GRE Psychology

Discussion in 'CLEP, DANTES, and Other Exams for Credit' started by Alissa, Dec 29, 2008.

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  1. Mechanix26

    Mechanix26 New Member

    I don't know what to think. I called for my score, and I was told the scaled score was 670, which was pretty much my goal. Then the automated system said it was only the 70th percentle! This despite multiple sources stating that score should have been over the 80th percentile. An error perhaps? I hope so! I guess I'll have to wait and see.
     
  2. JonHanson

    JonHanson Member

    If I recall I got near the minimum on the psych GRE I don't remember the percentile. On the Education GRE I was in the 92nd percentile. It seemed like a very simple test. In 1994 (at Regents College NKA Excelsior) you received about 30 hours credit for so long as you exceeded the minimum. I think they have changed that. 670 sounds pretty good to me. The percentile would change based on the number of people taking the test. Maybe the day I did the Ed GRE few people nationwide took it. I sat for the test at Northwestern University and the room only had 40 or 50 folks.

    Jon
     
  3. Kaz

    Kaz New Member

    Nope, you are probably in the 70th percentile. A 670 used to be 84th%, now it's 70th. Everyone seems to be using the old scoring table, the one for practice exam GR9981 in the previous practice booklet. That info is 10 years old and totally misleading now. The current practice exam is GR0781 and the scoring table from that booklet just went into effect this year. So if you don't have brand spankin' new prep books from Princeton Review or Kaplan, for example, you can't use their score tables in those books either as they are too old.
     
  4. Kaz

    Kaz New Member

    That's awesome that you got so much done with the GREs! But 15 year old test scores don't translate into anything intelligible now. It is simply too long a period of time for it to be relevant with regards to deducing where one might stand. Excelsior requires an 80th percentile score for 30 credits. Mechanix26's 670 is worth 24 credits, barring credit duplication.
     
  5. Mechanix26

    Mechanix26 New Member

    Well, 24 credits isn't that bad, I guess. I'll just have to take 2 extra tests to make up for it.
     
  6. JonHanson

    JonHanson Member

    I feel like the old guy telling everyone they should have bought real estate in the 1970's. I got lucky; the GRE tests helped me complete a degree starting with 12 credits in 11 months. Though I did study 4 to 5 hours a day. If I recall I looked at ACE credit for life learning (writing a lengthy portfolio) and decided it would be easier to just take tests for credit (and cheaper). I ended with a hodge podge of DANTES, CLEP and GRE in 1994 for 122 credits I had to take Speech Comm at a Local College.

    Take as many tests as you can. I sat at Ohio State one Friday and took all the Dantes Tests they had in the cabinet. Six weeks later about 18 hours of credits showed up. I think they were only $10 or $20 each back then. We had to schedule the CLEPs so they were a little slower but I took 8 or 10 of them too, one I missed by one point.

    I went to a regular residential MBA program later, but if I recall my undergrad including airfare to Chicago to take the last test I needed was about $1,500. The MBA was more than 12 times that.

    The lesson: "Don't wait! Graduate!" Jon Hanson
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 12, 2009
  7. joelietz

    joelietz New Member

    Hi,

    Not only should you practice as much as you can but you should check out all of the resources available to you. A friend of mine told me about a gre practice test site where you can take GRE tests and really hone your skills. Apparently, that was a great help to him. He's also going into clinical psychology and had really good results when he wrote his official test. There's very good gre practice test here. Good luck to everyone!


     
  8. singsing64

    singsing64 New Member

    Hope this helps....

    I figured since I referred back to this page a bunch of times over studying for the psych gre, I should come back, and let y'all know how I did, and how I studied. I got my score today, I got a 790, 98th percentile. I realized I had to take the psych gre one month (really 5 weeks) before taking it so I crammed for a month straight.
    In the order in which I did it:
    I basically read (ie not memorized) Princeton Review 2-3 times. Then I went through Kaplan very, very slowly and made flashcards for every single term. This took me hours on end, but because many terms refer to other terms etc, this was very good for learning the material. When I finished that I carried around a stack of flashcards (total around 950 flashcards, broken up into maybe 8-9 stacks) at all times, when I was standing still - I was doing flashcards. I then went through Princeton Review (quickly) looking for any terms that I hadn't done in Kaplan and made flashcards for those. Then I took Princeton Review's test. Then Kaplan 1 and 2. Then the ETS test that they send you. I went through the ETS test a number of times... I took the ETS practice test a week and half before the actual psych gre. I did pretty well on it, but freaked out because I felt like it wasn't so much stuff I had studied, more that I happened to know these facts from learning them in psych classes. I ordered REA on two day shipping and did four of their practice tests. I would take a test, mark it and then slowly go through the test looking up and making a list of every term and it's explanation. [Note that I was still doing the flashcards over and over again until the very end.] That's pretty much it.
    My thoughts on the various things:
    It really, really does help if you've taken psych courses in college. That being said, if I had more time, go through an intro to psych textbook, notes from someone or watch a course online... [I didn't but I wish I had.]
    Kaplan and Princeton Review are very, very different. Kaplan explains things way more in depth, Princeton will give you more terms. In complement with each other, they are great. Using only one will probably hurt you. I saw a lot of people mention ARCO which I couldn't get my hands on, but I think between Kaplan and Princeton you should be okay.
    REA is useful if you are incredibly anal and anxious like me. It gives you endless questions, note: many of which are way harder than ETS questions. The questions also refer to people and things that are quite obscure. The style is sometimes so far from how ETS makes up their questions. You should realize though, that Kaplan and Princeton's questions are easier than ETS. The truest score you'll get is taking ETS's. I would advise that you take it when you feel you would be comfortable taking the actual gre, since that will help you gauge where you are really at.
    Also, look at the topics the gre covers, if you haven't taken a course in that, firstly, focus on that topic, secondly, if you have more time than I did: get someone's notes and read/study them. It'll help and will at least make you feel like you have a handle on the questions and not like they are coming out of left field.
    the best piece of advice that I found about the gre: there will always be questions and terms and people who you have never heard of. Don't freak out - you can do really well with getting a good number wrong, or leaving them out.
    Major good luck to everyone!!
     

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