General GRE Math Score Importance to Engineering Schools

[teroenza]

Hello,
I am a physics major who is going to graduate soon, and am taking the general and physics GREs. I am looking at both physics and engineering graduate schools. I believe that the physics GRE is pretty much irrelevant to engineering schools, but I have had difficulty with the quantitative portion of the general GRE. I know it is easy math, and that ideally I should ace it, but I have had an alternate route to college and despite studying, spend too much time on the problems.

I have been told that anything below 60% percentile in the quantitative portion is a "real problem" for physics graduate schools. Is this a reasonable assumption for engineering schools as well?

I do fine on the other portions of the GRE, have good grades and have good letters from people I have done research with.

Thank you

 

[Thermalne]

Plain and simple, the math quantitative section's importance depends on the graduate schools in question. Each one values it differently. Some schools will weight them heavier than others.

Please note: The GRE quantitative portion is not any math you have not experienced already. It is understandable if you are a bad test taker or just have issues with 4 hour long exams, but you should be able to do the math required in the GRE.

It does not hurt to retake it if you still have time.

 

[teroenza]

Let me add that, by "good" grades I mean a ~3.5 GPA. I do not expect to go to a top program in either physics or engineering, but would like to go to a "respected" one.

I have retaken it once already and scored 1 point better than the time before. I know I understand the math, but I just can't seem to think through the problems in 35 min. Specifically, I do well on the 1st math section (miss perhaps 2 out of 20), then the next section is what kills me. I am debating taking it a third time.