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The GRE/MCAT Mega-Thread - Ask Related Questions Here!

I've been struggling with this myself. With the economy in the shitter, and two liberal arts degrees, it's been damn near impossible to find a 'good' job. I've interviewed with several corporations, even making it to third rounds at corporate twice, but nothing panned out.

I'm leaning towards getting my MBA, since I have nothing in my educational background to prepare me for a career in business (I want to work on sustainability). So I was told by several business professors that I should get my MBA before applying to PH.D programs in business (I want to live in an ivory tower and try to make the business world more nature friendly).

/ramble

=D
 
chicpoena said:
I've been struggling with this myself. With the economy in the shitter, and two liberal arts degrees, it's been damn near impossible to find a 'good' job. I've interviewed with several corporations, even making it to third rounds at corporate twice, but nothing panned out.

I'm leaning towards getting my MBA, since I have nothing in my educational background to prepare me for a career in business (I want to work on sustainability). So I was told by several business professors that I should get my MBA before applying to PH.D programs in business (I want to live in an ivory tower and try to make the business world more nature friendly).
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First off, my credentials:
MBA, University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business
PhD candidate, Portland State University, Systems Science/Non-linear Mathematics
admitted but did not matriculate, School of Law, University of Chicago

I was admitted to the GSB at Chicago without taking the GMAT. Kind of a long story, but my undergraduate work got me in the door. However, I ended up taking the GMAT to get into my PhD program - ironic since I already had my MBA at the time.

As I get ready to finish my first PhD, I've been toying with a second program in cognitive ethology and thus took the GRE last fall. Oh, and I did take the LSATs before being admitted to law school at Chicago, though I got burned out and never formally enrolled.

Full disclosure: I didn't do any prep work for any of the standardized tests. Didn't read the books, do practice tests, or even read the little booklet they mail you. Yes, I know - bad dog. But maybe this helps to establish a baseline.

GMAT: fairly dependent on formula-based maths, i.e. trig and geometry. I can see that doing some prep work could help goose scores on the math side pretty quickly, as a few simple formulas are pretty important to the test. My scores were in the 85th percentile, with some clear problems caused by a lack of several essential formulas on the math side.

LSAT: didn't get enough sleep the night before, had no idea what to expect. Ended up with scores on the 99.3 percentile, so apparently bullshit works on the LSAT - or they mixed my test up with someone who actually prepared. :\

GRE: more broad-based knowledge, tougher vocabulary and verbal thinking. The maths sections were far less formula-based and more conceptual. I missed several questions because I didn't remember what a number to the negative power meant. D'oh! My scores were 720/720 with 5.5 on the written section.

As I understand it, most MBA programs are going to require the GMAT. The GRE might bolster your GMAT scores, and for a doctoral program is going to be essential.

Your plan to do your MBA before your doctoral work in business/economics is sound. Many doctoral programs, I suspect, would be unlikely to admit many candidates without an MBA already under their belt.

So, there's my $0.02.

Peace,

Fausty
 
I've been contemplating taking the GRE, but for me it would be the subjective test for Biology. From listening to others, Fausty's assessment that the GRE is harder in vocabulary and verbal reasoning seems to coincide with what other students have said.

When I took the MCAT (yes I know..totally different) I hadn't taken all the proper classes first and didn't really study. I just wanted to see what I was getting myself into. I definitely suggest taking a class before doing what I did. I didn't do all that well, but now I see what I need to study and what I'm getting myself into. I'm sure I can do better my next time around, but getting the fortitude to study for 6 months every night is exhausting just thinking about it!

I'm more interested in PhD work now anyway, so I think I'm going to switch hit to the Biology GRE. I'm not sure how my 9-5 work schedule will work into that. :-/ I am a slave to the corporate machine to pay the bills. If PhD work is anything like Med School, working is out of the question so I don't know what I'm going to do...I just know I want a different career.
 
Lysis said:
For Medical schools, I've heard that the scores for the essays don't really hold much weight. It might be the same for the GMAT? I've taken the MCAT (yes, it's for med school DG), and it's a bit strange how I scored. I did very very well on the verbal reasoning which is the one part most people run out of time and can't even finish. It's usually one's lowest score whereas for me it was my highest score and I had about 15 minutes left over. I wish I had done so well on the other parts. :-/ I'm thinking about taking it over again to see if I can do better.

Anyway, good luck vandalaay. The whole day is pretty tiring. For the MCAT it is from 8am to 5pm with a small lunch break in between. It's so mentally exhausting!
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MCAT has been shortened. It is only about 4.5 hours these days, and I can assure you the MCAT is significantly more difficult than the GRE (if only for the sheer volume of information required).

