GRE Math-Tastrophe with a fine dusting of snowflake
June 6, 2017 7:51 AM Subscribe
I have a significant, documented math learning disability. I took the GRE in 2010 after extensive study with a tutor and time and a half as well as full use of a calculator. The result: A perfect score on the verbal and writing. 5th percentile on quant. It was kind of devastating.
For * reasons* it looks like I need to take the new GRE again in about two weeks. I will not have any accommodations available to me. It seems like the revisions to the test have made it much more difficult on the math side. I need help weighing my options...more below.
More below...
I work full time, have a toddler, and am 9 months pregnant. It feels like studying extensively for the math would probably not be productive in a two week window particularly given my previous experience with extensive study to no avail. I am confident that my verbal and writing will stay extremely high.
Here's what I currently see as my options:
1) I am wondering-- although it sounds bananas-- about selecting answers at random? It's hard to believe that my score could be lower than it was already. But I'm not sure how that would work now that the revised test has multiple correct answer questions and fill-in-the-number questions. Honestly, I don't need to do well on the math. Even with my ridiculous previous math score, I wrote a letter of explanation and was accepted at a prestigious graduate program. It's more that I don't want the number to drop even lower AND I really need to get this done before this baby arrives on the scene. So maybe this scenario is less wild than it initially sounds?
2) Maybe I could just pick one part of the test-- like arithmetic-- to study extensively and guess on the rest? I'm genuinely not sure it would make a difference and possibly might make things worse as any math takes me such a long time and my accuracy is so very, very poor.
3) I could also call the grad program I'm applying to and beg the to accept my 2010 scores? But it seems like that would probably be fruitless...
4) Other brilliant MetaFilter option that magically solves all my problems and that I have not thought of here?
Can you weigh in on what options seem the best to you? I would also be super interested in folks who could help me understand the potential impact of guessing on the math section. Finally, while it would be amazing, I will not have time to renew my disability paperwork which has expired and will not have time to do a prep course so suggestions that don't involve those two things would be the most helpful.
I work full time, have a toddler, and am 9 months pregnant. It feels like studying extensively for the math would probably not be productive in a two week window particularly given my previous experience with extensive study to no avail. I am confident that my verbal and writing will stay extremely high.
Here's what I currently see as my options:
1) I am wondering-- although it sounds bananas-- about selecting answers at random? It's hard to believe that my score could be lower than it was already. But I'm not sure how that would work now that the revised test has multiple correct answer questions and fill-in-the-number questions. Honestly, I don't need to do well on the math. Even with my ridiculous previous math score, I wrote a letter of explanation and was accepted at a prestigious graduate program. It's more that I don't want the number to drop even lower AND I really need to get this done before this baby arrives on the scene. So maybe this scenario is less wild than it initially sounds?
2) Maybe I could just pick one part of the test-- like arithmetic-- to study extensively and guess on the rest? I'm genuinely not sure it would make a difference and possibly might make things worse as any math takes me such a long time and my accuracy is so very, very poor.
3) I could also call the grad program I'm applying to and beg the to accept my 2010 scores? But it seems like that would probably be fruitless...
4) Other brilliant MetaFilter option that magically solves all my problems and that I have not thought of here?
Can you weigh in on what options seem the best to you? I would also be super interested in folks who could help me understand the potential impact of guessing on the math section. Finally, while it would be amazing, I will not have time to renew my disability paperwork which has expired and will not have time to do a prep course so suggestions that don't involve those two things would be the most helpful.
Best answer: What program are you applying to? Is it something like economics, which will be quant-heavy, or English, which most likely won't? Everybody always says that GRE scores don't really matter as long as your grades and recommendations are good, and so if you're not going into a quantitative program, that's probably even more so.
Second, what happened the first time you applied in 2010? Was the 5th percentile good enough then?
Is there any way you can postpone the test until after you give birth? Not that it would be that much easier with two small children, but the fact that you could give birth at any moment is highly distracting.
One small note of congratulations: you're the first person I've ever come across with a higher verbal score than me. So good work there!
posted by kevinbelt at 8:07 AM on June 6, 2017
Second, what happened the first time you applied in 2010? Was the 5th percentile good enough then?
