Urch Forums - Blogs

Urch Forums - Blogs http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/ Free test prep and admissions forum. GMAT, SAT Prep, GRE, TOEFL. en Mon, 27 May 2013 02:28:15 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.urch.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg Urch Forums - Blogs http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/ December 2012 SAT essay prompts http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/erin/331-december-2012-sat-essay-prompts.html Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:33:12 GMT The December SAT essay prompts (from December 1, 2012) are now publicly available (http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/prep/essay-prompts). A paraphrase of the four essay prompts follows: 1. Sometimes leaders become successful by treating other people poorly, which is... The December SAT essay prompts (from December 1, 2012) are now publicly available.

A paraphrase of the four essay prompts follows:

Sometimes leaders become successful by treating other people poorly, which is not good. Prompt: Is it important to consider how nice or polite leaders are?
Many people stubbornly cling to their beliefs. Prompt: Is it good to strongly believe something?
Everybody makes mistakes. Prompt: Should we be forgiving of people's mistakes?
Everything that can be invented or discovered already has been invented or discovered. There's nothing left. Prompt: Is there anything left to invent or discover?

Did you write an essay on this prompt? Would you like some feedback on your essay? If so, please post your sample SAT here, and I'll score ("grade") your essay and give you feedback. Of course, the sooner, the better. ;) ]]> Erin http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/erin/331-december-2012-sat-essay-prompts.html Need help to crack TOEFL http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/sdmpharmacist/329-need-help-crack-toefl.html Tue, 09 Oct 2012 22:11:09 GMT ---Quote (Originally by Sarma)--- Hi All, I am Planning to take my TOEFL exam after 45 days. I am aiming for 95-105 score. Please let me know that where can i get the material stuff to prepare for my exam. I am from India and I am looking for Online resources. I am also looking for a partner...

Originally Posted by Sarma

Hi All,

I am Planning to take my TOEFL exam after 45 days. I am aiming for 95-105 score. Please let me know that where can i get the material stuff to prepare for my exam. I am from India and I am looking for Online resources. I am also looking for a partner who can really help me in preparation.

Thanks in advance...

Hi,
I am from india. Check the notefull website, great help. I am also aiming for same score. I am in houston. let me know if you interested to practice together. Send me PM with your email.

Thanks ]]> SDMPharmacist http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/sdmpharmacist/329-need-help-crack-toefl.html Results from Sept 2011 are on NABP website !!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/shaila/328-results-sept-2011-nabp-website.html Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:20:03 GMT ---Quote (Originally by shaila)--- I passed with 130 and I prepared from Cpr and Apha. I didnot do any online course and studied for 3 months. For me 1000 q were useless so I didnot finish them..yes managment from manon was a great help. My advice to all future test takers is spend more time on...

Originally Posted by shaila

I passed with 130 and I prepared from Cpr and Apha. I didnot do any online course and studied for 3 months. For me 1000 q were useless so I didnot finish them..yes managment from manon was a great help. My advice to all future test takers is spend more time on Apha that is the best book for the exam.I found so many questions from that book plus do basic calculation..I remember there were a lot of questions where you could answer by common sense, answer was hidden in question. Be very careful about question... read it completely with patience. I finished my test 45 mins before the time, so dont worry about time,you would have enough to go through. All the structures in Apha are extremely important.I am so happy because this was my first attempt. Good luck to all.:encouragement:

]]> shaila http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/shaila/328-results-sept-2011-nabp-website.html Possible in-depth grammar lessons http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/erin/326-possible-depth-grammar-lessons.html Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:53:12 GMT Teachers always want to say more; when a student asks a question, the mind of the teacher fills with ideas of ways to impart the information--explanations, diagrams, pairs of contrast and similarities, quiz questions, challenge questions, and the like. But no teacher I know ever has time to exhaust... Teachers always want to say more; when a student asks a question, the mind of the teacher fills with ideas of ways to impart the information--explanations, diagrams, pairs of contrast and similarities, quiz questions, challenge questions, and the like. But no teacher I know ever has time to exhaust even a single idea. There are always just too many different questions to answer and too many doubts that could arise.

