₦airaland Forum

@sirRiddy

You've got a PM, Sir.

iCool:
I have been working towards writing both the GRE and TOEFL by the end of September...

My head wan catch fire!


I have almost all the materials needed for the GRE in port harcourt.

The package includes soft copies of the following: Barron, Princeton Review, ETS Official guide, Manhattan 8booklets and the heavy Premium Magoosh videos.

Nothing yet on the TOEFL, might start gathering stuffs from tonight. We will definitely survive.

Boss.
Kindly help me out with the GRE&TOEFL materials.

Sent you a PM.
Thanks in anticipation.

kaima2015:
wonderful book by Professor Julie Posselt "Inside Graduate Admissions".....a most read for international students

this book came out this year....you can download her PhD Thesis Work (2013) which is free online.....what she wrote in the New Book came from that study

Pls,i need the 2bks u talked abt sir,my email is olaonisamuel@yaho.com...

p.s: i sent a mail

sirRiddy:
You guys should be very careful with all these juicy offers.
Some of these 'agents' could use a stolen credit card to pay for your test. If ETS finds out, which they usually do, you will loose the score.
I know things are darn tough but try not to make it tougher by dealing with these shady guys.

Thank you, I have my reservations too. I will pay using my paypal account linked to my bank account. I just wanted to be sure if it is genuine.

Not all these agencies are bad.... Not all... Many still have good repute.... But if you can afford the present exchange rate go for it....

@Glowrie22. I believe you have already received them from kaima2015.

@MimiHans. I do not have them in my mail box, downloaded from several online sources + collected from friends. That's why it can be easily given to those in p.h from my external HDD. It should be over 1.5gb in all.




Check for some download links on pages 42 and 98 (links posted by Cephas0009 and iCool respectively).

adetola007:
Have you written the gre yet and your result available? I want to be sure they are genuine because this offer sounds too good to be true. Thanks

I am writing TOEFL on September 17th and GRE on September 29th. The registrations and dates are reflected in my accounts on the ETS websites for both tests. I have taken both tests before, the TOEFL has expired while my GRE score is still valid; I decided to register for another GRE in order to improve my AW score of 3.5 (Q & V are quite high) and because the difference in cost is almost negligible since I am getting 4 score reports with the new registration which will allow me to send both scores. sirRiddy is quite right, you should be cautious. I was too, so I decided to go in person to their office before I registered; they seem legit, but I will leave you to make your own decision as I can't assure you that they aren't using a stolen card as he said.

Helo pals! still new here, am in search of GRE Ebooks to eid my preparation. I have sent blank mails to those email address but no reply.
Can anyone please help out.
Thanks and God bless
Victorjoel75@gmail.com

Topiipii:
I am writing TOEFL on September 17th and GRE on September 29th. The registrations and dates are reflected in my accounts on the ETS websites for both tests. I have taken both tests before, the TOEFL has expired while my GRE score is still valid; I decided to register for another GRE in order to improve my AW score of 3.5 (Q & V are quite high) and because the difference in cost is almost negligible since I am getting 4 score reports with the new registration which will allow me to send both scores. sirRiddy is quite right, you should be cautious. I was too, so I decided to go in person to their office before I registered; they seem legit, but I will leave you to make your own decision as I can't assure you that they aren't using a stolen card as he said.

The offer is enticing yes but it is for the celebration of their fifth year Anniversary. B.Y Mafit is a household name in GRE Toefl, Gmat, admission processing and all that. The offer ends 15th of August. Their office address is 77, Awolowo road Ikeja (Man house)Lagos. I don't work there but am just a satisfied customer who knows them. I was in that office to take advantage of that offer 4days ago after my previous encounter with them in 2014. Let your instinct lead you. D purpose of my write up is for information and not convinction.

MimiHANS:
@sirRiddy


You've got a PM, Sir.