Is there any way you can postpone the test until after you give birth? Not that it would be that much easier with two small children, but the fact that you could give birth at any moment is highly distracting.
One small note of congratulations: you're the first person I've ever come across with a higher verbal score than me. So good work there!
posted by kevinbelt at 8:07 AM on June 6, 2017
Response by poster: Great questions-- the program I'm applying to is in education and cares more about verbal than quant, but still wants to know I can handle myself math-wise. During my last grad school experience I took Statistics, etc. and did very well. (I have very good coping skills for my math disability, but none of it seems to transfer to high stakes testing!)
When I applied to a different ed program in 2010 but math scores were VERY low compared to their average, but I included an explanation of my disability and based on my previous work experience, references, and very high verbal score was accepted and received a fellowship.
That said, this new program is even more competitive and the logistics of taking the GRE again feel daunting to begin with and nearly prohibitive on the math side.
posted by jeszac at 8:12 AM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
When I applied to a different ed program in 2010 but math scores were VERY low compared to their average, but I included an explanation of my disability and based on my previous work experience, references, and very high verbal score was accepted and received a fellowship.
That said, this new program is even more competitive and the logistics of taking the GRE again feel daunting to begin with and nearly prohibitive on the math side.
posted by jeszac at 8:12 AM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I agree that studying would be really challenging right now and may not give you great returns. Sorry if you already did this on your previous test, but how about working the test rather than showing what you actually know? I learned these in a test prep course and they did help me.
1. If it's multiple choice, usually there's at least one answer that's obviously wrong. Try to get it down to two options if you can- this way your odds are a little bit better if you have to guess.
2. Skip questions you don't know how to work and then come back to them in the end.
posted by Mouse Army at 8:25 AM on June 6, 2017
1. If it's multiple choice, usually there's at least one answer that's obviously wrong. Try to get it down to two options if you can- this way your odds are a little bit better if you have to guess.
2. Skip questions you don't know how to work and then come back to them in the end.
posted by Mouse Army at 8:25 AM on June 6, 2017
Best answer: No special knowledge here, just googling around, this page from ETS's own site looks like it addresses most of your question #1:
posted by floppyroofing at 8:26 AM on June 6, 2017
Your Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning scores will be determined by the number of questions you answer correctly. Nothing is subtracted from a score if you answer a question incorrectly. Therefore, to maximize your scores on the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning measures, it is best to answer every question.Also I notice it says "An on-screen calculator is available during the Quantitative Reasoning sections."
Work as rapidly as you can without being careless. Since no question carries greater weight than any other, do not waste time pondering individual questions you find extremely difficult or unfamiliar.
posted by floppyroofing at 8:26 AM on June 6, 2017
Best answer: First of all, my sympathies: it sounds like you're in an incredibly stressful situation that's very far from optimal for studying for an exam. Do take care of yourself.
As you probably already know, it's not too unlikely that the math score will be almost entirely ignored in evaluating applications. This is anecdotal, but as someone who's department never looks at math scores ('cause everyone who has any real chance at admission gets a near perfect score) and who's spouse is in a department that never looks at math scores ('cause many of their very best scholars would fail), it's worth thinking carefully about how much effort this deserves compared to other more important things. (I can believe there are fields in which the GRE math score isn't pointless noise and rent-seeking on the part of ETS, but I've yet to meet anyone working in them.)
A (one sentence) mention of your disability in your cover letter and or research statement will give your advocates on an admissions committee the material they need to argue for ignoring your math scores, no matter how bad they seem. Don't milk it, but don't hide it either. Consider sticking it in the first sentence of a paragraph that goes on to describe your resilience and academic dedication despite personal hardships and family obligations.
Writing to the department and asking if they'll accept old scores also isn't a bad idea. It's a decision that will probably have to be escalated to the chair of the admissions committee, if your prospective institution is anything like mine. But, that's a good thing, since random faculty members don't generally care a sot about ETS deadlines. Telling them you're about to have a child will probably do more good than harm, though it's always a gamble. Whether or not you'll get a response in June in time to avoid a test is hard to say, though.