That said, I thought I might keep a list of the topics I wish to expand on in the future.

Here are some of the ideas:

How to use rather, rather than, instead, and instead of . Source of the inspiration: "instead of" vs. "rather than" vs "instead" vs "rather"
When and how subordination is tested on sentence correction questions. (Request for information on subordinate clauses.)

I think I'll post this now and update as I remember items to add to the list. ]]> Erin http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/erin/326-possible-depth-grammar-lessons.html Making changes to the Urch forums http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/erin/325-making-changes-urch-forums.html Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:12:02 GMT You may have noticed that I've changed a few things in the forums over the last week or so. The colors are a bit brighter, and I've added some different graphics and emoticons. On the back end, I've been doing a few things as well, but most users won't notice. The back-end work involves looking at moderated threads, complaints about threads, and a few other things like that. Summer was busy for me (as it usually is), so there were a few hundred different things that I needed to look at.

So, a few things I want to work on in the future, and some of these are just thoughts or ideas and aren't guaranteed to show up in the forums:

Adding a database of practice test scores compared with official test scores. (Inspiration: Practice GMAT scores vs. Real GMAT scores)
Adding a forum for post-academia life, i.e., a career forum.
Adding a forum for parents who are researching information for their children. This is much more in line with what we do at TestMagic in the Bay Area (of California), so it seems like a natural fit.
Adding a function for people to track which schools their applying to, see who else is applying there, and get updates when results or information comes in.
Add some kind of function to verify the identity of posters. For example, is that guy really an instructor at Manhattan GMAT?
Add some functions for people to buy and sell test prep material.
Add some functions for people to form study groups.
Add some functions to encourage people to give feedback on the essays that other people have written.

These are the main ideas for now. I'll continue to work on the 'skin' of the forum to make it more visually appealing. I don't understand why vBulletin just cannot make a nice skin. I don't think they've ever had an attractive, professional look.

Any thoughts? I'd love to hear. Seriously. Please comment. :) ]]> Erin http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/erin/325-making-changes-urch-forums.html Moderators, please note http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/nonsequitur/324-moderators-please-note.html Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:50:04 GMT Okay, I tried posting this as a private blog to save someone some embarrassment but that didn't work, so I'll try again, this time in public.

========

I made a post in the PhD Economics forum last week and it still not appeared. The thread is titled something like "Top 2, not Top 5?" or something like that and the last post was by tm_guru on 8/15.

Next, my attempt to contact a Moderator directly was short circuited, generating a pop-up saying that the link didn't work, possibly because my account hadn't been verified. I signed up for this forum back int he Spring, have a valid e-mail address, and there should be no problem. Nor does my IN box appear to be functioning.

Unfortunately, at least one moderator seems to have his nose out of joint about my posts. I am not a PhD Econ applicant. However, I have several legitimate topic I am interested in that have bearing on this board, including:

-- Econ programs at UCLA, UC Berkeley, Yale
-- Women in Economics
-- PhD applicants whose undergraduate work was at liberal arts colleges
-- Institutional variances in admissions patterns

I would appreciate it very much if my post would put on the board and that my ability to contact moderators and any other links associated with membership on the board be activated. ]]> Nonsequitur http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/nonsequitur/324-moderators-please-note.html Get Your ISEE and SSAT Preparation More Easy !! http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/stiangel-dsouza/321-get-your-isee-ssat-preparation-more-easy.html Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:14:25 GMT Elitehometutorin offers ISEE preparation for students looking to gain entrance into independent schools and magnet schools in the United States. For ISEE preparation (http://www.elitehometutoring.com/test-prep/isee-preparation.php), we assign the student two ISEE tutors who credentialed teachers... Elitehometutorin offers ISEE preparation for students looking to gain entrance into independent schools and magnet schools in the United States.

