₦airaland Forum

ModestGal:
am angry wit d stupid test nd i gues all the ppl here scoring highmarks hv always bn brilliant ones,cx thier cgps ae 4 point nd above,why wouldnt they score high in the test. The test jx made me tired of life

Hey lady, we all understand how you feel. The test is hard, but you have to motivate yourself somehow. Passing the GRE has absolutely nothing to do with GPA. That your argument is flawed. If it were valid, I would not have written the GRE twice, after all, my CGPA is above 4. I would have smashed it the first time. There are so many first class graduates that don't pass the GRE. On the other hand, there are so many low 2.1s and 2.2s that blast the GRE in one sitting. That said, some people are just great test takers. I do not even consider myself one of those. Most people here have been out of school for a long time. For example, I finished my Bachelors 10 years ago. So it's quite difficult getting oneself back to studying after leaving school for very many years.

I am taking my time to encourage you this morning because you are a lady like me and we really need to drive ourselves to attain greater heights in the society. We need to stop feeling inferior to men and giving lame excuses that some things are hard for ladies to achieve. I beg to differ - whatever height a man can attain on this planet earth, drhopeful can also attain....or at least try to. I mean, I may not always succeed but I will always try my best.

Sorry for my long epistle this morning. Have a great day.

happyday:
So sorry. Pardon my ignorance.

You are forgiven. Go and sin no more!

Scholastica16:
Anyways, I was expecting my TOEFL score since Tuesday but my account reads "scores not available" and this is exactly 12 days after taking the test. Should I be worried?

I suggest you give ETS a call to find out what is going on.

Renewable0216:
So happy for you! I pray everything works out fine.

I however need some help with my application. Do you mind offering some help?
Sent you a PM already.

Thanks! Responded.

Scholastica16:
What's weird is Drhopeful keeps saying she is a woman but people on here keep referring to her as him. That's on a lighter note.

This made me laugh hard! Thanks!

Thanks guys for your kind words. I really appreciate.

Hi brothers and sisters, I just want to share a testimony so others may also benefit.

I took the advice of friends and many co-nairalanders to start contacting Profs prior to making applications. I think I mailed about 4 and even sent reminders but none of them responded. I gave up at some point to focus on preparing for my standardized tests. After my first GRE attempt, knowing I was going to retake, I started contacting grad coordinators about their multiple GRE policy. Only one grad coordinator was nice enough to respond - in addition to answering my question, basically told me how high their admissions standards are and how they rarely admit international students and that all their admits are exceptional students. I just went.....Ok blah blah. Granted Top 30ish school. Needless to say, I felt deflated. I was never going to waste my money and apply. I searched for a lower ranked school to replace it with. After my repeat GRE exam, I decided to start making my applications and I said to myself, drhopeful you are a fighter, you never give up trying, not now. I applied to that school amongst others. To my greatest surprise, a week after submitting my app, a prof from the said school mailed me. Someone I never contacted. And at this point, my application was still incomplete; I was still waiting on one letter of recommendation. So you can imagine the shock. The prof went on and on about how impressive my application was, and that he wants to skype asap to discuss potential research topics and answer any questions I may have. Anyway, Skype conversation was two days after and might I say, the man seems the nicest advisor to work with.

Ok end of my story. I just needed to encourage someone. Good night guys.

EmanA1928:
Good morning. I do have a couple of questions as it relates to the GRE. I am a PhD hopeful and have taken the GRE. I scored 312(155V and 157Q) and I'm going for the pharmaceutical sciences. My IELTS score is 7.5 (some schools do accept it in lieu of the TOEFL)
I'm just wondering if thats a good score and how competitive that makes me. My undergraduate GPA was 4.72/5.0 and i had a distinction in my Masters.

Your GPA's are excellent, your IELTS is cool but your GRE is a lil iffy, well, depending on the calibre of schools you are looking at. If I were in your shoes, I would retake the GRE to improve V score. The Q score is ok for pharmaceutical sciences. Just my lil cents.

