₦airaland Forum

user4321:
So, in the spirit of giving back, i'm going to be writing a very lengthy post about my GRE journey on a Month by month Basis


I sincerely hope somebody finds this useful. Hopefully the admission journey ends well too.
EDIT: GRAMMAR

Thank you for this!
Long and interesting read!

mtope:
I need a study partner too

I sent my contact to your mail, check and let's link up. Thanks

So, in the spirit of giving back, i'm going to be writing a very lengthy post about my GRE journey on a Month by month Basis

DECEMBER
It was late in December that I made the conscious decision to write the GRE test. Prior to that moment, I had always wanted to write, I even took the quant power prep test in my 400 level to test the waters. The few times I took the power prep I never dipped below (163) in Quant; but I avoided the verbal entirely due to some carry over fear from my SAT test days ( I performed very poorly on the SAT Verbal reasoning part [not sure they call it verbal, can't remember]). I avoided the verbal, all through till, I made the conscious to write. Knowing how much I flopped in the SAT, and the false confidence that ETS Power prep had given me ( Power prep is way simpler compared to the real deal), I decided to focus more of my attention on the Verbal part of the GRE. Then I got a Job, making things slightly complicated.
I proceeded to do what every well meaning Nigerian Did, I went to Torrent, and free E book sites, and download all the top GRE books listed Below.
1. Princeton Review Cracking the GRE
2. Manhattan Series, everything.
3. ETS official guide to the GRE, E-pub versions
4. Barron's GRE Vocabulary
5. Magoosh Free E-books (never used them at last)

JANUARY
January came live a swift breeze, and I knew my biggest problem was the vocabulary, and I had to level up. So I went to the woman in front of my former apartment and purchased a 60 leaves notebook for my gre prep. And I decided to go with two options, the Magoosh word list ( very fantastic), and the Barron's GRE word list ( equally fantastic). And I planned to review them in the morning, just before work or on my way to work, and at nights when I got back from work. At this point, I still had all the left over false confidence from the ETS power prep practice that I had done, and still actively refused to prepare for the quant section. As I started preparing for the vocabulary, and noting down the words, I decided to record myself saying the words and the definitions. This recording turned out to be a very good idea, as i would play the recordings on my way to work. So after I learned a hundred new words, I would record the words with my laptop, and then transfer to my phone for continuous listening. In the first month I was quite disappointed as a i would continuously forget the words or simply just mix them up; and worse, when I tried text Completion questions, I would preform woefully. But I pressed on; on the dark mornings plying third mainland bridge I would listen to myself spouting vocab via my headsets, and on traffic laden evenings I would do the same. At this time I purchased the Kaplan GRE prep plus on amazon kindle. And on the last Saturday of January, I decided to take a practice test at the back of Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE. I performed quite average, scoring about 26/40 in the verbal. Some words seemed familiar fr the first time ever. It was after this time, I also made a conscious decision to take a practice test every weekend.
I started meticulously reading the Princeton Review book at this time, jotting down their every strategy, especially that of the verbal section.
I memorized this strategies, and took them to heart, they seemed pretty superior at the time, and well suited for the practice tests contained in the book. I tried my hands on the quantitative questions in the book, and found them also easy, reinforcing my previously gained faux confidence.