As others have said, there's no penalty for incorrect answers on the GRE, so guessing is better than not answering. But, it seems unlikely that the lowest performing test takers do worse than guessing at random, so it's not going to help you much. The scaling algorithm the GRE uses is pretty subtle, so you're unlikely to get a detailed answer regarding what score you'd get if you just guessed at random. It may not be better than 5th percentile.
If you can eliminate one or two answers, then you'll do a lot better than chance. As a triage approach, I'd spend the time working on practice questions with an eye toward figuring out which subset of answers can be eliminated quickly. Rather than, "what's the formula for finding the root of this equation," think, "three things added together are positive, so the answer in which each piece is negative can't possibly be right." For what it's worth, I've always found reading and studying is 100 times less effective than working practice problems when it comes to math tests. There's no substitute for practice problems.
posted by eotvos at 9:06 AM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
As you probably already know, it's not too unlikely that the math score will be almost entirely ignored in evaluating applications. This is anecdotal, but as someone who's department never looks at math scores ('cause everyone who has any real chance at admission gets a near perfect score) and who's spouse is in a department that never looks at math scores ('cause many of their very best scholars would fail), it's worth thinking carefully about how much effort this deserves compared to other more important things. (I can believe there are fields in which the GRE math score isn't pointless noise and rent-seeking on the part of ETS, but I've yet to meet anyone working in them.)
A (one sentence) mention of your disability in your cover letter and or research statement will give your advocates on an admissions committee the material they need to argue for ignoring your math scores, no matter how bad they seem. Don't milk it, but don't hide it either. Consider sticking it in the first sentence of a paragraph that goes on to describe your resilience and academic dedication despite personal hardships and family obligations.
Writing to the department and asking if they'll accept old scores also isn't a bad idea. It's a decision that will probably have to be escalated to the chair of the admissions committee, if your prospective institution is anything like mine. But, that's a good thing, since random faculty members don't generally care a sot about ETS deadlines. Telling them you're about to have a child will probably do more good than harm, though it's always a gamble. Whether or not you'll get a response in June in time to avoid a test is hard to say, though.
As others have said, there's no penalty for incorrect answers on the GRE, so guessing is better than not answering. But, it seems unlikely that the lowest performing test takers do worse than guessing at random, so it's not going to help you much. The scaling algorithm the GRE uses is pretty subtle, so you're unlikely to get a detailed answer regarding what score you'd get if you just guessed at random. It may not be better than 5th percentile.
If you can eliminate one or two answers, then you'll do a lot better than chance. As a triage approach, I'd spend the time working on practice questions with an eye toward figuring out which subset of answers can be eliminated quickly. Rather than, "what's the formula for finding the root of this equation," think, "three things added together are positive, so the answer in which each piece is negative can't possibly be right." For what it's worth, I've always found reading and studying is 100 times less effective than working practice problems when it comes to math tests. There's no substitute for practice problems.
posted by eotvos at 9:06 AM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
I would suggest getting a book of practice questions - not to actually sit down and do the problems, but to read the worked out solutions. The quant section had a lot of questions that were less about actual math and more about logic, so just reading the solutions and getting in the right mindset was really helpful for me. (I have a BA in English Lit and got a 162 on the GRE quant last year)
posted by little king trashmouth at 12:22 PM on June 6, 2017
posted by little king trashmouth at 12:22 PM on June 6, 2017
Best answer: I want to second all of eotvos' comment, especially his sympathy, but I particularly want to expand on his last paragraph. As eotvos said, eliminating answers can dramatically improve the odds. The ability to recognize wrong answers is a skill distinct from the ability to actually work the problem, and it's a skill that you can practice and intentionally develop. Basic consistency checks on the answers and "one-sigfig math"---rounding drastically to make things easier---come to mind. (Having said that, I don't know what your disability's like, nor what techniques will be difficult for you.)
My advice would be to go through one practice test and try to eliminate one answer for each question. Pay attention to how you eliminate the answers---you'll ultimately begin to recognize "ah, question 60 is this kind of question; I know some things to try on that kind of question". Then go back and try to eliminate a second question; you might make a third pass, but outside the physics GRE I'd expect that most questions will only have one or two easily-eliminable answers. Then do the next practice test, and the next, till you run out of energy, patience, and time. (Patience is usually the first thing to go for me.)
