mketone

Hi Guys, Firstly sorry I took so long to post my experience, when I first saw my score ,I simply could not believe it, was totally awestruck. Here are my scores 1390Total Quant: 760 85% Verbal: 630 90% AWA:5.0, 71% I gave my test in Nov. My test was at 9:00 am in the morning , i reached the center at around 7:30 in the morning, was pretty cool ,when they checked my name was not there on the list. I was shocked, they made me wait for half an hour, then my name was on another list which they got, my exam started maybe around 5:00 minutes to 9 or so. Took the tutorial for like 20 mins, then started with AWA , I chose the second topic, utilized the whole time for writing, hardly 1 min. or so for proofreading. Next came the dreaded verbal section. Dreaded for some people, but I love verbal, I never scored below 500 on most tests and in powerprep it was usually above 600. I had beenthrough the entire word list around 9-10 times, so I'd say I knew almost all the words. RC's were time consuming , but most of the words were from barron's I think maybe two were not. My tip here would be to skim through the RC's and try to pinpoint the exact sentence where the answer is hidden, even if you think it is implied, go for it. I managed to finish the section with a few seconds to spare... Next came quant, being a biology student I'd say quant was like my arch nemesis. I had put in a lot of effort to improve my quant and it finally bore fruit. I felt all the problems were twisted.The highest I had got in powerprep was 770 in quant so I was not expecting above that. Concentrate on probability and permutations combinations (basic fundas)I did the last 7 problems in a few seconds so was kind of apprehensive about the score. The research section was an essay again... I did it because the invigilator said I had to do it, did that then accepted the results and saw my scores, I was overjoyed Anyway here are my scores and prep materials Time:4 months full time(gave my toefl around 9 days before gre scored 115 have posted that experience too...) gre scores, from various tests (PP-powerprep, P-Princeton) pp1 V580 Q 770, pp2 V610 Q 720 Kap1 v600 Q 670 Kap2 v520 Q 720 P1 V710 Q 590 P2 v 610 Q710 Prep materials nova's GRe e book Princeton: 2007 ed Kaplan: 2005 ed Powerprep, barron's 2006ed, big book around 15-20 tests I had joined testmagic so that helped me in quant prep, immensely I thank everyone for their help and support I will be applying for a Phd program ( Mol.biology) for fall 2007, All the best to everyone, P.S any help or advice pls feel free to post ur queries.

I think its B because the surroundings are referred to be opposite of haphazard which is apt, so I guess B

Hi Pujols05 take it from a person who was avg. in quant the first time i gave it i got 490 or something like that, but with gradual practice i was able to get 770 in one of the powerpreps and 760 in my final test. My only advice is don't get disheartened, keep practicing, I had got burned out during the last month , but i still did the exercises in the big book so that my calculating skills improved, also keep looking at the quant exercises posted here in the quant section, I used to do that whenever I got bored, Also go thru simple theory on std. deviation, probability, permutation, combination etc. from your high school textbooks, I did that.Keep a positive attitude and try to get an idea about solving as many different types of sums as possible, even if u have an idea, u can at least guess on sums where u get stumped and trust me the quant in GRE has more to do with logic than with being a mathematical genius All the best

provided it meaning provided the adhesive did not get dirty

Hi Vas13, i'm applying to Phd programs mostly in Molecular biology and genetics.I personally think you have a fantastic score, congrats. I don't think your quants score is low,Most importantly check the universities your applying to , if they have given a minimum quant score, but i certainly don't think it will be that high unless ur planning to apply to harvard or cornell and stuff, in any case u can write to the univs/respective programs, for biology students quant isn't too crucial, but always confirm with the program of your choice. Gr8 score once again, i don't think you should have any problems and also satr your own thread ppl will be wanting to get advice from u if u wanna get ur AWA scores, then call up ETS the details are given on the website, they charge 10$ for it so that u can at least fill in the details in ur univ. application forms All the best

HI My only concern is about your speaking score otherwise its a good score, 100+ is what most univs want, so just check if they have a minimum speaking score required. Congrats and all the best

you can't hasten the delivery of the results but what you can do is call up ETS 10 days after u've appeared for the exam they will give u the score on the phone, charge 10 $ for it, so that you can at least fill it in the application forms of the univs. Check the gre website for details

I'm from lifesciences congrats and wish u all the best

I'm from Lifesciences, wish u all the best too

Hi Tasneem, You wanted help in the writing and listening sections, rite? Ok,firstly get Kaplan, i think it is the best prep for iBT or ETS guide. Kaplan has full length tests give those. Listen to stories or lectures on your computer and start writing points with a pencil on a piece of paper, try and write all the points made in the talk or lecture, use signs and symbols wherever needed , use short forms of words so that you can devote more of your time to writing what is important like using '&' instead of 'and' '/' instead of 'or' etc.Get into the habit of doing this with a headphone mike combination, so as to mimic the conditions in the exam. For writing, if you have Arco's essays for GRE, you can go through them just as a guideline. For the independent task, write with proper structure, use simple language, try to write as many points as possible and be clear about your point of view. For the integrated task use the information that is given and not your point of view, Kaplan gives good examples which you can go through. even for this task when ur listening to the lecture note the points very carefully and try to be as fast as possible. Again structure your answer according to the order that it was mentioned in the talk or passage, so that a logical flow is maintained. Practice as much as you can All the best

