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Please find my response to the issue topic essay below. Please guide me and give me feedback on where my essay stands. Please also point out the changes and improvements I need to work on. Topic : As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate. My Response: As time passes and technology evolves people are becoming more dependent on technology for problem solving. I believe that this is compromising the ability of an individual to think and reason out. Technology pulls humans and the real world apart. It makes them lose confidence in themselves. People using calculators for small calculations is an example. Technology is changing and evolving with great pace. People intend to keep up with that pace and be updated. Mundane tasks are becoming automated. Technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence make suggestions that restricts the people to think or decide for themselves. It restricts them to take up a path that is different from what they were already on because such technologies make suggestions based on our their previous decisions. Such technologies do not allow people to think out of the box and to some extent lure them into taking up the road that is mostly travelled by them. Because the internet provide with all answers people have stopped thinking logically and brainstorming when it comes to problem solving. It is restricting the ability of an individual to make decisions based on self evaluation. They simply go for a solution that has the most positive reviews instead of coming up with a solution of their own. Technology is keeping people distant. As everything is possible if you have a device with internet connectivity no one bothers to visit their own relatives on holidays. Family meet ups have reduced because of video conferencing. Technology is not only affecting the critical thinking but also the emotional thinking of people. I understand that technology helps save a lot of time initially. If we use the time we saved using the various technology resources to use our own thought process to get to the same result, we would discover a lot more dos and don'ts. Hence in turn it will save use time later when the similar issue is encountered. So actually technology is not actually saving any time as shortcuts always get back at you later on the path. Additionally technology refrains us from using the full capacity of our brains. In conclusion I would like to restate my position that people relying on technology more, is deteriorating their ability to think for themselves and assess what is good or bad for them because of the above mentioned reasons.

Hello Everybody I plan to apply for a PhD in Economics at LSE, UCL, Oxford and Cambridge. My grades are pretty good (top 5% of my class) but I am a bit worried regarding the GRE. I recently did the GRE but I had a bad day and didn't score as high as I wanted. To be precise I had the following score: Quant 165 Verbal 154 AWA 4.0 I know that US Universities are very strict about the GRE and that many top Universities will filter your application out if you have a Quant GRE lower than 166 or 167. Does anyone know hows the situation at the British Universities (especially LSE, UCL and Oxbridge)? Do you guys think I should retake the GRE and aim for a higher quant score (maybe also Verbal and AWA)? Or are the GRE scores for a PhD in England not that important? Thank you so much for your help!

So basically, the department of economics at Cambridge mentions that the Faculty will not normally consider admitting a student whose score registers below 90th percentile in the quantitative section and below the 50th percentile in the analytical writing section of the test. My score currently is 167Q, which, when I took the test was equal to 90th percentile. A month ago, ETS updated their percentile charts and a 167 is now 89th percentile. Also, being an international student my verbal score is low (59th percentile =153). My AWA score is 4.0 (55th percentile). Does the AdComm really use GRE as a filter? Because I have a solid GPA and have written 2 research papers in my undergrad and don't want to get filtered out.

I´m struggling with this Manhattan question: "Jane scored in the 68th percentile on a test, and John scored in the 32nd percentile. A: The proportion of the class that received a score less than John’s score. B: The proportion of the class that scored equal to or greater than Jane’s score." The answer is supposed to be C, but suppose 101 people were graded, and all of them obtained a different score. If we order all scores in ascending order, John is in the position 33 and Jane is in the position 69. Thus, quantity A equals 32/101 and quantity B equals 33/101, which are not equal. I guess I must be making a mistake, although I cannot see it yet. I would appreciate any help on this. Thanks!

