ramya

I had applied for MS CS at VT... After 3 months of sleeping over my application , the VT people finally woke up to give me a reject :( I checked the online status page just now ........it says "We cannot offer you admission. You will receive formal letter reg. this blah blah blah.... Best of luck to everyone waiting for VT ~Ramya

Hi gforce Thanks for the reply........ :) Ramya

Hi ppl, i am posting on tm after a long time...... my profile B.E CSE 75.7 % Marthwada Univ GRE 1570/1600 , 5.5 TOEFL 5.5 Work-ex : 1.5 yrs IT admits: M.Eng CS Cornell Rensselaer : MS IT ( was rejected by CS) rejects: UT-Austin SUNY-Buffalo UCSB awaited: VT I wud like to get in touch with someone from india who is planning to go to cornell.........anyone out there? Cheers, Ramya

This is to thank all of you who have congratulated me . Thanks for your good wishes and I wish you the same. Thanks, Thanks and Thanks again Ramya

Hello Everyone who mailed me abt how I prepared for the GRE, I am getting a lot of mails asking how I prepared for the GRE. Since all these people want to know the same thing and its difficult for me to answer each one personally, I have posted the whole long story of how I prepared for the Big Test : Disclaimer: Just because this method worked for me is no guarantee that it will work for you. Evolving your own way of preparation will be the best for you. All the advice in this post should be taken with a pinch of salt :-) I started my GRE preparation formally in June for my exam in October. Since my vocabulary is naturally good, I didn't spend any time cramming wordlists. So my preparation time for Verbal was wholly devoted to solving questions. I gave maximum attention to RC questions which I solved as many as I could get hold of. I don't believe that learning wordlists helps in improving vocabulary. The best way to improve your vocabulary permanently is to read as much as you can, as long as you can. But for those who want shortcuts, I would recommend using any wocabulary building software that is freely available on the net. But it is better to use these software in the test mode than in the learning mode. If you don't know a word, guess its meaning from the alternatives before looking at the answer. Here is how I prepared for AWA I wrote around 20 essays in all most of which are posted here on TM. I read the list of issues completely and I always chose the ones I found difficult to write my essays. I tried to do the same with the arg list but I never finished reading it. Also whenever I practiced, I did it under strict timing limits . Infact I alloted myself only 30 mins for the issue and 20 for the argument so that I would have time to revise. Quantitative - I really didn't prepare much for it as GRE maths is easy and I like Maths. Also I found 45 minutes sufficient to even solve each question twice. So I mainly concentrated on solving each question carefully rather than preparing for all types of questions. What you need for Q is a cool head and a good sense of timing. As to the books and resources I used: For AWA: I know of only one book for the writing assessment and it has sample essays for 125 issues and 125 arguments. The name of the book is "GRE-Answers to the Real Essay Questions" details given below: ISBN: 0-02-863545-0 Author: Mark Alan Stewart Publication date: June 2000 Length: 352 pages Cover price: US$14.95, CAN$21.95 Publisher: IDG Books (ARCO imprint) I don't know if it is available in India now. I got it from the US through relatives. I found the book quite OK , though not worth the exorbitant price I paid for it. The issues I didn't like but the arguments were good. The book is more of a psychological support. You will get more benefit by writing essays on your own and posting them on TM. The book is good for a general idea on how to write essays but you have to develop your own personal style. And you must be careful not to be too influenced by the book. After reading it, I found it very difficult to think of points other than those given in it. And I feel, originality will fetch you more points especially in the issue. I also went through the AWA guide on 800score.com The other books were Cracking the gre 2003- The Princeton Review The Unofficial Guide to the GRE- ARCO Barron's How to prepare for the GRE and other preparation materials including tests on CDs of TPR, arco, kaplan,peterson's. It is your state of mind on the day of the exam that counts more than all your preparation. Just be very careful to solve the early questions correctly. I checked the diagnostic service of ets. I got only one question wrong in Verbal( the 8th one and of difficulty level 4 which is the highest I think) and due to that I lost 30 marks. If I had done the same question wrong at the end I would have lost less marks. All the best to everyone. If you have any questions other than these, I'll be glad to help you. Ramya

Hi Amigo, 1530 CONGRATULATIONS to you ........ 800 in V is really cool. And I can understand your surprise...I got similar scores in my second PPrep test. Are you applying for a PhD ? All the best to you Ramya

Hi Seeny CONGRATS !! What are ur future plans ?