Hi
Hope you got the materials

Great scores! You want to make people like us go hide for somewhere. I give it to you, you're just too motivated. A full-time job and a family, and then scoring well on the GRE? Thumbs up, Ma. We all develop nerves, especially for a test like the GRE. It's how the test is designed.
So, you're not alone.
If you rewrite and achieve better scores, it won't disturb in any way. The schools will use your last reported scores in your admission. But, I want to ask; do you really think a 162 Q isn't good enough to get into a decent PhD program? In my opinion, so far it wasn't an act beyond your control like traffic or ill-health, I think you're better off developing other aspects of the application (see SOP and LORs).
I understand how you feel, the first few days after seeing your scores aren't that lovely. Especially when you feel you should have performed better. It will pass, I promise. Arrange your profile, as it is, and inquire how you stack up in your desired programs.
All the best.

drhopeful:
So I also wrote the GRE and would love to share my experience. First of all, I am very disappointed with my scores. Infact, I have been very depressed since I got my official scores. Granted I am not very good in Verbal/Writing but I believe I can still get decent scores.

I wrote GRE on August 4 in Port Harcourt. I had to travel from Akwa Ibom to Rivers that morning. Left my house at about 5.30am so I could beat all the PH traffic. Got to the venue about 1.5hrs early. Check in started at about 9am and took almost 2 hours.

I finally got to my seat and immediately exam nerves kicked in. Staggered and managed to get on with the issue essay. Wrote for about 20+ mins before I realized I had misread the topic. No time to remedy. I believe I would have scored a 3 here. For the argument, I barely had time to collect my thoughts. I basically ended up asking questions without answers that would weaken or strengthen the argument. Big poo.... I believe I would have scored a 4 here. Finally AW result....3.5 vs 4.5 I was targeting.

I got 3 wicked verbal sections. So tough that I could not tell which was experimental section. Even the TCs and SEs were so convoluted talkless of those long recondite RCs....bloody hell. The RCs were all about american revolution history and arts nonsense, I just could not understand them at all. Anyway, I ended up with an abysmal 150. My target was 155.

I consider myself a fair maths guru but those quant questions, while not so tough, needed more time to solve. I found myself running out of time. Had to guess on some complex questions and move on. I ended up with 162. I was targeting 165.

I was studying on and off for a few months, never really had enough time to be honest. I work full time and still have to care for a husband and child. It should not be an excuse, but its really tough managing a family, working and still having to study.

Special thanks to sirriddy. That guy is so selfless, was never tired of listening to my whinings. Kept encouraging me to push on. May God continue to bless him.

I really salute the likes of nastydamus and babisho! Kudos to you guys for your scores. I envy you both.

I am considering rewriting but very nervous. I am a PhD hopeful; I know my scores are not good enough and will taint the other excellent parts of my application.

I have a question to ask..... I had reported those scores to my schools. Won't it affect my chances even if i rewrite and achieve better scores?

P.S. Pardon my typo/grammatical errors. I am typing from a phone.

For those of you looking for GRE,GMAT,TOEFL, and other materials, you can get it on www.study-preps.com for free.
Still working on it and will try uploading some video for study help as well.
Don't forget to comment as a way to show appreciation and refer your friends as well

happyday:
Great scores! You want to make people like us go hide for somewhere. I give it to you, you're just too motivated. A full-time job and a family, and then scoring well on the GRE? Thumbs up, Ma. We all develop nerves, especially for a test like the GRE. It's how the test is designed.
So, you're not alone.
If you rewrite and achieve better scores, it won't disturb in any way. The schools will use your last reported scores in your admission. But, I want to ask; do you really think a 162 Q isn't good enough to get into a decent PhD program? In my opinion, so far it wasn't an act beyond your control like traffic or ill-health, I think you're better off developing other aspects of the application (see SOP and LORs).
I understand how you feel, the first few days after seeing your scores aren't that lovely. Especially when you feel you should have performed better. It will pass, I promise. Arrange your profile, as it is, and inquire how you stack up in your desired programs.
All the best.

Baddo happyday, stop flattering me. Lol. But thanks really. I guess I just don't want a prof to be iffy about my application. I really can do this PhD and I don't want this yeye test to mar my chances. 162Q can't cover for both bad V and AW. I would not be so worried if I scored a 4 in AW. Ah!!!! But I don't want to rewrite that bloody exam if I don't have to. But there is just no way to tell.

