Nostradamus1:
What of the SAT nkor

Sorry, we don't do undergrad.

Please go through our website. We're more grad school focused.

There's no point arguing with folks who use the sample size of their elite friends as the norm. You're absolutely right. My GRE was 330+ (converted from old scale) and I had 740+ on GMAT, but I know full well that most Nigerians find those exams very challenging. So it will be foolhardy of me to say Nigerians perform well as a whole. The average GMAT score for Nigerians is far below average compared to the rest of the world, and this statistic is from GMAC. I saw it some years ago. Don't waste your time arguing. It's the same way some people say that there is money in Nigeria or that Nigerians are rich.

Admitwithschola:


I can't make generalizations - stop that. I'm not one of those that just open mouth and talk. If you want to believe what you believe, fine. Do that. But don't ever come and accuse me of generalizations because you don't even have an idea of anything about me other than what you see here.

If you read carefully, you should see from my writing that I kept saying ETS does the average analysis. Yes, averages skew things (median is more robust), but it nonetheless provides good information.

On average, Nigerians are generally doing badly on these tests (GMAT and GRE). This is why our average is where they are. Are some doing well, yes a few are doing well. But most are doing not so well, and certainly not at the 320+ level.

I am sad I have to be saying this, I don't want to knock off anyone's hustle, I want to help...But I must say it, because it's the data which ETS provides, and has nothing to do with my view.

So, stop accusing of generalizations, you know nix about me. Focus on the data and provide intelligent debates with data. Then we can both reach a reasoned conclusion.

Data reproduced here -

https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2018.pdf

kastgeraldino:
There's no point arguing with folks who use the sample size of their elite friends as the norm. You're absolutely right. My GRE was 330+ (converted from old scale) and I had 740+ on GMAT, but I know full well that most Nigerians find those exams very challenging. So it will be foolhardy of me to say Nigerians perform well as a whole. The average GMAT score for Nigerians is far below average compared to the rest of the world, and this statistic is from GMAC. I saw it some years ago. Don't waste your time arguing. It's the same way some people say that there is money in Nigeria or that Nigerians are rich.

Good to hear someone else corroborating this fact. I just wanted to bring the awareness here and urge our people to actually go all out to do their best, and not think the exam is just math and english.

But oh boy, wow, no be here you be oo. 740+ GMAT! Well done

kastgeraldino:
There's no point arguing with folks who use the sample size of their elite friends as the norm. You're absolutely right. My GRE was 330+ (converted from old scale) and I had 740+ on GMAT, but I know full well that most Nigerians find those exams very challenging. So it will be foolhardy of me to say Nigerians perform well as a whole. The average GMAT score for Nigerians is far below average compared to the rest of the world, and this statistic is from GMAC. I saw it some years ago. Don't waste your time arguing. It's the same way some people say that there is money in Nigeria or that Nigerians are rich.

For someone who's trying really hard to use statistical terms, you sure did shit the bed on this one. How can you assert that Nigerians score below average in an exam? What is the definition of average? If you're thinking what i am thinking, I guess the more appropriate phrase would be Nigerians on average score below standard.

If you want to know the meaning of average, then go and take a basic statistics class. No time for arrogant and ignorant people. What is score below standard? Do you read professionally written reports?

iWise:


For someone who's trying really hard to use statistical terms, you sure did shit the bed on this one. How can you assert that Nigerians score below average in an exam? What is the definition of average? If you're thinking what i am thinking, I guess the more appropriate phrase would be Nigerians on average score below standard.

iWise:


For someone who's trying really hard to use statistical terms, you sure did shit the bed on this one. How can you assert that Nigerians score below average in an exam? What is the definition of average? If you're thinking what i am thinking, I guess the more appropriate phrase would be Nigerians on average score below standard.

Lol, bros, I think he meant average as in average, mean. Add all scores and divide by number of scores. Na so Okpala teach us for secondary school.

See it here (though a bit dated) - GMAT is bloody ..https://www.businessbecause.com/news/gmat/4191/mba-admissions-what-is-africas-problem-with-the-gmat


"The global average GMAT score in 2015 was 554 (out of a possible 800). In Africa, it’s 450. In Nigeria, 415. Ron puts much of this down to African students’ educational history.".....

