gautam88

CalmLogic Loves ETS / GRE !! ??

For Ph.D , you almost always get a full tuition waiver, as well as stipend, in form of fellowship, RA or TA. So, don't worry about the expense for Ph.D. However, for MS, you have to be relatively better than most admits, to get full waiver or some form of assistantship. Also, attempt the GRE CS Subject test, as you have the appropriate background and enough time to prepare. A year is a good enough. Most ranked Ph.D programs do require or strongly recommend a GRE CS, and even when they don't, they would surely consider a good score and it'll help you in getting aid too. The good thing about the GRE CS, is that, if you score low, you can choose to not send it to univs, and only send the General GRE score.

Endlessdream: There are no guarantees. However, I don't think they'll charge you if the score hasn't been released when you call. They'll just play a message that'll request you to call back later when the results will be available. MDK: Try some friend's credit card if you can, cause that'll give you time to prepare ur apps. as the deadlines are approaching. Mail usually arrives on time, but could take longer sometimes.

Are the years test papers the same for Oct & Nov, or are the different ? Ok.. Dumb question... They would be different, cause someone could reappear in Nov, but what I'm trying to ask is if the scoring / percentiles would be different for the two administrations.

That helps... I'm glad someone contributed to the scores post. I thought I'll have to wait till Dec 5th before I saw anything here. I'll also be in the 600 something range. Better to prepare a college list with more univs, that don't have a CS exam requirement.

Am I the only one hoping to see some posts of scores here ?? Plz post scores, no matter how good or ugly...they don't get any uglier than mine. :)

1) You said u'll graduate July 2008. A lot of college admission sites I've been to, say, they'll consider ur Junior and Senior year courses to calculate ur GPA (as most courses in your major are taken then, as opposed to broading electives in the first two). If you do well this fall and next spring, maybe the avg of this and ur junior year, could bring up your GPA. Also, many look at the GPA in your major. So if you've done well in CS courses, and not electives, this could also help you. However, most univ. will still look at the overall GPA, but you can use ur GPA-Major to offset the bad overall one. 2) Taking stupid / easy / totally unrelated courses in your senior year, would just show ur desperation to increase ur GPA, and i'm sure the admissions committe would just neglect that effort. 3) This is what I recommend: Graduate with best effort. Look for a college in your area (if it's a good academic center), or look for a job in one of the major academic centers, like boston, NY, chicago, southern cal etc, and try getting atleast a year or 2 of work-ex. Then, go to a good grad school, preferably one you'd like to attend, and register for some grad courses as a Non-Degree student. Usually, univs. don't have issues with ur GPA, and pre-reqs, even though they ask your to submit a similar app. for regular admission, ask for your previous transcripts etc... It's going to be fully paid for by you, so it'll be better if you looked into state univs. to get these credits. Then all you gotta do is score A+ in these courses, and if you apply to this grad school next year, you can strongly advocate your case, as you've excelled @ their univ. Considering your profile at this time, i think this is a fairly good option. You'll also have done amazing well (i hope so), at your workplace, and u'll be able to manage a good reco from your boss there too. Plus more live projects to boast , and another way to prove that u've matured after graduating when you picked the job, cause now u're on your own, and mom dad won't pay any bills... etc....Essay stuff has to be good. Thats ur best bet. If i can think of anything more, I'll surely chip in ... But let me tell you something. Don't be depressed and feel wasted. My profile is 10 times worse than yours (dropped out from college, and got my degree eventually after 7 years), and I'm still hopeful. Never lose hope, or this life is pointless. All that matters is, your presentation of who you really are. If you think your are smart and deserving, then that's what you've got to get across. Admissions committes' want smart research oriented candidates for grad programs, not 4.0's who just mugged their texts and licked their profs. Think lawyers: their job is to put everything into context, and to win the case, regardless. Sometimes you gotta think like an advocate, cause you gotta win this admissions battle. Nevermind if you lose this time, you'll try again, with a stronger profile.

