₦airaland Forum

kunbeeee:
Please how sure are you about university of florida being jan i for MS. Last time I checked, the deadline for application for funding for both MS and PHD is Dec 5. This discouraged me from applying

Depends on how you checked. As a matter of principle, I do not rely on the information on the portal as that is subject to change. I always try to contact the Grad coordinator to get real time information. So I actually mailed the grad coordinator for the department and that was the feedback he gave. I believe this was the actual construction:

"The deadline for PhD applications was December 5th; the deadline for Master’s applications is January 15

Qabt:
Everyone please I need your help, I registered for TOEFL under BY mafit, I did TOEFL test december 2 and the result is out already. How can I check the result please?

Go to your TOEFL account. You'd see a column for viewing your score or score report. Something of the sort.

Lollyij:
Afternoon bro's and madams,...guys pls with ur experiences which topic occurs more on d Gre Quant.. Can u rank dem... God bless u...

Use the ETS guide.

You're bound to see probability. Permutation or combination. Angles. Coordinate geometry. Word problems involving rate or percent increase. Area or Perimeter of a shape- shaded or unshaded portion. Average (arithmetic mean). These ones are almost sure-fire.

Time2Smile:
Wow, 93 percentile, that's highly impressive. By the way which schools are you applying to. I could not get a Dec test date for GRE and I am scrambling to find suitable schools that accept applications in January.

Thank you.

Michigan State Uni~
Iowa State Uni (PhD Jan 1 deadline)~
Uni of Florida (Deadline for PhD was Dec 5, for MSc is Jan 8 )
Texas Tech Uni (Jan 8 )
Uni of New Mexico (Jan 15 Msc)
L.S.U Baton Rouge
Mississipi State Uni
Kansas State Uni

All for fall 2017 (I think all have deadlines in January bu not sure of the exact dates). All Chemical engineering. Funding is important. I think it is criminal for anyone to spend a dime of his own money doing research for a school. So yea, Masters of Science or PhD. If the school want a dime from me, they can take their admission and shove it where the sun don't shine.


~ signifies still unsure. First one are yet to reply any emails. 2nd say they sponsor only PhD.

Just want to update the house. My AWA came out as 5 today. 93rd percentile. Saying I am excited does not do justice to how I feel. I was expecting the same 4.5 or 4 because I didn't feel I wrote better than my first one.

I looked at CrunchPrep, Barron, ETS, Nova and Princeton for the AWA but this was before my first one. In the second one, I didn't even practice let alone look at any material.

One thing that changed from the last time was the use of transitional or linking words. I noticed that higher scoring essays rarely made use of firstly, secondly etc but instead used Moreover, However, Additionally etc. My recommendation is that for the Issue-based aspect one should stay away from the use of first, second etc.

As per the Argumentative aspect, the mistake many people make is that they could identify the loopholes but not state the implications/assumptions made by the author and the modifications that could be made to plug those loopholes and make the argument more robust.

For example, if you say "first (yea in the argumentative aspect you could use this but avoid it entirely in the issue-based) the author states that X will happen". You have to add- "by stating this he assumes that Y and Z must have happened. This is not always the case as A or B could have been the cause. By doing so, the author unwittingly makes a fallacy of a false correlation. To make his argument more logically sound, he could have added C and D, that way we can know bla bla bla".

Ofcourse, I am not an authority. I am only stating what I did in both essays to have gotten 4.5 and 5. Having a template to work with also helps. I think I dubbed HappyDay's own. Also take note of some always recurring fallacies like hasty generalization, false correlation and the use of polls. In fact, if your argumentative prompt mentions a poll or survey or questionnaire, begin by questioning it. You can never go wrong.

At the end of the day, the topic you see in the both of them should be favourable to you. I pray it is the case for all members of the forum.

Scholastica16 out!

Socratez20:
Hello House, my exam is tomorrow, please I will like to know, besides my international passport what other document should I take along?

Nothing else.

