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Comment by santaclaus | Hacker News Reader

Interesting -- I thought the key to getting into a good PhD program was letters of recommendation, publications (not even first author), and fellowships (NSF, etc).

> a heavy focus on the GRE

I've never heard of someone getting into a program based on GRE scores... bombing the GRE is certainly a red flag, but things like recommendation letters from big names are way more important.

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Well... I just submitted applications to graduate schools and I completely bombed the General GRE test when I took it. I get a bit paranoid when I take standardized tests and seem to run out of time a lot.

I am depending entirely upon my undergraduate grades, publications, lab work, and recommendation letters, which are pretty darn good, so hopefully it works out.

You are right. It is not unusual to have 20 applicants with perfect GREs, so they act more like a minimum threshold

One additional factor here - a "perfect" GRE math score, 800/800, was typically only about a 95%ile score (at least back when I took it, which was admittedly 15+ years ago).

Ok, 95%ile isn't a low score, but it's not like a "perfect" LSAT or MCAT score, which I believe indicates a 99.9%ile ranking.

This is important, because while 20 candidates with "perfect" math GRE scores definitely indicates a strong set of standardized test takers, it isn't comparable to perfect scores in other standardized exams.

Most of the time for grad admissions they use the subject GREs and almost entirely ignore the basic ones (though they require you take them). Math PhD programs don't even care about any part of the basic GRE, just the subject test, which is used exactly how the article describes.

I assume in humanities programs they give weight to the verbal/writing parts of the GRE just as a pre-filter before they examine candidates. But the quant part of the GRE is so basic (high school level, no calculus) that the difference between missing a single problem is the difference between 100 percentile and like 75 since almost everyone who is trying does unbelievably well.

very true. 20 candidates with "perfect" subject scores would be an entirely different thing from the general math GRE.

I actually think you can miss few questions and still get an 800 on the general, with the "adaptive" computer test. Not sure about that though.

Very true. I wrote the GRE with a bunch of my friends in 2009, and all of us got 800/800 in the math section. We spent >95% of our prep time on the verbal section. The math section was very easy, as long as you were careful about double checking your answers.

I've heard it has become a bit tougher these days, from my sister, due to a change in format.

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