manner that only the bright students understand then the overall performance of the students in the exams will be affected. The average or below average students might score good marks or might even fail in the subject due to the lack of undestanding. A teacher, thus must understand the needs of the each student in the class in teach the concepts accordingly in order to make sure that all the students have understood the concepts that were taught. In few other cases, a subject such environmental science might be a boring subject to listen to for most of the students. A teacher in such cases can use audio-visual presentations so the students enjoy the lecture and understand the concepts rather feeling bored in listening to lectures. An academic or an researcher who is working in a college might have significant knowledge in a subject but when is asked to deliver a lecture in a particular topic his focus should be on delivering the topic efficiently so that all the students will understand the topic, if he is unable to deliver a lecture properly his knowledge is not of much use to his students. In graduate schools a teacher might not have to teach a trivialize a topic to teach to it to all students as most of the students might have a fair knowledge of the subject being taught. Hence it is very much important for a teacher to understand the needs of his students while teaching than having a good knowledge in the subject being taught for efficient delivery of lecture.

I would be very thankful if someone could advise me on this? I'm interested in doing Phd in the area of finance. I don't have excellent acads though it is above average. My undergrad marks in calculus are not great due to very strict Mathematics department. I have mostly B grade. Should I take GRE Subject test in Mathematics to show that I can handle maths level in finance Ph.D. program especially calculus.

I'm weighing where to spend my time between now and December applications: the best general GRE score I can get, or a decent GRE score plus the subject test. I'm leaning towards the former because my subject test would be in psych. Looking at these forums, there are tons of posts in some areas (e.g. bio, CS) and hardly one post per year in psychology. Am I right in thinking that though the psych subject test can't hurt and can only help if the score's good, I'm not being suicidal by not taking it? (Whereas with bio or CS, I'd really be harming my chances). Only one of my preferred schools actually states that it prefers the subject test, and I could just drop that one from my list.