Hi, I am interested in applying for Ph.D in Information Systems and I'd like to know what's my edge for getting into top program. I acknowledge that my GRE is a little shy of good score (esp. quant... I had full mark score but the verbal part is not competitive) but a professor that I am working with said I might get some advantages that I have MSCS from prestigious school and I can include working paper when I apply. However, I still cannot even weigh my chances because of lack of data & information. Here's my brief profile. Test Scores (GMAT/GRE): (Note: It often helps a lot more if you list the percentiles each of your raw/composite scores are associated with) GRE: Verbal 158, Quant: 167, GMAT conversion (from ETS): 700 Undegrad GPA: 92.8% (dual degree in Computer Engineering & Business Administration, out of US) Graduate GPA: 3.56/4 (Master's Science in Computer Science, school from undoubtably top 30 in CS, in the US) Research Experience: One domestic(non-English) conference publication in Computer Science, currently working on a research in Information Systems field with two professors. Teaching Experience: None Work Experience: only internships Concentration Applying to: Information Systems Number of programs planned to apply to: 10 Dream Schools: NYU, MIT, CMU, UPenn (I haven't explored the faculties though) What is average GMAT/GRE score for top-school accepted students? I have concentrated on machine learning during my master, will it make some differences? Thanks in advance.

Hi, I just took a GRE exam today, and received a score of 170/163 (quant/verbal). I'm expecting writing score of 4.0-4.5. I was wondering if raising the verbal score would be of any benefit. (btw I'm from an Asian country, so I thought maybe high verbal scores could show my linguistic ability)

Hello all, Feeling good to be a part of www.urch.community. Wrote GRE general test two times but the AWA score never went up above 3. I am looking for help from someone to evaluate my essays. Thank you

Hi everyone -- I'm applying to programs this fall, aiming for a top school in OB/Management. I just took the GRE and feel like it's a strong score, but was a little lower than I was hoping for. I'm thinking I'll retake it just to see if, but I'm hoping for some feedback. I got 162 V and 165 Q -- haven't received my writing score yet, but I'm anticipating a solid score. I know competitiveness depends on other factors, so here is some info on the other pieces: I've been working for a while, but I have a fair amount of research experience: 2 psychology labs in undergrad and 4 management projects over the last year or so. For my LORs, I have 2 full professors with excellent reputations and 1 associate prof. I'll have one publication in a B/B+ journal with 3 reputable co-authors and 1 conference presentation with a top prof. Undergrad GPA is 3.5 from Michigan -- not great, but not terrible (3.9 upper division which I am listing on my CV...hoping this helps show that my first year or so was not especially great but I pulled things together!). Bottom line: if I'm aiming for Michigan/Stanford/MIT-type schools, should I retake and try for a higher score? Thanks for the help!

Hello everybody, For those of you who didn’t pass the TOEFL and had your TOEFL score mailed out to NABP, do you have a statement on you NABP e-profile under FPGEC services saying “passing TOEFL score received: Yes”? I need to know how the system works when NABP receives non-passing TOEFL score report. Please let me know what your NABP e-profile states regarding your TOEFL scores. Thank you