Ehen......Who are those that said TOEFL is easy? Come out oh let me flog u people. Chei!!! I mean reading and writing were sweet, listening was weird, especially those annoying lectures. It's tough taking notes and listening at the same time. Hopefully I got more right than wrong. Speaking was TERRIBLE! My speaking Q6 was a disaster. Did not understand what the hell the professor was talking about. Now I am really worried.

Prayers for speaking and listening in full activation.

iCool:
I had the same thoughts. Yet to hear anyone was penalized for that.

The percentage of plagiarism would be low since other parts of your answer will be unique to you.

Thanks @iCool. How is GRE rewrite prep going?

Question about TOEFL speaking....

With The NoteFull formula, won't ETS think it's plagiarism? It seems to me everyone would be inclined to use it.

Thanks so much wonderful family! Donald Trump won the election and ETS released my scores! Lol. I am in a much better mood now.

Scholastica16:
Hmmm. Rather disheartening. One cannot tell what the issue might be but like others have said, be positive.

My hunch counts for nothing at this point but I have a good feeling it will end well. Summon strength to prepare for the TOEFL and do well. You may get the good news about your GRE the very same day.

Thank you so much!

iCool:
@drhopeful. Felt bad reading about your situation after all the preparation. Just keep the Hope alive.

@ChemEngr01. You did excellently well on the Quant. Kudos!

Thanks iCool. Are you rewriting too?

ChemEngr01:
This is quite sad to hear. Please do not lose hope. Prepare well for your toefl and give it your best. I hope and pray they eventually come up with favorable response regarding the gre.

Thanks. I will try but it's so difficult right now. Congrats! I love your scores. Very well deserved. I hope ETS does not hold these wonderful scores. I don't know if it is now a crime to rewrite the test.

sirRiddy:
This is disheartening to hear. It might have something to do with your center.

Thanks sirRiddy. I doubt it's the center. @seeker88 was at my center, same day. He has since received his scores.

So I called ETS again today and they told me my scores are on hold. No reason given but was told that when scores are held for further review, there is a chance they might be cancelled.

So really, is this what I get after months of sleepless nights trying to earn good scores? I can't even explain how depressed I am right now. I have TOEFL to write in a couple of days and I can't even concentrate now to read. What the hell is this? I have application deadlines in 3 frigging weeks!

Sorry guys for the rant. Needed to vent.

seeker88:
I'm just seeing this now.....this is strange!!!
I received my scores on October 30th. I received an email informing me of d availability of my scores, n when I logged in to my profile, I saw my scores. Have u tried logging into ur GRE profile to check?

I have been checking my account a million times a day for the last one week. Nothing till now. I called ETS this afternoon and I was told to call back on Monday with a case number to investigate why I have not received my scores yet.

It is really strange. For my first test, I got my official scores 8 days after. Now I am extremely nervous! We took the test same day at the same centre. So what could be wrong with my result?

Is it usual not to receive official scores more than 15 days after writing the GRE? Or is it just me freaking out unnecessarily? ETS seems not be keeping to their word of 10-15 days after date of test. Urrrgggghhhhh. These ETS peeps are delaying my apps. I need to self report scores in my apps.

Hi @seeker88, have you received your official scores?

orelio:
Nov 2 at jjk... From my prep tests, my quant has been quite good 165>..but my verbal has been lingering around 150... Gurus in the house, any advice on how to improve my verbal to at least 156>... Any quick tip less than 1week, most especially those convoluted RCs

Hi @orelio, how did your test go today?

temi4fash:
How do you log into the these search area thingy.

Log into your GRE account and click on GRE Search Service to register.

klawaaa:
hi drhopeful, please what is their requirement like? MSC or BSc. what GPA or GRE score etc

They did not state entry requirements. I guess you would have to visit their website to get that info. The mail was basically about what the department is about and how they run their programs.

I got a mail from University of California, Riverside inviting me to apply for a fully funded PhD in their Physics and Astronomy Department. I am not into that area, so it's useless to me. I decided to share it here in case anyone is interested. It is a very good school. This is from GRE search service based on my previous scores.