Mogenerous:
Wow... That's some screwed up thing... For how long is it going to take... She has a deadline... Her application is pending as a result

She should write the grad coordinator of the department she is applying to and inform him/her forthwith. They will tell her if it will affect her admission chances.

Mogenerous:
Anyone pls

Your friend wrote the TOEFL same day as me and I am guessing she wrote it at PIT center at Ajah-Lekki. If that is also the case, then we are in the same boat.

They said there was a discrepancy between when some of us submitted our tests compared to others taking the test the same day and in some cases still in the same venue and that the time disparity was significant. I know that some computers (including the one I used) froze on the said day and it took about 20mins to rectify. That could account for the disparity and I wasn't alone. There were about 7 of us if I am not mistaken.

Additionally, we started late in that center for some strange reason they kept us waiting for over an hour. A test billed for 10AM started by 11ish. Obviously it was no fault of ours but ETS TOEFL say they are strict proponents of fair testing and as such need to investigate the proceedings of that day to determine if to outrightly cancel the test and reschedule a new one (if it is no fault of the students) or they will release the result if any member of the investigative board votes against the outright cancellation.

Hope this helps.

Time2Smile:
LOL, the bolded really got me laughing, that's why I always discourage excessive use of Colloquials and chat language. By the way, I hope ETS releases your TOEFL soonest.

AMEN!

andradaeze:
This last paragraph is so funny. Maybe, we are all taking TOEFL for granted. Maybe, it might be better we stop saying TOEFL is easy so people can really prepare better. For instance, on the day of my test, while we were discussing outside, one guy overhead us saying speaking section. The guy asked so there is a Speaking section, we said yes. Unfortunately, he did not know and was obviously not aware of the TOEFL structure.

When we got into the hall, after testing our volume and all that. You cannot imagine what happened next. The unprepared dude saw Reading section and started reading out the whole passage while speaking into the headset. I did not know whether to laugh or be upset. He was distracting us from reading those involved TOEFL passages while at the same time, it was now clear that he never knew that the Reading section was not the Speaking Section. He was just shouting his reading for everyone. And you know what... He was not a secondary school student.

LOL many use the TOEFL as evidence that they wrote standardized tests for their admission even when they did not. Because the VOs tend to perceive one's intended school as crap if they did not ask for any form of standardized tests.

drhopeful:
ETS please release his TOEFL!!! Sho, wetin na? Deadlines don dey reach. Sorry dear.
Lol @ the exam itself. I also got 56 questions for reading section. It was brain-draining. I found the passages confusing but the good thing is that I wrote it after writing 2 GREs. If I wrote it before GRE, I most likely would not have made my score of 29.

Funny enough, almost the same fate. Only that I was taking the TOEFL after my first GRE with the second GRE in mind so I was testing a strategy I hoped to use in my second V in the GRE. The strategy was to use keywords to just focus on that part of the passage to locate my answer. TOEFL simplifies the process by at least telling you the paragraph to go to so that was helpful.

My speaking section on the other hand was cray cray. For one, I didn't prepare for it like most of you are describing here. If I am being honest with myself I didn't practice at all. I only did more of Reading and Writing and little Listening. At least 2 times while I was still talking my time elapsed. I would have been worried had I not watched a YouTube video in which one Russian chick was explaining her experience and she said the same happened to her. She even said at some point she spoke too quickly to prevent the time elapsing and when she realised she had so much time on her hands she thought to add a few more things but she froze and yelled "arrgh" in frustration. LOL. Her speaking score came out as 28 with her round score as 117.

The guy by my side on the day of the TOEFL was trying to describe an issue a girl was having in his speaking prompt and he said "she didn't want any wahala". I felt for him. He immediately tried to retract it but the damage had been done I guess. It was amusing. Still is.