Hello everyone, I have been a long-time lurker on this forum and finally made up my mind to post my profile for evaluation! I graduated in 2017 and am currently half way through my two-year predoctoral RA fellowship. I plan to apply to PhD programs in Economics and Finance this cycle (will post the same thread in the PhD in Economics forum as well :)). Below is my profile. Please share your thoughts. Any insight would be greatly appreciated! PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: State school, ranked 70-80ish on US News Majors: BS in Economics, BA in Math Undergrad GPA: Overall: 3.96 | Economics: 4.00 | Math: 3.85 Type of Grad: N/A Grad GPA: N/A GRE: V160 | Q168 | AW (still waiting for my writing score this time, last time I took GRE I got a 4) Math Courses: Calculus III (A), Linear Algebra (A), Probability (A), Mathematical Statistics (A), Number Systems (A, this is the intro to proofs class in my school), Ordinary Differential Equation (A-), Real Analysis I (B+), Real Analysis II (A) Econ Courses: Intermediate Micro (A), Intermediate Macro (A), Monetary Economics (A), Intro to Econometrics (A, first part of Econometrics), Economic Forecasting (A, second part of Econometrics), Advanced Macroeconomics (A), Risk Management and Insurance (A), Research Seminar (A), Honors Thesis I-II (A, A) Finance Courses: Financial Management (A), Investment (A) Research Experience: 1) Currently a full-time research assistant to two finance professors working on monetary policy and banking related projects. The department is ranked among top 5 in finance according to the US News. I have been on this job for a year and will stay here for another year. 2) 1.5 years of research assistantship to one of my undergraduate econ professors. The research I worked on was related to behavioral and experimental economics. 3) Honors thesis project related to household finance. Letters of Recommendation: 1) and 2) from the two finance professors from my full-time RA job mentioned above. They are both tenured professors and well-respected in their fields of expertise. I hope I can get two strong letters from them. 3) from the econ professor I RA for in college (same professor in research experience (2) above). The professor is also my honor thesis adviser. He is a junior professor but got his PhD from top 2. Should be a very strong letter. 4) from the department chair from my undergraduate. I took Intermediate and Advanced Macro with him. He is also the director of the senior honors thesis program. He could speak of my academic abilities. Should be a decent letter. Teaching Experience: None. Only tutoring experience. Research Interests: Household Finance, Public Finance, Financial Economics SOP: I have not yet written my SOP. Other: 9-month consulting work at MBB right after graduation, but I doubt it would have any positive impact on my profile. Concerns/Questions: 1) How would you view the trade-off between the verbal and quant scores in GRE? The first time I took GRE I got a perfect score in the quantitative section but my verbal score was a bit low (in the low 150 range). The score I reported here is from my second try. As you can see, my verbal significantly improved but I only got 168 in quant this time. Do you think I can survive the first-round screening process with my current score? Or do you think it's better for me to resit and aim for 170 in quant and 160+ in verbal? 2) I am a bit concerned about my B+ in Real Analysis I. Do you think my A in Real Analysis II can "make up" for it? 3) My undergrad education is not going to impress any admission committee and there's nothing I can do with it at this point. But do you think if there's anything else I can do (regarding other aspects of the profile) to strengthen my profile between now and December? 4) I plan to apply to both Economics and Finance programs. What range of schools do you think I should aim for?

How long will it take for nabp to receive toefl report and give an update on the e-profile if I send it after I got my score? I did not send it while applying just for the reason that I can still have it re-scored in case it's just a 1 point difference

Test Scores: 313 GRE (164 Q, 149V, 4 AW) GPA 1. Bachelors - Engineering - 9.39/10 ( Engineering) 2. Engineering Management - 3.8 /4 (Pursuing now) - Research Experience: 0 Work Experience: 5 Years (Automobile industry in India ) Concentration Applying to : Organization Behavior Number of Programs Planned to Apply to5 Dream Schools- What made you want to pursue a PhD? Love for teaching and the desire to explore Management - micro organizational behavior Questions or concerns you have about your profile? My doubt is regarding my 1. GRE Score - Is it good enough? I mean, I have a good Quants score and poor verbal score - What are my chances to pass the min cut off of institutes for consideration ( Given that I cannot retake my GRE/gie a gMAT now) 2. Letter of recommendation - All my recos are from my engineering prof - will this help? 3. Will my background in Engineering be a deterrent in my application

Hello guys! ETS suggests some tips for people with a score of 19. It happens that I don't understand the meaning of two of them 1.-note the methods you use to support your ideas 2.-note what method you use to support each of your supporting points ETS Best Marco