Naija average is not only less than global average, it is less than Africa's average, by a whopping 35! Hope this is wrong sha, just hope this is wrong.

Brothers/sisters - sorry, I am not scaring you away. No oo, that's not the aim.

I just want you to view the GRE as an enemy trying to hold you back. What do you do to an enemy? You fight it! Fight with all you have. MFM uses the word fire, die die.

Please go all out...And speak to people who have 'owned' these tests. Also visit Indian and especially Chinese forums too. These guys must be doing something....

Admitwithschola:


Lol, bros, I think he meant average as in average, mean. Add all scores and divide by number of scores. Na so Okpala teach us for secondary school.

See it here (though a bit dated) - GMAT is bloody ..https://www.businessbecause.com/news/gmat/4191/mba-admissions-what-is-africas-problem-with-the-gmat


"The global average GMAT score in 2015 was 554 (out of a possible 800). In Africa, it’s 450. In Nigeria, 415. Ron puts much of this down to African students’ educational history.".....

Naija average is not only less than global average, it is less than Africa's average, by a whopping 35! Hope this is wrong sha, just hope this is wrong.

My point is the word "average" is abused a lot by non statisticians/mathematicians. His use of average in that statement is meaningless from a statistical point of view because scoring below average does not imply you did poorly. Scoring below a standard like a cutoff on the other hand means one did poorly. I'm just trying to correct his/her use of a technical term.

Friedpotato:
I'm talking of your overall secondary school result. From SS1 to SS3. Your tests and exam scores in all the subjects. If you go to your school, they sure have an idea of this.

If you cannot do that, then evaluate your WAEC result. It costs 100K roughly for all the processing. Here, your WAEC grades would be converted to a GPA.

Thank you

Kindly help me forward the materials to zionakika333@googlemail.com. God bless

Bukkiminat:


Hello, I will really appreciate if you can send me the GRE study materials.
Here is my mail
minat4care@gmail.com

Gracias.

For the GRE Hopefuls,

GRE Study Materials

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1rjn3qCDudnaS1xmpQ49lEtOF8k9P-aRA

1. Magoosh Premium Videos
2. Magoosh Videos
3. Manhattan 8 Series, 5lb and Flash Cards
4. ETS powerprep II
5. The official TOEFL Guide
6. Word Power made easy Norman Lewis
7. Baron GRE simulator
8. The ETS official Guide
9. All materials DanjaNaija recommended initially.
10. Kaplan New GRE Premier
11. Baron's New GRE 19th edition
12. Cracking the GRE
13. GRE premier 2017 with 6 practice test
14. 1014 practice questions
15. Princeton Review - Word Smart etc...

Also there is a GRE thread on Nairaland with copious amount of materials and recommendations on how to navigate the exam. Go through the thread diligently, you would be better off for it.

kastgeraldino:
If you want to know the meaning of average, then go and take a basic statistics class. No time for arrogant and ignorant people. What is score below standard? Do you read professionally written reports?

This guy take am personal nisha. I'm not gonna stoop to your low level of name calling. I seriously doubt you know Jack about statistics.

Bolo!

Oops! I lied.

Your arguments and attitude so far give me an idea of your intellectual level. My final advice: go argue with your intellectual equals. You are no match to even my 15 year old self.

iWise:


This guy take am personal nisha. I'm not gonna stoop to your low level of name calling. I seriously doubt you know Jack about statistics.

Bolo!

Oops! I lied.

kastgeraldino:
Your arguments and attitude so far give me an idea of your intellectual level. My final advice: go argue with your intellectual equals. You are no match to even my 15 year old self.

Sorry o grandaddy. Oya leave the thread for little kids like us na. Name calling and grandstanding do not work here. If you yarn dust, we call you out. Dumbass.

Admitwithschola:


I'm not surprised by your account, which can be correct. As is clear from my previous posts, engineering boys and medical boys do relatively better on this test. If you read my previous epistles, that should be clear to you - so there won't be a need to repeat same point. Your friends fall into the elite group of Nigerians, but you understandably can't use them as a reflection of the state of GRE (and GMAT) in Africa (Nigeria in this case).

I think it's better to provide solid data than give anecdotal evidence (i.e. my friends got this, your friend got that). So, instead of relying on anecdotal evidence of 4 or even 10 people, maybe I will put the stats here for all to see.

https://www.prepscholar.com/gre/blog/average-gre-scores/
https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2018.pdf

Do Ctrl+F + Nigeria, Ghana, etc, it's sad all round.

