Last weekend I got into a long discussion on the value of GRE score in a PhD
student. As the 2015 applicants start, I open up the discussion to the
community:
I have a female student that has both a Masters (thesis) and publication with
several years research experience. However, her GRE score
Unlike many in our field, I was weak on math and strong on the verbal sections
of the SAT and GRE. I had been math-phobic in grade school, and it wasn't
until senior year of college that I took a population biology class and
realized the importance of math in ecology. I'm decent at standardize
I think that we all look at this issue from a personal perspective,
especially those that did well on standardized tests, and I've had this
same argument with colleagues for 30 years, including the exact same
situation where the student was up for a competitive assistantship with a
mediocre GRE sc
I am a current PhD student and I will admit that my GRE score was pretty
mediocre. I've never been good at taking standardized tests (I didn't do
very well on the SAT either). I love math, but English is not my native
language, so I've always struggled with the verbal sections of the test.
I perso
If you have good scores, they don't matter.
IF you have bad scores, they matter.
On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 7:22 PM, Asya Robertshaw
wrote:
> I am a current PhD student and I will admit that my GRE score was pretty
> mediocre. I've never been good at taking standardized tests (I didn't do
> very we
I agree with this assessment - especially since some small liberal arts
colleges engage in grade inflation - GPA's are not always reliable. I
think there is considerable value to the GRE scores and having a minimum
is useful. Above that, scores vary widely and are not always predictive
of ult
Hi all,
I have similar problem with my application materials for the PhD. I did 8
years education after my school education which has mode of instruction in
English. I have secured good marks at University level which includes both
course and project work. I scored highest mark in my MSc level (to
Yes, but
I have had a number of foreign students who could not write English very
well and I had to do a lot of re-writing on their dissertations - but the
research itself was excellent and we produced many publications. Just more
work on the major professor's part.
> I agree with this asse
Some people just don't test well, making the GREs totally useless as a
gauge of talent across all. Furthermore, I have been told that their use is
supported mainly by payments to the Universities from the company that runs
the GREs, at the costs to the already poor students. They seem merely to be
Large public and private colleges and universities also engage in grade
inflation, and I just read something to the effect that the problem may
be worse at larger institutions. One large state university (which
happens to be one of the biggest research universities in the nation) is
coming out
Ditto that comment. What got my interest was the goals statement that the
individual wrote as part of their application. Not only was it
well-written, but it was right in line with the focus of my program. I
asked numerous faculty about it and decided to go out on a limb and give
the student the op
Although some will say otherwise, the purpose of the GRE is not
entirely to see what you know.
IT is partly to see if you are willing to put in the effort to raise
your score. Honestly, if you took it once,
raising your score 6 mo later or a year later is not that hard. IF
you scored low in vocab
I made mediocre scores on the GREs, and I normally do exceptionally well on
standardized tests. The GREs struck me as a scam, from the noisy, crowded
testing room (What other company would let parents stand around and
watch?!) to the secretive subject topics. I had no idea that much of the
math sec
As a graduate student who also took the (relatively new) computerized
adaptive GRE (in 2008), I want to second Alex's point. The quantitative
section tests the ability of students to use 'tricks' learned from
expensive GRE preparation courses to solve math problems quickly. In other
words, the test
GPAs are a less reliable indicator of potential for a variety of
reasons. For one, there is a large amount of variation in in the
quality of education and standards for assessment across institutions.
It is also true that a student's GPA can be damaged due to issues that
are external to acade
hil Ganter
Biological Sciences
Tennessee State University
Nashville, TN
From: Andrew Wright
Reply-To: Andrew Wright
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2014 12:06:32 -0500
To:
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] GRE Scores In Picking a PhD Student. Do they Matter?
Some people just don't
Nashville, TN
>
>
> ____________________
> From: Andrew Wright
> Reply-To: Andrew Wright
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2014 12:06:32 -0500
> To:
> Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] GRE Scores In Picking a PhD Student. Do they Matter?
>
> Some people just don't te
we
> aren't politicians, we're scientists. Anyone got any data?
>
> Phil Ganter
> Biological Sciences
> Tennessee State University
> Nashville, TN
>
>
> ____________
> From: Andrew Wright
> Reply-To: Andrew Wright
> Date:
illing to contribute an anecdote but we
> aren't politicians, we're scientists. Anyone got any data?
>
> Phil Ganter
> Biological Sciences
> Tennessee State University
> Nashville, TN
>
>
> ____________________
> From: Andrew Wright
> Re
ciences
> Tennessee State University
> Nashville, TN
>
>
>
> From: Andrew Wright
> Reply-To: Andrew Wright
> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2014 12:06:32 -0500
> To:
> Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] GRE Scores In Picking a PhD Student. Do they
> Matt
he original post asked an
> interesting question. What to do when indicators disagree? No one has
> posted a really good answer to that conundrum (guess that's what makes it a
> conundrum). Everyone seems to be willing to contribute an anecdote but we
> aren't politicians,
> conundrum). Everyone seems to be willing to contribute an anecdote but we
> aren't politicians, we're scientists. Anyone got any data?
>
> Phil Ganter
> Biological Sciences
> Tennessee State University
> Nashville, TN
>
>
> ______
ess that's what makes it a
> conundrum). Everyone seems to be willing to contribute an anecdote but we
> aren't politicians, we're scientists. Anyone got any data?
> >
> > Phil Ganter
> > Biological Sciences
> > Tennessee State University
> > Nashville
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