GRE Scores

I took the GRE last year, sort of on a whim. In fact, my whole grad school process last year was on a whim. I decided about mid-October that I would apply for grad school and see what happens, not quite realizing the amount of work it takes to get into a program. So I registered for the GRE 2 days in advance and did moderately well on it.

"GRE" stands for "Graduate Record Examinations." It is basically the graduate level SAT, designed to torture you and make you jump through yet another hoop. It's scored like the SAT, with a verbal and quantitative section measured on a 200 to 800 scale. There is also the Analytical Writing section, measured on a 0 to 6 scale (in half-point increments). It gives you your score and your percentile ranking.

My scores from last year were:
Verbal: 540, in the 72nd percentile
Quant: 600, in the 48th percentile
Writing: 4.0, in the 41st percentile

These met the minimum for the program I applied to last year, but they aren't great. I went into the exam without studying, and only moderately prepared, so I scored moderately well. The percentile scores are reflective of the percentage of people who scored below me. So being in the 72nd percentile is reasonable, but being in the 48th or 41st percentile is a bit embarrassing for me. I could do so much better on those sections.

Therefore, I have decided to retake the GRE. I still need to register for it, but I will definitely be retaking it AND studying for it this time around. I already bought the Kaplan study guide, and it will be my constant companion.