Short answer: sometimes.

Not every PA program requires the GRE. As a general pattern, East Coast schools ask for it more often than West Coast schools, but there's plenty of variation, so you have to check each program on your list before you decide whether to take it.

If you do take it, a score over 300 with each section above the 50th percentile puts you in a reasonable spot for most programs that require it. But I want to be clear about something: a great GRE score will not rescue a weak application, and a mediocre one will not sink a strong one. It's one number among many.

Build your program list first. Then you'll know whether the GRE is even something you need to spend three months and a few hundred dollars on.

What I cover:

• Which programs tend to require the GRE
• What score to aim for and how percentiles factor in
• How much the GRE actually weighs in an application
• Study approaches and how long to give yourself
• Whether retaking it is worth it
• Building your program list before you register

Resources:

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

CASPA GPA calculator: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-school-caspa-gpa-calculator

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Today in episode 65, we're talking about all things GRE.

Welcome to the Pre Pa Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey, guys.

Welcome to episode 665 of the Pre Pa Club podcast.

Now, I'm doing something a little bit new this time, and I'm actually recording myself recording this podcast.

So there will be a video version available on YouTube.

I figured I'm sitting here recording this, might as well make it available in that format too.

If you just would rather feel like you're there with me learning about things, hey, you can do it on YouTube.

So check out YouTube.com thepaplatform if you want to watch instead of listen.

And I don't know if this will be something we add for every episode, but I'll try to get the information out there to you in as many ways as possible so that you have access.

Now, if we haven't met before, my name is Savannah.

I am a dermatology PA full time and I run a website on the side called the PA platform, where myself and a lot of other PAs offer pre PA coaching, mock interviews, and just a lot of information.

So it's a blog with all kinds of stuff about the PA profession.

Make sure you check that [email protected] Now, I'm really excited about this new format.

We'll see how it goes.

Let me know what you think.

If you like this, leave a review, leave a comment.

If you hate it, please let me know as well.

And as always, I'm open into any ideas of what you want to hear about for future episodes.

So some of those were finances and how to pay for PA school.

So that'll be coming up.

And then also a lot about supplemental essays which I think kind of get pushed to the side and ignored.

But.

But that's something that we will also have an upcoming episode on.

Now, today we're talking about the GRE and I've talked about this on the website.

I have some recent blog posts that I'll link in the description about this and if you want to kind of follow along with those, you can, because that's where a lot of my information is coming from.

But the GRE is important because it is a part of your application that that you can improve relatively easily.

Now, if you have a lower GPA or you don't have enough hours, that's going to take a lot of time to fix.

But if your GRE score is not where you want it, you can work on that and you can take it as many times as you want to try to get that improved.

So we're going to talk about why the GRE is important for PA School and then some study techniques and kind of my study study method and why you should not use the one I did.

Anyway, today's podcast sponsor is PA School Prep.

If you've never heard of PA School Prep, it is a website that is an online course tailored to pre PA students who are about to start PA school.

So after you've done all your coursework, you've been accepted and you have that waiting period, a lot of people want to know what they can do.

And so one thing you can do is get brushed up on your anatomy, physiology and medical terminology.

These are typically subjects that you start PA school with.

And so it's really important that you feel like you have a very good understanding of them.

And so what PA School Prep is is it's by PAS for Future pas, and it is a course online that walks you through these subjects to help prepare you.

There are PA schools that have implemented this as a requirement for incoming students, which is really, really cool.

And they've done research on it and shown that the students who complete PA School Prep do a lot better on their first few semesters than the ones who have not done it.

So if you want that leg up, if you want less stress when you enter PA School, check that out and you can use the code futurepa for a $35 discount.

And that will be linked in the description as well.

Let's jump into our content and talking about the green.

So not all schools require the gre.

I think that's important to talk about up front.

And I've kind of found that in coaching people and looking at all these different programs, it tends to be more schools on the east coast that require the GRE as opposed to the west coast.

And I don't know if I can really explain that, but it's kind of random.

Part of the reason the GRE is required is that for a lot of programs, this is a master's level education that you're getting.

And so it's not uncommon when you're getting your Master's for you to have to do some type of testing.

So in this case they require the GRE Is that really going to tell them much about your performance in PA school?

Probably not.

But at the end of PA school, there is a big exam you have to pass called the pants.

And it is important that you're able to perform well on standardized tests.

That can be a big hang up for some people.

And to say that you don't do well on the GRE and that's going to translate to not being able to pass the PANTS is not exactly fair.

Because boards, their knowledge base is things that you actually have to know.

Whereas the gre, while it's knowledge based, there's also a lot of strategy involved.

So when you're studying, you have to keep that in mind.

And when we think about, okay, why do I need to take the GRE for PA school?

This is not something that's going to make or break your application.

This is more of a check mark for that program.

Has this person taken the gre?

Did they get X score or this percentile?

