Graduate school question

[Tharivol123]

So, I'm looking at enrolling in graduate school next year (a joint Masters of Public Affairs/Juris Doctorate program) and just have one big question.
Can anyone who has taken the GRE before offer any suggestions on what I should study?
I did a year as a Math/Physics major, earned an Associates as a Psychology/Sociology major, and have a BA in Political Science/Public Administration, so I'm not worried about any of those topics (too much). I just know that what they typically suggest studying for those types of tests and what's on them are in no way related.
There really isn't much else to grad school that I'm worried about (a 3.6 GPA, a successful internship, almost every professor willing to write me a letter of recomendation, and I have been published in a scholarly journal).

[RTGoodman]

Well, the three sections on the GRE General Test are Math, Reading, and Writing, essentially. If you're not good at high-level, focused writing like you normally have to do on standardized tests nowadays, work on that. If you're a good writer (which I'm assuming you are, as a former Psych and PoliSci major, then you'll be fine, probably. The reading is the same way - there's a lot of analogies, reading comprehension, and stuff like that, IIRC, so it's kinda like the SAT. Obscure vocabulary is a big part of that, unfortunately.

The math section is what killed me. It's basically Algebra I, Algebra II, and maybe Geometry, with some basic arithmetic, probability and statistics, and stuff like that thrown in. I took basic idiot math to get my BA, so I hadn't studied the necessary math in about 7 years when I took the GRE.

To give you some indication, I scored in the high 80th percentiles on everything but math, but at the 50TH percentile on it.


When you sign up for the GRE, you can get them to send you some software for free to review. If you sign up early enough (which I didn't) you might actually get it before your test date. Otherwise, the study guides you can buy in most bookstores will have a similar layout and can give you a feel for the kind of stuff you'll be facing.


There really isn't much else to grad school that I'm worried about (a 3.6 GPA, a successful internship, almost every professor willing to write me a letter of recomendation, and I have been published in a scholarly journal).

Not to discourage you, but don't get your hopes up TOO high. I had a 3.969 GPA as an undergrad, gave papers at two big conferences in my field, had excellent letters of recommendations, and all that, but still got rejected from seven out of eight schools to which I applied. A lot of grad school acceptance stuff is based on politics, the focuses of the programs you look at, the SIZE of said programs (my bane - all the schools I applied to, mostly, only took a dozen or less people per program), and not a small amount of luck. Your essays will be important, as will published content and conference appearances, but GPA and stuff aren't necessarily a guaranteed acceptance.

[Tharivol123]

Okay. The last math class I took was statistics and that was 7 years ago. The year before that I had calculus and group theory. It has been 11 years since I had anything below trig, so I might have to relearn that stuff. Writing is no big deal. My professors always told me that when they would read my papers they forgot I was an undergrad. If it is like the SAT and ACT I should do fine since I scored in the 90 percentile range in all areas.

@rtg: I'm not too worried about the politics thing. I can play that game pretty well and have experience in dealing with the people in question. That and knowing a person who approves their funding helps. :smallwink:
But seriously, I'm not too worried about their acceptance of my works. The paper I had published was published by them.
Unfortunately, I'm limited in the schools to apply to. There are only two colleges in the state that offer graduate degrees in Political Science (or anything even remotely close).

[RTGoodman]

Okay. The last math class I took was statistics and that was 7 years ago. The year before that I had calculus and group theory. It has been 11 years since I had anything below trig, so I might have to relearn that stuff. Writing is no big deal. My professors always told me that when they would read my papers they forgot I was an undergrad. If it is like the SAT and ACT I should do fine since I scored in the 90 percentile range in all areas.

Yeah, I'd brush up on it. My "studying" before I took it was looking over a borrowed GRE Math Review book from a friend the night before, and I didn't do so hot. Compared to the SAT where I did about like you - I think a had a 1380 or 1410 or something like that, though my English part was much higher than my math part.

If your professors complimented you on your writing like that, you'll probably be fine. I always got the same kind of thing, because of some great teachers in high school and my first year at college.