A Guide to the GRE and Application for M.S. abroad

[srikrishnan]

just thought after seeing a couple of posts on the chit-chat section that a thread exclusively for GRE exam experiences, preparation stratergies and application process was missing. The only thread on pagalguy pertaining to something in depth about GRE was the "Anyone for GRE?" thread.. but even that seemed to be at a loss for experiences and also lacked information pertaining to application procedures. hoping this thread would bring in more experiences of people who have excelled in the G.R.E. and also serve to clarify the doubts of people who are applying for universities to U.S.A. and other countries. I, for my part, will try to help people about application procedures to U.S.A for M.S.(or other equivalent degrees). Hoping to gain more support from everyone who have taken GRE(especially the pros like Hanoz,Quintessence and company).

[hanoz]

Originally Posted by srikrishnan

just thought after seeing a couple of posts on the chit-chat section that a thread exclusively for GRE exam experiences, preparation stratergies and application process was missing. The only thread on pagalguy pertaining to something in depth about GRE was the "Anyone for GRE?" thread.. but even that seemed to be at a loss for experiences and also lacked information pertaining to application procedures. hoping this thread would bring in more experiences of people who have excelled in the G.R.E. and also serve to clarify the doubts of people who are applying for universities to U.S.A. and other countries. I, for my part, will try to help people about application procedures to U.S.A for M.S.(or other equivalent degrees). Hoping to gain more support from everyone who have taken GRE(especially the pros like Hanoz,Quintessence and company).

I'm not sure if my inputs can be very useful for GRE prep. I'm sure there are ppl around with much better scores around who cud give better input.

Anyways, I booked a date 6 weeks or so ahead of the test and read Barron's word list... rather went thru it, coz i knew most of the words... only the tricky ones i had to familiarize myself with... I've been an avid reader since a very young age and hence, I suppose, I did't find it necessary to mug words.

Didn't do any prep for GRE quant and read some essays by americans on some random issues abt a week or so before the test. Once again, I've been writin essays and stuff for quite some time, so I just had to get myself used to the American style of writing.... so this kind of preparation was sufficient for me.

Do familiarize urself with the GRE screen, for which the cd provided should be sufficient

Give the two tests on the CD one or two days before the test only, ie when you are ready to give the real test... they'll give a good idea of what you'll score on the final.

I had my TOEFL with a gap of one day after the GRE (I wanted them on the same day, but the dates weren't available that way) So I solved the two tests on the cd during the 'rest day' in b/w. TOEFL is a very easy test. If you're familiar with very basic english, write decently and are comfortable with English movies, you should easily crack the test.

Scores: Verbal : 730 Quant : 800 AWA : 6.0 / 6.0 G. R. E.
TOEFL : 300 / 300 Essay : 6.0 / 6.0

[QuintEssence]

Originally Posted by hanoz

I'm not sure if my inputs can be very useful for GRE prep. I'm sure there are ppl around with much better scores around who cud give better input.

dude..if ur inputs arent very useful..mine would be like total nonsense

anyway..i started off GRE prep in mah first year engg. by buying the Barron's GRE book. then i promptly remembered to forget its exisence. by the time i was in final year..i had realised that GRE would be a pipe dream consdering my aggregate at college..( i am ofcourse referring to that free boat trip - scholarship included )

anyway..to cut a sorry story short..i graduated out of college with a vague idea of getting into US. so, got a membership of www.usnews.com in August 2004 to keep myself abreast of the chioces which i had, if any. but by then..the MBA bug bit me proper and i was usually lax in checking colleges and stuff. something which i sincerely regretted afterwards.

so..where was i.august..yeah. then i registered for the test in October '04 intending to apply for the fall session of '05. this meant that i had to complete my application and send them the relevant details on or before 31st december ( for most universities) but i dint know that

in my state of blissful unawareness..i also managed to neglect my GRE studies viz. the verbal part. as every kid from 7th standard onward knows..GRE quant is like being evaluated for eating a cake..or some other equally useless mind numbing activity. how u eat it doesnt matter..you'll finish it anyway. ( i am flowing with bad similies today ).

to summarise..GRE is ALL about its verbal part. ignore it at your own peril. and if u do screw it up, like i did, you'll be sorriiee

most people can forget about TOEFL and related misc activity. all u gotta do is qualify that test and qualifying isnt tough. if u can write your own name in english comfortably enough..you're through.

keep an eye out for deadlines. the have this habit of sneaking upto you while you are peacably passing the time and hit you like a David Beckham kick in the goalpost..or whatever.

basically..had i made a timeline..like registering in august..giving the test in october after having finalized my choice of universities and getting the relevant marksheets and grades from college before november..the application part wont be much. to add to that, you also have to keep mailing profs all over the place who would be interested in your reasearch projects etc.

i was lucky enough to find a generous prof who was willling to provide assistance..but he wanted me to commit for PhD as well. so take that into consideration as well.

finally ofcourse..there is the SOP..but thankfully we have some people here who can take care of that

any other queries..to be answered in a future imaginary post

yeah..details

GRE Verbal : 630 Quant : 800 AWA : 4.0 / 6.0 (i think it was 4.5 but i am not sure..instead of searching for that piece of paper, lemme keep the lower expected value )
TOEFL : 273 / 300 Essay : 5.5 / 6.0

[srikrishnan]

Originally Posted by hanoz

I'm not sure if my inputs can be very useful for GRE prep. I'm sure there are ppl around with much better scores around who cud give better input.

arent you a humble one.. Do u seriously think 1530 is bad or anyone with a better score is at an advantage???

[greenday]

what a modest way of braggin!

