Psychology GRE on April 2nd ???

Discussion in 'CLEP, DANTES, and Other Exams for Credit' started by james_lankford, Mar 31, 2005.

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  1. james_lankford

    james_lankford New Member

    anybody besides me taking this ?


    I just finished the pactice exam ETS sent me, and I only scored in the 68 percentile. I'm shooting for the magical 80 on Saturday.
     
  2. sisterc

    sisterc New Member

    I'm taking it Saturday, also. Good luck to both of us.
     
  3. rince

    rince New Member

    I hope to contribute the points for COSC but I have been sick for two weeks, not yet recovered and so not optimistic, I can see a repeat try in November already. If I score badly tomorrow and do a lot better in November will both show on the COSC transcript or does the bad one disappear.

    Good luck to both of you, miracle luck required for me I think
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 1, 2005
  4. james_lankford

    james_lankford New Member

    The Psych GRE is HARD ! HARD ! HARD !


    I am SO disappointed!

    1 and 1/2 months ago I thook the CLEP Introductory Psychology and scored 74. Excelsior requires a 58 for an A, so I met that easily. The CLEP test was easy. Finished it in under an hour and left no questions blank.

    I've been able to complete the practice GRE exam ETS sent me in the alloted time and scored in the 68%. So I was feeling pretty confident that I would do ok.

    The real test was nothing like the practice exam. It was so much harder.

    There were so many of those 'the next 4 questions refer to the graph, passage, experiment below'. Those took so much time. And I couldn't just leave 4 questions blank every tiime. Also, there were a lot more biology/physiology than I expected. I knew Piaget/Erikson and development forwards and backwards. Yet, there seemed to be hardly any of those on there.

    I only got up to question 200 out of 215 and even out of the 200, I left about 30 blank because I just had no clue. I was hoping to back to the 30 after I had gone all the way through, but I never even got that far.

    I didn't cancel the score though. I guess I'll just retake it in November.

    I don't know COCS's policy, but I believe Excelsior will let me take it again. Until then, I think I will take Excelsior's Lifespan development exam and abnormal psychology exam to accumilate some psych credit and to hedge myself against an equally bad GRE showing in November.
     
  5. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    Cheer Up Gang!

    Hey guys and gals,
    Obviously you want to be prepared, but my experience was vastly different than James'. I have only taken two psychology classes and I studied for the GRE using the Princeton Guide. I am no kind of genius, but I scored around the 78th percentile.
    Just have your ducks in a row about statistics, areas of psych and the pioneers of those techniques, schools of thought etc. Review the components of testing proceedures. Don't sweat it out too badly, just be serious, cram well and zen out during your test and you'll be fine if you've done your study.
    Good luck to all of you.
    Dan B
     
  6. sisterc

    sisterc New Member

    Misery loves company

    And so here I am. I realize this is not the pretty side of my personality, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it was WAY harder than the ETS practice exam.

    I finished the practice exam under time and at 90 percentile, so I felt pretty confident going in. Not so confident coming out. I read and studied diligently and learned everything in the Princeton AND Kaplan books, but there seemed to be a lot of areas that didn't even come up on the test.

    My test was only 205 questions. At the 20 minute call, I reached the end of the test, having left about 40 unanswered. I managed to answer--I think--about 10 of those before time was called.

    James, maybe we got really hard versions that will be scaled to reflect that. Any words of encouragement from someone who felt the same but ended up doing well would be a gift. It's going to be a long six weeks.
     
  7. Myoptimism

    Myoptimism New Member

    Well, I finished (fall 2003 exam) about 40 minutes early and walked out. This exam sounds like it might have been a bit more difficult. Nevertheless, the practice tests are very comparable to the real tests in terms of difficulty (they were real tests once upon a time, after all), and anyone who doesn't have extreme test anxiety should be able to perform at a comparable level to their practice tests (assuming they took them under simulated conditions). Myself, I scored around the 80th percentile on the practice, and after a month or two of hard core studying, scored a 92nd percentile on the real thing. I would highly doubt that either of your scores would drop by any magnitude, and if pressed ;) , I would guess they have improved.

    Tony

    P.S. My question is, "How in the hell did the traditional psych (and related field) students score so badly, after spending a good part of their undergrad lives studying psychology?"
     
  8. fuzzbomb

    fuzzbomb New Member

    I'm in the same boat! I started studying last year using several textbooks and study guides. I basically memorized the "Cracking The Psychology GRE" and used textbooks to elaborate the information well beyond the content of the study guide. The practice GRE was easy. I also purchased "Practicing To Take The Psychology GRE" which was easy.

    Where did this test come from! The questions may as well have been about how much thrust is required to circle mars in a Chevy Nova. It almost seemed as though an intentional effort was made to test information that is commercially unavailable.

    Seriously, once I got started I was hanging on to POE for dear life. I felt pretty good with my guesses. I filled in the last question early so I could see the distance to the finish line. When it came down to the last 20 minutes I stopped reading questions and started scanning answers for familiarity. If the answers looked familiar I'd read the question. Right now I wouldn't be surprised with any score they send me.

    I felt that I was as prepared as anyone could have been. I'm trying to be optimistic, <rolls the dice> come on scaled score.
     
  9. sisterc

    sisterc New Member

    I'm so happy, um, I mean sorry, to hear that! Seriously though, the more people that felt this way, the better our percentile potential. And THAT'S what we're after--the percentile.

    Tony, I appreciate the words of encouragement. I don't usually have test anxiety--my attitude is that I either understand the subject or I don't. But about 20 questions in I was wishing I'd had decaf for breakfast.
     
  10. fuzzbomb

    fuzzbomb New Member

    "But about 20 questions in I was wishing I'd had decaf for breakfast."

    Decaf?! I was tempted to raise my hand and ask to have a shot at the PHYSICS GRE!
     
  11. J Allen

    J Allen Member

    Did anyone else notice that the 'turnout' for this GRE was a little low?

    I can only speak for my location, but only half of the registered folks showed up. For those of you that took the Psychology GRE, my informal poll (half the test takers) said the same thing about the difficulty level of the test i.e.: "harder than they thought."

    I took the Literature in English GRE via standby. I must say that, besides the obligatory "who wrote this passage?" questions, the majority of the exam was like the CLEP Analyzing & Interpreting Literature test, mostly reading comprehension. I can only pray that I did as well on this one.

    Good luck to everyone who took their test yesterday!
     
  12. sisterc

    sisterc New Member

    Six were registered at my site, with only five showing: two English and three Psychology. We all (Psychology) worked til time was called, and pages in the test books were flipping like mad at the end.

    I wasn't expecting it to be as easy as the practice GRE, but I was expecting it to look familiar. My confidence and ego have been severely deflated.
     
  13. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    GREisms

    In my experience with both the Psych and the Lit GRE's is that the Princeton Guides to "Cracking the GRE" are by FAR the finest tools for preparation. I have NEVER had a Lit class, though I am well read for a jock, and using the Princeton guides I got that wonderful 18 credits from cosc.
    Heck, I'm thinking of taking the bio GRE, just for fun.
    Dan B
     
  14. sisterc

    sisterc New Member

    Got my score!

    I couldn't stand the six-week wait, so I coughed up the ten bucks and called to get my score today. Now I feel bad for being such a doomsayer. I don't know how it happened, but I ended up with a 720 at 91 percentile. Go figure.
     
  15. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    Awesome!

    See, now don't you feel silly bein all that nervous about it. You smoked me!
    Congrats!
    Dan b
     

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