FEBRUARY
Work was starting to get pretty intense, but I stuck to my schedule faithfully. At this time, my vocab had improved tremendously, I was getting familiar with the weird words, My recordings were turning into a full fledged album. And I was quite happy with my performance on the Princeton review exercises. Pretty soon, I had exhausted all the verbal materials on the book, and my once pristine 60 leaves notebook, was now almost filled to the brim. at this point, I decided to take the power prep once again. I muzzled through, and at the end of what seemed to be like eternity, I saw a score of 327 (Q165, V162). I was quite happy, telling myself the unnecessary prevarication that it was just silly mistakes that robbed me off a perfect score, and that the quant section was beans ( I would come to regret this foolishness). I decided to turn my sights to Princeton reviews' quant section, and it was pretty brief, and i went through it quite quickly feeling like the bad guy I thought
I actually was. By the end of the second week of February, my vocab had grown beyond my imagination, and I was doing quite fine as I wanted, so I decided to set my sights to the Reading comprehension. The RC strategies in Princeton review was nice ( but turned out to be very terrible) . I also jotted them down and took them to heart, but at this time, I was out of questions in the book, so i decided to finally open my amazon kindle reader to check my Kaplan GRE prep plus 2019 book. I went straight to the exercises there, and did very well in the quant ( Turned out Kaplan quant is too easy), and did just about okay in the verbal. I decided to read the book whole, giving more attention to the verbal. The verbal section seemed quite similar to the one's i found in Princeton review, so again I just simply breezed through. And by the third week of February, I decided to take a standard test after a short hiatus.
Lucky for me, the kindle book came with access to Kaplan online test prep portal. So i logged on to the portal, and decided to do the full length practice test. The results were absolutely abysmal, coming out at 313 (Q157 V156). Maybe I was just in bad mood, but man, the results were destabilizing. So i decided to up my practice game.

MARCH
In the spirit of upping my practice game, I retook the same power prep test I had taken before, with the scores coming out at 334 (Q169, V165). this turned out to be a very terrible Idea, because I don't easily forget exam questions, So I was simply just retaking questions I had knew the answers to already. Around this time I was wrapping up my vocab learning, as I had covered all of Magoosh' words, and Barron's words. I was quite confident that My exam coming up in three weeks was going to be superb, with me even dreaming of a perfect score. Then out of boredom, one fateful saturday , on the second week of march, i decided to try my hands on Manhattan questions. As you would expect, i performed very poorly, this made me really afraid that I had practically wasted three months doing nonsense. So i came back to this honorable thread, and gleaned for useful information, with most people recommending the Nova Math bible. I swiftly went to download the book, I hated the structure of the book, but I put my petty hate and decided to read the book cover to cover to salvage my quant. Exam day was quickly approaching, so i hurriedly went through the book, and stumbled upon the Princeton review crash course book, and reviewed that too. After completing both books, I took a shot at another practice test, and the result cam out as 322 ( Q164, V158). This was way more terrible than I had thought, so i took practice tests to a halt, and tried to rescue my verbal score situation. It turns out that the Princeton review's comprehension strategy was utter TRASH. I decided to use the Kaplan online resource ( whose access comes with the kindle book) to access their comprehensive tutorial on Reading comprehension passages on the GRE verbal. I paid attention, and noted every detail sedulously. I knew instinctively, that this was the one. Kaplan comprehension strategy turned out to be the absolute BEST. It even helped me in my TOEFL (story for another day). Comprehension became the least of my problems with the Kaplan strategy, and it made me really happy, that TC & SC were just the wild cards. Meanwhile, I turned to Manhattan for Quant strategy guidelines, but it was a tad bit too late as my exam was coming up i less than a week.
As exam day approached quickly, I decided to draw up a strategy for AWA, and Kaplan made this very easy, and I stuck the one stated below
=====ISSUE ESSAY=========
I. Preview both sides of the matter, using anecdotal evidence or story (which can be fictional, Reddit taught me this). and state your position very clearly
I. list three paragraphs with three example supporting your position, and the possible pitfalls to the story
III. summarize and conclude
======ARGUMENT ESSAY=====
I. Paraphrase the argument and state unequivocally that the argument is unconvincing
II. In three paragraphs also, point out three holes, assumption, unanswered question in the argument with some anecdotal evidence (which again can be completely fictional, but tread carefully).
III. Beyond listing the argument shortfalls, recommend ways that the argument can be improved and conclude.
...
This was exactly what I needed for the AWA, and Kaplan gave it to me Nicely. As a programmer typing fast wasn't at all a problem, as an amateur writer, pulling fiction from thin air was a bit of my specialty. So i was pretty solid for the AWA. I reviewed the Manhattan quant series again, and confident that I had improved I proceeded to take a series of full time practice test with results stated below
I. 322 (Q162 V160)
II 323 (Q162 V161)
III 325 (Q164 V161)
IV 327 (Q166 V161)
at this point , I was quite confident that I couldn't score below 320, which had become like some sort of mental minimum. Which unfortunately fueled some false confidence again in me.
A week to the test, and I was wrapping up preparations, I was noting some constant source of errors, and assuring myself that I wouldn't make those silly mistakes. At this point I had mastered 1000+ difficult Vocab words by heart, and was okay with my RC technique which kaplan had taught me. Since I had pretty much run out practice questions, I decided to shop online for free questions, I stumbled upon Manhattan GRE prep website. They said the first test was free, So I swiftly registered, and made plans to complete the test that weekend.
weekend breezed in pretty quickly, and it was now two days to my exam, so I settled to take the Manhattan free test. The verbal section was nothing out of the ordinary, but a rude awakening reared it's ugly head in the quant section. I struggled to complete each section before my time exhausted, and I was pretty clueless on some questions. I was beaten down emotionally at that point, and the score came out as 321 (Q161, V160). I missed 11 quant questions!!!!!!. I decided to go online and make myself feel good ( very terrible mistake). And i saw similar complaints from people on Quora and Reddit about how unusually hard Manhattan prep actually was. At that I justified my failure with the lie that the actual GRE was going to be simpler than what I had just experienced. Little did I know that , that single practice test was the biggest indicator of my test day result.

