Oh, and by the Way, Your GRE Math Score Doesn't Matter

Readers of this blog who are thinking of Ph.D. studies are not likely heading into programs requiring mathematical prowess. (If you are, however, heading into a quantitative program, good for you! Some people like doing calculus to relax...)

So, non-mathematical types, don’t bother spending one minute or dollar preparing for the Math portion of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). A bad score won’t hurt you and a stellar score won’t help you. What matters (unlike the SAT or ACT) is your Verbal score and your Writing score–since (duh) those are the zones pertinent to what you’re going to do in religious/theological studies.

I’ve checked this advice with friends who teach at Yale, Duke, Notre Dame, Chicago, and elsewhere. Since you can’t read that advice officially anywhere and yet pretty much “everybody knows” that’s the case, I thought you ought to know it, too. (UPDATE: Check the follow-up post that warns that in some subjects the GRE Math test does matter.)