I am going to apply for some PhD in Economics for Fall 2019 My undergrad: majored in Accounting 8.42/10 (one of the top schools in business and economics in Vietnam) My masters: majored in Finance 4.38/4.5 (an unranked university in South Korea). Math course: Linear Algebra (A+) Calculus (B+) Optimization (A+) Probabilities and math statistics (A+) Applied Statistics in Business and Economics (A+) Statistics (Grad) (A+) Econ courses: Microeconomics I (B+) Macroeconomics I (A) Development economics (B+) International Economics (A) Theories of Monetary Finance (A) Econometrics (Grad) (A+) Time-series (Grad) (A+) My unofficial GRE score: Verbal 147, Quantitative 167. I have not received my AWA score yet. My LORs: 1 from my masters thesis advisor (PhD in Finance at Wisconsin at Madison)- not really strong. 1 from a professor that I worked as his RA (PhD in Economics at Boston Uni)- looks okay 1 from a statistics professor, I am not sure about this letter. My questions are: My background lacks calculus II,III, and some other math courses as well as intermediate micro and macroeconomics? How does it hurt my application? My verbal score is quite low, given that I am an international student with my IELTS score of 7.5? I understand that the committee puts more weight on Quantitative section, but does my super low verbal harm my chance? If I take some online course without certificates on Math, does it count? Some of schools that I may shoot: Hawaii at Manoa, Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Clark, UTexas at Dallas. Do I have any change getting in? Do you guys have suggestions for some schools that I should apply for? Any suggestion is highly welcomed. :)

Hi guys, I usually get around 170Q and 165V on GRE practice tests. I took the test for the first time a few days ago, though, and got 170V and 166Q. Definitely a bit disappointed. While the 170V is nice, Q is a lot more important. I was interested in the London School of Economics - the MSc programs in EME and Economics. My background is highly quantitative with many courses in statistics and econometrics, so I don't know how important my Q score is. Should I rewrite to try to get 168+ in Q? Or will 166 be sufficient? Any thoughts?