Originally Posted by hanoz

Scores: Verbal : 730 Quant : 800 AWA : 6.0 / 6.0 G. R. E.
TOEFL : 300 / 300 Essay : 6.0 / 6.0

GRE is a very easy exam to crack if you have the time! you need preparation only for the verbal part that too only the wordlists. the quant and di part are very easy. the worst part of verbal is direct questions based on vocabulary that you make or break your score! so start mugging! and even if one likes to read a lot still going through the wordlist is needed coz we dont use that kinda words in normal english!

discombobulated?! anyone ever used that in english?

also, the tricky part is the second meanings of words. like one of the meaning of the word "nice" is accurate! the barrons gre book have given a nice process to follow while attempting such qs.

i had an 800 on the old GRE verbal so nothing to fear there id say! its totally manageable!!

[srikrishnan]

Originally Posted by greenday

what a modest way of braggin!
i had an 800 on the old GRE verbal so nothing to fear there id say! its totally manageable!!

arent we getting some personalities here..............an 800 on the GRE verballllll .

plz list the books that u used for ur prep.. i too found wordlists helpful for GRE incontrast to the views of many people. This is despite being a decent reader of books myself but as u say greenday, I didnt have enough time to prepare to the best of my ability. If u can put in effort with time on ur hands, then i guess GRE is as easy as any exam on earth.


PS: Iam nowhere close to reaching the heights set by other illustrious guys on the thread and so I dont wanna post my scores and disgrace the forum. But what I can do is to shell out strtergies(too bad I didnt have time to work on them myself... could have sworn they would have paid off)

[varun_sood]

Hi People
I need some suggestions regarding MS in US after MBBS. My sister is doing her internship after MBBS and is planning to give GRE soon to pursue MS in some non-clinical courses(not fully decided which one). If anybody has idea about it then do post your experiences.

[hanoz]

Originally Posted by srikrishnan

arent you a humble one.. Do u seriously think 1530 is bad or anyone with a better score is at an advantage???

I didn't want the thread to get started on a tangential path but anyways.... when i say 'better', it is the comparative adjective for 'good' and not 'bad'

Also, I've got friends who've scored 1580s and 1600s... so putting things in perspective, there are others who have significantly higher scores than mine

[srikrishnan]

Originally Posted by hanoz

I didn't want the thread to get started on a tangential path but anyways.... when i say 'better', it is the comparative adjective for 'good' and not 'bad'

Also, I've got friends who've scored 1580s and 1600s... so putting things in perspective, there are others who have significantly higher scores than mine

sorry no offense meant... was jus kidding.. but seriously 1530 in my book is as good as 1590...maybe not 1600 cos a perfect score is a perfect score doesnt matter what one says.. but theni doubt if the person getting 1600 would have been better prepared than you.... that was what i was trying to say..

[greenday]

plz list the books that u used for ur prep..

I used this software called Vocabulary Wizard for mugging up the words. it has some really cool features like master mark, check mark , making your own lists etc etc. The software is still avaliable but its an Adware(as in it downloads ADs from the internet everytime you are online ) Thats not the only part! it also collects personal information and is considered to have spyware called Cydoor by many of the popular spyware scanners. So if you are an advanced user having firewalls , antivirus and the rest i would recommend it. otherwise its dangerous but there are similar software avaliable like this which are free. go to www.download.com to search.

an indirect way of preparing would be reading p g wodehouse.

i feel its the direct qs in GRE which cause all the problems. the RC , sentence completion etc are very easy , CAT level is much much tougher. Vocab plays an important part which you just cannot ignore! most ppl start of with abase abash abate ... and then just give up. if you are that kinda person , its better to do the list randomly than doing it serially and only half of it. also the usual Norman Lewis is an interesting read and has some good techniques , or anecdotes about the origin of words. like disaster = dis + aster . that is in the olden days falling stars w ere considered bad luck , hence the word disaster! so asterik is a star shaped symbol. if you remember group of words like this its really easy to remember them.

lets say you say "banal" . with just the mention of this word ,the following words should immediately come to your mind. note not all mean exactly the same, also there are some varying degrees but none the less this association should be present
hackneyed
trite
threadbare
bromide
cliche
platitude
shopworn and so on.

also not all words can replace each other in a sentence. sometimes its specific words that just sound right!

also secondary meanings are of prime importance!!
for this go through the dictionary and you will be surprised how many secondary meanings common words have!!!

long story short :
1. maintain association of words. a single word in that group , you should be able to recollect the entire group , and also if possible the entire group of antonyms.
2. theres no easy way out of this. you have to spend considerable time if you want to master it! and theres no english medium or vernac in this. i had this person in my class who used to write down the word in devanagri font and then memorize it!!! thats the worst way of learning any language! trust me even guys from english medium dont use such stilted or bombastic vocab! oh! i just did! thats the key! bore your friends with your newly acquired vocab. knowing words is not enough! its when you know when to use them correctly!!

good luck!

Originally Posted by srikrishnan

arent we getting some personalities here..............an 800 on the GRE verballllll .

plz list the books that u used for ur prep.. i too found wordlists helpful for GRE incontrast to the views of many people. This is despite being a decent reader of books myself but as u say greenday, I didnt have enough time to prepare to the best of my ability. If u can put in effort with time on ur hands, then i guess GRE is as easy as any exam on earth.


PS: Iam nowhere close to reaching the heights set by other illustrious guys on the thread and so I dont wanna post my scores and disgrace the forum. But what I can do is to shell out strtergies(too bad I didnt have time to work on them myself... could have sworn they would have paid off)