GRE Psychology

I studied for nine weeks nonstop for this one. I sat this exam Oct 18, 2008. I ended up passing with a 720, 87th percentile, worth the full 30 credits from Excelsior. I recommended getting all the preparatory books out there, plus a good text on clinical psychology and experimental design. Here's the books I used, and additionally some I wish I had:http://www.amazon.com/Books-nbsp-to-nbsp-prepare-nbsp-for-nbsp-the-nbsp-GRE-nbsp-Psychology-nbsp-Test/lm/R1ALBYC6Y3BY29/ref=cm_srch_res_rpli_alt_1

And I talk more about books here, and there is info for other GRE exams at this link, too:http://www.urch.com/forums/gre-subject-tests/

 

Alissa,

Thanks for the book list. Would you mind re-posting the resources you originally provided on the (now locked) InstaCert exam feedback section? I still have a membership to InstaCert (until the end of the month), however, I do not think it is appropriate to copy/paste someone else's work on another forum. With that said, you, as the author, have every right to do this.

Thanks!
Tom

 

old posts

I agree, I wouldn't think it ethical to copy someone's old posts. Thank you for asking. Here's some of my old posts about the GRE Psych:

Originally posted by me 9/20/08

Originally posted by me 9/23/08

 

more old posts

originally posted by me 9/23/08

Originally posted by alissaroot on October 3, 2008:

Quote:
I don't know if anyone else is curious about which exams are duplicated, or not, by the GRE Psychology, but I asked Excelsior about a few of them:

I asked, "I am interested specifically in Organizational Behavior, Substance Abuse, and Management Information Systems DSSTs? I would assume these are business and health courses, but I am interested in taking them though they are indirectly related to psychology."

Jodi Bernstein-Liberal Arts Adviser-

She is referring to the fact that my Intro Psychology course from 10 years ago is a four credit course, if I bomb the GRE and get only three credits, it will still replace and I will actually lose a credit. So, evidently, the tests duplicated are the very obvious ones, thank goodness, I can now include these 3 in my testing plan.

(update 12/29/08) This woman was incorrect about my intro psych class from back then. Also, I have no idea why I asked about MIS, but I think I had it confused with HTYH for some reason. Whatever, I'm silly like that. But this is how it looks on my transcript:

Franklin College
Psychology, Introductory:.....4CR.......B

GRE Subject Exams
(720)Psychology...........8LL..........Pass
(720)Psychology.........18UL..........Pass

originally posted by me 10/15/08

 

Originally posted by me 10/18/08

originally posted by me 12/18/08

And there are lots of other posts by me about this exam, since I was obsessed with it for nine weeks and I couldn't shut up about it. Doing a quick search for my name over there will likely turn up a lot of discussion about this exam. Good luck!

 

Congratulations. 720 is an awesome score. Mine was not nearly as high.

I did get the 30 hours credit though and about 27 on the sociology GRE too. They don't offer the Education GRE anymore but it was the easiest. I hit the 92nd percentile on that one. I took three GRE's in 1994 when I earned a degree from Regents College (USNY) now know as Excelsior. I thought the Psych GRE was the hardest of the three I took. Also took 17 assorted CLEP and DANTES tests.

Excelsior is the way to go if you are in a hurry. I earned 122 hours and picked up my degree in July '94, 11 months later. It was way quicker than my conventional MBA in 2007

 

Alissa,

Thank you for this excellent, detailed thread.

You rock!

 

Alissa,

I was under the impression that Excelsior would give 30, (not 26) Im confused. Would 18UL be enough to major in Psyche?

 

They do, you are correct. The reason I only received 8 lower level credits is because I already had an introductory psychology course on my record from Franklin College I completed about ten years ago. Rather than removing that class from my status report, they just deducted the duplicate credits from my lower level GRE credits.

To use the GRE Psychology for a major at Excelsior, and for every major there except Mathematics, you have to have a research and writing in the major course. So, if you passed the GRE above the 80th percentile in any of those currently offered, all you need is this one-credit research and writing in the major class. I think it is an eight week course, and Excelsior currently charges $300 for it. Check out the publications page on Excelsior's site. It does include a document outlining the requirements for every major. You may have to sign up for a free MyEC account in order to view all the publications.

You need fifteen upper level credits for a major in psychology at EC. The GRE actually skews the distribution a bit, since it gives 12 lower level, then 18 upper level. This is acceptable, don't let this bother you. The minimum credit distribution is 30 in the major, with 15 at upper level. You can do more at upper level and less at lower, although most people would not. This is good news, since you can pass the GRE at 75th percentile and still receive enough upper level credits for the major. You would then only need the Research and Writing course already discussed, and two lower level psychology credits. Consult an adviser to see what would suit.

Here's my best guess at the credit distribution. Keep in mind that this is just a guess, and that your results may vary:

Raw score--Scaled Score--Percentile--Credits at Excelsior

100-102 530 36% 3LL
103-106 540 39% 3LL
107-110 550 43% 6LL
111-113 560 47% 9LL
114-117 570 50% 12LL
118-120 580 54% 12LL
121-124 590 58% 12LL+3UL
125-127 600 62% 12LL+6UL
128-131 610 65% 12LL+9UL
132-135 620 68% 12LL+9UL
136-138 630 72% 12LL+12UL
139-142 640 75% 12LL+15UL
143-145 650 78% 12LL+15UL
146-149 660 81% 12LL+18UL

Hope this helps!