For ISEE preparation, we assign the student two ISEE tutors who credentialed teachers. An English teacher is assigned for the verbal reading, reading comprehension, and essay portions of the exam. A math teacher will tutor the quantitative reasoning and mathematics achievement sections of the exam. When a tutoring package is purchased the hours can be mixed and matched, depending on the subjects with student needs the most help.

Once we are contacted by a client we connect them with their three ISEE tutors. We recommend structuring the tutoring sessions using a study guide that contains practice tests. The tutors will cover the material and at the end of the session summarize the student's progress. For more information about the, ISEE please visit http://www.elitehometutoring.com ]]> Stiangel Dsouza http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/stiangel-dsouza/321-get-your-isee-ssat-preparation-more-easy.html <![CDATA[[revised]Issue Topic:Planning courses vs students' interests]]> http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/seaorientalwang/320-revised-issue-topic-planning-courses-vs-students-interests.html Thu, 30 Jun 2011 09:30:51 GMT [revised]Issue Topic:Planning courses vs students' interests
Please comment on my writng, any comment is appreciated.Thanks.
Here is topics and my writing.
Claim: When planning courses, educators should take into account the interests and suggestion of their students.
Reason: Students are more motivated to learn when they are interested in what they are studying.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.

The speaker asserts that the educators should consider the interests and suggestions of the students when planning courses, for the reason that students are more enthusiastic to learn what they are interested. I admit the students are willing to learn what they are interested, but the so-called interest may be ephemeral but can be also acquired. Moreover, as a responsible educator, it is of importance to guide the students rightly and reach the goal of the education.

I agree with the speaker for the reason that making the courses appealing to the students can make students actively participate in listening and reading. Not only is this method beneficial to the students, but also it can also make the teachers feel a sense of self-respect and self-esteem, by receiving the positive responses from the students when teaching. Therefore, the educators should take the interests into consideration when planning the courses.

However, the interest is an ephemeral psychological impulse. Some young students feel enthusiastic about the martial art after watching the exciting action movies acted by Xialong Li. But after the students start to learn the real martial art, they find it very hard to learn and their enthusiasm dies down. Such interest is not permanent enough to make students always motivated until the courses are finished. What is more, interest is also an acquired taste which can be developed afterward, if the teacher gives some appropriate incentives if the students make some progress in the subject. Therefore, since we cannot ensure whether the interest will last long and whether it can be developed afterward, the benefits of interests are not always likely to support the statement of the speakers.

I disagree with the speaker for another reason considering the goal of the education which is to instill fundamental ideals of democracy and to teach students the basic skills of living. To reach these necessary goals, the educator should not always take the interests of students into consideration, even if there are possibilities of the benefits of the interests. Moreover, the educator should also consider the integrity of the knowledge in help students to establish a schematic knowledge in their minds. Thus the interest cannot be always taken into consideration, since some parts of the whole knowledge can motivate some students.

In sum, I agree with speaker insofar as the benefits of interests for both the teachers and the students; however, after considering the psychological essence of interest which can be acquired afterward, such benefits may not be permanent enough to benefit learning and teaching. Moreover, the educator is responsible to teach the basic ideals of the society and necessary skills to reach the goal of the education. The consideration of interest pales in comparison with the significance of the goal of the education. ]]> seaorientalWang http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/seaorientalwang/320-revised-issue-topic-planning-courses-vs-students-interests.html Profiles and Results 2011 http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/ryanmagic/319-profiles-results-2011.html Wed, 18 May 2011 08:27:13 GMT ---Quote (Originally by ryanmagic)--- *_PROFILE:_* *Type of Undergrad:* Rank 3 University in China (Fudan), B.A. of econonmics, with one semester exchange experience in UC Davis. *Undergrad GPA:* 3.57 in Fudan, top 10%; 4.0 in UC Davis (courses with * below). *Type of Grad:* N/A. *Grad GPA:*...

