foobarred

i dont know about your field but far as i know waterloo is very good for comps. Very good placements.

thx suja, it was inspiring to hear that-lets hope that i dont have to take it again, and thx suhrid.

Thx bft I guess ill apply this year and study alongwith it for when i get the time, wont be able to give it for 2 months at least, job pressure.

thx suja, not happy though.

You might want to try this for long passages, when you get a new thought, idea, or a name of a person in the RC, just quickly jot down the line number and an associated annotation on your scrap paper, creating a rudimentary index, I used to do that for those really vague RCs and used to help sometimes. Its easier to go back to something that youve indexed rather than skim through the para again.

Neville, don't worry and just be confident that you'll do well later. You might want to look at your quant scores as the GRE quant isnt easy. I considered myself well prepped for it and ended up getting a 730 as against 800s and 780s in my powerpreps. So from that perspective, maybe you did the right thing by not giving it now. In order to not forget your barrons, get readymade flashcards(if ur in mumbai, youll get a box of big cd flash cards for around 400 bucks) and keep revising your words on a daily basis whenever you are not doing anything worthwile(read travelling or college lectures - if you are a mumbai univ student, college lectures are worthless most of the time anyway). Keep giving big book tests not from the point of view of exam prep, but just for the fun of it, i used to enjoy giving verbal tests. Moreover, for the AWA, id suggest doing some reading on the following 1. Pragmatism v/s idealism 2. Conformity v/s individualism 3. The role of arts in society 4. The duties of a good educator etc... (a more complete list is available in the AWA section of Barrons). Read Newspaper editorials (TOI and ET), Novels(by authors like Ayn Rand) if possible. Feb or March '06 may be a good time for you to give the exam. If ur from MU, then a lot of MU students give their exams around March first week. as it agrees with the exam schedules. Best of luck and dont get depressed or anything, concentrate on your college and your gre. Remember your acads count too ;-), so dont compromise on them.

I purchased readymade flashcards of the barrons wordlists. Since I was short on time, I used to do around 180 words a day, although I would not suggest doing that if you have the time. Used to pick up 60 words in a sitting, split the bundle in half, sort out familiar words from the unfamiliar, learn the familiar, then the unfamiliar, revise twice and then go for the remaining 30 in the same way, and finally revise all 60 words and seprate the flash cards that never got into my head. Worked well for me... Remember, its humanly impossible to know each and every meaning for each and every word, most of the times a general sense of the word is useful enough as in does the word have a negative connotation or a positive one. Write words that you find tough, make your own flash cards for them if you have the time. Revise the words that you do on a day at least once at some point during the day. If you are using the readymade flashcards, don't just look at the word and flip over to see its meaning when you are learning it, flip over and see the sentence and see if you can decipher the meaning, that makes the learning process more active. Do this even while revising. Doing this will give you a firm grasp of the context in which the words are used and will help you in incorporating them in your vocab. Remember to give tests, because even if you dont know all the words(which you never will), you can still do well on your verbal. Its more than just words, even if you know all the words, theres no guarantee that you will have the knack of solving QCs and SCs. Just keep at it and ull do well im sure.

Holden, the Big Book verbal scores are very indicative of where you lie. I always used to get in the 650 - 760 range on big book verbals. However when I started out with CATs, my scores used to be around 610, 620 and so on... after getting used to the nuances of a CAT, i started getting in the same range as that of big book, and my actual verbal score was also in that range. Don't use it for quant however, and always do both the sections in one sitting(i.e. 1 hour) from big book.

Hello everyone, Heres my profile, Id be obliged if someone could enlighten me as to what kind of universities i could get into for M.S. in C.S. gre - 1390(V660/q730 - disapointing) Essay scores awaited. TOEFL - 243 - 300 (Essay scores awaited) B.E. computers from Mumbai Univ - 68.27 % final year 64.4% aggregate of 4 years. Work Ex - would be around 11 months by Aug 2005 with a very reputable multinational software firm. College Extracurriculars - A very long list ranging from music to academics (lots of experience heading IEEE events). Thats about it I guess.

holeinone my essay topic was something to the effect of : "Should students in high school be allowed to take the courses that they want"

Thx Erin and yes my prep time was very short due to employment reasons. Had a very short time in between graduate and the beginning of my job to prep. However, I didn't expect my math to go that bad, Its just that it was a bit too rigorous given the time constraints(as compared to PP and Kaplan), Ive always been good at Math otherwise. Sangfroid, thats what I always believed about the argument essay too, but the one I got was kind of weird and took me by surprise, Normally I can never stop typing on argument essays. Anyway thx for the complement :-)

I would really appreciate some advice, thanx in advance.

Ah well, this is what i got on my REAL GRE too by some weird stroke of fate.