 

Just to clarify this, a more generalized major in Liberal Studies at Excelsior also does NOT require this Research and writing requirement. I encourage anyone seeking a more specific major to check out the major requirements on Excelsior's publications page and to consult with an adviser for planning out how to meet the specific major's requirements.

Good luck!

 

Alissa, thanks for the thorough Pysche info!

 

Only two exams?

Thank you for the post, Alissa.

So if I passed GRE in psychology above 80th percentile and complete the research course, I'll qualify for a BA in psychology at Excelsior?

 

Well, yes, but don't forget the other 90 credits for your degree. My adviser was a bit vague and cryptic when I asked her about changing my major. You may or may not need the one-credit course. Be sure to get it from your adviser in writing, maybe someone who has done this recently will reply with a more definitive answer than I can give. I was content with a BS in Liberal Studies, so I went with that. But yes, as far as I can tell, you can complete all the requirements for a psychology major with the one GRE exam, scoring above the 80th percentile, and (possibly) the one-credit course.

You may want to plan for a few extra credits because so many things will duplicate the GRE. On my final status report from Excelsior, they deducted another three lower level credits from my GRE credits, but I am not sure what duplicated. DSST Organizational Behavior? DSST General Anthropology? Fortunately I had some extra credits anyway so it wasn't a problem and I will still graduate within my time frame.

Good luck, and if you tackle the GRE, be sure to let us know how you do!

 

I don't understand

I don't understand. If can I meet all the requirements with the GRE subject in Psychology and one credit course, which other 90 credits are you talking about?

Thanks.

 

In other words, the GRE in Psychology qualifies you for your 30 credits for the psych major, but you still have the issue of 60 hours of lower-division claases for the general education requirements (formerly known as the "freshman requirements," but they take up 2 years nowadays) and 30 hours of free electives for your 120 hour total. In other words, have you accumulated enough CLEP, DANTES, etc. or do you have enough course credits from other degree attempts to cover those other 90 hours?

 

A BA in Psychology will require 120 credits, total. The GRE will cover 30 of those, as well as the requirements for a major in psychology. You will still need to meet all your general education requirements.

Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know, but the way your question was phrased made me think you were under the impression that you could get your whole degree done with just one test and one class, but that is not the case. You will still need 90 more credits even if you pass a GRE exam above the 80th percentile.

 

Thanks. Now I understand you completely.

 

I just wanted to chime in here. I took the Psychology GRE today. My course of study and preparation is not one I would recommend to anyone. My study materials consisted of 2 versions of the Princeton Cracking the GRE Psychology Subject Test (for the 2 different practice exams), REA Psychology problem solvers, the McGraw Hill 5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, the internet, and 2 versions of the ETS GRE practice exam. The REA book looked to be a wealth of information, but I only read about 60 pages of it, due to poor time management and only having around one month to study. I found the McGraw Hill book to be quite excellent. It had a lot of information, and was not so long as to be intimidating to read. The last practice exam I took (ETS) gave me a score at the 72nd percentile, so we'll see how well that correlates to my actual exam score. I found the practice exams to be a pretty close match to the types of questions asked on the GRE. The GRE did contain a few questions I never came across during my limited studies. For the record, I had ZERO past experience in Psychology. I'll make an effort to update here once I get my score back! One last thing, I created to quick Excel spread sheet to use to take the GRE practice exams. Change the file extension from "doc" to "xls". It scores everything for you. Just enter all the test answers in column "A", then populate column "B" with the answers from the answer key, then finally sum column "C" (Excel does this for you). There may be an occasion or two where you want to deliberately score a question as zero. To do this, leave column "A" blank, and enter any answer in column "B". Remember, blank means blank. Do not accidentally use a space, or it will score wrong. I personally went through the entire test before entering the answer key answers. Good luck to anyone else who takes this in the future!

 

I took the exam today, and I am happy. It was about what I expected. I'm pretty sure I will get an excellent score, and can live with an almost excellent score.

I started studying 5 weeks ago, and only had a little basic background (mostly long ago). I studied in spurts and did far from a perfect job, but I am very satisfied with how much effort I put in and how much I learned. (I believe I'll retain most of the info. There is also a lot I don't/didn't remember, especially names, but at least I had exposure. I never concentrated on the rote memorization part, even though the test does still ask questions of that sort.) I'm really unsure how many hours per week I ended up working on psychology, maybe 16 hrs on average of real learning/practice time.

My main problem was the time constraints. Silly mistake on my part though - I should have realized / not done it in the first place. I guess they want the test to be challenging in that way. I am more accustomed to feeling like a test gave me give plenty of time.

I plan to take the Biology or Biochemistry GRE next year (unless I decide on other studying that is more important) and I wonder if I will need more study time for Bio, less, or about the same (in order to get similar results). I feel like having studied for one subject GRE, I am a little more prepped for the next (and for CLEP/etc).

Alissa, thanks again for the exam recommendations!

Mechanix - Thanks for the spreadsheet. (To others: you have to rename it to .xls to get it to open.)

 

You're welcome! Now to decide if I want to pay $12 to find out my score on the 9th!