Originally Posted by ryanmagic

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad: Rank 3 University in China (Fudan), B.A. of econonmics, with one semester exchange experience in UC Davis.
Undergrad GPA: 3.57 in Fudan, top 10%; 4.0 in UC Davis (courses with * below).
Type of Grad: N/A.
Grad GPA: N/A.
GRE: 800Q 540V 3.0 AWA, TOEFL 105.
Math Courses: Advanced Math (differential calculus, integrals, a little differential equations)(B&A-), Linear Algebra(B+), Probability Theory(A), Statistics(A-).
Econ Courses (grad-level): N/A.
Econ Courses (undergrad-level): Political Economics(A), Micro(A), Macro(B+), International Trade(B+), History of Economic Thoughts(A), Econometrics(A+*), Macro Development(A*), Money and Banking(A+*), Financial Management(A-), Industrial Economics(A), Investment(B), Economic History of China(A), Accounting(B), Contemporary Chinese Economy(B+), Theory on Capital(C+).
Other Courses: C programming(A).
Letters of Recommendation: 2 from UC Davis, 1 from Fudan.
Research Experience: RA for a term, one independent project and one team project in progress.
Teaching Experience: Representative for a course.
Research Interests: Labor, Development, IO.
SOP: So so.
Other: Awarded the National Scholarship in China (for top 1% students).

RESULTS:
Acceptances: BU MA, UC Davis ARE MS.
Waitlists:
Rejections: Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, UPenn, Columbia, NYU, Cornell, Duke, CMU, Rochester, Maryland, Berkeley AREC, BU, JHU, UC Davis, Georgetown, U Colorado - Boulder, UC Davis ARE PhD.
Pending: Syracuse, Columbia QMSS.

What would you have done differently?
I would apply to Canadian master programs, Duke master and Tufts master.

]]> ryanmagic http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/ryanmagic/319-profiles-results-2011.html A topic on an unfamiliar topic anyway http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/317-topic-unfamiliar-topic-anyway.html Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:33:13 GMT Part 3 of the American English lesson !! Linking words !!!

:)

What I've noticed from continuously recording myself that despite my attempts to perfect my English, these tips did not have an instantenous result. Moreover, the low quality of mic recordings also contributed to this significantly.

And you never know how bad you sound until you record yourself :).

Also it seems like my interview went ok, but since my deadline for fellowship application is very soon, I feel like it is a waste of time to try. Besides, if I go to USA next year it means a whole year where I can actually make something useful - work on my super plans :).

People would want to ask these questions expressing their worry about application, but I don't see the point in it. You can always do what you want and not worry too much about what decisions others will make about you.

A rule - do and forget. Can't really manipulate your reality further than that.

Do you know a rule of never to multi-task and to be productive, not "busy"? Read Timothy Ferris' book - it is good. It is quite counter-intuitive, but the principle does exist. How many times has worrying about problems solved anything? I don't think you will come up even with one instance of that.

Also whenever you try to accomplish too much at once your brain "overburns" and distracts you from the most important goal. One said that whenever you want to do anything you want to ask yourself -

1) What is the most important thing you should do to achieve that?
2) What is the second most important thing to do AFTER that?
3) Don't even bother with the third most important thing.

Actually, I've tweaked the rules, because initially they suggested having 3 priorities.

Errhhh, I would say that learning GRE vocabulary also contributed to polishing that mindset of mine. I had the most success when I stopped pursuing too many methods and just focused on one method, because vocabulary is about repetition. You can't learn new words after glancing at them just once (well, I still haven't figured how to do it consistently. Magicians have a trick that does that). ]]> Incoan http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/317-topic-unfamiliar-topic-anyway.html Spoken English Tutorial Blog Entry 4 :) http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/315-spoken-english-tutorial-blog-entry-4.html Thu, 10 Feb 2011 05:47:55 GMT So I'm still waiting for Carnegie Mellon to tell me the results and continue writing my Spoken English Tutorial series.