TEST DAY 1
In summary, Test day was very similar to what I experienced in Manhattan prep test. I struggled very much on the time, I couldn't manage time, and worse I got an experimental quant section, and it just made my day worse. scores came out at 324 (Q163, V161), eerily similar to what I had gotten on the Manhattan test prep. I was disappointed in myself. I called one of my good friends way back, let me call him Euler. Euler told me point blank that my score was shitty ( Good friends don't lie to you grin grin), and that It wasn't superb enough for the schools I had in mind. I brushed his truth bombs aside, and swore that I was never going to rewrite the GRE. In my own words "I can't through this stress ever again in my life". I kept repeating that sentence in my head, but in the end truth prevails. One day while in the shower, I told myself the simple truth, for my plans, my score was quite shitty, and decided I was going to rewrite, and this time I mustn't repeat the same mistake.

APRIL
I decided that U was going to right my wrings in the Quant section, and hold my stand in the verbal section, I was hoping for a 10 point improvement and aiming at (Q170 V164). I decided that I was going to shell extra $50 on the Manhattan 6 pack test Series; and that I did as soon BY Mafit (Awesome guys) took my order. while searching google for "How to get a perfect score on the GRE", I came accross a redditor saying that the ETS GRE Math review was a must. Up until that point, I had never heard of the ETS Math review (https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_math_review.pdf), so I swiftly downloaded it, and realized that It contained all the essential areas ETS was going to test for in the quant section, very plainly. I went through this pdf meticulously, and I began to see my folly very clearly, and realized that I wasn't as ready as a I thought I was for the quant. in addition to the freely available pdf, the Manhattan GRE strategies and Quant book was recommended. I also swiftly download, and decided to go through the book from cover to cover. The revelations were startling, I had a serious gap in my trick back for the gre. From simple line Geometry to Combinatoric problems, the Manhattan book laid it out all bare, showing all of ETS nuances and BS. This was just the medicine I needed, I Went over the book once more, and was hungry for questions to determine my pacing. It was at this time that I stumbled upon http://greprepclub.com , the forum had questions and had a timer you could use to pace yourself as you moved along. It was the perfect website for me, I could select questions by difficulty and topics. So I swept through the hard questions day by day; at first I wasn't get a lot of question s correct, and my avg. time was 3 mins:40 secs, but with consistent practice, I was down to about 2:00 mins for very difficult questions, and I was coasting through the hard questions easily. Finally I could see what ETS was seeing. So I carved out time for my Paid Test and I got the following scores
I. Q170 V162
II. Q164 V161
III.Q166 V160
IV. Q164 V158
V. Q163 V N/A
for most of the tests I kept failing just 3 questions ( but Manhattan punishes you severely to not give you overconfidence), and I wasn't failing the questions because I didn't know them; clicking the wrong answers and wrong value take-down were just the main reasons. Although I wasn't getting the score I wanted, I was much more confident that I was ready for ETS, all the while practicing my verbal.

