when to take the GRE's

[staythecourse]

I am in my final semester at my community college before i transfer to SDSU to get my BS....

I was thinking of buying the Kaplan 2008 book/cd-rom GRE guide to work on over the summer that i have off...

Is it normal to attempt the test this early in the game?

-thanks.

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[VAgirl]

I think the only thing that matters is some schools won't accept GRE scores older than a certain number of years. For most (I think) it's around 5 years, but for some I think I've seen the cut off at scores that are taken more than 3 years earlier. You might also want to factor in the fact that people sometimes have to apply more than once before they get into vet school and give yourself a little buffer there. No one likes taking the GRE multiple times if they can avoid it. You could also check to see what the schools you're interested in do regarding GRE cut offs, but you may not know your list of vet schools yet, so that might be hard.

But other than being aware of cut off dates, I don't think there'd be any problem.

 

[banditalfi]

I took my GREs the summer before my junior year of college - the year before I applied to vet school. I preferred to do it this way because if I got a crappy score I could retake it, but there would be no pressure for time. Also, I pretty much had a year to decide what vet schools to apply to knowing that my GRE wouldn't be the limiting factor. So I'd say go for it!

 

[BobDog]

I think you are well within the time frame to take the GRE. Take it and knock it out early. That way if you don't knock it out, you will have a better idea of what to expect and will be more comfortable for the next try.

 

[Angie09]

I agree with what everyone else has said; plus, a lot of schools will take either your highest total score, OR (even better), pick and choose your best individual scores to make a composite score. So you really can't hurt yourself by taking it now. I highly recommend Kaplan's books, BTW, as far as strategies go; but it seems like the practice tests in the Princeton Review are harder (i.e., closer to what you'll actually see on Test Day -- I know a few Kaplan students who felt like they'd gotten a false sense of security from their practice tests and were surprised when they took the real one). You might try both.

Good luck!

 

[tastrophe]

I bought a bunch of books and CDs, and went through them on and off for about 2 months. Then I woke up one morning and said "okay, I want to take the GRE today." Of course, they didn't have any openings that day, but I took it 2 days later. I don't know that that's really the best way to do it, but it's certainly a lot less stressful! (and I did okay too, not Cornell's 1400+, but okay)

 

[Moonpaw]

Plus, the GRE isn't one of those tests where you can apply anything you'll be learning in classes, so it's not like you'll be getting any better at taking it the older you get. I took it before my junior year as well, probably a year before most people, and while I could have stood to study some more vocab, I did pretty well.

 

[Angie09]

Plus, ... it's not like you'll be getting any better at taking it the older you get.

Good point! I took it senior year of college to apply to grad school, and blew it out of the water. Took it again last year to apply to vet school, and ......... well, I basically hadn't done any real math in about 5 years, and if you look at my scores, you can tell! So I would definitely take it when your math curriculum is still as fresh in your memory as possible.