I agree partly with endlessdream, in that, there were many questions on GT as compared to others, and some areas were neglected. Regarding Java, I'm not so sure. Even I don't know Java too well, but the code was very C++ like. They weren't testing your java skills, but OOP skills. I won't go in further detail of the particular questions here (CP violation), but I'd say that OOP was mentioned in the syllabus, and C++ or Java would've been the prefered languages which would have been used to teach the course. Also, if you understand C++ oops concepts, the java code was pretty much the same. However, maybe I'm wrong. I know some java, so maybe i did understand it. The good thing is, that everyone had to take that paper, and i'm sure lots of people would have thought the same. My paper didn't go all that well either. But then, thats life. I'd had a lot of shit in this life, and it's not over yet. Haha.. So, all the best, and look ahead bud.

Rankings are for reference, and so many factors are used in calculating their scores, that they aren't very accurate. Getting this year's rankings won't help you a whole lot. In fact, there's hardly any change in the list since 2000, when i first saw it. Even the Top 20, 30, are so good, you won't notice the difference.

Amazon.com: "GRE CS" That'll give you some books to refer. The important tip: Whatever you study, go deep and understand it completely, or else it'll be useless for the CS exam.

Cool....U'll have it with you just in time (JIT) :) I'll have to find my score by phone, as waiting on USPS mail to reach India for a Nov administration, will take forever.

Those who've recevied the October scores, should report it here. It'll give us a decent idea as to how some of us have performed. Raw / Scaled / Percentile Thanks, Gautam

CalmLogic--> Lets hope everyone felt that way, and then I'll have to be less concerned. Saurabh --> I do remember that girl who was so irritated that she complained, but then there's nothing the proctor could've done. I don't know of the exact consequences of complaining to ETS regarding the "Unfair Testing Conditions", cause whats written in the registration booklets regarding this is that they usually cancel ur scores and allow you to take it again .. I highly doubt they'll increase scores to compensate for the unfairness.. And i personally don't feel they'll hold a subject GRE specially for us again . However, everyone's input is welcome : Should we report the unfair testing condition to ETS; what to expect from them ?? I am applying for Fall 2008, CompSci, Ph.d / MS. Haven't decided the final set of colleges, will be doing so this week. Happy Diwali to you too bro.

I took the test in Delhi, Pusa road... was sitting in room 9, first row , striped shirt and cargos... I answered 52 questions, no random guessing... Wasn't too happy at the end of the exam... i thought it was lenghty, or i just wasted time doing some extra calculations... or goign over loops in code, making sure my answer was right.. How was ur exam ??

The exam was lengthy... or maybe i just wasted time on some questions / calculations.. I was able to answer 52 / 70...though , I'm confident of most of what i answered ...I didn't do "any" random guessing, cause getting 1/4th cut for a 1/5th probabily, wouldn't do me any good ...Just wish i was faster..Anyways, no crying over spilt milk.. For those who are preparing: This is one paper, where , to get anything above an 80 percentile, knowing the concepts in each course isn't enough .. You "have" to know the details... The code segments were easy, but some questions were really lengthy.. i didn't even bother reading then, so i could carry on and answer the shorter ones.. I think most people would have attempted in the 60's... The results all depend on how everyone performed, as they'll be curving to their standard result distribution... Did anyone here take the test in St.Michaels school, Pusa road...Could you believe it ?? They had their Annual Sports day or somethign going on , and the teachers were shouting into the microphone, throughout the exam...

I would recommend the CBT, because it's shorter and hence less stressful.. You can devote more time to the starting questions, and even if you guess the last few, you're still doing fine...Plus you get 30 minutes for 30 questions, as opposed to the same time for 38 questions as in the verbal....