Just back from the nightmare. Total 1390 V:660 Q:730 Well I don't know what to think. I had expected much more. Here are my powerprep scores. Powerprep 1 (2 weeks ago) - Q:730/V:610 Powerprep 2 (5 days ago) - Q 800/V 740 POwerprep 1 (4 days ago) - Q 730/V 720 (Made a stupid mistake in question 2 in the beginning of quant) Powerprep 2 (2 days ago) - Q 780/V 740 As you can see, I underperformed on both quant and verbal. The quant was quite tough, in the sense, many questions required calculations. I think i had just 4 QCs, 2 DIs, and a LOT of word problems. and Zero coordinate geometry problems which I would have loved. I ran out of time in quant and couldnt even see one question despite random guessing the last 2. Can anyone tell me if the score which i was shown was what my final score would ve or if the penalty would be deducted in mthe confirmed report???? Verbal was ok overall, very easy RCs(which i took time on as i was totally flustered after math). There were a few "non barrons" words. AWA This was where i was lucky on one hand and unlucky on the other. I had practiced 4 essays and I couldn;t believe my luck when I was presented one of the topics that I had practised. The argument analysis was quite tough on the other hand. Would anyone please answer my queries which are as follows. 1. Will the penulty obe deducted from this score, or am I shown what my final scores would be, 2. What are the chances of getting accepted in a half-way decent university for M.S. in C.S. with this Math score. Thx everyone for the help regarding essays and for just being a member of this forum. I wish that I had stumbled upon it earlier.

I would say that the answer is two. In order to determine the intersection points, you need to solve the two equations The equation y = x^2-3 can be rearranged as x^2 = y+3. Substituting for X^2 in the equation of the circle, we have, y+3+y^2 = 4 Hence, y^2 + y - 1 = 0. This is a quadratic equation in y and will have 2 roots, which will be the two points of intersection. You can verify that the roots are real by substituting for a,b,c in (-b+sqrt(b^2-4ac))/2a and (-b-sqrt(b^2-4ac))/2a. Just evaluate the sqrt(b^2-4ac) part to be sure that you don't get a negative term under the radical sign, else the root would be imaginary.

Many problems of modern society cannot be solved by laws and the legal system because moral behavior cannot be legislated. The modern society is plagued with a wide range of problems, some trivial and some life threatening. For years the legislative system has been defining what is moral and what is not. As society advances, its problems increase in complexity and number. Stating that moral behavior cannot be legislated and that laws and legislation cannot solve the problems of modern society would be rather immature. What are the problems that modern society faces? Population, corruption, poverty, terrorism, adultery, theft, murder, rape… the list is probably interminable. As society advances, the issues facing it increase in number and complexity. For instance, terrorism is an issue, which has received much political, and media coverage over the period of past few years. But what exactly is terrorism? Who defines it? Who distinguishes between acts and identifies a particular act as a terrorist act. Or WHAT constitutes a terrorist act? Is it a belief in what is moral and what is immoral? Is it simply because we feel that a particular act against a community, a race or a nation is immoral, that it gets identified as one of terrorism? Isn’t the act moral in the eyes of its fanatic perpetrator-someone who blindly believes that his distorted interpretation of his religious faith is moral? The point is, classifying something as moral or immoral on the basis on one’s beliefs would be highly subjective. What is moral for someone would be immoral for another. What clearly distinguishes between what is acceptable (as opposed to moral) and what is not acceptable is the law. For, the law is based on a majority belief on what is just to all concerned. The law acts as a guide to what is right and what is wrong. Today different countries have laws in place for an infinitely wide spectrum of issues ranging from population control to terrorism. These laws are an inestimably important part of the society. Their importance cannot be undermined. Flash back to pre-history-when there probably were no laws (at least not as complex as the ones that we have today), when man lived in herds, when the only thing to tell him what was right or wrong was his belief, when man used to kill at will for game, pleasure or vengeance. Cut back to today. Conjure up an image of a society without laws, a legislative system not dictating morality. Mayhem. A doesn’t agree with B, A kills B. C says that A is immoral, A asks C to define “immoral” and says that he believes murder to be moral and hence it is moral. What would happen is, that without laws dictating morality, we would have a very confused society (as if we don’t already), but doing away with them would simply mean adding to the confusion and literally, retrograding back to the stone-age. Laws not only ameliorate problems, they also prevent new problems(like the confusion between A,B and C) from arising. A classic example of laws ameliorating problems would be that of the laws passed in China to help curb its population. Their success stands as a testament to the fact that laws indeed help alleviate the problems faced by a society. However, the fact that sometimes laws and the legislative system do go too far in dictating what is moral. Sometimes the myopic attitude towards life can severely cripple the freedom of the general public. A very pertinent example would be a law passed in Mumbai, India prohibiting couples (even married ones) from something as trivial (not for the couple probably) as holding hands in public. Public displays of affection are frowned upon. What ensues is that couples, especially unmarried ones, have hardly any place to spend time together. Anyone caught sitting with a girl on the park bench, would be asked to hold his ears and squat like a duck in public. Humiliating? Yes! But then, if this is not enough, he would have the pleasure of paying a fine too. The point is that when the legislative system becomes too powerful in the hands of some short - sighted individuals, what we have is a police state. This is an issue that needs to be dealt with seriously The issue of an excessively strict legislative system notwithstanding, it would be wrong to say that laws and the legal system cannot solve the problems of modern society, because l moral behavior cannot be legislated. Rather, moral behavior needs to be legislated, and it is only through an effective legislation of moral behavior and a good judicial system, can we even hope to solve any of the problems facing our modern society. The decrease in China’s population growth stands as a testament to this fact.

thx scud :-) ! and that was a mistake. I meant fly from India to USA AND BACK. Lol.