Time2Smile:
I was at JKK building yesterday to take TOEFL. I have to say the exam is getting more difficult. The passages were as abstruse, recondite and esoteric as a GRE reading comprehension passage. Nevertheless, it was a good dress rehearsal for the main course of GRE on 6 January. I realized that nothing compares to the real thing, I was really surprised by how much I found it difficult to grasp the passages (And I consider myself an excellent reader). That might be a problem for GRE but thankfully not for TOEFL, since you always know where to find answers. Another thing is that it helps a lot to be conversant with the format of the exam. I can't stress enough the importance of taking full length practice tests.

@TOEFL I thought I was the only one till I saw Drhopeful make the same complaint on this thread. Also, some people got 42 questions and 4 passages for 1hr while others (like myself) got 56questions or 5 passages for 1hr 20 mins..I wonder why though.

ETS release my TOEFL.

revenant:
Does WES Evaluate Transcript from the University of Port Harcourt? I have registered with them and had concluded plans to send my transcripts. Someone was just telling me today that they don't evaluate transcript from uniport and I told him that I didnt see anything as such in thier website. Is it true?
I have sent them a mail in that regard but they have not responde.
Thank You.

Probably untrue. However, there was an issue with WES and UNIPORT following either submission of falsified documents or the inability of UNIPORT to verify the transcripts in time enough for WES to meet their own time line. This was 2 or 3 years back. I think 2 years back though.

seeker88:
Great scores.....u nailed it boss!!!
I'm glad my little contribution helped. I wish u all d best in ur applications. #team fall 2017#

Choi!!! See scores oo....I fell like retaking this test but I don't have time on my side again

Baba, no need to edit d post again. U are a such a great writer.

Your contribution was not little in any way boss. Even the way you described your preparation and how the test day felt was invaluable and I know I do not speak for myself alone.

I could understand why you'd want to re-take but I can assure you that we give too much credence to GRE maybe because we schooled in Africa. I am realising other aspects of the application contribute more weightage than the GRE. Someone I know personally is in UCLA with 315. We have seen someone on here get into LSU with 304. I am sure by the time they read your glowing LORs and strong SOP they'd have no option but to admit you.

All the best.

drhopeful:
Your GRE scores are very good and you should recognize that. Those scores can get you into MIT for a masters program; a friend got in last year with 322/4 and a 2.1 BSc. So UT at Austin should not be anything. We should stop underestimating ourselves oh.

What is your undergrad CGPA? That is very important...infact the most important if you ask me. If UT at Austin or USC offered my research area, I would have applied.

Anyway, I applied to schools in the top 50 category - Carnegie Mellon, Penn State, Ohio State, UVirginia and UPittsburgh.

I could not agree more. Perhaps, I was too focused on people that did not get it more than I should have. I know or I heard about someone who got 335 in Nigeria with a first class CGPA and he applied to 8 top schools only 1 of which gave him admission without funding. I also know someone that got 319 and got full-funding to NYU for MBA. Her whole $71k tuition waived. So I am transfixed.

I think you stand a very good chance especially because you also have a master's degree from U.K. which these USA folks don't question as much as they do Nigerian degrees. What am I even saying? *I need to get rid of this defeatist mentality*

My Nigerian CGPA is not fantastic either. Just a little above 4.0 but my final 2years were my most productive. Thanks for the encouragement. I have been too scared because I have seen top scores (and CGPAs)get rejected by these top schools.

Topiipii:
I tried TAMU college station (a notoriously selective school, I didn't know at the time) and Northeastern. I applied very late (deadline day for Northeastern) as the application wasn't planned, some people paid for the tests then so I had no other choice than to apply. I was rejected by TAMU, but Northeastern told me I was being considered for another program, I didn't bother to reply them.

Mehn, when I hear all these things I am rooted to the floor. I know this time around you'd get what you want especially as you've started earlier I presume.

drhopeful:
Woo.....hoot!!!!! Boys and girls murdering the GRE!!!!! Congrats dear! Gotta love your V score! Are you applying for PhD? Which schools are you applying to?

Meanwhile your previous scores were not bad at all oh!!! I would not have rewritten if I scored those. You dey find Harvard?

Masters or PhD anyone that will provide me full-funding ja re. The exchange rate is not smiling.