It's something that they just want to check off as something that you've done and not necessarily something that they're putting a lot of weight on typically.

Now, if you think about it, I've talked before about how you want to have checks and balances of your application.

So if you have a lower gpa, you want to be bringing that up, but you also want to balance it by having more healthcare experience and vice versa.

If you have a higher GRE score, it's not necessarily, it's not going to counteract a low GPA or not having enough hours.

The opposite may be a little bit more true, where having a really great GPA or a ton of hours can kind of counteract a lower GRE score.

But either way, as always, you've got to meet the program's minimums if they have a minimum in place.

And the GRE is one thing that sometimes schools don't put a minimum on.

They may report their average scores of accepted applicants, which can be helpful because that gives you a little bit of information to gauge your competitiveness on.

But don't put too much weight on that.

You just want to show that you really are going to be able to perform well and that this test is not a roadblock to you getting into PA school.

So again, it's just a necessary requirement, just a check mark.

So don't get too flustered about it.

Do your studying and make sure you do well.

All right, let's move on.

What would be considered a good score on the gre?

Now, this is a little bit Subjective.

And if you look at the schools that do publish a minimum, a lot of them will typically say around 300 and or above the 50th percentile for each section.

And that's the quantitative and the verbal.

The writing portion really doesn't matter, and it does not contribute to your overall score.

So that's what I would shoot for, over 300 and greater than the 50th percentile for each section.

And again, that's a little bit subjective.

You'll have some schools that say 290, some that say 305.

If they even say a minimum, most of them just want you to take it.

But, yeah, make sure you're checking those class averages just so you can tell if you're competitive.

Does it look bad to retake the gre?

Not necessarily.

And again, this is a part of your application that you can improve.

And schools want to see that you've put in the effort necessary to do well.

And so they're going to take the highest scores.

If you take it one time and get a higher score in verbal, they'll take that one.

If the next time you get a higher score in quantitative, they'll take that and kind of put those together and they're going to look at all of that.

Now, the GRE is expensive, and that is the worst part of having to retake the test.

So you want to do as well as you can the first time.

You don't want to just go in there and wing it, but ultimately it is something that you can retake and it's not going to be a big deal.

Moving on.

So should you take the green?

You know, this is a question that I get a lot, and my opinion is that by taking the GRE, you are increasing your chances of getting accepted just by minimizing your competition.

So if you think about it this way, if you have a school that requires the GRE, let's say they get 1,000 applicants who took the test and have applied.

If you have a school that does not require the GRE, you're going to get 1,000 applicants who didn't take the test and those same thousand that did take it.

And so you're competing with a lot more people.

And this goes for everything when it comes to PA school admissions.

The more specific the requirements you can meet, the better your chances of getting an interview.

If you can meet those requirements, you're kind of narrowing the playing field by doing that.

So that's just something to keep in mind.

As far as the GRE goes.

Now, when should you take the gre?

That's also a question.

My thoughts are you should take it about six to 12 months before you're planning on applying to PA school.

And also sometimes those scores can take a little while to come in.

You don't want to wait too long to do that.

I think my recording is still going.

Yeah.

Other things to keep in mind are you want to give yourself enough time to have that score, and then the scores are only good for five years, so you don't want to take it too soon.

If you take it freshman year of college and then you're not applying until your senior year, your score is not going to be good anymore.

And so don't waste your time doing that or your money.

And so when you do take the gre, just for logistics, there are three sections.

I guess I should have started with this, but there is a verbal section, which is kind of your English stuff.

Vocabulary, grammar, all that jazz.

There's quantitative, which is math, and there's a writing portion.

And the GRE does change sometimes.

Now, when you take the gre, you can send your score to three schools for free.

Free.

Now, as far as CASPA goes, and this is a question I get, can I just go ahead and send my scores to caspa?

Now, some schools will want you to send them only to caspa, and there's a specific number for that.

And then other schools will want you to send them to the school directly or both.

Make sure you check on that.

But for those three free test scores, CASPA will only accept them if you have a CASPA account.

If you don't have a CASPA account set up, they cannot connect your score with a person.

So make sure that you do that ahead of time if you're taking the gre.

Another question that comes up a lot is, should I take the GRE or should I send it to a school that does not require it?

There's no purpose in doing that.

So it's a waste of your money, it's a waste of your time.

They're not going to look at it if it's not something they require and it's not part of their application process.

They don't want to see your score.

They don't not well, they don't care, really.

At that point, they have decided that for whatever reason, the GRE is not that important to them.

So I wouldn't send your score to a school that does not require it.

And on the flip side of that, a school, school that does not require the GRE will not see your score on your application.

They only see your score if you've entered in their specific code and sent that to CASPA directly.

Another thing to keep in mind, and this has changed recently, is in the past, you had to submit and upload every single attempt of the GRE that you've ever taken.

Recently, they've changed it to where you can choose what scores to send.

