Hey guys, I am currently planning on taking the GRE for PT school entrance this summer. I was wanting to know what you guys did in order to prepare for it and what advice you would be able to give me ie things you didn’t do but did and things you did do but shouldn’t’ve.
Thanks
Things I didn’t do:
- Take the GRE. I applied to only those schools (at the time) not requiring a GRE. I was already in a master’s program. I didn’t need a GRE to tell me my vocabulary was poor, mathematics sucked and I couldn’t read :).
Words of advice:
Read this article. Make this an important part of your decision making…
Weird it just deleted my post
I agree I’m not I’m the best in math either.
The area I live in (SEC) and the starting pay as well as the growth rate is pretty damn good. But thanks for the link it was a good read.
I took one free GRE practice test a couple days before simply to orient myself with the format of the test. I found it to be very similar to other standardized tests that I have taken throughout high school. I’d treat it like any of those. Only emphasis I’d place is to make sure you know how to correctly format and write a persuasive essay.
Dang bro, I would actually lose my shit if I didn’t prepare for it and do bad and so would my dad. xD
For me I took the ACT and had to take it about 5 times to get my grade of 26 from 16, the first time I took it.
I naturally perform well on standardized tests throughout my life, got a 32 on my ACT #humblebrag. I found it to be very similar to other standardized tests, so if you’ve needed to prepare for those in the past, I’d prepare for the GRE as well.
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I was like Nathan, I am a fairly good standardized test taker so I did a couple of practice runs through the essay just to understand the formatting of it. Other than that I looked through a couple practice exams and reviewed any of the math that I had forgotten. For the vocab section, you can dedicate A LOT of time to study for it and it was no doubt my weakest link, but the time commitment is huge for the chance of getting the words you actually studied to pop up on the exam. If you have a good GPA and are comfortable with the rest of your application just go out and get a 300-305+ and you should be fine!
Good luck!
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For those looking for some data on accepted GRE scores for DPT school page 75 on the below link from PTCAS lists the accepted percentiles with the second link helping interpret the percentiles to actual scores.
General data from these links:
Mean scores for acceptance for Males
Verbal: 152
Quantitative: 153
Writing/Analytical: 3.5-4.0
Mean scores for acceptance for Females
Verbal: 150-151
Quantitative: 151-152
Writing/Analytical: 4.0
This isn’t to say that you need these scores to be accepted, rather that these were the mean scores of those who were accepted, meaning that there were plenty who were below these scores who got accepted.
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Nathan’s on top of things again! The averages for the GRE and GPA are averages for a reason. People get in with way higher and lower GRE scores and GPA than the average. If you don’t get the score you want on your first go around I found the test to be easier the second time I took it. Whether that was because was just more comfortable with the test or the questions on my vocab section were more familiar I’m not sure.
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Don’t mean to repeat what’s already been said but I thought I might throw in my 2 cents for what its worth. I would consider myself pretty average at taking standardized tests. I bought one of the study books and went through it over the course of a month or two and then took a few practice tests to prepare. I found the book to be really helpful, not in the way of teaching you how to solve the problems, but rather solve them in a more time-efficient manner. Also, it was helpful in showing me how to format the essay in a repeatable fashion no matter what kind of prompt(I am terrible at essays). Hope this helps!
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