TEST DAY 2
I fervently prayed for experimental verbal section, I needed just 2 quant sections to free me of wahala and doubt. I was much more calm, I solved more neatly, and could spot my own errors, and I was skeptical, b'cause I thought most of the questions were too simple to be true, but I pressed on.
result came out as Q169 V162. I was visibly happy, and even attracted one of the TCA's attention, but Baba sef smiled when he saw my score.

MY ADVICE
1. Never Underestimate the GRE, better to overestimate ETS
2. If your're looking for very high Quant score, for the Love of God, do not Use Kaplan or princeton review, or even Nova. STICK TO THE ETS MATH REVIEW (https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_math_review.pdf), AND MANHATTAN.
3. KAPLAN Seems to be the best bet for Reading comprehension, very sound strategies
4. Practice consistently as much as possible, i took a total of about 49 practice test, both free and paid. GRE is a 100 meter dash not a marathon, do it quickly and forget about it.
5. Glean info from quora, Nairaland, Reddit, greprepclub etc. just maybe your solution lies there , like it was the case for me.
6. Don't waste your time learning too much vocabulary, learn key one's and focus on sentence structure; the devil is in the details
7. Learn to solve quickly, but neatly, on a scratch paper. you're likelier to catch errors if you work this way.
8. Finally from Manhattan (I followed these rules religiously)
--*Do the questions in the order in which they appear.
--*When you encounter a difficult question, do your best to eliminate answer choices that you know are wrong.
--*If you’re not sure of an answer, take an educated guess from the choices remaining. Do NOT skip it and hope to return to it later.

I sincerely hope somebody finds this useful. Hopefully the admission journey ends well too.

EDIT: GRAMMAR

Started!

user4321:
So, in the spirit of giving back, i'm going to be writing a very lengthy post about my GRE journey on a Month by month Basis


I sincerely hope somebody finds this useful. Hopefully the admission journey ends well too.
EDIT: GRAMMAR

Hey guys few questions pls.

1) Does anyone have the mahattan 6 practice test
2) For the exam whats the advisable time to arrive b4 the slated time, also do they provide ear plugs to avoid typing noises

Thanks

favor100:
Hey guys few questions pls.

1) Does anyone have the mahattan 6 practice test
2) For the exam whats the advisable time to arrive b4 the slated time, also do they provide ear plugs to avoid typing noises

Thanks

1. The Manhattan 6 test pack isn't a pdf file, its a web portal. You have to pay $50 to access it... you can join with someone to share the cost
2. Dragnet Prometric provides noise cancelling headphones; they are comfy and work very very well. For arrival time, best to arrive one hour before, to get familiar with the place.

user4321:
1. The Manhattan 6 test pack isn't a pdf file, its a web portal. You have to pay $50 to access it... you can join with someone to share the cost
2. Dragnet Prometric provides noise cancelling headphones; they are comfy and work very very well. For arrival time, best to arrive one hour before, to get familiar with the place.

I really love your advice and courage
Pls do they allow calculator in qunat section or not
I wish to smash 330 once though am still an undergraduate
Any other useful advice
Planning to write GRE early next year

Came across another gre group on Facebook they have good materials... Especially tests and all....


Check them out... They are worth your time... In case you don't some of them...

