I took the GRE today. I got 164 on quantitative and 166 on verbal. (The highest you can get on each is a 170.)

I studied for quite a while for it, including taking two practice tests. The first practice test in July I got a 164q/160v. The second practice test at the beginning of September I got a 166q/167v. So I did better on one of my practice tests than I did on the actual exam. I was sort of nervous today.

And I ran out of time on one of the quantitative sections. I’m pretty sure I could have gotten all the questions right if I had 10 more minutes, but I had to guess, including typing a random number into a box that was most definitely not right.

I don’t love taking tests. My hands were freezing and my armpits were sweaty, as they usually are when I get nervous. But I just realized that I actually like taking tests when they don’t actually matter–it can be a fun way to learn and work through problems.

I had a dream before I took the test that I went to the testing center and they only had paper copies of the test, and when I went to complete the test, it was already written on, and so I had to get a new copy. That was written on too, so I had to get a third copy of the test. It obviously didn’t go so well.

So what is a good GRE score? It depends on the university you want to get into. Basically, anything around a 160 and above is quite a good score.

But if you took the time to study and did your best, then you got a good score just because you tried.