If you're worried about math, both GRE & GMAT cover it. GMAT uses more logical based stuff whereas GRE tends to cover more 'pure' math.

If you struggle with math neither will be easy for you.

Take a practice test on both and see what you feel more comfortable doing.
 
It is my opinion that both of these tests are simply techniques of hierarchical observation and evaluation linked with different discursive regimes. The application of these regimes both creates intelligible individuals ("students") and also shapes these individuals to exercise power themselves within other discursive regimes (as managers in bureaucratic firms or as scientists within academia).

In short, these tests don't just measure what is there but also create it.
 
michel foucault said:
It is my opinion that both of these tests are simply techniques of hierarchical observation and evaluation linked with different discursive regimes. The application of these regimes both creates intelligible individuals ("students") and also shapes these individuals to exercise power themselves within other discursive regimes (as managers in bureaucratic firms or as scientists within academia).

In short, these tests don't just measure what is there but also create it.
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Dr. Foucault, how would you compare the testing ontologies themselves to your arguments regarding the "panopticon" in Surveiller et Punir? I seem to see a broad, meta-theme parallel but I defer to you for elucidation. An honor it is!

%)

Peace,

Fausty
 
michel foucault said:
The application of these regimes both creates intelligible individuals ("students") and also shapes these individuals to exercise power themselves within other discursive regimes (as managers in bureaucratic firms or as scientists within academia).
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LOL.

With all due respect, Dr. Foucault: an argument can be made that these "regimes" can tend to create students that are less intelligible (did you mean "intelligent"?) and overall less prepared to exercise power in any regime except academia. But then, I am a "horse of a different color" (hi Fausty) and due to my having neglected study in favor of other "regimes", I am ill prepared to subject myself to these exams. Peut-être à l'avenir.

DG: my math background is similar to yours. I took an SAT prep course in high school after earning the hardest C of my life in Algebra 2. My quantitative score went up by over 150 points between the PSAT and SAT. I credit the course combined with a lot of tutoring (my boyfriend in HS was a math whiz and probably spent 10 hours a week with me on homework). The course was free and given through the community college where I lived. I imagine similar exists in your area. I hear very mixed things about the paid services, Kaplan, etc.

Have you considered practicing for both tests and seeing which score is more favorable? I know it's added stress, but it might be useful to take both. Can you send one score to your school of choice and not the other?
 
Fausty said:
Dr. Foucault, how would you compare the testing ontologies themselves to your arguments regarding the "panopticon" in Surveiller et Punir? I seem to see a broad, meta-theme parallel but I defer to you for elucidation. An honor it is!

%)

Peace,

Fausty
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I would like to say that the regime of academic testing is panoptic. Standardized testing, coupled with the overall configuration of the academy, particularly the day-to-day exercise of power by instructors over students, creates students as docile subjects who submit to testing procedures and indeed begin to regulate themselves in terms of the information about them that such testing creates. Insofar as students regulate themselves, the exercise of power over them, and in turn the reproduction of students as types of individuals, becomes all the more automatic an ubiquitous. This is emblematic (but not exhaustive) of panoptic power.

I will also add, though, that tests are also bound with the biopolitical administration of populations of students (biopolitics + disciplines = government). Through these biopolitical techniques, aggregate entities (either as or via populations) become intelligible and structure the exercise of power on multiple levels (in terms of how institutions are structured and how individuals are disciplined).

Mariposa said:
With all due respect, Dr. Foucault: an argument can be made that these "regimes" can tend to create students that are less intelligible (did you mean "intelligent"?) and overall less prepared to exercise power in any regime except academia. But then, I am a "horse of a different color" (hi Fausty) and due to my having neglected study in favor of other "regimes", I am ill prepared to subject myself to these exams. Peut-être à l'avenir.
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I indeed meant "intelligible". Such testing creates students as individuals who may be easily evaluated, placed along a uniform, quantified metric, and appropriately shaped, through reward, punishment, and training. The discourses surrounding such tests effects how we think of intelligence and what we look to as markers of it, although as in all other situations, the exercise of power also effects resistance, as you demonstrate.
 
You know I think Foucault is great and everything but I'm not sure that derailing threads with archaeological investigations of power/knowledge regimes is going to remain hilarious for very long.
 