So, there is more evidence that, in general, 320+ is more unusual than otherwise. If you have a solid argument that shows counters this, I am happy to hear. Of course, averages do not tell all the story and if we control for fields, then the score may be much less unusual for engineering (and medical guys if they choose to do it) - as is clear from my previous posts. Still, we can only know this if we know how engineering boys/girls perform in aggregate.

And by the way, if you have friends who are writing in August and beyond, we are offering full GRE refund to anyone who scores 330+, half refund to someone who scores 325+. This is our little way to try to encourage the few people that we can and hopefully take Nigeria's average GRE score from the current embarrassing level to something more respectable. So since all the people you know are scoring at these levels, maybe you can have them reach out to us with scores from August and beyond - http://baumtenpers.com/

So, to summarize, while it is possible that a score of 320+ is less unusual for an engineering (and medical) grad in Nigeria, the data from ETS shows that a score of 320+ in Nigeria is not a usual score. If anyone disagrees, please debate with real data, not anecdotal evidence. Note, I am not trying to knock down your 'hozu', I am just trying to create awareness and urge those taking the tests to really put in hours and do their best and blast high scores. The situation is even much worse for GMAT, but that's an issue for another day.

I get your point.

But saying something is unusual isn't the same as average. In the report you posted, no country as an average of 320, even USA, China, India and UK average are all less than that. US has 150.2 in quantitative reasoning and 152.6 in verbal (even as native speakers). The average total score will be 302.8 you can't then say most people score 302 in the US.

Nigeria may have a low average score, but that doesn't mean high score is unusual. If you are in engineering as you said, 320+ won't be unusual. Except you want to apply to unknown schools for STEM.

The Facebook live event with the US Embassy concerning student visa issues starts in 10 minutes.

Funaki:

I get your point.

But saying something is unusual isn't the same as average. In the report you posted, no country as an average of 320, even USA, China, India and UK average are all less than that. US has 150.2 in quantitative reasoning and 152.6 in verbal (even as native speakers). The average total score will be 302.8 you can't then say most people score 302 in the US.

Nigeria may have a low average score, but that doesn't mean high score is unusual. If you are in engineering as you said, 320+ won't be unusual. Except you want to apply to unknown schools for STEM.

Exactly. That a score is average is different from it being unusual.

Take for example the common entrance exam for Nigerian secondary schools.

The cut off mark to enter public schools in the south due to performance is like 70/100, 75/100 but in zamfara it is 2/100, borno 10/100 or so. Taking an average of this score would be 30-40/100. Would you then now say 70 is unsual despite the high number of people that pass it in the south?

Sure a lot of people score very low marks but a good number of people still score good scores.

greenskittles:
The Facebook live event with the US Embassy concerning student visa issues starts in 10 minutes.

Same story.

Geewin69:



Same story.

Yeah. In summary:

No specific date on embassy reopening but they are actively working to figure out how to expedite student visas when it does reopen.

The main question in the interview is proof that you intend to be a student, they don't want rehearsed answers proving your home ties, they just want to know that you're qualified to be a student and intend to study in the US.

Hello house,
I just watched the US Embassy Live interaction on F1 student Visa however the take-away from there is they said they are going to make the F1 Visa Application a priority when they resume that is they will be attending to it majorly and who knows maybe a lot of F1 visa issuance since their quota for giving it out this year haven’t reach Halfway

N/B: they didn’t talk about when they are going to resume but I think it’s soon as they were so positive and they made mention of them having something they are or would be running for it.

Best of lucks.

hotboss:
Pls my people..
I just got admitted into Larmar university with an out of state tuition waiver.
Is there any one here who have had a similar offer? Or who can give me an I sight into this? As I don't know how much financial burden awaits me.

I would like suggestions from the gurus too.
BGSU. TA 5k stipend. 2k tuition scholarship. Engineering technology

Lamar. 1k tuition scholarship, out of state tuition waiver. Mechanical engineering .

Both are MS programs.

Pls gurus

I also got admitted to lamar fee days ago and was informed that I qualify for a similar offer as yours (though I still plan on looking for more scholarships). Also got admitted to BGSU MBA but with no funding.