I had some schools in mind before my 2 tests but I ended up abandoning them due to fear that the score may not measure up. My first choice schools were to be U of Texas @ Austin and USC but fear no gree me to select them both times. My list comprises of 8 schools and like 4/5 of them are below top 50. I even feel somehow typing them here because I don't want anyone to laugh. Michigan State Uni and Uni of Florida are 2 other schools that are above 50 that I still selected sha. What about you?

Topiipii:
Correction made, my AW score remained the same, so it's 42nd percentile for me.

6 marks is a lot, once again I wish you success in your applications.

Thanks again. I appreciate the words of encouragement. LOL @ percentile. I don't think it plays as much role as people claim it does especially at Masters level (I mean the AWA). Isn't that what you are gunning for? Meanwhile, to say I was flummoxed that you did not make use of your 329 of 2013 is putting it mildly. Why did you not use it and if you tried what schools could have possibly overlooked you?

happyday:
And to the only wise God be all glory, honour and power. Today's my happy day! I'm thanking God for making me +1 today!

To every member of the house waiting for their application decisions, you will have to cause to laugh and celebrate before this year runs out. And for all December visa applicants, start picturing that US visa powerfully stamped on your passport, because it's happening to you already. Have faith, not fear.

God bless every member of this wonderful family.

Happy birthday man. You are really selfless it needs to be said. I pray you get all you want this year.

andradaeze:
Congratulations dear. Your result is amazing! That funding is yours oh.

Thanks. I claim it!

TheZed:
No I haven't

Ok are you still looking at this year?

hirschfelder:
Yes, I have. It was okay, 4.0. I didn't do TOEFL,had IELTS. I am almost done with my applications.

Work don finish be that. Abeg inform the house when you are getting headaches on which of the top 20 schools whose funding you are trying to accept. I saw that you deleted some posts you made on PRESSID. In fact, to have posted on that thread already gives us an indication of the CGPA you are working with. I hail!

happyday:
Waoh! You just smashed the test! Plus you wrote so lucidly. Thanks for this very detailed update. You've no idea how much you've helped us here. Like people have been saying here, "have faith, not fear". I'm hopeful your AWA would be awesome as well.

My boss, go straight to the applications. If you're going to be denied admission, I tell you, it won't be because of your GRE. Work hard on the SoP and the LORs. Make sure you really nail the SoP (esp if you're going for a PhD?), and do all you can to make those profs write you glowing hot letters of recommendation.

Good work! God bless you!

Cheers!

You are far too kind. I mean it. Hope your applications are done and dusted.

cuspy:
Congrats on your scores scholastica16. Your scores mirrors the level of hardwork you put into prepping. Lovely scores!

So I gave the GRE today. My scores weren't good enough. I had a total of 310 (Q161, V149).

My verbal score isn't suprising to me. I've always known I'm weak on the verbal. I tried my 'best' to pass the 150 threshold but I guess my best wasn't good enough.

Quant is relatively more facile to me than the verbal and it's obvious from the scores. There was still room for a better performance on the quant but I guess I threw it away; I kept worrying over my bad verbal performance on the previous section.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed positively to this thread. You guys are amazing! This thread is a major source of my inspiration. I would certainly give the GRE a comeback and I know you guys would be here to help and inspire me, especially on the verbal, just like scholastica16 has just done

You would do better I have no doubt..just try to still make use of this one even as you plan to write another. I doubt the SEs would have been an issue to you so just work on the RCs and TCs (especially TCs because they seem to be getting harder progressively). RCs on the other hand, I still think it is better to read less into it than to try to read it word for word. At the end of the day they barely test you on more than 4 aspects of the whole passage. Always write down the answer options on a piece of paper and then strike any answer choice that doesn't ring a bell even by barely reading the passage. What practice helps you do is, it gives you the confidence to work with that approach on test day because you'd notice that you'd be getting most of the answers and with less headache than if you tried so hard to decipher the whole text. I hope this helps.

Thanks BTW for the mention.