Please does anyone here have a collection of NoteFull videos in Dropbox to share? Thanks.

seeker88:
Great scores bro....never knew we were in the same centre today. Will send u a pm please if u wouldn't mind...?

Will post my experience soon. My scores weren't good though...
Registered for ur TOEFL already?

l don't mind! Yes I am already registered for TOEFL - Nov 12

iCool:

You no go kimme with laff!


DrHopeful, you did very well. Your efforts paid off!


You are NOT a GRE mumu.


Tell those yet to write the strategies that worked for you. Thanks.

sirRiddy:
You are welcome. I am sure you need a lot of rest now.
When you have some free time, please post your
detailed experience. Your preparation that led to such a huge
leap in your scores.

Honestly, I did not do anything differently from the first time apart from using memrise app in addition to Magoosh vocab app I was already using to master a million words. And literally, I mastered a million words in the last 2 months. Yet, I saw some words today I have not seen before on any vocab app or book.

For my studies, I used ETS everything, Magoosh everything, Manhattan everything, Barron's everything, Kaplan everything and Gruber. I just was that desperate. I covered all at least twice.

And oh! My prep was focused muchhhhhhhh more on V than Q. I most likely would have scored 170Q if I focused on Q as I did on V. For me, I needed a balance.

amofum:
Welcome home finally. Another motivation for me to retake also. Good luck in your applications

Did I read right? You wanna retake? After those wonderful scores you got?

sirRiddy:
drhopeful congratulations
You are a tiger!
Please keep us posted on your applications.

Thanks sirRiddy!

layez:
@drhopeful
Sweet scores,congrats maam,ur hardwork and resolution paid off
#as u use to talk,oya cum and dash me ur scores too...cool to see pple blasting the gre and easing the pressure for WE forthcoming writers..
congrats again,u can sleep for 24hrs sf

Thanks bro! All the best in yours.

So I rewrote the GRE today and I believe I was in the same centre as @seeker88. Long story short, I found it as tough as my first experience - especially those God-forsaken Verbal sections. This time I made sure to read my issue essay prompt over and over again so I don't make the same mistake twice. At least now, if I don't score at least 4, it will be confirmed that I am a confirmed mumu writer .

Anyway, I found the test so tough and confusing that I developed a bad headache after my first verbal section - so much so that I felt like getting up and just walking away. But when I remembered how I have been sleeping at 2am everyday for the last few months just to study after getting back from work and sorting out family needs, and the state of Nigeria's (or rather Buhari's) economy plus my precious $410 in registering for the exam twice, I picked myself up and forged on.

This time I got QVQVQ. When I got my second verbal and saw shorter (but still incomprehensible) passages, I said to myself ... 'It's over. DrHopeful you are a confirmed GRE mumu. You just wasted all your time, effort and money for nothing.' From that point, I just got on with it and the remaining Q. What finally killed me was when I noticed this final Q section was way easier than the first 2.

Anyway, I casually reported my scores and I was utterly stunned at what I saw. For like 3 mins I was just staring at the frigging screen.... 157V, 164Q. I just could not believe it. Apparently the final Q section was the experimental section cos it was too easy to earn me my score. For the benefit of newcomers, I scored 150V, 162Q in my first test 2 months ago.

I shall report on the outcome of AW when it's out. For now, I am UTTERLY RELIEVED!!!!!! I will sleep at 9pm today for the first time in months! Good luck to those yet to write. Time for me to start prep for TOEFL.

@seeker88, come and share your good news jare!

seeker88:
What a great score!!! Weldone bro...
Please make sure u apply to top schools like MIT, Caltech, Standford, Harvard, UCBerkley. We are proud of u!!!
Kudos!!!

And finally, I took my test today. Scores weren't good though, I will still share my experience shortly....

You are darn right! @hirschfelder cannot waste those super sweet scores of his on average schools oh. He is only permitted to apply to top 10!