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26 Aug 2005, 11:39
This is one of those old "rules of thumb" that I've been hearing for years. It has some element of truth in that schools generally expect candidates to be strong in both V and Q skills. However, many applicants seem to place too much stress on "80" as some type of magic threshold. Schools are more than willing to find other information to help them interpret the score. The fact that someone learned English as a second language but has spent considerable time working in American MNCs might cause the admin officers to overlook a relatively low verbal score (after all, the student probably has no problem functioning in an English environment).
The 80th percentile rule of thumb is most useful for students who have very asymmetric scores- e.g. Q in the high 90s and a V score below the median.
It is interesting to note that Yale shows an avg Q score of 46 (80th percentile) and a V score of 40 (93rd percentile).
The 10th percentile V at Yale was 35 (roughly the 77th percentile); the 90th percentile was 46 (99th)
The 10th percentile Q was 38 (roughly the 55th percentile) and the 90th percentile Q was 50 (roughly the 95th percentile).
Accordingly, assuming a normal distrubtion of Q scores, it would appear that roughly half of enrolled students at Yale had Q scores at or below the 80th percentile.
One could argue that Yale is an outlier but there is not genuine dispute over the fact that it is one of the elite schools.