kitchen table math, the sequel: GRE scores by intended field of study for college seniors

Saturday, November 9, 2013

GRE scores by intended field of study for college seniors



Source: Educating School Leaders, p 32
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10 comments:

SATVerbalTutor. said...

Actually, to me the most disturbing part is that the average *VERBAL* GRE score for people doing English Lit. is 561. Compare that to the average Math score for people doing Physics (747). Kind of makes you wonder about a lot of the people getting Ph.Ds in English... The Educational Admin thing? Frankly I'm surprised the Math score is that *high.*

November 9, 2013 at 5:47 PM
Anonymous said...

Those are old numbers. The GRE isn't even scored on that scale any more.

You can find newer numbers at http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table4.pdf‎

There you can see that the writing scores are worst for computer science and electrical engineering (worse even than elementary ed). Math is lowest for social work, early childhood ed, and student counseling. Verbal is worst for computer science, electrical engineering, and early childhood ed.

I think that the bad numbers for CS and EE are driven mainly by the huge numbers of foreign students taking the GRE to get into those programs, which are the most attractive programs for grad students from China and India.

The highest verbal scores are in philosophy. The highest math scores are in (wait for it) math (and materials engineering). The highest writing scores are in philosophy.

The philosophers do better in math than the rest of the humanities do, but not as well as the physical sciences or engineering.

November 12, 2013 at 12:00 AM
Anonymous said...

I think you’re missing the point, which is that educational adminitrators are idiots. Glancing at the new data I don’t see anything that changes.

November 12, 2013 at 6:17 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

Anonymous - you are too much!

You have to join and start writing posts.

November 23, 2013 at 6:50 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

the average *VERBAL* GRE score for people doing English Lit. is 561

That struck me, too.

November 23, 2013 at 6:50 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

Seems awfully low.

November 23, 2013 at 6:50 PM
Kevin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
November 23, 2013 at 9:12 PM
Anonymous said...

No, Anonymous, I understand that you were trying to provide evidence that educational administrators are less intelligent or less educated than other people who have gone to grad school. It is probably even a true statement. I just wanted to point you to a newer data source that could actually be used to compare with current GRE scores (until the College Board decides to change the scale yet again—I think they want to be sure that no one can compare different cohorts of students).

November 23, 2013 at 9:14 PM
palisadesk said...

Something that rings false about these data is the statement that these are scores for college seniors planning to go into "educational administration." Say what? I've never heard of anyone going into ed administration straight from undergrad studies, and in fact most education administration programs require previous teaching experience or related work. It's not a straight-from-college option, generally speaking. So exactly who comprise the data pool here? Is it all GRE takers who are applying to grad school in Ed. Admin., or only those who are current undergraduates?

November 24, 2013 at 6:55 AM
Anonymous said...

I'm guessing that the future administrators are the "non-enrolled graduates". But even then, do many future administrators even sit for the GRE? I didn't think that he on-line degree programs require them. So those statistics may actually be inflated.

November 24, 2013 at 10:27 AM

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