.

kaima2015:
Thanks @ DanjaNinja....I strongly believe we Nigerians can make it.....with a combined score of 320 plus and an AWA score of 5.0, you are good to go for a PhD admission and full scholarship......for most Ivy League schools this is all they require (they usually place a very strong emphasis on the GRE) and a CGPA of at least 3.5/4.0

There is this wonderful book by Professor Julie Prosselt "Inside Graduate Admissions".....a most read for international students ...where she interviewed several Graduate Admission Commitees on the criteria they use to select students.....and do you know that Graduate Admission Committees place a preference for Minorities (Blacks, Africans etc) and American students?....they use the same standard for these two groups and use a higher standard for the Chinese and Indians (because some ""believe"" they cheat )

Thanks for this beautiful piece of information. God bless you for this.

Please how do I get study materials like magoosh videos

babisho:
So I wrote the GRE too and i'll like to share a bit of my experience. 
Analytical writing: 4.5 (82nd percentile).
Quantitative reasoning: 158 (70th percentile).
Verbal reasoning: 164 (94th percentile).

Quantitative: . As u can see above my math is average, so I have nothing much to say...well, except that whoever wants to do well must know how to manage time. Given adequate time, the questions can be answered. But the time ETS gives is so-so for average math guys like myself. Add exam nerves and 10 +10 which should take a millisecond to answer takes more time than appropriate. Bottom time:
1. take timed tests while practicing. It helps with pacing and this is absolutely key. 
2. U don't have to answer all questions and it is important to know when to let a question go. The silly exam has "time wasters". Nothing hurts as much as finding that u spent 4-5 minutes on a particularly question (which u aren't certain u got right by the way), only to find that there are some pretty cheap (takes less than a min) questions u no longer have time for. Again. Bottom line. If u're spending too long on a question when u haven't seen all the questions, u're setting urself up and it's a pretty bad strategy. Better to go through all questions, murder d cheap questions and then if time permits, face d hard ones. 

P.s: I think this should be pretty obvious, but u'll find it surprising that it is hard to let a question go and to move on in d real exam. So again. Practice ur pacing with timed tests. 

VERBAL. 
My score here suggests that I have a bit of a "bragging right" and I probably know what I'm saying. (lol). Unfortunately, I don't have a quick fix solution here. But for the long haulers who have a couple of months to prepare, here I think is a good strategy. The verbal as we all know is 20 questions per session. 10 reading comprehension, 5 sentence equivalence and 5 text completion. 
Good news: the sentence equivalence and text completion can be destroyed quickly, leaving ample time to face the convoluted, opaque, recondite and abstruse (haha! Bloody hell. I show off)...difficult to understand reading comprehension passages. 

So this was my routine. I used aldaily.com everyday for several months. Aldaily.com basically recommends 3 essays daily for its readers. Now one has to attack these essays. Not just a cursory reading. The essays are academic, high literary, GRE language styled. Some of them are from newyorK times, New yorker, LA review of books, London review of books, aeon magazine, new Republic, the Atlantic bla bla bla. The point in reading all these is that one then begins to see various writing styles. The way people shift their sentences, the nuances and subtleties, and of course GRE type words and vocabulary. Now with these new words, I had a list I was keeping. Upon seeing a new word, I would go to vocabulary.com. The advantage of vocabulary.com is that it not only gives the meaning of words in simple language, it gives SEVERAL examples of usage. In seeing those examples, one appreciates how the words can be used in sentences.  

If one can conscientiously follow this routine, what happens is that u find that sentence comprehension and text completion questions become a godsend. The time one spends answering the questions remarkably drops, leaving time for the reading comprehension. U'll become so used to the sentences u'll be able to predict what goes into what in the text completion, and sentence equivalence becomes rediculously cheap.  Of course the voracious reading would also help with reading comprehension generally, but men! Those questions, bloody freaking hell! 