To GMAT 750 Hi, your total if i'm not mistaken comes to 26+25+19+25=95, its a good score just check the univs u want to apply to. If they give a minimum score like 100 or something then i'd suggest a retake also of they specify that u should get above 26 in speaking or something then give a retake . If the cut off is 80 then ur safe, so it totally depends on the universities ur applying to and their requirements All the best

From what I understand you probably did not do well in Quant. My advice would be to go through Barrons and the formulae given at the end of Kapln , try to cross 700 in quant. My only query is why you gave the test late at night?Is that your best time? A good practice would be to give the mock tests at the same time that your going to be giving your GRE,I did the same thing. Also keep a cool head, don't get nervous, look at the tricks given in Kaplan and Barron's practice them thoroughly, concentrate more on quant since you know you are weaker in quant. There is a formulae thread in the quant prep section of this forum, take a look it will help you Take care All the best

Hi takku, yes I agree with TSE speak clearly, coherently and in a manner that proceeds logically, don't speak too fast and try to do all the practice exercises in ETS or kaplan listen to the sample responses and make sure that u practice keeping the 15 secs preparation time in mind All the best

Hi Sruthi I had given the toefl about 9 days before GRE. The reading section is similar but I feel is much simpler as compared to GRE. The type of questions vary from those given in GRE. For e.g. You might be given two headings and 10 points and asked to choose any 8 for the headings, which means two points are incorrect, you will have to drag and drop the options under the respective headings, Check out question types from either the ETS guide to iBT or Kaplan, to get a better idea. Most of the times the questions are direct and the answer can be obtained from looking at a sentence in the paragraph (they even point out the para number). As far as writing is concerned the task which is independent is similar to essay writing, however the integrated task which requires you to listen and read a passage and then write an essay using points from both is not there on the GRE, so you will have to practice that. Use either the ETS ot Kaplan book they cover evrything properly All the best

To een For verbal, just practice practice practice, some might call it rote learning but I feel the easiest way to memorize words is to keep going thru the lists again and again. I even wrote all the words like 3-4 times, just to remember them. Do the wordlist as many times as possible and always remember to motivate yourself, i kept deadlines to finish 2, wordlists slowly 3 then 4, 5 ,6 it came to 10 a day and for the last 3 days i did 25 on one and 25 on the other day. I did Barron's mostly ,some words here and there from a group in orkut and another forum called coremaniacs For RC just see the tips given in Nova's ebook it also gives unusual analogies and antonyms and most importantly do the big book verbal test,after u have familiarized urself with the words and general pattern of the verbal section do as many timed tests as possible. To moonflower I asked my brother in the U.S to call up ETS and get the score u can get it 10 days after ur GRE have to pay 10$ for it and u will get the percentiles also. Just check the ets score section for details, u cannot check ur score online like toefl

Hi yep 1. I read some topics from Arco's which I felt were difficult, practice the AWA section during your mock GREs (powerprep or others), to get a feel of the actual test. also download topics for arguement and essays (essays more imp.) to get an idea of the topics and then go thru the topics which u feel are difficult or you wouldn't be able to write on, from arco's. 2. For permutation, combination and probability I had gone thru my high school math textbooks which we call 11th and 12th std. here in india. In addition to this I also went thru MBA material for maths (CET) by IMS, they had formulae and problems solved . Nova's ebook has lots of practice exercises, do them. Std deviation and trignometry are two uncovered topics which were given in princeton and my textbooks respectively. also look out for volume and surface area formulae of prisms, frustrums, pyramids etc. u will get them on the net. also check out Kaplan's latest ed. I think they have formulae listed at the end of the book

Hey gr8 score but ur breakup suggests a score of 117

Thanks mysteryman, seagull and daagdeep all the best to you guys too... For YEPIHate gre: Firstly, try to get your hands on the book Arco's answers to real essay questiond, it has ready samples of essays and arguements from the pool of ETS' topics, its really good and will give you an idea about how to write essays. Secondly, for maths this forum has a formulas section in the quant, where there is a list of all the formulae required, other then that just keep going thru different types of sums from Kaplan, barron's and nova's Hope that helps