(Bonus: these sorts of skills are ridiculously useful even outside of test-taking situations: the ability to look at some (quantitative) thing and say "that doesn't look right. I think it's wrong" is great.)
Also---it's been a while since I thought about the math portion of the general GRE, but I seem to recall quite a wide variety of questions: there's arithmetic, there's estimation, there's "A implies B, but C implies not-B, so what about...", etc. If there are some questions that fall outside the parameters of your disability, in some sense---that you can answer, despite the fact that they look like math---then learning to quickly recognize and work them will probably pay dividends.
(And, yeah, you have to "work" the practice problems---or do the elimination thing---without looking at the answers. It can be frustrating and miserable, even for this physics grad student, but it's the only thing that really works.)
posted by golwengaud at 4:14 PM on June 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
My advice would be to go through one practice test and try to eliminate one answer for each question. Pay attention to how you eliminate the answers---you'll ultimately begin to recognize "ah, question 60 is this kind of question; I know some things to try on that kind of question". Then go back and try to eliminate a second question; you might make a third pass, but outside the physics GRE I'd expect that most questions will only have one or two easily-eliminable answers. Then do the next practice test, and the next, till you run out of energy, patience, and time. (Patience is usually the first thing to go for me.)
(Bonus: these sorts of skills are ridiculously useful even outside of test-taking situations: the ability to look at some (quantitative) thing and say "that doesn't look right. I think it's wrong" is great.)
Also---it's been a while since I thought about the math portion of the general GRE, but I seem to recall quite a wide variety of questions: there's arithmetic, there's estimation, there's "A implies B, but C implies not-B, so what about...", etc. If there are some questions that fall outside the parameters of your disability, in some sense---that you can answer, despite the fact that they look like math---then learning to quickly recognize and work them will probably pay dividends.
(And, yeah, you have to "work" the practice problems---or do the elimination thing---without looking at the answers. It can be frustrating and miserable, even for this physics grad student, but it's the only thing that really works.)
posted by golwengaud at 4:14 PM on June 6, 2017 [2 favorites]
Just re-read your question, and noticed the bit about slow, inaccurate arithmetic. Boy, I could write the book on that. Fortunately, it doesn't matter too much: you often don't have to be terribly accurate to be able to say "well, it's definitely one of these two---the other three are just bonkers."
posted by golwengaud at 4:20 PM on June 6, 2017
posted by golwengaud at 4:20 PM on June 6, 2017
Best answer: Extensive study with a tutor plus time and half got you a 5% score.
You are taking the test in two weeks, no tutor, no time and half.
In addition, I find it hard to imagine that a score of 3% or 2% would hurt you any more than the 5% that you got last time.
I think you would be far, far better off using the study time to work on getting perfect verbal and writing scores again. It is just a misplaced pride that makes you say that you don't want to do worse. Don't waste your study time on math - put the effort where it will do you some good. When you take the test, follow the advice on how to eliminate some answers and then just guess randomly and give yourself permission to have fun because it isn't going to matter. You have a documented disability, your test scores will be a disaster, and you will make up for it in your application when you point out how successful you have been at real world math problems.
posted by metahawk at 8:26 PM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
You are taking the test in two weeks, no tutor, no time and half.
In addition, I find it hard to imagine that a score of 3% or 2% would hurt you any more than the 5% that you got last time.
I think you would be far, far better off using the study time to work on getting perfect verbal and writing scores again. It is just a misplaced pride that makes you say that you don't want to do worse. Don't waste your study time on math - put the effort where it will do you some good. When you take the test, follow the advice on how to eliminate some answers and then just guess randomly and give yourself permission to have fun because it isn't going to matter. You have a documented disability, your test scores will be a disaster, and you will make up for it in your application when you point out how successful you have been at real world math problems.
posted by metahawk at 8:26 PM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Just in case anyone returns to this question or has a similar one: it worked out great! Perfect score on the verbal. 15th percentile on the math up from 5th percentile the last time. I selected D for all multiple choice answers and 6 for all questions where I had to enter a number. Least stressful testing experience of my life!
posted by jeszac at 2:19 PM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by jeszac at 2:19 PM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
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