AboutJay Cutts Expertise Preparation for LSAT, GRE, MCAT, GMAT. Personal statements, letters of recommendation, graduate application process, practice tests.
No Questions about Undergrad Admissions Please (unless you are planning to go to law, business, medical or grad school eventually).
Note that I change private questions to public so they are available to others. If you have something that is truly private, let me know.
Experience Over 18 years full time graduate entrance exam prep with over 1500 students nationally and internationally.
Education/Credentials BA, Linguistics with Honors and Distinction, University of Michigan
MA, Special Education with an Emphasis in Learning Disabilities and Giftedness, with Honors, University of New Mexico
Question Hello,
First of all, let me say thank you for answering these types of questions free; I realize you could be making a fortune from all of the questions you have answered on here.
I have a big graduate school problem. I would like a degree that can be used in the government sector and that would deal with governmental and societal problems and solutions. I assume this would be a public administration degree, with requires a fair amount of math. I am weak in math, but I have been able to take upper level economics courses -- I only need to be shown. I am working on it right now with a tutor at my school. However, I took the GRE and received a score of: 600 V, 340 Q, 5.0 A. I am not sure I can improve my score because I am not good at taking standardized tests.
I dropped out of high school completely (freshman) and decided I wanted to try college, so I got my G.E.D. and have done well in college. I have a 4.0 GPA as a senior and have worked very hard. I have a major in Political Science and a minor in Spanish.
I have close relationships with professors and I am involved on campus. I always receive departmental and school-wide scholarships, and have received awards like the "top ten freshman of the school" award.
I am very depressed about my score because I know it will keep me out of any graduate school, and I would really love to go. I know I am dedicated, but I doubt that amounts to much with my horrible score.
Do you have any suggestions as to what I might be able to do?
Thank you so much for your time.
Answer Hi, Jade.
Your Verbal score is quite good. With some expert instruction you can probably get it even higher.
As for the Quantitative section, the news is GOOD! That section is very learnable. I've worked with many students who were even math phobic and they have often made 200 points improvement or more.
You don't have to be good at math to learn to do well on the GRE math. What the test really requires is a different set of tools for organizing complex math information. I teach very intuitive, very simple and very powerful tools that anyone can understand and use. It can even be fun.
I suggest you give me a call and we can talk about what you can expect to do to improve your math score. I don't see any reason right now why you shouldn't be able to get at least a moderately strong math score and be in a competitive position.
You can reach me at 800-353-4898 day or evening, 7 days.
