I can give you my opinion on a couple of your questions. The GRE is techically supposed to be "easier" than the SAT in that the math is middle school math rather than high school/college level math. Problem is...it's probably been a while since you've done middle school math.
As for when to take the test my recommendation is talk to a faculty advisor at your school even if you don't plan on attending grad school at the same place you are now there should be someone their who can help guide you on the appropriate path for your field of study. The best advice I can give you is don't be afraid to make use of available resourses at your current school. You've already paid for it in the form of fees. Make use of it! Good luck!
I've spoken to my faculty advisors, but let's just say they're less than helpful. In fact, I've already received more advice from this community then I ever have from them lol
What are you using to help study for the GREs? Or are you studying?
I've taken them. scored okay. got accepted to my first choice program and start school in about five weeks. *dances for joy*
I used the Kaplan books and flash cards and the online tests provided by the GRE registration site. I could have done better but apparently I did well enough. I got into UT Austin's RTF grad program
Have you talked to any admins or secretaries in your department? the "unofficial" people sometimes can be teh most helpful. The advisors may only be filling that roll as a requirement. People in more service rolls are generally there because they're naturally helpful people.
I will be in a graduate program in clinical/counseling psychology in fall. For the GRE, I used the Kaplan books (one for the comprehensive exam and also the math workbook) and a set of flash cards from Barnes and Noble. The Kaplan books were awesome (definitely the best I saw). I got through about 1/3 of a book called "Word Smart for the GRE" and a bunch of the words that were in there ended up on my test. I think what helped me most was taking practice tests. I'd advise you to take as many as you possibly can. I found that my scores on the PowerPrep software from ETS were much more accurate than my scores on other tests. In fact, my actual score was identical to my PowerPrep scores!
As far as when to take the GRE, i highly recommend taking it during the summer between your junior and senior years. I ended up taking it in October of my senior year when I had 17 credit hours, was a research assistant, a teaching assistant, worked in an Autism lab, and volunteering. Oh, and was filling out applications for graduate school. I hardly had
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It depends on your field. I know people who've done it in psychology, though it is very competitive these days. However . . . I always, always recommend taking a year or two out. Always. Grad programs are so impacted right now because the economy is bad that a lot of places want to know that you're doing this because you want to and not because you can't get a job. I took two years out and am so glad I did - and don't worry about your skills getting rusty. Skills come back, and something happened to my mind in those two years out - my thinking matured or something - that allowed me to take the work I did once I came back to a whole new level. I really second this, you would be surprised how your views/opinions might change within those years
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I think what was meant by the middle school math comment was that most people will have learned all of the actual material needed for the quant. section by 10th grade or so (depending on when you took geometry). The formulas were certainly fresher in my mind back then. While the reasoning required is probably somewhat harder than what was taught in middle school, it still comes down to being able to do familiar problems very quickly (rate/distance problems, geometry problems) and I still think I would have had to study a lot less had I taken the quant. GRE back in 9th grade. Of course my score would no longer be eligible in that case, haha.
Are you going to be a junior, or did you just finish your junior year and are going to be a senior? IF it is the former, I highly highly HIGHLY recommend the Advanced Statistical Training in Psychology program sponsored by the APA in the summer. They take students in the summer before their senior year, and it is a nine-day intensive statistics program that goes through everything from basic hypothesis testing, Type I/Type II errors and stuff to more complex things like path analysis and ANCOVA and stuff.
I kid you not, I took Stats II when I came back from the program and I already knew the majority of the curriculum. I was doing stats tests that took everyone else 6-8 hours in three. And when I went to my current Ph.D school, they were impressed with the stats I knew (and told me that the intro stats classes I was going to take were going to be review fr me). The ASTP teacheres are AWESOME.
Best of all, it's FREE (they even paid for my airfare!)
Yeah, I'm a member, but I rarely make meetings. It's a small school so I'm already pretty close with most of the professors. I was just worried that I had to be super active across campus in addition to everything scholarly. Our school is not exactly the easiest to get involved in and I rarely have time. I hope that doesn't effect me too harshly.
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As for when to take the test my recommendation is talk to a faculty advisor at your school even if you don't plan on attending grad school at the same place you are now there should be someone their who can help guide you on the appropriate path for your field of study. The best advice I can give you is don't be afraid to make use of available resourses at your current school. You've already paid for it in the form of fees. Make use of it! Good luck!
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What are you using to help study for the GREs? Or are you studying?
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I used the Kaplan books and flash cards and the online tests provided by the GRE registration site. I could have done better but apparently I did well enough. I got into UT Austin's RTF grad program
Have you talked to any admins or secretaries in your department? the "unofficial" people sometimes can be teh most helpful. The advisors may only be filling that roll as a requirement. People in more service rolls are generally there because they're naturally helpful people.
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Hey, me too! Congrats!
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As far as when to take the GRE, i highly recommend taking it during the summer between your junior and senior years. I ended up taking it in October of my senior year when I had 17 credit hours, was a research assistant, a teaching assistant, worked in an Autism lab, and volunteering. Oh, and was filling out applications for graduate school. I hardly had ( ... )
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I received an A in stats (for psychology) and stats lab and I'm TAing for stats this semester. I'm totally good on the stats part.
Doing a honors thesis, which is why I'm stretching things out until graduating in 2010 instead of cramming 11 classes in by Summer 09.
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Are you going to be a junior, or did you just finish your junior year and are going to be a senior? IF it is the former, I highly highly HIGHLY recommend the Advanced Statistical Training in Psychology program sponsored by the APA in the summer. They take students in the summer before their senior year, and it is a nine-day intensive statistics program that goes through everything from basic hypothesis testing, Type I/Type II errors and stuff to more complex things like path analysis and ANCOVA and stuff.
I kid you not, I took Stats II when I came back from the program and I already knew the majority of the curriculum. I was doing stats tests that took everyone else 6-8 hours in three. And when I went to my current Ph.D school, they were impressed with the stats I knew (and told me that the intro stats classes I was going to take were going to be review fr me). The ASTP teacheres are AWESOME.
Best of all, it's FREE (they even paid for my airfare!)
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