For Lamar you can ask the international office for your deficit.

In choosing between both schools with good offers, you need to look at other factors that align with your career objectives based on curriculum, location, school and faculty reputation etc for you to decide.

Shuayb0:
I also got admitted to lamar fee days ago and was informed that I qualify for a similar offer as yours (though I still plan on looking for more scholarships). Also got admitted to BGSU MBA but with no funding.

For Lamar you can ask the international office for your deficit.

In choosing between both schools with good offers, you need to look at other factors that align with your career objectives based on curriculum, location, school and faculty reputation etc for you to decide.

Thanks. What is your deficit for Lamar.

Funaki:

I get your point.

But saying something is unusual isn't the same as average. In the report you posted, no country as an average of 320, even USA, China, India and UK average are all less than that. US has 150.2 in quantitative reasoning and 152.6 in verbal (even as native speakers). The average total score will be 302.8 you can't then say most people score 302 in the US.

Nigeria may have a low average score, but that doesn't mean high score is unusual. If you are in engineering as you said, 320+ won't be unusual. Except you want to apply to unknown schools for STEM.

You're head is so on point. People filling up the thread with posts yet they know not the meaning of unusual. If only they had checked for synonyms of unusual they would have known that 320+ is not a rare score for Nigerians

So lets be hopeful that we can still have our F1 visa interview by next month, or being deferred.... Thanks so much for this update bros

greenskittles:

Yeah. In summary:

No specific date on embassy reopening but they are actively working to figure out how to expedite student visas when it does reopen.

The main question in the interview is proof that you intend to be a student, they don't want rehearsed answers proving your home ties, they just want to know that you're qualified to be a student and intend to study in the US.

So lets be hopeful that we can still have our F1 visa interview by next month, or being deferred.... Thanks so much for this update bros.

sheke01:


You're head is so on point. People filling up the thread with posts yet they know not the meaning of unusual. If only they had checked for synonyms of unusual they would have known that 320+ is not a rare score for Nigerians

The admit person is right, 320+ is unusual. Our average scores are 144.9V and 145.8Q from the 2018 report. The 2014 and 2016 reports were just a little bit better.

https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2014.pdf page 20 (24 of 72)
https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2016.pdf page 20 (24 of 72)
https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2018.pdf page 20 (24 of 73)

I took the liberty of plotting the values from the 2018 report and checked to see what percentage of people scored in the range 155-165 for both Quant and Verbal.
Verbal:
Mean: 144.9, Standard Deviation: 7.4, P(x>155) = 0.08615, P(x>160) = 0.02065, P(x>165) = 0.0033

Quant:
Mean: 145.8, Standard Deviation: 7.8, P(x>155) = 0.1191, P(x>160) = 0.03434, P(x>165) = 0.00692

Total number of test takers: 6,861

Less than 1% of test takers scored more than 165 for both sections and 8.6% and 11.9% scored above 155. How is 320+ not rare?

For anyone interested, I plotted the curves at:
https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~mbognar/applets/normal.html

Topiipii:

The admit person is right, 320+ is unusual. Our average scores are 144.9V and 145.8Q from the 2018 report. The 2014 and 2016 reports were just a little bit better.

https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2014.pdf page 20 (24 of 72)
https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2016.pdf page 20 (24 of 72)
https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2018.pdf page 20 (24 of 73)

I took the liberty of plotting the values from the 2018 report and checked to see what percentage of people scored in the range 155-165 for both Quant and Verbal.
Verbal:
Mean: 144.9, Standard Deviation: 7.4, P(x>155) = 0.08615, P(x>165) = 0.0033

Quant:
Mean: 145.8, Standard Deviation: 7.8, P(x>155) = 0.1191, P(x>165) = 0.00692

Total number of test takers: 6,861

Less than 1% of test takers scored more than 165 for both sections and 8.6% and 11.9% scored above 155. How is 320+ not rare?

For anyone interested, I plotted the curves at:
https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~mbognar/applets/normal.html

it's not by plotting graph and writing big write ups. If you are half as good analytically as ur graphs looks then you will know that mean(average) is not the best among the center measure of tendency. Very low scores will greatly skew that distribution.

