GRE Guide

[ani_svnit]

Purpose of the Thread:

Many students in college and working professionals face a decision that decides their future career path, Management or Technical? In particular, engineering students in their 3rd year who know that they are at ease with technical and want to pursue further studies in it, a MS or PhD degree from a good university is definitely a good bet for them. Not only engineering, US universities provide degrees for streams like Biotech, Food Sciences, Finance, etc. For the technical minded who have decided to pursue a degree in the USA, this thread will serve the following purpose

1. Provide information for the entire MS/PhD application process and the timeline for various tasks involved.

2. People can post their profiles and ask for advice on a particular aspect of the application process.

3. People studying in US universities can also post their experiences. This can give information specific to a department in a university.

Mandatory Examinations

1. Graduate Record Examination (GRE)

The GRE is a computer adaptive test held by the ETS (www.ets.org/gre). Use the link to register for the test. The fees for the GRE varies from time to time but its generally around $150. Keep a credit card handy while registering.

Computer Adaptive Test implies that if you answer a question correctly, the next question will be of higher difficulty and weight. So the key to a good score is to atleast get the first 5 questions of each section correct. Also there is a heavy penalty if you are unable to answer a Q before the time ends so if short on time, mark blind guesses.

Best time to give GRE: By August end so that you have enough time in hand to do the remaining stuff. People in final yr of engineering are recommended to give the exam in April before the end of their academic term if they want to join a job for a year or two (thats what I did, easier to study while in college).

Dates for GRE get filled up fast around july so keep that in mind and get a comfortable date near about a month before you intend to take the exam.

The GRE consists of 2 main sections.

a) Quantitative - This is the relatively easier section. One should aim to score the maximum ie 800 in this section. One should not be overconfident and time their section well by doing the first 5-10 question with a cool head and then build up the speed.

b) Verbal - The nemesis of many aspirants, lemme just jot down few tricks to tackle the verbal section. There are 4 types of questions in the section Sentence completion, analogies, antonyms and RC.

- Cram the entire Barrons wordlists in the holidays/weekends atleast 1.5 to 2 months before your GRE date. Its helpful to write all the words that mean the same together someplace e.g. there are 7-8 words that mean "to disavow" like abjure, recalcitrant, recondite, etc. Write them someplace Time this section to perfection (again )

- Secondary meanings of words are very important.

- RC's are ambiguous so only practice can make you confident. Take as many Big Book tests as possible.

c) Analytical Writing: Basically essay writing. You need to write 2 pieces. Use the words added to your vocabulary to get the best marks in this section.

Books/Software to use
Barrons Wordlist
Big Book
Kaplan CD tests (tough but good practice)
ETS CD tests to be given in the week before your exam, the average of the powerprep tests will be near to your GRE score.

BTW my GRE score was Q. 800 V. 670 (my 2nd answer was wrong ) AWA 4.5/6

Some more first hand experiences can be found at http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/gmat-a...ation-m-s.html (A Guide to the GRE and Application for M.S. abroad)

2. TOEFL

Not much preparation is required for TOEFL. 4 sections are Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing. All universities have a lower TOEFL cutoff (arnd 90/120). Catch someone in your city to find out a good TOEFL centre where there is little external noise (that can disturb you in the listening and speaking sections).


Books/Software to use

Kaplan TOEFL guide will give you sufficient feel of the 4 sections.

Best time to give TOEFL: October

I scored 112 in TOEFL Speaking: 24 Reading: 29 Listening: 29 Writing: 30

A special thank you to Mahip for letting me open this thread and hope that many aspirants can derive something from it.

[ani_svnit]

Selecting Universities

Well this is a very sensitive topic as no one exactly knows what a university looks for in a student but if I were to rate the "factors" affecting admission in an order, it would be as follows

1. GPA / Graduation Percentage: Acads have a huge weightage.
2. National / International papers or good major projects preferably more than 1 (specially for PhD applicants).
3. Good SOP (Statement of Purpose) and LOR's (Letters of Recommendation). An application can turn on its head if you get this right.
4. GRE score (surprisingly does not hold too much weight )
5. TOEFL score (basis for a TA)

A good number of universities to apply to is 8 with the break-down being 3 ambitious, 3 moderate and 2 safe universities. Again its up to you to decide.

Best way to thin down your options is to see the websites of the universities. The path for one to use while navigate generally looks like Uni home page Graduate School Prospective Students

Hopefully through this thread you'll also be able to read first hand-experiences of people studying in certain universities in the US.

Timeline: Finish university selection by october-end to mid-november

Applying

Keep a credit card handy (again, actually used throughout the process liberally ). Soon after submitting the online application, send your application packet to the uni. Find a good deal for sending your packets coz its quite expensive and sometimes you may have to send 3 packets to the same university

Wait and Watch

After applying begins the excruciating wait for results

Visa Power

With an admit in your hand, go and get your visa through another process which I shall not describe here at this point of time (coz am yet to get my visa )

to all puys aiming for MS/PhD in the US