@arshy,
Thanks, ur response was a relief,

arshy:

@Godeagle,
It is such a pity it happened to you. Nigeria is always Nigeria. Even thou the test is an international test, all the people supervising it are Nigerians, and you know most Nigerian organizations don't open on Sundays.

That aside, I feel you should try and pay the $50 and re-schedule it for an earlier date, because definitely your scores can't get to your school in a week. I have not even received my Essay score up till now. If you compare what you will loose if you do the test on Sept 10th (when the deadline for your school is Sept 15th), and paying the $50, you will agree with me that it pays you to pay the money.

Anyway, I registered mine yesterday and I will be taking it on Sept 1st (Next week Tuesday).

As per the Kaplan CD, there is nothing you can do with the file, if you don't have the CD. I have to be taking the CD home and bringing it to the office since the software won't work except you insert the CD. You can still prepare with the POWERPREP, if you have it or the GRE Bible. Infact, i don't really think the questions on the CD is that relevant except that it helps you to be time conscious. The test i did is very very different from the questions on the Kaplan CD, but very very similar to the questions on the POWERPREP and GREBIBLE.

Thanks arshy. I'm still considering the situation. I might just leave the exam for that date; apart from paying $50 for their own error, the situation may get further complicated. I'll try to contact the school to give me an extra week or so and pray that events unfold favourably in my office before making the decision on whether or not to reschedule. I heard that ETS is quite reliable when it comes to sending scores to the schools. So, even though your writing score has not reached you, it would have been received by the school. I'll take your advice about studying with just the other CDs. I've been studing with POWERPREP lately. I agree that it mirrors the style and difficulty level of the actual GRE. I also realized that one can retake the practice tests several times with only 2-3 questions repeated. So, it's not easily exhausted. The GREBIBLE, on the other hand, was useful but I found it quite low in terms of difficulty level, especially in Quant. It also contains a number of errors. I'm yet to use the barrons CD.

emmyclev:

pls guys i need a little help, i received a confirmation mail that have been registered by First logic from ETS, but the problem is the initial of my middle name (U) is ommited, First logic says no problem, that i just have to bring two form of identity,

But the problem now is can i include just that letter U, on my test date as a form of name correction and can it pose any problem during my admission process,

The issue is, not all my document have that initials but my certificate and passport does,
Pls need clarification,

Thanks

I think you should contact Prometric to include your initials in their records. Their number is in the confirmation email sent to you. You can also ask them if any correction made on the exam date will be effected on your score report. I think it is important that your score report bears your complete name. You may not know where such a small error will matter.

Superbrain:

Has anyone ever tried using a GTB mastercard to pay for the GRE? I have a dorm account with them and i intend getting it there.

I haven't used it. But go ahead and try it. It should work since it's mastercard. Besides, you have nothing to lose even if it doesn't work as you'll be spending from your dorm account and not tying up your funds in a card account.

Thanks Godeagle,
i ll contact them as soon as possible, Once again, Thanks,

i just called them, And they made understand i could include it on my test date, in form of correction of name,

@Godeagle,
That's cool

@emmyclev,
That's better, you are on the safer side.

Godeagle:

I haven't used it. But go ahead and try it. It should work since it's mastercard. Besides, you have nothing to lose even if it doesn't work as you'll be spending from your dorm account and not tying up your funds in a card account.

Thanks alot. I'll give it a try. But what exactly did you use for your own payment?

I used a Skye Bank Prepaid Visacard. This is the umpteenth time I'm saying this; check my earlier posts.

Happy new month to us all. I pray that God will take us to our next level this month cos we belong to the top. This post is a special dedication to arshy my guy. I wish & pray you have tremendous success on the test as you take it today. You will overcome the GRE for good.

