GRE Averaging or "best of"

[patrickb]

Hello,

I have been working on GRE practice sets and my average score is around 89% so far, missing only the most difficult/hard to understand questions.

I am not sure how this will translate to the GRE CAT but I want to take it to find out. But I don't want to take it yet if many of the good programs average your scores. I talked to CMU and they take the "best of", I was hoping that some of the quantnet members might have insights into some of the other east coast programs (preferably NYC programs ...columbia, nyu, baruch) and what their policies are.

Always thankful for the input.

Patrick

 

[Andy Nguyen]

800 is 93%, 790 is 91% so your score is around 770-780.
When ETS reports your GRE score, it will list previous attempts. Yes, if your latest try got you 800Q, then you basically have that off the check list.
It's also interesting to know that people can see that if you tried so many times to get 800, it does not say well about you. Keep in mind majority of your fellow applicants got 800 in their first try.

This should taken in the wider context of how each program is doing their admission checklist.

 

[Yike Lu]

800 is 93%, 790 is 91% so your score is around 770-780.

As far as I know, these are percenTILEs not percentages. I'm not sure how I would convert % answered correctly to a score. Some books have a conversion scale, I would recommend finding one of these at your local bookstore.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Yes. I meant percentile and I believe that's what is reported by ETS.
My approach is quite simple, get 800 and move on to the next step. If I can't get 800 on several tries, I have bigger things to worry. Maybe this line of work is not for me.

 

[Yike Lu]

Re: averaging policies (or lack thereof)

I'd actually contact the admissions offices directly and ask. I never had to worry about this myself.

 

[dstefan]

For the Baruch MFE Program, we always take the highest score in each section, even if they were achieved in different seatings.

That said, tanking sections alternatively (which we have never seen) would send the wrong message to the Admissions Committee.

 

[patrickb]

Thank you all for your feedback! You all make good points. Thanks Andy for being honest so I can keep my expectations aligned with my performance.