Hello everyone, Got my awa scores in the mail today. I scored 5.5 in the awa. Apparently 770 in Verbal also means 99 percentile. Hey Erin, Guess what! I copied and pasted my subject text from your sticky post !:p Funny coincidence that your example of how to put the title of the post matched with my scores ! I wish to thank everyone here at TM. You have all helped me a lot! A special THANK YOU to you, Erin! for founding this group.

CONGRATS !!! ............. your awa scores are putting me at a loss of words.

Hi Kaushik :):D:cool::o .......... Congratulations! Your score is mind boggling!

Hi Sri You sure hit a SIXER! CONGRATS and BEST OF LUCK TO YOU!

Hey Xaero C:cool:NGRATULATI:DNS !!! Great score there ! You can pick any univ of your choice now !

Hi Demolala, The real secret behind my V score is years of reading. I believe that mugging up wordlists does not help much. Try to read as much as possible, anything- good newspapers, story books. But if you don't have much time left, perhaps you can check out some vocab building s/w from the net. How I used these software: Use them in test mode. Try to guess answers if you don't know a word. Keep track of where your guesses go wrong. Ofcourse Barron's wordlists are a must. As for Q, I don't think much preparation is needed. If you keep a cool head, pace yourself well and avoid silly mistakes, 800 is within your grasp. The preparatory materials I used were: Barron's Guide, The Princeton Review, Arco's Gre book and CDs of Kaplan, TPR, Powerprep. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Ramya

Hi everyone, My university does not award GPAs , but I heard that it is better to convert your aggregate to GPA for applying. I followed the system suggested by Sri for calculating my GPA. Well, actually my aggregate is 75% which may sound pretty low. But the break-up is like First year: 81 % second in class Second year : 72% first Third year : 72 % fourth Since for different universities, highest aggregates vary, i feel that GPA will be a better option for me. The topper in our univ. generally stands at around 76 %. One more doubt, how do we send a record of the college topper or univ topper's score ? Xaero, I finished my toefl on 28. my score is 240-297. I haven't decided my area of specialisation yet but I am intersted in Image processing, bioinformatics , pattern recognition. What abt u ? Thanks everyone .

Hi Seeny Thanks for those links ! What are your plans ?

Hi Xaero, Actually I am still undecided about applying this year since nothing is in order.I don't know anything about admissions. Can someone help me ? My GPA is approx. 3.85 and I haven't done any research work as such. Right now I am having submissions and practicals in college, so I don't have much time to write my SOPs and get LORs. How does one choose universities to apply to ? Any idea about what is the minimum AWA score required for CSE majors ? Rather than doing anything in a hurry, I am thinking of waiting one year and improving my GPA. Hi Sri, You are right about years of reading being the key to my V score. I come from a mediocre university unfortunately, though I am in the top 5 in my university. Do you really think I have a chance at Stanford. I need aid too , otherwise it is difficult to finance my education. I am thinking of Penn State and Virginia Tech ( they are in the top 25.) Could you guide me as to where to apply.

Hi Erin,Synthia, Xaero, Kaushik, Triscuit, Bubble Thank you all for your good wishes! Well, Synthia, I wouldn't call Verbal easy but since V has always been my strong point, it was smooth sailing for me. (I got 800 V in my second powerprep test) Since I'll be getting my essay scores by mid november, I wonder if it will be too late to apply. Should I apply this year or wait another year? Any advice welcome. I am keeping my fingers crossed for AWA. Has anyone got his AWA scores?