@ all, Let's keep posting na. I understand that most of us are busy with preparation for GRE along with other engagements. We may not realize it but the forum has so great a depth of potential information and support which can only be tapped by constant sharing. I'm also talking to myself by this post. I will increase my activity, internet access and engagements not withstanding.

i concur with you, i will endeavor to be more active rather than passive, wishing arshy the best as well

@House,
I did the GRE again yesterday, and i love the score. I think GRE is one of the most tough test i have ever done. The score did not change form the last one i took, only that i love the distribution of this one. I scored 440 in the Verbal and 610 in the Quantitative. I think this one is better than my first score that is just one sided.
Anyway, let me share the experience so that others can learn from my mistakes.
I should have scored more in Quantitative (because i know i am very good at it, and i know what i said very well), but during the test, i had about 3 minutes left on the verbal and i was still on question 24 on reading comprehension. I started fidgeting and i lost my total ground, i couldn't put myself together till the end of the test, even till i got home.
Before i could know what was happening, the test was over.
another mistake i did is that i did not take the 60 seconds break which would have eased my tension, may be i could have put my shaking feet together.
I know that it will take a miracle for me to score higher than that at the Verbal, but the Quantitative is surely my error.
I beseech you to watch-out and be composed when you are taking your!
GRE is done and dusted in my life. I am sending the applications any moment from now.
Best of luck to you all.

Congratulations on your achievement. No doubt, preparing for the exam is a hard test of self discipline and mental toughness, not to mention those grueling hours you spend in the test centre sitting for the test itself . Those are decent scores. However, while a 440 on the verbal is more than adequate for many engineering programs, I can't say the same for your quant score. Sorry about what transpired during the test -I was certainly expecting a higher quant score from you considering that you did much better the last time.  Thankfully, though, I heard that there are some engineering programs that use only your highest scores from both sections in a case of multiple scores. Some average the scores and others simply pick your latest scores (e.g. UT @ Austin). So, you may want to ask your chosen programs what their policies are on multiple scores. You could also apply to more schools that use the highest sores from both sections.

I don't think you have written your Statement of Purpose yet. That's one area you should focus more effort on. Kaplan and GRE bible have some good tips on writing a strong SOP. Try researching tips on the web too. But make sure you tailor your essays to the unique coditions of each receiving school. These are just my opinions, other tips are welcome from us if arshy won't mind. All the best with your applications.

emmyclev:

i concur with you, i will endeavor to be more active rather than passive, wishing arshy the best as well

Good man! I'm encouraged. @ Nairalanders, wake up and join us! Even if you are not preparing for the GRE or looking to get admission in the US or Canada in the immediate future, you can still be members of this sub-forum as long as you have that dream.

@ SEFAGO,
you seem really informed about admissions, SOP and LOR. Please, your imput is needed.

arshy:

@House,
I did the GRE again yesterday, and i love the score. I think GRE is one of the most tough test i have ever done. The score did not change form the last one i took, only that i love the distribution of this one. I scored 440 in the Verbal and 610 in the Quantitative. I think this one is better than my first score that is just one sided.
Anyway, let me share the experience so that others can learn from my mistakes.
I should have scored more in Quantitative (because i know i am very good at it, and i know what i said very well), but during the test, i had about 3 minutes left on the verbal and i was still on question 24 on reading comprehension. I started fidgeting and i lost my total ground, i couldn't put myself together till the end of the test, even till i got home.
Before i could know what was happening, the test was over.
another mistake i did is that i did not take the 60 seconds break which would have eased my tension, may be i could have put my shaking feet together.
I know that it will take a miracle for me to score higher than that at the Verbal, but the Quantitative is surely my error.
I beseech you to watch-out and be composed when you are taking your!
GRE is done and dusted in my life. I am sending the applications any moment from now.
Best of luck to you all.

Thanks arshy. Goodluck in your endeavours. Mine's in the next two months. Though i'm seriously praying for ASUU to call-off the strike. My LOR's are ready but transcripts are stuck. Join me in praying oh!

@Godeagle and Sefago,
Thanks for the responses, i appreciate it. I am going to mail the department to get some facts anyway.

arshy, congrates on ur score and thanks for the advice regarding composing one's self during the exam,

@ the rest of the crew members,

This is good, the forum is becoming frenetical, As i stated earlier, i wuld endeavour to remain active. Wishing you all the best.