Hi Guys, Firstly sorry I took so long to post my experience, when I first saw my score ,I simply could not believe it, was totally awestruck. Here are my scores 1390Total Quant: 760 85% Verbal: 630 90% AWA:5.0, 71% I got my brother to confirm the scores on telephone which is why it took so much time. i gave my test on the 2nd of Nov.,. Took the tutorial for like 20 mins, then started with AWA , I felt both the topics were kind of boring . I chose the second topic, utilized the whole time for writing, hardly 1 min. or so for proofreading. The second task was an arguement.Next came the dreaded verbal section. Dreaded for some people, but I love verbal, I never scored below 500 on most tests and in powerprep it was usually above 600. I had beenthrough the entire word list around 9-10 times, so I'd say I knew almost all the words. RC's were time consuming , but most of the words were from barron's I think maybe two were not. My tip here would be to skim through the RC's and try to pinpoint the exact sentence where the answer is hidden, even if you think it is implied, go for it. I managed to finish the section with a few seconds to spare... Next came quant, being a biology student I'd say quant was like my arch nemesis. I had put in a lot of effort to improve my quant and it finally bore fruit. I felt all the problems were twisted, The highest I had got in powerprep was 770 in quant so I was not expecting above that. Concentrate on probability and permutations combination and problems using all three principles. I did the last 7 problems in a few seconds so was kind of apprehensive about the score. The research section was an essay ... I did it because the invigilator said I had to do it, did that then accepted the results and saw my scores, I was overjoyed Anyway here are my scores and prep materials Time:4 months full time(gave my toefl around 9 days before gre scored 115 have posted that experience too...) gre scores, from various tests (PP-powerprep, P-Princeton) pp1 V580 Q 770, pp2 V610 Q 720 Kap1 v600 Q 670 Kap2 v520 Q 720 P1 V710 Q 590 P2 v 610 Q710 Prep materials nova's GRe e book Princeton: 2007 ed Kaplan: 2005 ed Powerprep, barron's 2006ed, big book around 15-20 tests I had joined testmagic so that helped me in quant prep, immensely I thank everyone for their help and support I will be applying for a Phd program ( Mol.biology) for fall 2007, am a postgraduate in Lifesciences All the best to everyone, P.S any help or advice pls feel free to post ur queries.

Hi CTG1983, How r u? I basically checked the dates given on toefl website itself, all people who gave their exam on 22nd October should be able to check their scores by Nov.10th , they also mentioned that there may be a delay in some cases, so keep checking whether it has come , by using ur username and password . They are supposed to mail me the score but it has not reached yet , they also did not email me when the score appeared online. Hope that helps, all the best

To Yogesh: All the best once again, I know you will do well. To GMAT750 Arun, I would say Kaplan goes in depth so Kaplan is a better bet for improving any of the 4 sections, but my advice would be to watch american serials or documentaries just to get an idea about how they speak. Another point is that the speaking section cannot be rated whilst practicing, Kaplan gives some sample responses to each question so you can rate your response accordingly.The ETS guide also gives sample responses, but Kaplan has full length (3-4 hour tests) which the ETS guide does not, so I would consider buying Kaplan a better bet, for the simple reason that it has four full length tests, with the whole range of responses in the speaking section which will enable you to evaluate your standing.How was your score on the other sections? Practice speaking in the mike, making sample responses in 15 seconds and most importantly speaking clearly, coherently with logical organization of your thoughts. All the best to you too...

To Manipal98: Just try and speak clearly, imbibing points from the lecture or dialogue, organise your ideas in a logical manner (try to put the points in the order that they have appeared in the talk/dialogue/lecture/passage question), other then that keep your cool,I had tried to put in as many points as possible,but don't go too fast thats just about it. All the best! To yogesh Hey check the univs you are targetting for the required scores, but I think most would want a score above 80, so a retake would be a good idea. Give the full length tests in Kaplan and the ETS guide practice material, to see where your lack and prepare accordingly To TSEprep This was my first attempt.I started preparing around 15 days in advance, I think its more than sufficient, but i dedicated all that time only to toefl. So if your working or studying I'd suggest maybe 20 days of preparation.

HI guys, my scores came just now and I am elated. The break-up is as follows reading 29 listening 29 speaking 27 writing 30 total 115 I gave my exam on October 22nd in Mumbai, India My preparation: Well I had browsed Amazon and a few other websites and chose to buy The official guide to the IBT by ETS, I did all the practice exercises in the book and I also borrowed the kaplan tests cd from my friend, which helped in preparing for the full length tests. I would suggest getting Kaplan because it gave 4 full length tests similar to the actual test. Other then that, practice speaking using the headphone mike combi on your computer and recording and listening back to it. Also practice taking down points whilst listening to a lecture or a program on your television or computer and try to do this as fast as possible, this will be of great help to you. Pls feel free to write to me for any advice I keep visiting this forum frequently Regards, Ketu

I'd suggest practicing the Big book tests , the verbal that u get in the actual test is pretty close to the big book, it is also very important to learn how to browse through a reading comprehension without wasting too much time, if u can master that skill , it will be really good.

I totally agree with hermione, give your toefl because it is a minimum eligibility criteria for any student who has not had english as a first language in their native country. Even if you do get a slightly lower score it would still be OK.Plus like she said do check out the ranking of your university, its publication factor etc. because all these do matter.