Been working on this for a couple of days. Hope it helps someone. I'm also open to feedback or questions, if you have any! Summary Summary: Here are the key points that I will cover. If you need more information, read on. Tenth grade is a pretty good time to start prepping for the SAT. It’s not too early or too late. Before you start, get your baseline SAT score. Work from official SAT tests. Practice, review, repeat. Keep track of your performance, scores, questions missed and questions that confused you. Expect to spend anywhere from 10 to 1,000 hours prepping. (Or more. Or less.) At the very least, be sure to take at least one practice test before the real thing! Hi there. Today I’d like to focus on one of the most common questions that I hear from parents who are contacting us for the first time: How to prepare for the SAT. It’s a very general question, and there are countless specific details that could change your approach. For example, some students will focus on an extracurricular more than on their SATs (such as a sport or an internship), while others may try to get the highest SAT score possible to maximize their chances at a few colleges they’ve selected. That said, the following should be a good starting point for starting to develop a good study plan during your SAT prep, and at the very least for some people, will help make sure you don’t get caught by surprise when the time comes to apply to college. When to start prepping for the SAT While it may sound like a pretty straightforward question with a clear answer, the optimal time to begin your SAT prep really depends on several important factors, including, for example, what colleges you plan to apply to and how much you need to improve your score. For example, someone who’s scored 980 on the PSAT and hopes for a 1300 is quite different from someone who has scored a 1400 on the PSAT and wants to raise her score to the 1500s. However, in a word, earlier is usually preferable to later, and you want to be sure to leave plenty of time to prepare comfortably. First, let me give some background on what I see here at TestMagic. If you averaged out the school grade during which most of our students start prepping for the SAT, you’d see that a good chunk of our students start in the middle of 10th grade. Of course we have plenty of students who start in 11th grade and a small number who start in 12th grade, and we also have a few students who start even earlier, such as in 9th grade. (Of in middle school--we have had a small number of students who want to take our course in middle school for a couple of reasons. The two main reasons for preparing for the SAT at such a young age are one, preparing to take the SAT for CTY, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, and two, visiting from abroad for the summer and taking our course while here in San Francisco). But again, the most common age to start for our students is sometime in 10th grade. This is a nice time to start because it’s plenty early in case something comes up (Oh no! I need to study more trigonometry!) and starting in tenth grade also alleviates some of the pressure of junior year, when students typically feel the most stressed, especially near the end of the school year, when final exams, AP tests, SATs, ACTs, and SAT Subject tests all happen around the same time. Oh, every now and then we work with people who have only a couple of weeks to prepare, sometimes because they didn’t realize it was such a big deal to get ready for the test or because they’re too busy. It goes without saying that this situation is less than ideal. (But not hopeless!) SAT study plan First, I just want to say that there are a zillion variations of the plan that follows. I suggest you try what appeals to you, and add in whatever I’ve not mentioned that works for you. (Remember, every student is different, and what works for one person may not work for another.) Step 1: Establish your SAT baseline Your SAT baseline is your starting SAT score or current level. Knowing your starting score is vital for many reasons, but especially if you have a goal score or will be working with an SAT coach. Quick note: I suppose theoretically you could start your SAT prep without taking a diagnostic SAT—you would just do your prep, and when you take your first practice test, you would get a score. But a lot of people like to know their level so that they have a clearer goal. To get your baseline SAT score, simply take an official SAT under simulated conditions—download an official SAT, set aside about four hours in a quiet place, and time yourself for the test. Be careful about not getting distracted! Consider doing it with a friend to keep yourselves honest, so to speak, or go to a public library to take it. (TestMagic also administers practice tests onsite if you feel like you might get distracted at home.) In some cases, using your PSAT score will work almost as well to establish your baseline, especially if you’ve taken it recently. Finally, record your score somewhere, either on paper or in a spreadsheet. Now to the next step—the actual studying. The SAT study plan It goes without saying that the bulk of your SAT prep will consist of studying, reviewing, and practicing. Whether you’re self-studying or studying with a course or tutor changes the process and materials a bit, but in general, you’ll need the following: The official SAT tests (fundamental) A good SAT manual (helpful, if it’s well-written) A good dictionary (crucial; my favorite is the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but the American Heritage and Random House collegiate dictionaries are fine for test prep) Explanations of the questions on the official SAT (helpful) Video tutorials, such as those found on Khan Academy (helpful, but not vital) Nice tools—a pretty (physical) notebook or computer document, a nice mechanical pencil, a nice eraser, a graphing calculator, snacks, a water bottle, headphones, etc. Your basic study plan involves a combination of learning the material on the SAT (with books and videos), reviewing, taking practice tests, and reviewing those. A sample plan of study would be something like this: 4 hours: Take your diagnostic SAT 2-4 hours: Review diagnostic SAT; find areas to improve 2-10 hours: Review SAT concepts in your manual or from the test. For example, study vocabulary, practice combinations and permutations, review punctuation rules, and so on. 2-10 hours: Study SAT concepts again. Repeat two to six times. 4 hours: Take your next practice SAT to see how you’ve improved. That is the basic cycle of improving your SAT score. We’ll begin the discussion of materials in a bit. (I will do more in-depth reviews in the future) Variations of SAT prep I started teaching in 1991, and one thing I learned right away—teachers need to employ a variety of techniques in the classroom. Here are some variations on studying that I’ve successfully used: Take the test untimed. This is actually an extremely helpful technique, and I highly recommend that at least in the beginning of your SAT prep, you take a couple or several tests with no time limit. Why? Simple—it’s important to know which questions you’re capable of answering regardless of time limit. For example, if you can get through a tricky math problem in ten minutes, then you should work on improving your speed. But if you can’t do it at all because you haven’t studied that material in school yet, then you would need to work on building your foundation for the test. Instead of taking a full-length test in one go, try taking each section one by one. Some people can’t concentrate for four hours straight. Or if they can, they certainly don’t enjoy it. If you find that you can’t sustain your concentration and mental energy for four hours, consider taking the test a section at a time. (But of course, you need, at some point, to get used to taking the SAT under realistic conditions.) And here’s a radical notion: During school, starting in middle school, pay extra attention in class, especially your English, History, and Math classes. Take notes, look up words you don’t know, and review everything. Do that for a couple of years, and you’ll be really well prepared for the SAT. And your grades should improve as well! What materials to use There are a lot of great materials available, but unfortunately, there are probably more materials that we sometimes call “score harmers”, i.e., material that was hastily thrown together just to sell books and contains inaccurate information. (The big publishers are most guilty of this, though now in the age of the Internet, they’ve gotten better in this regard.) Of course, the official SAT tests are vital. You can’t prep without them. For books, videos, courses, tutors, online courses, etc., check reviews online. From my experience, most teachers genuinely want to help their students, so don't fear reaching out to people to ask questions or gauge the fit with the tutor you might work with. I know this section on materials is a bit short, but at some point in the future, I’ll review some of the better known options to review them.