@House,
I mailed two of the schools (my priority schools). These are their replies;

I am sorry, but I unable to offer any feedback about the likelihood of admission based on your GRE scores. There are numerous factors that go into our admissions decisions including the GRE scores, academic record, work experience, and letters of recommendation. No one component is weighed more heavily than the others.



For your second question, we can use printed or scanned copies of your transcripts for evaluating your application. However, the University requires that you have official transcripts on record before you will be allowed to enroll. If you are unable to get official copies of your transcripts before January 2010 (Spring start), the University would not allow you to attend – we as a department have no control over this fact. You may try contacting representatives in the Graduate School (http://gradschool, edu/) to discuss this issue with them.



Finally, you can have any qualified individual supply your letters of recommendation. We do not require that they come from previous instructors, Letters from your current employers will better address your qualifications to succeed in graduate school because they can better assess your skills at this time.

The second school;

Our deadline for Spring 2010 is Sept.15th not October 15th. Yes go ahead and scan a copy in and send it to me via email as an attachment.

Thanks,

I am just posting this for others to learn and to assuage your worries over the ASUU strike and other bilious questions about the admission.

I think its getting better, and i am on course.

We shall get there.

Great job arshy. Oh well, no school will tell whether you will be admitted or not before the Review Committee has sat, it's the committee's job- that's normal. Otherwise people may decide not to apply and the school will lose money and students as well. What I'm saying is that you ask them about their policy on multiple scores. That is, which of the scores they will use to evaluate your application.

@ Superbrain, if you don't have copies of the transcript. Then I guess we can only pray for ASUU to call off the darn strike. I'll join you in prayers.

@ emmyclev, I think you were the one I saw on Testmagic today. You used the same name. My name there is eagle uk . Even if I didn't tell you could have probably guessed as both names have "eagle" in them. LOL

arshy:

I should have scored more in Quantitative (because i know i am very good at it, and i know what i said very well), but during the test, i had about 3 minutes left on the verbal and i was still on question 24 on reading comprehension. I started fidgeting and i lost my total ground, i couldn't put myself together till the end of the test, even till i got home.
Before i could know what was happening, the test was over.
another mistake i did is that i did not take the 60 seconds break which would have eased my tension, may be i could have put my shaking feet together.
I know that it will take a miracle for me to score higher than that at the Verbal, but the Quantitative is surely my error.
I beseech you to watch-out and be composed when you are taking your

I don't mean to harp on this issue. But I think it's a learning for others intending to take the exam. Three minutes may actually be a lot of time depending on the questions you get. For instance, you can do an antonym question in 10 seconds or less if you know the answer. Same with analogies. You can then spend the extra time on the hard ones. So we don't need to lose composure because we have only few minutes left. Practising on pacing helps too. So when we practice, we need to do so under timed conditions and try to increase our speed.

Godeagle:



@ emmyclev, I think you were the one I saw on Testmagic today. You used the same name. My name there is eagle uk . Even if I didn't tell you could have probably guessed as both names have "eagle" in them. LOLI don't mean to harp on this issue. But I think it's a learning for others intending to take the exam. Three minutes may actually be a lot of time depending on the questions you get. For instance, you can do an antonym question in 10 seconds or less if you know the answer. Same with analogies. You can then spend the extra time on the hard ones. So we don't need to lose composure because we have only few minutes left. Practising on pacing helps too. So when we practice, we need to do so under timed conditions and try to increase our speed.