P.s. I didn't say anything about reading comprehension strategy. Here I think magoosh GRE blog offers excellent advice. So u won't lose anything by checking out magoosh.com/gre and reading the blog. 
‎
I might also have oversimplified the process of reading those essays from aldaily.com. Sometimes it is so much tedium and mental drudgery u just want to close the page, and leave the essays...when u get to this point, know that u're not alone. Even the best of us struggle with some of these passages and sometimes there's so much jargon in the passages u begin to think they are straight from hell. Besides, it really doesn't hurt doing well in the exam and not wasting money (the $205 these days...pretty hard to come by)

Finally on analytic writing, i'm interested in knowing anyone who has scored 5 or more. I know people get it, but I think the exam is rigged. Unless u type pretty fast of course. But that's by d way. My advise here is to use official material from ETS. Especially sample essays and reader commentaries. By the time u focus on samples that are scored 4 or 5 or 6, u'll begin to see what u have to do to get the required scores. So please, read the official examples. Sorry, read is an understatement...study them. 

Overall, abeg practice, practice and more practice, there is no short cut. Good luck and see yah all in America. ‎

seangozy:
Please how do I get study materials like magoosh videos

There's a link on page 42 dropped by cephas, that's where I downloaded from. Over 1gb in size.

Please can someone give me the latest breakdown of the question types of both Verbal and Quantitative section.

Thanks

iCool:
I have been working towards writing both the GRE and TOEFL by the end of September...

My head wan catch fire!


I have almost all the materials needed for the GRE in port harcourt.

The package includes soft copies of the following: Barron, Princeton Review, ETS Official guide, Manhattan 8booklets and the heavy Premium Magoosh videos.

Nothing yet on the TOEFL, might start gathering stuffs from tonight. We will definitely survive.

Have u registered for d test?..... I also intend writing mine during same period in PH too. Success to all of us.

drhopeful:
Baddo happyday, stop flattering me. Lol. But thanks really. I guess I just don't want a prof to be iffy about my application. I really can do this PhD and I don't want this yeye test to mar my chances. 162Q can't cover for both bad V and AW. I would not be so worried if I scored a 4 in AW. Ah!!!! But I don't want to rewrite that bloody exam if I don't have to. But there is just no way to tell.

you have got great scores....sincerely

I tried to advise you on the school that will consider....but i guess I got banned for a while...you can pm for the info...kudos

DanjaNinja:
Thanks for this beautiful piece of information. God bless you for this.

Thanks @DanjaNinja

iCool can you please send the softcopy of Manhattan 8booklets to my email ( grealyterry@yahoo.com ) please.. Thanks in advance

kaima2015:
wonderful book by Professor Julie Posselt "Inside Graduate Admissions".....a most read for international students

this book came out this year....you can download her PhD Thesis Work (2013) which is free online.....what she wrote in the New Book came from that study

do you have a link to download this book. I'd like to read it

safex101:
iCool can you please send the softcopy of Manhattan 8booklets to my email ( grealyterry@yahoo.com ) please.. Thanks in advance

Me too, we will be grateful (lawaldare@gmail.com)

doziej84:
do you have a link to download this book. I'd like to read it

drop email will send you the pdf copy

Hello guys, I see some great works here.
I need GRE and TOEFL materials to fine tune my readiness for the two tests. My mail address is cnejieji@gmail.com.

However, if you have study packs and you are resident in Lagos, I'll love to get them on my external hard drive if you don't mind.


Cheers

Please how did you guys register online.. I have been trying to pay using my mastercard.. please I need info on how to go about this.. thanks

Toakins:
Please how did you guys register online.. I have been trying to pay using my mastercard.. please I need info on how to go about this.. thanks

Open a PayPal account and link it to your bank account. When you reach the payment page on ets website, choose PayPal and fill in the required information. Cheers

seeker88:
Have u registered for d test?..... I also intend writing mine during same period in PH too. Success to all of us.

I haven't registered yet, not in so much of a hurry (working towards Summer 2017 admissions) and I am also watching the dollar cos I will be paying for the toefl also.

@safex101 and helenmi, the books are to large to be attached to my mail, I have tried severally. That was why I offered giving it in person. Its about 110mb for them.

iCool:
@safex101 and helenmi, the books are to large to be attached to my mail, I have tried severally. That was why I offered giving it in person. Its about 110mb for them.

Can you attach it to dropbox and give us the link.

ipledge01:
Can you attach it to dropbox and give us the link.

I dropped the link on page 98.