It was a 11 am morning time and I was ill, but the interviewer was very energetic to my surprise. I couldn't really focus on the interview and that's why I wasn't very sharp in answers and wasn't very sharp when doing the writing task.

Oh, to my surprise the questions were very simple - Why did you decide to apply to this major , do you have hobbies, who do you think a leader is , what is the difference between a leader , how would you explain what class and object are to a history major and etc. Some questions were general while others were not so much. He explained me what the major was about and I was pretty happy to hear it, because it sounded very promising. I'm still working on my websites.

EDIT BY MODERATOR

Anyway, I've completed my second series of Spoken English Tutorial and I got some ideas on how to organise my thoughts in a more friendly manner, to make it less "textbookish". I decided to link the other parts of Spoken English Tutorial in the first part. ]]> Incoan http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/315-spoken-english-tutorial-blog-entry-4.html <![CDATA[Now I'm starting a new series of posts]]> http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/314-now-im-starting-new-series-posts.html Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:56:13 GMT I've been thinking a lot about what content I should be filling up my blog with, and came to a conclusion that all I need to do is to provide "value",

I will be having an Interview with Carnegie Mellon, Masters in Software Engineering, tomorrow, but I just can't get my head off the fact that I have to quicken the process of adding content to my website.

Anyway, I've been researching the net for some time, and since I couldn't come up with anything particularly awesome, I decided to go with the idea of going two ways :
-I will be adding some class lessons on how to have an American accent (did a lot of research on it)
-I will be adding reviews on various English Speaking Softwares.
-I will write about how to score high on TOEFL and GRE.

Here is the first part of my series - Spoken English Tutorial - Acquiring that American accent. Improve your Pronunciation. ]]> Incoan http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/314-now-im-starting-new-series-posts.html Big Book, Test 9, Section 2, Question 1 http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/slashragnarok/313-big-book-test-9-section-2-question-1.html Sat, 29 Jan 2011 13:58:36 GMT

Originally Posted by slashragnarok

For what reason/s would an account of Russian life not surprise Americans? Answer: If the themes are familiar to Americans. Interesting things might still surprise you but familiar things don't.

2 E
Someone that draws on several sources is by definition eclectic. And the keyword is Despite. So there area claims that his philosophy does not draw on several traditions. So the claims are that his philosophy is based on a single source. Option A particular would work for the first blank but consistent does not work for the second blank.

]]> slashragnarok http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/slashragnarok/313-big-book-test-9-section-2-question-1.html How I prepared for GRE http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/312-how-i-prepared-gre.html Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:12:21 GMT Now the funny thing is that even after finishing GRE I sometimes get people asking me what was that that helped me get a good GRE score (well, at least my friends are surprised).

Now, I didn't do anything extraordinary. You might check the article on How To Improve English Speaking - it speaks on this topic in detail.

Yes, I went to classes and they really helped. But what helped me even more was that I constantly visited urch forums and practiced Big Book tests.

I know for sure that without extensive practicing I would not be able to be even confident to get a 1450 score.

Relax and do your best. :) ]]> Incoan http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/312-how-i-prepared-gre.html This is a blog, right? :) Ok http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/311-blog-right-ok.html Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:22:25 GMT I have been talking yesterday to a pilot from France.

I'm not joking. Although there were a lot of interesting things I've asked and learnt - I will keep them for another day. :)

This reminds me of this blog post of mine from English Speaking Tips website:

Spoken English Tutorial

No kidding. I always thought that France was a country that had the least problem with English languages (because they are in Europe and I always had an impression that European people have it easier learning English), but apparently it is not.

Go figure. ]]> Incoan http://www.urch.com/forums/blogs/incoan/311-blog-right-ok.html