I had an inkling on you being a nigerian,because of the wole shoyinka pics as ur profile pic, but never tried relating it to godeagle, guess i was carried away,
TM is really a great site, and am glad we both are part of it. so let's keep abrace with each other, when do u plan taking yours, ? wud be having mine in 2 wks time,

Just want 2 know abt d websites of reliable scholarship foundations 4 Masters programs in d U.S. I want 2 study 4 a postgrad degree in Public Health.i got 1520 in d GRE and i hv bin told i can get a scholarship if i look well enuf

@ emmyclev, you've got me confused with someone else. I have an eagle as my avatar, not the Soyinka pic. I think the guy with the Soyinka pic's name is ezekielekata. Yeah, TM is a blessing. It has a lot of highly motivated guys; they let you understand that the GRE and indeed studying in a reputable program in the US is no joke. My exam is in a week's time. Are you applying for Spring or Fall 2010?

@ Afrodoc. Congratulations on scaling the GRE and welcome to the forum. I don't know much about the US scholarship foundations but I'll seriously look into those when I finish my GRE. Please stay in the forum and tell us if you find.

yeah,sorry i got u confused for the wole shoyenka guy, i saw ur post on the math forum, sorry for the mix up, well am surprisingly applying for fall 11, so my application should be kicking off middle of nxt year, for now am working to see, i make atleast a good research and possibly an international publication.

Do u know much about petroleum software, am working on that,

@afrodoc,

Congrates for your great score

hey @afrodoc
Listen to me well, dont really waste too much time on stuff like foundations. Those are crap and the likelihood of u getting anything uis very slim. I would advise you to go to each website for MPH programs u are looking for. With your score i am sure you can get into somewhere like Harvard/Johns Hopkins. Do u hold a MBBS/ (medical degree forgoteen what it is called in naija)? Also have u worked as a doctor/intern at a naija hospital. If ur answer is yes for both then u are in a really good position.

Harvard: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/administrative-offices/student-financial-services/index.html

JHU/MPH: http://www.jhsph.edu/academics/degreeprograms/mph/

@sefago yes i am a medical doctor holding an MBBS degree from the University of Lagos and i hav work experience.of course i intend 2 apply 4 scholarship programs in d various schools bt i just wanna know if there r other reliable external sources of funds.thanx alot

@ emmyclev, that's cool. I'm in a rush, I've got to start my MEng in Spring 2010 cos I'm not growing younger. I'm glad to know you're going for Pet (Petroleum Engineering or am I wrong?). But seriously, do you need an international publication before you get in? I don't consider myself an expert in admission matters but I presume that such is required mainly from those going for MSC (thesis option) or a PHD. All I have are my project works from school, my internships with Shell and Mobil, SOP and LOR. Hopefully, those, along with a good GRE score should get me into a reputable program.

I don't know that much about the softwares; most are used by reservior engineers. I've only used wellview and I'll like to specialize in drilling and production. By the way, don't you think you fixed your GRE too early considering that you have over one year to the application deadline?

@House,
Does anyone know how to convert CGPA to American standard?
Please, it is urgent
Thanks

Dear Landers i am currently an undergradute student of biochemistry intend going to a medical school is USA Immidiately after Grad
for sometime now i have been contacting various schools the facts i put together indicated i must have a min CGPA of 3.76 on a 4.0 GPA scale curently i have CGPA of 4.85 on 5.0.secondly i have to complete atleast 1 year of US education please i need your advice concerning my prospect coz i am ready to work hard to the last end to secure my MED SCH admission
so any advise and suggestion is welcomed

Hey people, please pardon the long hiatus. It's been a challenging time. I did retake my GRE on 10th september-my first attempt in 2008 (Q740 V650) may not fetch me admission into any of the the top 3 schools. However, this time I had to cancel my scores because I felt I didn't do justice to the quant. Now, I'm kind of regretting why I canceled it. It's very possible I did better this time in quant than in my last attempt. I might reinstate the scores or I'd just use my previous scores to send the applications. I think I can make at least a top 10 school with my former score. I'll keep us posted on my final decision.

Hey arshy, what's up with the CGPA conversion thing, did your school ask you to do that? I've browsed the net but I could not find any site that does the conversion. The only option might be to subscribe to the services of WES- world educational services. They charge a fee to help you do the conversion.

@ findinnwa1, Wow! brilliant you are: 4.85! that's more than anything they can ask for. I don't know about completing one year of US education. Why not find a school without that requirement. Are you going for MS or a Ph.D?

