Sunday 20 June 2010

Made it... !... ... ... ?

Today I achieved my GRE math section score of 760 on a practice test. So early! I still have little less than two months left to repeat my performance on the real GRE. When I was taking the SAT, I never reached my goal score on practice tests - but was able to on the actual test. Is the SAT so different from the GRE?

The test taker population between the two are drastically different: the SAT is for perspective undergraduate degree earners. Nowadays, undergraduate degrees have changed in two major ways. First of all, there is no longer the conscious decision to go to college: many people go to college just because it's what society tells them to, and the educational degree "arms race" dictates at least an undergraduate degree to join a (reportedly) more intellectual work force. When everyone else has an undergraduate degree, you better have one too. Second of all, undergraduate degrees have become more liberal arts orientated. Before undergraduate degrees allowed intense specialization in certain fields and provided little emphasis on other topics. Today, liberal arts undergraduate degree requirements paints a different picture for undergraduate degrees - instead of field specialization, it is just an extension of the high school education where students simply learn more about the world.
Contrasted against a graduate degrees (excluding professional degrees), undergraduate degrees are too broad. Graduate degrees are in specialized fields and their prevalence has not warranted a similar (in magnitude) educational degree "arms race." Fewer people decide to pursue graduate degrees in the academics (outside of myself, I only know two other people taking the GREs) than people who decide to pursue undergraduate degrees. Perspective graduate students are also smarter: if you are very interested enough in a topic to pursue it on a graduate level, then it is most likely reflected in your academic performance.
With these differences between perspective undergraduate and graduate students, how should the GRE compare to the SAT? Due to the diverse possibilities of graduate fields, the core knowledge between the two must be the same - many (as do I) see the GRE as a much harder version of the SAT. But how much harder? GRE test takers should be smarter than SAT test takers. For graduate schools to evaluate scores, there needs to be a larger distribution. This, of course, means the GRE should be harder. A lot harder. Does this mean I am better at analysis than I think?
Well, maybe just math. The verbal GRE section score is still in the 500s.

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