We must ask, though, What are the conditions of possibility for humor "as such", and how does humor's current deployment differ from its exercise in prior epochs?
;)
 
Lysis said:
I didn't realize the GRE was something taken for non-science majors. I just looked it up and realized it's different from the MCAT in that there are variations. I thought they were the same since a lot of my classmates were studying for either the GRE or the MCAT. Now I see the GRE is more diverse than the typical DAT, MCAT, GMAT, etc.
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The GRE is for everyone who wants to go to graduate school, unless you find that rare school that relies on college grades and letters of recommendation. I have only heard that the GRE isn't required at some schools (those ones that evaluate your college work, though of course all Grad schools evaluate your college work), so I'm not sure.
 
taking the GMAT or GRE terrifies me after being out of school but i'm going back as of tomorrow..

some business schools don't even require it anymore which makes me breathe a sigh of relief as i am absolutely TERRIBLE at math.
 
Need suggestions for GRE/MCAT study mats

Hello fellow Uni'ers.

This is an awesome place for uni help, so here I am again asking for suggestions. I know it's Thanksgiving, so I hope that and the upcoming finals don't hold back replies.

I am behind in my studies. I wanted to take the MCAT in January for Fall semesters, but I might have to push it to Feb/March. I'd also like to take the GRE in case the MCAT doesn't work out so that I can go into a grad program instead to hold off on med school if I'm not accepted.

Anyway, my theory is that studying for the MCAT will cover the materials for the Biology GRE. Am I correct in this assumption, or am I way off?

Also, I'm sure you know that there are tons of mats out there for studying. I'd like suggestions and maybe let me know what you used for MCAT/GRE studying mats and their pros and cons. I know that the MCAT site sells practice tests for like freakin $80 :-/

What other practice tests are out there and what kind of study mats are suggested. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'd like to cram as much info in my head in Dec

Also, my weak spots are physics and Organic Chem II (just took Org Chem I as a refresher so I'm kinda good). If there are books that focus on those two that would be cool, but I'd like to get a general study book as well.

Thanks so much guys and good luck on finals!
 
My friends just bought used MCAT study books off of Amazon and used Biology, physics, and chem books. Then they read all that shit, did ALL the problems in the books. One is already in med school, another one is 19 and will be in med school next year... maybe i'll ask her out for a soda and take her to the sock hop.
 
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Lysis said:
Anyway, my theory is that studying for the MCAT will cover the materials for the Biology GRE. Am I correct in this assumption, or am I way off?
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Some of it will, but I reckon the GRE covers more non-human bio stuff that the MCAT essentially ignores.

When I studied I used a single large Kaplan review book for material review and ExamKrackers for Bio and some Physics.

Also, ExamKrackers is great for sample problems (1001 Bio is AMAZING and 101 Verbal is good too, not so much for the chem/physics).

Really, the important thing though is to do practice exams. I ended up doing about 12. Kaplan has a few, AAMC has a bunch, they're all over the place.

I took about 3-4 months of hardcore studying to get prepared. You'll probably have an easier time though because I had been out of school for over 4 years when I sat my MCAT. Also, I had essentially no biology knowledge and had to teach myself nearly all of it (except biochemistry). If you have previous knowledge it should be easier...
 
More MCAT questions

Yayyyyy I'm so glad this board is kicking. I really like this one. It's so helpful.

Anywho, I plan to register for the March 28th MCAT and the April 2nd GRE. I figure I'll take the GRE to matriculate to a graduate school to test the waters if I can't get into med school right away. I just started focusing on school and got A's last semester, but need to drag my GPA up some more I think before med school acceptance. Soooo, back in the day, I know they said you should study for the MCAT like 4-6 months in advance, but the length of it has changed and now I'm seeing about 10 week study schedules.

I bought books and I'm ready to get started. I'm curious how long everyone else took to study. I'm thinking about focusing 1-2 hours a day to study and I believe I have about 10 weeks before the 28th. I also remember everyone saying to take plenty of practice exams, which I plan to do after each week of study. I'm also taking Biochem II and Medical Bacteriology this semester, so I'm hoping these classes will help me study as well.
 
I took 3 months the first time I did it. I'm planning on rewriting this year witha 28Q (I got an 8 on physical sciences which really brought my score down). Even though the test itself is shorter you still need to be familiar with all the same background material.

What does your biochem class focus on? Here's a list of courses I found extremely helpful for the MCAT I took in summer 06. Most of the concepts I remember coming across were those you'd find in an entry level course for the subject. This time around I'm planning on writing sometime mid summer while only working 3 days a week to give myself 2 full week days to study, I may give myself more time if need be. The biological sciences section changes every year, and with so many different courses for it to draw from it helps to know a little about everything.

I'm guessing you're probably familiar with SDN (student doctor network). It's a great forum with tons of premed information.
 
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