Acceptable GRE Score (Chemistry)

[scarecrow]

What score is awful and what score is pretty impressive? I just took the test and I'm waiting on the scores to arrive soon.

thanks.

 

[GCT]

I've never actually taken it but I know movies has taken both the general GRE as well as the chemistry subtest.

 

[movies]

Yes, I took both tests. I got a 770 on the chem test, which was 70% that year. I wasn't overly thrilled about my performance, but then again I hadn't taken any inorganic chemistry at the time and my school didn't offer a class in analytical chemistry. Also I found that the test only covered very basic organic chemistry, which is my specialty. Nonetheless, I got accepted at every grad school I applied to. All in all, I think that the score on your Chem GRE is less important than your score on the general GRE, which is in turn less important than your grades, which are slightly less important than whether or not you have experience working in a lab. As long as your chem test score is reasonably good then you should be fine. I think it is just there to show that your grades aren't a fluke.

One caveat, the chem GRE scores are invariably higher for foreign students applying to grad school in the US. Domestic students are almost always considered preferentially to foreign students, so the foreign applicants need to be superstars to get accepted.

Hope this helps.

 

[gravenewworld]

One caveat, the chem GRE scores are invariably higher for foreign students applying to grad school in the US. Domestic students are almost always considered preferentially to foreign students, so the foreign applicants need to be superstars to get accepted.

Thats what all my professors say. Being able to speak English clearly is a huge plus for an American student applying to grad schools in America (since you will probably be teaching an undergraduate class or assisting students in a lab at some point).