Hi Finished my GRE on 23 oct. Did quite well :p( though i am still not sure i saw the score correctly[xx(]). Q=800 V=770 TOEFL score on 28 oct= 240-297 well, maths was very decent- no conics nothing..... as for verbal, no words i didn't know. awa was ok too, but i was not satisfied with my issue.Hoping for a 4. THANKS to TESTMAGIC which really helped me!! Thank you,Erin for your valuable criticism of my essays and all others like Xaero, Synthia to name a few. I'd like to help others out too and continue this wonderful tradition of TM! Title edited by Erin.

Hi Synthia Here are my answers: 1> ruffle: shirt:: curb:sidewalk a ruffle borders a shirt just as a curb borders a sidewalk 2>emigrate:exile::enlist:conscript as i saw it, exile is forced emigration similarly to conscript is to enlist forcibly 3>revere x profane same logic as babloo's 4>i think the ans is dictated by...stereotyped we are looking for two similar words here. 5> prodigality x penury same as babloo's logic btw do u have the right answers

hi Synthia a cogent well written essay though I believe Einstein's theory is considered modern. a few more examples from literature etc would make the essay better.

Comments welcome! :) "It is a grave mistake to theorize before one has data." I agree with the claim made above partially, in that sometimes it may be a grave mistake to form theories without having the necessary data. But in my opinion, it is not such a grave mistake generally. Here I assume that theorizing is distinct from speculating or forming hypotheses. My definition of theorizing is " formally putting forward a theory or idea" as opposed to tentatively putting forward an idea" or speculating. What is the process of development of any theory ? In my opinion, the genesis of a theory is an idea in the theorist's mind, based on his persoal observations. In order to verify this idea, the theorist collects the relevant data and proceeds to confirm his hypothesis. Once confirmed, the hypothesis is transformed into a formal theory which may be propagated at large. We can say that a theory is formed by the amalgamation of a hypothesis and pertinent data to support the hypothesis. While in the process of garnering the required data, the theorist has an opportunity to qualify his hypothesis or even to abandon it. This leads to a comprehensive rethink of the theorist's assumptions and interpretation of earlier observations. Hence a theory which has been formulated after collecting the required data is a tried and tested one. The theorist is in a position to defend it. Thus, to theorize without any data is akin to using steel without tempering it. But, theorizing without data is not such a grave mistake as made out to be in most cases.Every theory requires proof before it can be accepted. In the skeptical modern world, one generally does not accept things on their own merit. Thus a theory put forward without the defence of supporting data is likely to sink to sink into oblivion. For example, if a new miracle cure for cancer is advertised without providing proof of efficacy, it will be banned immediately. In sensitive areas like medical research for incureable diseases, governments usually have a system of checks to prevent fraudulent theories. If we treat theorizing and speculating as identical, I would change my opinion and say that, far from being a mistake, speculating should be done without data. Otherwise, it is impossible to know what data to look for. If man had tried to collect data before thinking of space exploration, he would have been at a loss what data to consider relevant and what to ignore. Speculation gives a direction to the process of collecting data. So it is a predecessor of the process of verification by collecting data. Speculating is essential for generating new ideas and nurturing the spark of creativity essential for progress. All scientific theories originated as hypotheses.In some cases like Galileo's hypothesis of the earth revolving around the sun, it was actually proved later by Kepler. To conclude, theorizing without data is normally a peccadillo rather than a grievious sin, if we treat theorizing as the formally putting forward a theory. But if we consider theorizing as a synonym of speculating, then it is better done before collecting data.

Hi Seeny Don't worry your score wasn't too bad.Hope for the best for awa. I heard this rumour that questions on conic sections are often asked in quant. can u tell me if it is true? Ramya

Hi kiv i bought the book from USA through relatives. it is not available in India.

hi erin forgot to mention 'pip' means to beat by a narrow margin in a race or competition. hi xaero thanks for your point. I didn't think of it. Best of luck for your GRE. Do post your experience on this forum

HI Erin Thanx a lot for your insightful comments. You have clearly pointed out my mistakes and I'll try to avoid them in the future. As for the conclusion, I just wanted to say in my essay that we cannot reach a conclusion unless we have more information. Thanks again for spending your valuable time helping me. Long live TestMagic! By the way, I am a computer science major. Do you think I can get by with the current level of my essays? Ramya