Have you ever had this thought of retaking the GRE exam just because you scored less in the GRE verbal section than you expected? Well, you can be assured that you are not the only one in this pickle, there are many people who have the same confusion or rather the same problem as you. Here in this article, we are going to list some key remedies that might help you remove the confusion of whether to retake the GRE exam or not due to the verbal score you achieved in the exam and the importance of the verbal section in GRE.
Importance of Verbal section
There’s a reason why the percentile of the verbal section is so high when compared to the quants section even if you score the same in quants and verbal. Many students face problems with the verbal section because the words in the verbal section are unfamiliar to most of the students and it needs more practice with attention to deal with.
Many people say that it is needed for proficiency in the English language but that is a myth because the English proficiency exams like IELTS, TOEFL or PTE are taken into consideration with regards to the proficiency in the native language. Basically, it covers other platforms too; For instance: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking which makes it easier for the University or the Visa Immigration Officer to evaluate the candidate.
STEM courses: Verbal section?
The courses that belong to the STEM category don’t put much emphasis on the Verbal section because the students that are selected should have a good quants score which is required for them to clear the subjects that are taken in the course.
Whereas there are some courses in which the Verbal section has some strong weightage. For instance: Archaeology/Anthropology, Social sciences, Arts- History, Theory and Criticism, English language and literature, Philosophy etc. These courses require higher GRE Verbal score than Quants.
Non-STEM courses: Verbal section?
Some of the Non-STEM courses are Business/Managerial Economics, International Business, Business Administration & Management, Economics etc. These sort of courses require a good score in the verbal section because of the coursework that needs to be completed. It doesn’t end here because practically when moving out from the university into the industrial world, the knowledge in the verbal section is kept on a check every single day which makes it even more crucial to have a good vocabulary because that is needed when you are going to socialize with people. Most of the words that are in the GRE Verbal section are used commonly among native speakers.
Selecting a score after retaking the GRE, are you stressed out?
Imagine this, you have a GRE score of 315 which has 165Q and 150V but then you weren’t satisfied with the GRE verbal score and so you decided to retake the GRE exam. You put in a lot of efforts and were able to get a better GRE score and even better Verbal score, for instance, 320 which has 162Q and 158V. But now you have a decision to make whether to send the 1st GRE score to the universities or the new one? Need some key points to decide which one to send? Keep reading…
- Look at the percentile you have obtained for both the categories
- Be updated with the university and the course requirement of GRE individual scores
- Clear your head and don’t stress out
- Look at the individual proficiency requirements needed in your field of interest
Also as per the requirement of the University, if you wish to send different GRE scores that you have obtained to different universities, that’s possible through the ETS portal.
And, that’s it! You are good to go.
If you keep all these pointers in your mind and then opt for a score to go with, perhaps you will not only get into a fairly good university but will also do good in the coursework and even after.
All in all the GRE Verbal section scores are important in all courses, it’s just that in which courses these courses hold much more value.
So, don’t nag yourself on what has been already done. Instead, try to change the outcome by researching about the university with its requirement and don’t stop hustling because in the end what matters is the how much are you willing to do for what you want and not how much you have done for it.