GRE,TOEFEL,IELTS material -
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5HI5uTeYfmJaElqQTFwaFAwVG8

GMAT -
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwdHKX8qDf3URDZXUDA0aUlLbE0

extra material for GRE -
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1U4uLuP7vJzflgyX2E1YkwwUHEzM05YUUcwR2M1V1Fjdjc2ZWoxMWg2X3AtRlRjSXhGMlE&usp=drive_web


Check out the extra material it's very key

reigningme:
Thank you for your reply. PLEASE I NEED THE LATEST SOFT COPY OF GRE MATERIALS TO PREPARE. Regards.

horlahsunbo225:
I really love your advice and courage
Pls do they allow calculator in qunat section or not
I wish to smash 330 once though am still an undergraduate
Any other useful advice
Planning to write GRE early next year

Ets will provide an onscreen Calculator, that is very very basic. For advice , I think I've said it all. But a good score is very subjective, and is peculiar to time and place. For working professionals a 320+ would have been just fine, then again, only you knows what you are truly capable of.

user4321:
Test Day
I woke up by 5:04 AM, and proceeded to fry egg, and toast 6 bread slices, for break fast. I went over all my strategies once more, and boarded a bus to Law school B/Stop. Then I trekked down to dragnet prometric. I made small talk with a lady I met there.
AWA
I went through the AWA quickly and confidently, writing about 900 words for each essay. The keyboard I got was better than the last time, so i had ample time to proofread.
VERBAL
I prayed for a first verbal section fervently, because I realized that would mean no experimental Quant section ( which I feel bleeped me up last time). So I was really happy when I got a verbal section first. I went through it in 15 Mins (I don't waste time on verbal). And I rightly predicted, I got three verbal sections. I really didn't care which one
RESULT
QUANTITATIVE- 169
VERBAL - 162
TOTAL - 331

SCHOOLS
STANFORD UNIVERSITY -PHD
UT AUSTIN - PHD
RICE - PHD
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS - PHD

GPA
4.74/5
WES (UNOFFICIAL) 3.82/4.0

cc- quoran scholastica16

Congratulations. Very great scores. Great Akokites!

user4321:
Ets will provide an onscreen Calculator, that is very very basic. For advice , I think I've said it all. But a good score is very subjective, and is peculiar to time and place. For working professionals a 320+ would have been just fine, then again, only you knows what you are truly capable of.

Thanks

Thanks. congrats to you on your stellar performance. wishing you greater heights in your academic endeavour

user4321:
1. The Manhattan 6 test pack isn't a pdf file, its a web portal. You have to pay $50 to access it... you can join with someone to share the cost
2. Dragnet Prometric provides noise cancelling headphones; they are comfy and work very very well. For arrival time, best to arrive one hour before, to get familiar with the place.

I find it interesting ( slightly worrying) that on my Quant I keep averaging btw 146 and 155 and I thought maths was my favourite subject o coming from engineering background but gre math is showing me something else. pls what am I missing cus i know the concepts are understandable but gre math just seems slightly tricky. it would be nice to atleast get 160 .what's your advice guys.

Hi guys! Does anyone know any government hospital where I can get MMR, meningitis and tetanus immunization in Abuja?

Wasmandhiya:
Hello house, I've I'm new on this thread and I wish I knew about it few months ago. I took the GRE test in March and scored V152, Q145 Awa 3.5. I felt really bad as I prepared for just 3 weeks. I was informed by a POI to submit a formal application. I didn't even have a Toefl score yet. My application status still reads "no decision" I have every reason to believe that my application was not forwarded to the department due to incomplete application (I've not written Toefl).
I'm over it now, but I want to take the tests again for Fall 2020 and I need study partners.

My profile
BSc Geology 6.2/7.0 First class
OND Geology 4.48/5.0
I'm interested in PhD or MSc position in near-surface geophysics. I'll appreciate any recommendations for appropriate schools.
Thanks all.

When did you finish from UI?

Hello Guys,
I have written the Gre twice. Once in 2014 I scored 140 Q 146 V; the second time was in 2017 where I scored 150 Q 148 V. After that second score, I was so discouraged I gave up totally. However, I recently told myself "why not try again"? As long as I'm alive and healthy, why not? The most painful part was that I took the Toefl IBT exams and scored 110. It would have been perfect in combination with better Gre scores.
I'm looking to do a PhD in environmental sciences and I need a high score to attract funding. To that end, this time around, I have resolved to make use of good tutors, instead of self help as I did in those times past.
Please guys, can anyone recommend tested and trusted tutors to me (around Egbeda, Iyana Ipaja area). Emphasis on tested and trusted please.
God bless us all.

