Although the majority of GRE subject test examinees may be graduates in the field, this does not mean examinees who are neither graduates in the discipline or indeed graduates at all, cannot pass these tests at the required level. They can and frequently do. I used the GRE subject test in Political Science to provided all the necessary major/concentration credit for my first University of the State of New York / Regents degree1. I later wrote another GRE subject exam, garnering an additional 30 semester hours credit. Augmented by a single 3-credit hour ECE (formerly ACT/PEP) test, I thus completed requirements for another degree major, this time in Psychology2.
1The administering entity, Regents College, later split from USNY, becoming the independent “Excelsior College”.
2Alas, although requirements for a second degree in Psychology were met in full, USNY regulations prohibited conferral of a second degree in the same liberal arts degree program. This issue is discussed in detail in the Second Degree guide and elsewhere in BA in 4 Weeks. I went on to earn a third major, and a second degree, this time in Business.
A DWINDLING RESOURCE GRE subject examinations are an endangered species, and it seems that with every passing exam diet there are fewer from which to choose. So if you're toying with the idea of doing this, don't hang about too long. Remember, you can earn a degree major by taking just one exam for about $130.
GRE DETAILS TO CONSIDER Excelsior College awards credit for GRE subject exams on a sliding scale. A score above the 80th percentile will net you 30 semester hours credits. A score above the 35th percentile will net you 3 semester hours. In between, credits are accumulated in 3 credits per 5 percentile point increments.
Charter Oak State College (COSC) Awards 18 or 24 credits for GRE subject exams for any score above the 40th percentile. 24 credits are awarded for quantitative exams, 18 credits are awarded for non quantitative exams.
Thomas Edison State College (TESC) does not award credit for GRE subject exams.
In addition to the above, it should be noted that Excelsior awards the first 12 credits as lower division (LD) credits. That is, a pass above the 50th percentile will yield 12 LD credits. All additional credits awarded are upper division credits (UD). So, a score above the 80th percentile yields 12 LD and 18 UD semester hour credits, for a total of 30 credit hours.
COSC awards 15 LD credits + 9 UD credits in the quantitative GREs, and 15 LD credits + 3 UD credits in the non quantitative GREs, for a total of 24 and 18 credit hours respectively.
COSC breaks LD credits into basic level and advanced level, but to all intents and purposes they are LD credits so far as I can establish. COSC graduates may know better
COMPLETING A DEGREE MAJOR Majors in some subjects can be completed by Excelsior College students by scoring above the 80th percentile in an appropriate GRE subject examination.
As noted, in the case of Excelsior College, credit is awarded on a sliding scale, from 3 credits for a score above the 35th percentile to 30 credits for a score above the 80th percentile.
The minimum requirement for a major is 30 credits with a minimum of 15 in the upper division. Therefore, passing a GRE subject exam above the 80th percentile satisfies the degree major requirements, except where the discipline requires a laboratory component (in Biology, Chemistry or Physics).
or, where the major’s requirements include a subject deemed to have inadequate coverage in the GRE subject exam. For example, the Psychology major requires, among other things, a course in “Research Methods in Psychology”. While the Psych GRE satisfies most concentration requirements, it does not fulfill this one.
Coincidentally, Excelsior offer their own proprietory exam in exactly that subject! Sitting this ECE exam will cost an additional $155.
Here is a snippet of Excelsior College’s take on the issue of credit accumulation and the concentrations/majors:
A list of acceptable GRE subject exams and their current required scaled scores can be found at Excelsior.edu. Detailed specification of individual concentration requirements can be found in the Liberal Arts Catalog
EXAM MATERIALS
GRE subject exams official practice test books
· Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology · Biology · Physics
Another great resource, is an abbreviated version of the above publications, available free for download in PDF format from ETS . . . . .
GRE subject exams free practice materials in pdf format
· Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology · Biology · Physics
Most of the study guides from other publishers are of limited value. One notable exception is the series from The Princeton Review called "Cracking the GRE"... (Biology, Literature, Psychology, etc.). I've used the Psychology offering and found it useful. The study notes are directly applicable to the GRE subject exam. The test questions are very close in level of difficulty and in scope to that of the actual exam. There are full answers to the questions in a subsequent section. Unfortunately, only 35 questions are included.
1) Go to the ETS.org site and register for the subject exam of choice. Register for the Graduate Record Subject Examination REA "preparation for the GRE" series: BUY (with reservations) $25
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Fast BA Majors |
Sit GRE subject exam of choice for which there is a corresponding Excelsior major. This is a pencil and paper based exam. There are three exam diets per year, in April, November and December. Not all examinations are offered in all exam diets.
Have ETS send your GRE results to Excelsior College or COSC. Requirements for a major at Excelsior - 30 credits of which at least 15 must be upper division. If scoring above the 80th percentile in the GRE, you would have 18 UD + 12 LD for a total of 30 credits. At COSC the requirement is a score above the 40th percentile for which either 18 or 24 semester hours credit are awarded as noted earlier.