GRE

[MIch elle]

When is the best time to take the GRE? I'm thinking after freshman year.

 

EDIT: For the general GRE test, I thought after freshman year because that's when he'll be finished with English and calculus 1 & 2. He will still take his required Jr. year writing class specific to his major and statistics.

[Barbara H]

Edited: I should not be allowed to post without coffee.

[Dmmetler]

For the GRE for grad school, I'd say Sophomore or early Jr year, so there's time to prep more if needed. Treat it like the SAT/ACT. For subject tests, take them right after the most closely related coursework-for the music subject test, I advise my students to take it as soon after completing the Theory sequence as possible because most of the thing is theory, and usually the senior year for music majors is focused on performance and student teaching if you're getting Ed credentials, so those theory skills can become rusty when you're not using them daily. My psych advisor suggest the psychology subject test after abnormal and physiological for the same kind of reason-the classes after that point aren't all taken by everyone, and therefore aren't covered as heavily on the test.

[Caroline]

For the majority of students, the best time is never. The GRE is not a good idea for most homeschoolers.

 

 

 

She said GRE, not GED.

[Barbara H]

 

 

She said GRE, not GED.

 

EEK! I'm giving up coffee cold turkey today. Can we just take this as evidence that was a really bad, bad, idea and now I get my coffee, please?

 

As far as the GRE, I would wait until later in college. Many grad schools will not accept GRE results that are over two years old. Also, if you are in a discipline that requires a subject test, you may not know a lot of that subject content until later in college. Many students study for and take the GRE during junior year.

[flyingiguana]

My daughter's physics program suggests they take it at the beginning of their senior year. They're in the process of reordering their classes, in fact, so that the students will take quantum in their junior year instead of the spring of senior year. That way, they'll have some quantum background before going into the test.

 

The university near us also suggests taking the GRE in the senior year.

 

They also think that ETS won't forward scores that are more than 5 years old (although they say that some programs will accept older scores provided by the applicant). My impression is that they used to say they would accept scores up to 20 years old, so I'm guessing this was not a time limit of the university's but rather of ETS. Maybe the test changed 5 years ago and ETS doesn't want overlapping scores out there.

 

Back when I took it, the math portion was pretty darn similar to the SAT math. In other words, they didn't expect that you would have grown much mathematically in your years of college. However, the reading and vocabulary portions were a LOT harder. This suggests that it would really be better to wait until senior year to take it. Otherwise, you're just getting the SAT score scaled against people who had another 3 years of college reading.

 

Also, if one is taking a subject test, it makes no sense AT ALL to take the GRE in the freshman year. I've never heard of anyone doing that.

[Gwen in VA]

My kids, along with everyone else they knew who was applying to grad school, took it summer/fall of their senior year in college. The students who took a subject test as well as the general one did the subject test during the fall.

 

I don't know the statistics, but I would guess that taking it during the summer before senior year or during the fall of senior year is pretty standard.

 

(Yes, you can take the GRE during the summer.)

[Dmmetler]

The main reason for taking it earlier is the same reason for taking the PSAT Sophomore year (and then again Jr. Year for NMSQT) and the SAT both Jr and Sr Yr-if you end up lower on a section than you need for the programs you want, you have time to prep more and try again. I've seen far too many kids start the college process years in advance, but then wait until their last year to really start on the grad school process-and that often ends up with "putting all your eggs in one basket" as far as the GRE goes-especially if you need both the general test and one or more subject tests. You don't want to take both general and subject on the same test date.

 

In addition, depending on the major, you may only have a year or two of math classes to take-and if you take the GRE general test two years after you finished your college math sequence, that can make that section pretty hard. (Less of a concern with Reading/Vocabulary-because often you're building up those skills in other subject areas). I've seen a few students take the test in Jr year and have their composite go DOWN in Sr year-because their verbal went up a bit, but math went down.

[MIch elle]

Thank you all.

 

But doesn't it make sense to take GRE General Test earlier because he will have forgotten much of his algebra by senior year? He doesn't need a GRE subject test. High school requires 4 years of math so waiting on SATs later in high school makes sense. My ds only needs calculus 1 & 2 and stats for his degree.

 

Applying to grad. school and taking the GRE general test at the same time doesn't seem like a good idea. Ds will need to start applying to graduate school starting November of his senior year.

[MomsintheGarden]

I have two who will be applying to PhD programs this fall. One is a college junior, and the other is a 1st year master's student. Neither has taken the GRE yet. Here's a basic timeline: http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/application-timeline.aspx

 

They will both probably take the general test in August, and their subject test in November if necessary.