And how in hell's name will a mean meant for a range of score between 155-165 result in 144.9 and 145.8 for verbal and Quant respectively...nawa o

Do you even consider Simpson paradox in that data set you analysed and plotted. Data can always be analysed and interpreted to support any side of argument

sheke01:


it's not by plotting graph and writing big write ups. If you are half as good analytically as ur graphs looks then you will know that mean(average) is not the best among the center measure of tendency. Very low scores will greatly skew that distribution.

Do you even consider Simpson paradox in that data set you analysed and plotted. Data can always be analysed and interpreted to support any side of argument

The plot was based on what ETS released for every country, so I don't know the reason for the snide remarks. If you think 320+ is not unusual, then give us your proof since ETS report is not good enough.

Topiipii:

The admit person is right, 320+ is unusual. Our average scores are 144.9V and 145.8Q from the 2018 report. The 2014 and 2016 reports were just a little bit better.

https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2014.pdf page 20 (24 of 72)
https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2016.pdf page 20 (24 of 72)
https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/snapshot_test_taker_data_2018.pdf page 20 (24 of 73)

I took the liberty of plotting the values from the 2018 report and checked to see what percentage of people scored in the range 155-165 for both Quant and Verbal.
Verbal:
Mean: 144.9, Standard Deviation: 7.4, P(x>155) = 0.08615, P(x>160) = 0.02065, P(x>165) = 0.0033

Quant:
Mean: 145.8, Standard Deviation: 7.8, P(x>155) = 0.1191, P(x>160) = 0.03434, P(x>165) = 0.00692

Total number of test takers: 6,861

Less than 1% of test takers scored more than 165 for both sections and 8.6% and 11.9% scored above 155. How is 320+ not rare?

For anyone interested, I plotted the curves at:
https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~mbognar/applets/normal.html

You can't just assume normality. Did you verify that the data is indeed normally distributed? An easy way to do that would be to plot a histogram.

Again, if you look at the data cited by the person of interest, the spread for Nigerian quant scores is 7.9. This automatically tells you that the mean value is not a very reliable measure of central tendency here - the median will provide a lot more insight. The same can be said about almost any other country in that report. This is why I concluded that his hypothesis is rather trivial.

Once again, the idea of measuring a person's or a group of persons' performance using a comparison to averages is rather silly. What one should be more interested in is the entry cutoff at a majority of schools who require the test score - if a school tells you a certain score is good enough then it is by default good enough, so the argument of performing below average becomes rather "academic".

Topiipii:


The plot was based on what ETS released for every country, so I don't know the reason for the snide remarks. If you think 320+ is not unusual, then give us your proof since ETS report is not good enough.

Am not doubting ETS report, am arguing the use of the word "unusual". 320+ score is not rare/abnormal/unusual. I know many Nigerians that score 320+ on the GRE. I know many Nigerians that score 160+ on Quant and Verbal section.

iWise:


You can't just assume normality. Did you verify that the data is indeed normally distributed? An easy way to do that would be to plot a histogram.

Again, if you look at the data cited by the person of interest, the spread for Nigerian quant scores is 7.9. This automatically tells you that the mean value is not a very reliable measure of central tendency here - the median will provide a lot more insight. The same can be said about almost any other country in that report. This is why I concluded that his hypothesis is rather trivial.

Once again, the idea of measuring a person's or a group of persons' performance using a comparison to averages is rather silly. What one should be more interested in is the entry cutoff at a majority of schools who require the test score - if a school tells you a certain score is good enough then it is by default good enough, so the argument of performing below average becomes rather "academic".

Entry scores are usually lower than 320, that should tell you a lot about the number of applicants scoring that high. I did an exhaustive search of this a while back for Electrical Engineering, less than 25 of the top 164 schools in my list requested for GRE scores >= 320 and they're all in the top 30 ranking.
I know mean is not a reliable measure and so does every person who has taken an intro class in statistics. I wanted to comment earlier about skewed data, but it will only lead to more argument. If the minimum score is 130 and the average score is 144.9 and 145.8, what percentage of people can you assume scored above 320?

P.S. Of course, it is trivial. Are we supposed to be exhibiting our statistical prowess here?

Topiipii:


The plot was based on what ETS released for every country, so I don't know the reason for the snide remarks. If you think 320+ is not unusual, then give us your proof since ETS report is not good enough.

apologies for the snide remarks