Live data from Hacker News

GRE Scores By Discipline

arisbe.com

71–76 of 76 posts

Re: GRE Scores By Discipline

#71

Verbal and Quantitative have vastly different distributions. Simply adding them together favors those in quantitative fields. I think that the smaller variance in verbal scores should have tipped him off.

Renormalized with equal weights. The only major change looks like philosophy jumped from 9th to 3rd.

  1	1.19
  2	1
  9	0.92
  4	0.89
  3	0.87
  5	0.7
  6	0.67
  7	0.43
  8	0.39
  11	0.36
  10	0.32
  15	0.27
  18	0.16
  14	0.14
  16	0.12
  17	0.08
  19	0
  20	-0.03
  13	-0.16
  12	-0.2
  21	-0.59
  23	-0.61
  22	-0.67
  24	-0.86
  25	-1
  26	-1.12
  27	-1.43
  28	-1.83

Re: GRE Scores By Discipline

#72
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the past (around the turn of the century), the analytical section consisted of logic and reasoning problems. It was probably similar to some of the LSAT questions. They converted it to a writing section relatively recently

Do you know why they changed? Seems like the previous version would be better than the writing section. While most score 5-6, the older scores look like more of a differentiator. People are moving standardized tests away from being iq tests, for some reason. Why don't they just replace the SAT and GRE with a real IQ test?

I believe a lot of standardized tests have added writing components because its a basic practical skill that people often arrive at university lacking. I may be wrong, but beyond just the score, I think the actual writing is also sent to the schools you apply to.

Re: GRE Scores By Discipline

#73
post #59

And if you want another (false) ego boost, calculate your iq from your gre: http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/GREIQ.aspx

It's hilarious that sites that purport to calculate IQ scores from other test scores generally don't mention error in estimation in either kind of test, nor do they mention regression to the mean.

Yeah, it's quite a sketchy methodology. I know his stats are false because I come out with a 150 IQ, which I definitely do not have. Plus, Mensa doesn't consider the modern SAT or GRE to correlate with IQ.

Re: GRE Scores By Discipline

#74
post #63
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes sense, philosophers are more interested in analyzing the nuances of words than writers. Writers focus more on the effect of words and philosophers focus more on the meaning of words.

My understanding is that English Lang & Lit grad students are not studying to be writers. They're studying to be literary critics and English professors. Writers get MFA's in Creative Writing or Journalism.

Good point. But, don't these grads also focus more on the effect of words than their meaning?

Re: GRE Scores By Discipline

#75
post #72
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know why they changed? Seems like the previous version would be better than the writing section. While most score 5-6, the older scores look like more of a differentiator. People are moving standardized tests away from being iq tests, for some reason. Why don't they just replace the SAT and GRE with a real IQ test?

I believe a lot of standardized tests have added writing components because its a basic practical skill that people often arrive at university lacking. I may be wrong, but beyond just the score, I think the actual writing is also sent to the schools you apply to.

In that case, the scale should be tougher. It isn't very useful when most are clustered at the top.

Re: GRE Scores By Discipline

#76
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They math questions are math questions and the verbal questions are mostly an obscure vocabulary test with a dose of reading comprehension.

Sounds easy. Why does everyone do so bad?

The vocab is really obscure and even if you know a lot more words than the average person, you still get bitten. The only answer is to study very hard on a nearly completely useless subject.
Post reply on HN