[Gwen in VA]

The subject test may or may not be necessary.

 

Whether it is required depends both on the grad school and on the program. Do your research before taking it! For example, most chemistry programs require or request the chemistry one, but there is no subject test directly relevant to materials science and engineering, so even the top Mat Sci programs do not require or request a subject test.

 

Yhere are many many fields where there is no GRE subject test that is directly relevant.

 

The GRE subject tests are NOT like the SAT-2's -- you don't take multiple ones to prove you are well-rounded! You take one to prove you have mastered one field of study.

[Cera]

All of the grad school programs I applied to required GRE scores less than 2 years old (so for someone applying sprng of their senior year it would have to be taken after late spring of their sophomore year).

[flyingiguana]

You can retake the test every 30 days. I don't know that there are actual test dates, as they now do them at computer test centers. You just make an appt.

 

I know that there were kids where I work who took it a number of times in a very short span of time, all in the summer/fall of senior year.

 

Most only took it once, though. I don't know that there's such a culture of taking the GRE a bunch of times like there is with the SAT. I also don't know that there's much advantage to it. By that point, grad schools have college grades and letters of recommendation from professors, often from people the student did research with. They tend to put more weight on those than test scores. Least, that's my report from 20 years ago when I was part of a grad school admissions committee. I sort of wonder if the GRE is more important to the grad college administrators at a school than the depts who do the actual admitting. (I didn't apply to any schools where the grad college did the admitting - it was all at the dept level.)

 

If the student is a good test taker, doing both general and subject test in the same day is possible. I did it that way. I don't think it negatively impacted my scores at all. It just wasn't much fun. But then you have it over with. (It's like getting all four wisdom teeth out in one operation rather than doing 2 at a time. A lot of people would rather just get it over with and not have to go back.)

 

BTW - the one student I knew who was taking it every month was not a native English speaker. He was trying to bring up his verbal score. Despite all the studying, though, it didn't really get any better. His score was awful. But he got into grad school just fine, with assistanships. In the STEM fields, I don't think this is all that hard to do if you have good grades and people who will write decent letters. I've also known people with atrocious math scores who got into humanities grad school just fine (with financial support).

[wendyroo]

I took the GRE at the beginning of my junior year. I planned to attend graduate school at the same university (and in the same department) that I was finishing my bachelors. I was pretty much assured acceptance to the program as long as I finished my bachelors and my GRE score was high enough. As soon as I had the GRE score in the bag I planned the rest of my junior year and my senior year classes such that I had some of the graduate requirements taken care of by the time I got my bachelors. This allowed me more flexibility during my graduate program and I graduated 1-2 semesters earlier than many of my classmates.

 

Wendy

[Joules]

 

If the student is a good test taker, doing both general and subject test in the same day is possible. I did it that way. I don't think it negatively impacted my scores at all. It just wasn't much fun. But then you have it over with. (It's like getting all four wisdom teeth out in one operation rather than doing 2 at a time. A lot of people would rather just get it over with and not have to go back.)

 

 

 

This is brutal. I made 800s on the general but I was way too exhausted to think on the subject test. I ended up retaking it later. Things always go wrong. The general test started late due to some administrative issues so I only had about 20 minutes in between. I wouldn't recommend it unless it was an early test day and you have time to retake if necessary.

[shawthorne44]

I remember when I took the GRE, my study guide said that the math was easier than on the SAT. The assumption being that you forgot more than you learned. With a Physics/Math degree, I found the math so easy it was confusing.

[hsmamainva]

How do you know if you need to take a subject test in addition to the GRE?

 

My oldest will be taking this over the summer --- she's a Junior right now -- and she's planning to pursue her Masters in Occupational Therapy. She has 6 colleges on her "apply to" list and they all mention just GRE test scores, so I'm assuming this is just the general test?

[MIch elle]

How do you know if you need to take a subject test in addition to the GRE?

 

My oldest will be taking this over the summer --- she's a Junior right now -- and she's planning to pursue her Masters in Occupational Therapy. She has 6 colleges on her "apply to" list and they all mention just GRE test scores, so I'm assuming this is just the general test?

 

 

The college websites tell you what is required to apply. Look at them ALL. For the same degree, different grad. schools have different requirements.

[Arcadia]

Hubby said that GRE math is easier than 'O' levels (about 10th grade) math. He took the GRE for his PhD scholarship requirement. His GRE scores has to be less than two years old.