I'm applying next year and I'm pondering if I should retake the GRE or not. My score is not bad, but I'm targeting top schools. So, I'm in this dilemma: should I spend the summer studying for the GRE or should I get more research experience? My current score is GRE:159 (83%) Verbal, 170 (97%) Quant, 4.0 (60%) Analytical Writing. Any advice?

A little background on me: (IQ) Above 151 UCLA Economics BA Graduate Completed English 1-2-3 Completed Calculus 1-2 I studied Kaplan premier. Scored 590. Do you think the test center cheated me? Right now, I think so, because how the hell do so many of you score above 700? Is this forreal? I'm shocked right now.

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Hey guys, I'm an international student and want to apply for top 20 Econ PhD programs. The rest of my profile looks good, but my GRE AWA is 3.5, which makes me very nervous. I got 161 on Verbal (88 percentile) and 170 Quant. Do you guys know if I could update new GRE score after the application deadline? I really appreciate any advice from you guys. Thanks in advance.

My professor told me that it is okay to submit the test score later than the deadline as they typically review the applicants in Feb. However, those admission offices in other universities keep saying it is a hard deadline for test score submission. I am so conscious about that as applying to one school costs about $150-200USD. I do not want to pay for nothing, not even a chance to be reviewed. May I ask if anyone here actually submitted their scores later than the deadline and was able to get the offer? Thanks a lot!

Hi guys! Me and my friend have low verbal score. We know that verbal is not that important, yet our %tile is even lower than 30 & 40, that is why we wondered what are your experiences on that issue? Do you know anyone who was admitted to a good school ? If you do, how other qualifications of that person was like? Need to hear good things. Thank you for any comments.

Hi all, I am new to this forum-I am applying for PhD programs in Economics in both Canada and US this year but I am struggling with the choice of schools. Would really appreciate help on evaluation of my profile! My stats are as follows: Undergrad GPA: 3.96 at LUMS which is one of the most reputable universities in Pakistan Minor: Maths Major: Economics Graduate School: Cambridge Degree: MPhil in Economics Overall score: 64.3 My LORs will be from 3 economists: PhD Economics McGill PhD Economics UC-Davis PhD Economics Cambridge Research experience: 3 years as an RA for a think tank Interest in political economy of the labour market and institutional economics I would really appreciate help on whether I should apply to top tier schools or be more realistic and apply to mid-tier. Which schools would suit me? I would love to have more insight from those who have been through the process. The biggest gap in my application is lack of publications and the somewhat less than stellar score in MPhil due to some attenuating circumstances. I have to take my GRE yet so I am not sure of the score. But last time I took it, I had 800Q, 690V, and 5 AW. But GRE is a matter of luck so fingers crossed on that one. What do you guys make of my profile?

Hi all, I have got my TOEFL scores report: reading: 30 listening: 25 speaking: 23 writing: 28 total: 106 I am wondering if I need to retake a test since my speaking part is kind of lower than the average. And I am worried the total score is not strong enough. Any suggestions? Thanks a million!

Hey everyone:panda: I have my Toefl exam in a few days and I am really worried about the speaking and writing part of it. Any suggestions regarding how to tackle them would be appreciated. I want to score 110 or more as I am preparing to apply for the PhD program in pharmaceutical sciences in USA.