TJ0987:
Hello Guys,
I have written the Gre twice. Once in 2014 I scored 140 Q 146 V; the second time was in 2017 where I scored 150 Q 148 V. After that second score, I was so discouraged I gave up totally. However, I recently told myself "why not try again"? As long as I'm alive and healthy, why not? The most painful part was that I took the Toefl IBT exams and scored 110. It would have been perfect in combination with better Gre scores.
I'm looking to do a PhD in environmental sciences and I need a high score to attract funding. To that end, this time around, I have resolved to make use of good tutors, instead of self help as I did in those times past.
Please guys, can anyone recommend tested and trusted tutors to me (around Egbeda, Iyana Ipaja area). Emphasis on tested and trusted please.
God bless us all.

Or would you advise I pay for Magoosh premium package instead (and probably practice with it for 3 months). I really want to get it right this time.
I would appreciate your responses. Thanks guys...

user4321:
So, in the spirit of giving back, i'm going to be writing a very lengthy post about my GRE journey on a Month by month Basis


I sincerely hope somebody finds this useful. Hopefully the admission journey ends well too.

EDIT: GRAMMAR

Thanks for giving back to this great thread. Your admission is on the way that I can feel.

I am ready to link up with study partners for the GRE prep. for those interested.

VERY URGENT

Hello house,

Please does anyone have an idea if money invested in Treasury Bills can be used as evidence of the money in one's account?
The maturation of this Treasury Bill would be after Fall 2019 resumption.

Hello house
Am a medical radiographer graduated last year hoping to do nysc this year, my question is which test should I sit for if I want to study abroad thanks in anticipation

TJ0987:
Or would you advise I pay for Magoosh premium package instead (and probably practice with it for 3 months). I really want to get it right this time.
I would appreciate your responses. Thanks guys...

Magoosh sounds like a good idea , if you do learn well from video instructions. But beyond getting tutorials, or paying for an online service, you need to take real simulated tests, like the Kaplan (In difficult mode), or the Manhattan Practice Test. The aim of the practice tests at first would be to extract features of yourself in timed test situations. For example you may discover that you get bogged down by the Reading comprehension passages, or that you consistently flop in 3 blank text completions (Like I did ). After finding out the kind of mistakes you're most likely to make subconsciously, the next step would be to attack the easiest one's at first. For example, I discovered that I was in the terrible habit, of plugging in and testing answers in the text completion parts of the tests, and seeing if they sounded sweet in my ears; fortunately, Kaplan had a good antidote, "come up with your own words, first", and that way I didn't fall into my own trap again.
As for the quant, studying engineering isn't a guarantee of a high score, as the ETS puts a lot of trappings, and thorn filled nests for test takers. in my experience, the best place to hustle for marks would be the Quantitative Comparison, and the Data interpretation. The questions from these sub sections are straightforward, and heeding to sound strategies from a prep company like Magoosh can make the difference.
Overall, consistently taking timed practice test ( and being brutally honest about it) is a very good way to improve. Find a quiet corner, get Internet connection, and a laptop, and simulate for 3 hours 45 mins, at least once a week. I'm confident that you would break the 300 ceiling.

EDIT: GRAMMAR

elisinho:
Hello house
Am a medical radiographer graduated last year hoping to do nysc this year, my question is which test should I sit for if I want to study abroad thanks in anticipation

1. GRE
2. TOEFL/IELTS--not mandatory but it is advisable

nelem:
1. GRE
2. TOEFL/IELTS--not mandatory but it is advisable

Thanks I so much appreciate your help

[quote author=Erec post=75978375][/quote]shoot me a mail: eulerciva@gmail.com let's relate.