I think you can ... Mainly in Bioinformatics or evolutionary computing etc... You'll have to take some pre-requisite courses in your early semesters @ grad school in biochemistry and few other relevant subjects.. In the mean while you'll be doing your CS work...and then you can start your research work in bioinformatics etc.. This is a link to univ. of idaho's bioinformatics program. you can check out the admission requirements , graduation req etc : http://www.ibest.uidaho.edu/ibest/bcb/bcbreq.html

http://www.postech.ac.kr/~gla/gre/pdf/bigbook.txt.pdf The above link is for the bigbook words pdf file. For more word lists : http://www.postech.ac.kr/~gla/gre/

Thanks for the links and info

Well...Firstly, your school record doesn't hold at all when you apply for grad school.. I think you'll be better off applying to good univs. with the later result. This result will reduce your chances considerably. Don't take the risk right now... (i think i'm contradicting myself from my earlier posts)..But i think i'm telling you the right thing... you decide dude.. But your chance of scholarships will be slim if you apply after Feb / March.. Cause thats the time they generally announce the aid given to students admitted much earlier...See if some univ. have late deadlines for aid, and apply to those.. If you can afford paying full fee, good for you, then it won't matter... Best would be to wait 1 year, and apply next year...but that totally depends on your planning and need to go to usa next year... Cause when u're all done, you can even do some external projects, and earn some certifications in your field , which can surely add to your profile and help you get into an even better college. Whatever you do, think and take advice from experienced and learned people...

What you are saying is what I was thining about too... ETS Doesn't disclose any info regarding the internal scoring process, except that in the CAT, your score varies according to the difficulty of the question, and that the starting questions have more weightage than the ending ones.. This is mainly because in the starting the s/w is judging your at a macro level, and then later on it refines your score..Hence, there's a lot of movement of the needle in the first few questions. ETS's s/w does have a definite scoring method. You can try the most important combinations on powerprep, cause that will give you authentic results. Then analyze the statistics... and you'll get your answer..It's just that i have only 20 days left for the gre, and i'd rather finish the wordlist, than spend time on figuring out the system (though it will be useful if you have time to spare). I'm going to try out messing up the first 3 , then 5 questions on purpose , then get the remaining right, if i do have spare time, just to see how it works. I'll try just a few combinations.. You also try and post results in this thread.. All the best !!

I don't think the college can do that.. Try approaching the univ. in this case, if it isn't a deemded institute... Try using some contacts or someone in power to help you out... Even i had some incomplete courses, but i got a print out of the official marksheet on request... It shouldn't matter...thats ur record and you have the right to access it anytime you want...even if it has some failed subjects..

Ok Guys, I shall upload all the files to both rapidshare and megaupload...Some of you have had trouble with both.. There is a script for the words, it's just that earlier on the site was mentioned so I didn't bother to write it here... But it has been taken from www.freevocabulary.com This is the link for the PDF File : http://www.freevocabulary.com/vocabulary.pdf

Hey All , Sorry for keeping you waiting. I had exams and was busy. I have uploaded the Audio Word List on both the Rapidshare and Megaupload servers. I've alternated between them, so you can download 2 CDs at once by using different servers. I've compressed the audio, so each cd is approx. 23 MB. NOTE: The description on the site for CD 4 will say "CD 2", but thats incorrect. It's CD 4. CD 1 : http://rapidshare.de/files/25073170/Elite_Word_Power_-_CD_1.rar.html CD 2 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WUYKWM50 CD 3 : http://rapidshare.de/files/25096822/Elite_Word_Power_-_CD_3.rar.html CD 4 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H3CQ753C CD 5 : http://rapidshare.de/files/25104419/Elite_Word_Power_-_CD_5.rar.html CD 6 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T47FU7MG CD 7 : http://rapidshare.de/files/25103926/Elite_Word_Power_-_CD_7.rar.html CD 8 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N5WAPX3Z

Sure Bud. I would upload the stuff. However, I need to know which Upload server you prefer. Rapidshare megaupload etc.. Know of any good ones, without much problems ?? Do let me know and I shall do the needful.