Page 1 of 1

SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:58 am
by irockhard
How do you compare the General GRE with the SAT? I have heard from other forums that the GRE's verbal is harder than SAT's while the GRE math section is easer? What do you guys think?

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:11 pm
by abeboparebop
You're missing options for "same".

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:09 pm
by muonman
abeboparebop is right: ETS has done studies on this, and your GRE scores are directly correlated to your SAT scores. As a matter of fact, your SAT score is the best predictor of your GRE score (regardless of the college you went to, your degree, your gpa, etc.).

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:21 pm
by cato88
they are pretty much the same test especially post 2004 when they added the writing score.

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 12:44 am
by mhazelm
well, like I said in a previous thread, I took the ACT and not the SAT. But, that being said -

I never studied for the ACT, not AT ALL (I don't like standardized tests!!), and I did quite well - in the 30s on all the subjects except math, and that was in the high 20s.

I also never studied at all for the general GRE, but didn't do quite as hot there, I got close to 70th percentile on the math and something like 84th on the verbal (I think). So, I think the ACT was a lot easier. But then again, it could just be that high school math was fresh in my head in high school, and lately "math" has meant differential geometry and tensor analysis, which hardly ever require the use of polygons or GRE sort of math. I'm certain that had I reviewed a few formulas, taken a few practice tests, and actually attempted to learn some of the "tricks" in the study books, I could have aced the quantitative. Couldn't have done much better even if I studied for the ACT, on the other hand!

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:42 pm
by senor_frijole
SAT Math 800
GRE Math 800
SAT Verbal 780
GRE Verbal 650

SAT II Writing 800
GRE Writing 5.0

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 1:24 pm
by G01
My verbal and math scores actually reversed between the tests, giving my a score that was almost the same (minus writing section):

SAT

Math 610
Verbal 700
Total 1310

GRE

Math 730
Verbal 560
Total 1290


Only a 20 point difference. I guess the SAT is indeed a good predictor of the GRE.

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 4:41 pm
by naseermk
In my case SAT was not at all a prediction for my GRE scores. ETS probably cannot explain such a change since SAT/GRE are supposed to measures 'innate' skills rather than 'acquired skills.'

SAT
Verbal: 530
Math: 510

GRE:
Verbal: 610
Math: 770

:)

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 4:46 pm
by cato88
naseermk wrote:ETS probably cannot explain such a change since SAT/GRE are supposed to measures 'innate' skills rather than 'acquired skills.'
Is there anyone in the world that actually believe it measures innate skills any better than if swung a bat towards you and considered it passing if you tried to move to avoid being hit.

Some people consider having a large vocab, being good at jeopardy, or solving a rubiks cube a sign of intelligence. As someone with 95+% on GRE verbal and whos search solve rubiks on the internet I dont believe that at all. Have you seen the Pursuit of Happiness. Although as a physicist I do value problem solving more which is not extensively tested in any timed test other than possibly math competitions.

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:50 pm
by quizivex
SAT (1st time): 740M + 660V = 1400
SAT (2nd time): 800M, 620V = 1420
GRE: 800Q + 770V = 1570

And the back story is:
My hope for undergrad was to go to an average school for free and then hopefully go to a top grad pgm. One of the ugrad schools I was looking into was Villanova. I ended up getting free tuition to several comparable schools, but Villanova said that only students with at least 670 on both sections of the SAT were eligible for free tuition. We called them, shocked to hear that 10 points, one corny vocab word, could make that kind of difference in my plans, and we asked if having 800 on the math section would balance out having only 660 on the verbal... and their response was, "We get plenty of applicants meeting the 670+ criteria already, so we don't make exceptions."

So *** them, I didn't apply. But anyway, I decided that no BS like vocab and lame reading passages would ever get in my academic way again... and since my poor vocabulary had often been an obstalce for me when hearing ppl talk or whn reading assigned books, I made a consistent effort to learn a ton of words knowing it would help me in life. Also my reading and writing skills seemed to improve on their own. So that explains the anomalous verbal increase from my SAT to the GRE.

As for the SAT predicting the GRE, it's probably a better predictor than anything else, but it's by no means reliable. The SAT isn't even a good predictor of the SAT... Even though my two scores were similar, note how my math score went up 60 and my verbal down 40... I could just as easily gotten 800+660 one time and 740+620 the other.
G01 wrote:My verbal and math scores actually reversed between the tests, giving my a score that was almost the same (minus writing section):
SAT: Math-610 Verbal-700 Total-1310
GRE: Math-730 Verbal-560 Total-1290
Only a 20 point difference. I guess the SAT is indeed a good predictor of the GRE.
The same goes for G01. I disagree that your case shows the SAT predicts the GRE well. Look how drastically your math went up and your verbal went down. It's just a coincidence that those differences balanced out in the total. The fact that the individual sections of the SAT and GRE are so variable means the test itself is inconsistent, and thus one test can't be a good predictor of the other or of itself if taken a second time.

Edit: Indeed, cato88 below has a good point. I got 3 SAT math questions wrong the first time and got 740... and I had to get all of them right for an 800 the second time. These tests are highly fickle in the 700+ region where each question counts so much, but perhaps they are more consistent in the 400-600 range.

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:13 pm
by cato88
The way the SAT is graded makes it so that there is something like momentum moving scores towards 640 especially for math were in 700 range one wrong problem can lose you 20 scaled but around 640 not so much. The verbal score is a little more static but since its vocab could still fluctuate a bit but not as much as math in the 700 range. The SAT is still a better predictor for GRE than UGPA.

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 4:16 pm
by Andromeda
My GRE verbal was significantly lower than my SAT verbal due to some computer error (see my other thread) so that one doesn't count- my SAT verbal was a lot higher than my math one though! And my GRE math score was fifty points higher than my SAT one.

Re: SAT vs. GRE

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:34 am
by secander2!
I felt like they were pretty evenly matched in difficulty, but of course, there was an interim of three years.

SAT: 800M + 740V = 1540
GRE: 790Q + 670V = 1460

Anyways, I did considerably lower on the GRE than on the SAT, but some of that is probably because I didn't study for the GRE at all. When I took the SAT cold, I got ~1400 too (although I forgot what the breakdown was). They're dumb tests with huge error bars, but oh well. Like with most standardized tests, my impression is this: you can be smart and do poorly on the SAT/GRE, but if you do well on the SAT/GRE it means one of two things: you studied quite a bit (my case, and yes, these tests are studiable) or you have some sort of intelligence.