Be very cautious with this.

And my personal opinion is go ahead and upload all of your scores.

There are some schools that are requiring, they say you need to submit all of your scores and not leave any out.

So there's not really a point in not submitting one.

Again, they're going to look at that highest score, score, and so I would just go ahead and submit them.

Submit them all.

I don't see any reason not to.

So, anyway, let's talk about studying for the gre.

Now, I will tell you that I did not plan this very well.

I decided to take the gre.

So I applied to PA school in between my junior and senior year because I didn't really want a gap year.

And because of that, I was a little bit crunched for time as far as taking the gre.

I decided to take it right after finals of my junior year and I was trying to get my application submitted.

So, number one, I waited to the last minute.

Not good.

Number two, I did not study at all leading up to that.

So I will, as a caveat, say that I tend to be pretty good at standardized tests like the sat, that type of thing, for some reason, I guess just the strategy.

I do pretty well with some people.

That's not the case.

And I understand that some people are great with standardized tests.

Some people are not as great with them.

So I finished finals at UGA in my junior year.

It was May.

And then I went home.

And I wish I could have my parents attest to this, but I locked myself in a room, the back room of our house, and I studied for 12 hours a day for a week straight.

I sat there, I went through books, I did flashcards, I did practice problems, practice tests, and I'll tell you my exact strategy in a minute, but I literally sat there for 12 hours a day for an entire week, leading up to the green.

I took the test.

I did fine, luckily didn't have to take it again.

But again, I don't know that that exact study method would work for everyone.

My recommendation now is to plan in, I would say one to three months, just depending on your test taking skills and how comfortable you feel of pretty dedicated study time to where you're doing it more gradually to give yourself time to really make sure you have the concepts down and devote enough studying to feel comfortable with the material.

So the first thing I would say start with is a practice test.

Figure out where you're at, gauge kind of your starting point, and there are a lot of different ones out there.

A lot of the books come with practice tests.

The GRE website has practice tests, but take one just so you become familiar and figure out the areas you need to work on.

After that, I went to the library, so there are GRE books everywhere.

The other day I was at Goodwill and they had so many of them.

So you can buy one on Amazon.

There are links in the description below to some that I like.

But yeah, look around Goodwill second and Charles, just any used bookstore will probably have some GRE books so you don't have to spin an arm and a leg on this.

I used two separate books.

One of them was a strategy book.

So I would study that first and kind of learn the strategy, get that down.

And then I would go to the practice problem book and do the corresponding practice problems.

And so I would study strategy, do practice problems and do that back and forth until I went through the entire book.

And then I took another practice test to figure out where I was at and what I needed to continue working on.

Now, one part that made my very short study time very difficult was the fact that the vocab stuff, you cannot cram that it is impossible.

So I can't say that I'm that great with vocab.

So I ended up, I just, I mean, I was reading through all these words and I just didn't feel like I had a good handle on it.

So my, my recommendation now based on that is go ahead.

If you know you're taking the GRE in ever, actually go ahead and start studying vocab.

You know, get an app.

There are a lot of podcasts out there with GRE vocabs.

I think do a good job of applying it.

I don't have a single source that I recommend, but just search GRE vocab studying and find something, flashcards, anything that you can while you're sitting waiting for class.

To start for 10 minutes, do a little vocab.

If you're, I don't know, commuting and on a bus or something, do vocab, I mean, whatever.

Find a time, just a few minutes a day that you can kind of go through some of that so you feel more comfortable coming to it on the test because yeah, that was, that was a little rough.

Now I've heard really good things about Magoosh and I don't think this was even around when I took the GRE.

But I have heard good things and I think they have a great program that kind of.

It walks you through studying.

So my thoughts on that are if you need help with a study plan, if you feel like you can't necessarily motivate yourself to study the way you need to, then I would recommend looking into something like Magoosh so that you can get help with that instead of trying to do it all yourself.

Alright, I think that's all my thoughts on the gre.

I'm sure maybe I missed some stuff, but I would love to hear from you guys.

If you have thoughts, questions, feel free to leave a question, leave a comment, leave a review.

Give me a thumbs up.

Make sure you're subscribed either on YouTube or the pre PA Club podcast on itunes if you want to hear more.

And I think that's all I have for you today.

Now I did want to do a review of the week.

Let's see.

The review of the week comes from Razzle Tazzle.

I love listening to this podcast.

This is definitely the most helpful and consistent PA podcast I have come across.

Savannah is great at providing relevant and helpful information.

Thank you.

I try.

I also love listening to interviews.

Her interview book also helped me a ton.

This podcast has made the Pre PA journey much easier.

Hey, that's the goal.

So thank you so much for the review.

I love reading these and just hearing from you guys.

So follow me on Instagram HEPA Platform.

Check out the website, let me know if you have any questions, comments, thoughts and if not, I will see you guys next week.

Thanks so much for listening and following along.