I thank you for your time.

user4321:
Magoosh sounds like a good idea , if you do learn well from video instructions. But beyond getting tutorials, or paying for an online service, you need to take real simulated tests, like the Kaplan (In difficult mode), or the Manhattan Practice Test. The aim of the practice tests at first would be to extract features of yourself in timed test situations. For example you may discover that you get bogged down by the Reading comprehension passages, or that you consistently flop in 3 blank text completions (Like I did ). After finding out the kind of mistakes you're most likely to make subconsciously, the next step would be to attack the easiest one's at first. For example, I discovered that I was in the terrible habit, of plugging in and testing answers in the text completion parts of the tests, and seeing if they sounded sweet in my ears; fortunately, Kaplan had a good antidote, "come up with your own words, first", and that way I didn't fall into my own trap again.
As for the quant, studying engineering isn't a guarantee of a high score, as the ETS puts a lot of trappings, and thorn filled nests for test takers. in my experience, the best place to hustle for marks would be the Quantitative Comparison, and the Data interpretation. The questions from these sub sections are straightforward, and heeding to sound strategies from a prep company like Magoosh can make the difference.
Overall, consistently taking timed practice test ( and being brutally honest about it) is a very good way to improve. Find a quiet corner, get Internet connection, and a laptop, and simulate for 3 hours 45 mins, at least once a week. I'm confident that you would break the 300 ceiling.

EDIT: GRAMMAR

NoelJunior:
Good evening Scholars,

The last couple of months have been traumatic for me, following the shock loss of my foster-father, hence my inability to respond and make contributions on this wonderful thread. Thank you CptCharlesVane, Instinct20, fame12k for your prompt and encouraging responses to my earlier post.
I got an offer from K-State with funding as a GTA (full tuition + stipend), it is the first decision out of two.

MY GRE AND TOEFL

I prepared for the GRE for 3 weeks and used only the ETS official guides. After two weeks I took the first powerprep and had Q157, V152. A couple of days before the actual test I took the second powerprep and had Q162, V153. I do not intend to make other materials lose relevance but for prospective test takers, please endeavor to also use the official prep materials (if possible begin with them) and take simulated tests prior to the exam.
In a like manner, I practiced for the TOEFL using the ETS guide. I practiced listening using VOA, TedTalks, documentaries and CNN. For the speaking, I would not recommend going in with “templates” as the questions may not fit well with them. I suggest you speak freely and flow naturally but on-point.
For those applying to study STEM courses, please endeavor to learn R and MATLAB/GNU Octave software. A friend who got into the Geophysics program of a top Canadian School is really finding it challenging without proficiency in the software. There are free tutorials in form of books and videos online but if they are difficult to access, please feel free to contact me.

SOP

Please make effort to spend good time in writing your SOP. I used, on the average, 4 days per paragraph in drafting my SOP. Whatever exposure you’ve had that will be beneficial to your application, if documented or reported on the internet (such as magazines or national dailies), please include the url in your SOP. For example, undergraduate awards/scholarships, publications, presentations etc.
I’m sorry if my write up isn’t detailed enough, still trying to pull myself together, seeing that the one who single-handedly invested in my life and education is no more to see his efforts yielding fruits and prayers for me being answered.
Lastly, I'd like to urge you NEVER TO GIVE UP. If you’ve not succeeded, it doesn’t mean you will not. Failure is never final and success is never ending. Trust God and He will make all thing beautiful in His time. You will get there!

I love you all!!!

Noel please can we relate. Sent you a PM or mail me at eulerciva@gmail.com. Thanks.

Keep the *EMAIL* coming.

Register those tests now.

Good day everyone.
Please I need advice
I had a bsc geology 3.54/5
Msc 5.35/7. UI
I am planning to write a GRE in few months time. Please what are my chances of getting a funded Phd in the USA if I get a good GRE score of about 310.

I seriously need an objective response .

You are far more better than many of us dude.

custom dissertation writing service

For those of you looking for GRE, GMAT, TOEFL, SAT and other practice materials, you can get it on www.study-preps.com for free.

temidayodamoye:
When did you finish from UI?

Bab Dee
Na me ooo