Godeagle:

Hey people, please pardon the long hiatus. It's been a challenging time. I did retake my GRE on 10th september-my first attempt in 2008 (Q740 V650) may not fetch me admission into any of the the top 3 schools. However, this time I had to cancel my scores because I felt I didn't do justice to the quant. Now, I'm kind of regretting why I canceled it. It's very possible I did better this time in quant than in my last attempt. I might reinstate the scores or I'd just use my previous scores to send the applications. I think I can make at least a top 10 school with my former score. I'll keep us posted on my final decision.

Hey arshy, what's up with the CGPA conversion thing, did your school ask you to do that? I've browsed the net but I could not find any site that does the conversion. The only option might be to subscribe to the services of WES- world educational services. They charge a fee to help you do the conversion.

@ findinnwa1, Wow! brilliant you are: 4.85! that's more that anything they can ask for. I don't know about completing one year of US education. Why not find a school without that requirement. Are you going for MS or a Ph.D?

You shouldn't have cancelled! A friend of mine took his last week for the second time with previous scores (Q-720, V-570) and though he felt like cancelling after test, he changed his mind only for his score to turn up(Q-780, V-620). If the test seemed hard, it only goes to tell you that you are on the right track as you'll only get harder questions if your previous questions were answered right. Like you said, your previous scores would get you a good admit. You could also consider transferring during your program after a semester or two to your preferred school of choice.

As for me, i rescheduled for December because my Quant scores on the practice tests are still in the "730-760" range. I'm giving it just one shot and i want to get it right the first time. For now, it's reading, reading, reading. Wishing everyone in the house the best.

Cheers.

@all,
I have already submitted to two of my intending schools as the deadline of one of them is tomorrow (Sept 15). As per the CGPA conversion, a friend in US said he paid $170 dollars to have his converted. I can never pay such! I did a test for $180 and i will now pay that close to convert my CGPA, it doesnt make sense to me. Anyway, i am waiting for positive response from the schools, i will submit the other two before the end of the week.
I wish u all well

Hi all,

@ Godeagle, arshy, SEFAGO, emmyclev
You guys have been great in the forum, especially with sharing your experience. Thanks a lot.
Took the GRE today. Had Q800, V590 and A(praying and hoping for 5). Currently serving but looking forward to grad study Fall 2010. Major Mech Engr, Unilag. Hope to continue same in a good graduate school. I am interested in fellowships and assistantships for Engr grad students.


Q is usually not very hard for Engineering guys (basically people with physical sciences background). V is something else. I think V requires long term prep to blast, unlike Q. I'm sure the humanities guys will disagree though. Reading wide helps because new words are seen/learnt in context. Avoid trying to cramp yourself cramming new words a few days to the test. The words will just float around somewhere outside your reach. Words in context are like anchored ships. Theres always something to hold on to.

I had hoped for a higher V but I am still very grateful to God and feel really thankful because he has helped me cross one more hurdle. For those of you preping for the test, I wish you speed, accuracy, steady feet, laser sharp memory and a little seasoning of Good Luck!

modification

@ Superbrain, thanks for the observation and advice. It's cool that you're planning to nail the GRE once and for all; that means you will be considering admission in the Fall of next year. All the best with it!

Congratulations NKnight! SEFAGO has said it all. The verbal score is almost useless for engineering programs. Your score is good enough for any school of your choice. Just work on the other aspects of your application.

@ all, I'm currently sending applications and working on my SOP/LOR. In fact, I have already sent some out. But I'm stuck with trying to choose between the thesis and non-thesis options for my programs. I wanted to go with the non-thesis option since I won't proceed for a PhD immediately and I heard that the study duration is shorter (not sure about this). But then, there's the reduced chance of obtaining financial assistance. What's most important to me at this time is the admission. So, I'll go with the option that guarantees my admission, assuming there's a quota for both options and most people will apply for thesis option in order to get financial assistance. Any suggestions?