Hey binaya, thats an amazing score ! Congrats ! Best of luck for apping :-)

"Instant foods, instant communication, faster transportation-all of these recent developments are designed to save time. Ironically, though, instead of more leisure time avilable, thesedevelopments have contributed to a pace of human affairs that is more rushed and more frantic than ever before." We live fast paced lives today hardly taking a moment to breathe or relax. We have a thousand things to do, and so little time to do it in. In such a scenario, one would expect that the avilability of instant substitutes for everything ranging from food to transportation would ameliorate this condition and give us more time to relax, but ironically what we don't realize(and we would if we had the time to think about it) is the fact that the very existence of these instant substitutes gives us an excuse to do more things than we presently can. We give relaxation a low priority in our scheme of things, and then complain about life being frantic and having no time to relax. In this day and age, no geographical distance is large. A person can travel from one side of the globe to another in a matter of few hours. For instance, it takes a little under 48 hours to to fly from India to America. Distances within a national boundary have become even smaller, and as we drill down to lower levels of state or city boundaries, travelling times decrease exponentially. This is the age of "instant" transportation. Humankind prides itself in its ability to constantly keep on decreasing transportation times. If and when supersonic travel becomes popular, things are set to take another giant leap in the quest for compacting the globe into a sphere with an ever-decreasing radius. However, we don't realize fully the negative impact that this has had on our quality of life. Ironic? Yes! But the fact of the matter is that while while this instant transportation improves our lives on one hand, it dramatically degrades its quality on the other. A very relevant example to elucidate this point would be the effect that these reduced distances have on the life of a company executive. With the availability of faster transportations, employers continue to expect more out of their employees. It is not uncommon to hear of people travelling across multiple time-zones for a matter of 2 days without an opportunity to even overcome the resulting jet-lag. There is no time to rest. One has to fly, attend a meeting, fly back and get and report at work the next day. It is not uncommon for people to travel 50 miles in one direction for work, just because it is possible to do so. This is an increasing trend, and the only reason for this is the availability of faster transportation means. There is no time to rest, no time to relax, no time to breathe. One is always on the run. Instant food-another "wonder" of our age-food that requires 10 minutes to cook, canned food, vacuum sealed food, or "McFood". Cooking used to be a relaxing activity, at least thats what I've heard my elders say. Dinner used to be an excuse for a family to get together and get to share their daily lives. But now, with the availabilty of instant culinary nirvana, we can always "grab a Mcbite". Often lunch is a burger purchased from a street-vendor, gorged upon in a bus or a cab, with no time to breathe between bites. Just because instant food is available, the time slot which used to be set aside for a decent meal is now occupied by other activities in our frenzied lives. Another ironic bane of this age are the ever improving communication facilities. With e-mail, telephones, instant messaging, Voip and the like, what used to be leisurely activities like writing letters have now become 10 minute jobs to be performed in between meetings, or lectures or while consuming instant food. Critics may argue that "instant everything" gives us more time to focus on what is important. For instance, instant transportation reduces time taken for commuting, which can be spent at home relaxing with family. But the fact of the matter is that just because we now dont spend the time that we used to for commuting, eating or communicating or anything else for that matter(for which there is now an "insant" substitute), we now have more time to spend at work, we now have more things to fit into our overpacked time-tables. Even if one doesn't wish to, one is expected to do more than his body allows him to within a stipulated time period just because he "can". Employers, teachers, family, himself, everyone expects him to be on the run at each instant of time. It is essential to understand that the vicious circle of our existence. The more instant substitutes we have, the more time we have to do other things and other things typically always mean work, the more work we have, the more instant substitutes we'll have to reduce the time taken to do things, the lesser time we take do anything, the more things we'll try to do and so on and so forth. Frantic!

Ahh ok Dimas, i misinterpreted your comment, sorry. Negative factors can be considered. Otherwise a negative number wouldnt be a factor of itself.

a line that pass through three points (a,0), (0,a) and (-3,-3), comparing between a and -5. Ans B The slope of the line is (a-0)/(0-a) = -1. Using slope intercept form the equation of the line is y = -x + c => y = -x + a (Since y intercept is a) Since (-3,-3) satisfies the equation, -3 = -(-3) + a => a = -6 => a

What i meant was you rely on powerprep. It is possible. Has happened to me too. And powerprep scoring is the most reliable.

Please forward me the tests too anujagarwal.a@gmail.com

My rationale was : One recuperates after a surgery/One revives after fainting.

Some item costs 20% less than what it did a year ago; and x% less than what it did 2 years ago. The price a year ago was 20% less than that 2 years ago. Compare xand 40. Ans: B the price decreased twice since two years ago. first decrease was by 20% Second decrease was again by 20% x = Total decrease will be less than a decrease of 2(20)% For instance, If two years ago price was $100 One year ago, it was $80 And now it is $ 64 Hence, the total decrease is $ 36 which is a 36% decrease over $100 36 Am I right?