Time2Smile:
Congratulations Scholastica16, A score of 324 is nothing to sneeze at. What I have realized during the course of my preparation is the importance of taking practise test under exam conditions. Toward the end of the 4 hours duration, the brain is so fatigued that the test becomes a test of endurance like you rightly pointed out. Also, the quant is not a test of ability to solve the questions, but rather how fast one can solve the questions. It is imperative one practise solving quant questions under timed condition and learn to skip any tough question since all questions carry equal marks. One can always come back to it if there is time left. I am glad I learnt this while taking practise tests and not in the exam hall as I would have been devastated. Once again congrats and you score is really good.

Thanks. And you are right @ timed conditions.

Cephas0009:
Congratulations Scholastica16... All d best with ur application, admission and funding

Thank you very much.

fysapop:
Wow!!! Congratulations on your great scores....This is the motivation I need...My exam in on Wednesday.....Hopefully I would have a good testimony...

I am grateful. Really. You would have one. Just be optimistic.

Topiipii:
Congrats!

Thanks but you quoted my first one. The second was Q-164 V- 160. The AWA will be out in 10 days I think. Hope your second AWA was as you wanted it to be.

TheZed:
Congrats Scholastica16

I appreciate. Have you written?

hirschfelder:
Excellent scores. Congrats!!!. This is an excellent testimony and I'm sure many will find it inspiring. Just ensure you wrap up your applications on time. Wish you success in your applications!!! #TeamSecondTimeWriter

Thank you. You should have seen your AWA by now. How was it? Did you do TOEFL and are you done with your applications?

I wish I had a better testimony to give but this one will make do for now afterall, it is the end-goal that we are all interested in and by end-goal I mean Admission and funding.

I am a second time writer. My first was in late October perhaps about the same time that Drhopeful and Seeker88 wrote theirs. I had just about 2 months of preparation which started with some online blogs and slowly graduated into using the materials that were provided on this thread.

I used Princeton review for everything with a major concentration on the verbal and I started with Nova for the Quants before transcending into Manhattan. I also used the general Nova that had aspects of V and AWA, Barrons, and then Magoosh. I just watched all the Magoosh videos passively i.e I understood all that was being explained without attempting to solve it myself. Eventually, I ended my preparation with the ETS official guide when gurus like EssayHelp and generally people on quora who did really well said it was still the best preparatory book. The only full-length test I did prior to writing my test was the PowerPrep II and even at that, I did not go through the corrections or answer reviews because DanjaNinja had warned that the PowerPrep was easier than the main GRE.

To cut a long story short I got Q 162 V 156 AWA 4.5. As soon as my scores flashed before my eyes I knew I was going to do a retake. Perhaps, Hirschfelder's recent grand success played into my mind. Topiipii's too. I remember I kept telling myself "after all your preparation see what it amounted to".

I would have scheduled that retake as soon as 21 days was up but I was bogged down by my preparation for the TOEFL so I moved my date to yesterday. My new strategy for the GRE was hinged on my V as I knew I trivialised the RCs the previous one. I spent my time ensuring I got 10 of my TCs and SEs in both tests and just did my RC sections cursorily. I know this because I looked at my diagnostics and saw that I got 13/20 in both Vs which was scaled to 156. So this time around I was going to take the RCs much more seriously.

I re-did the first PowerPrep few days into my TOEFL preparation and scored 164. I applied Princeton's POE method and read the passages as fast as a pharmacist will read through a scribbled prescription while at it, I would be summarising what that paragraph was talking about. In reality I was going to leave my preparations at that till I went to re-read Hirschfelder's tips about full- length tests and before one could say "Robison Crusoe" ChemEngr01 had come with his own testimony about full-length tests and his intimidating 167 Q-score.

So I took heed from the information gleaned on this thread and began searching for the online full-length tests and with Seeker's help I gained access to Kaplan's 2016 and 2017 test (for the latter I did only the diagnostic test as the others seemed repeated). I also stumbled unto another good resource called "Petersonspublishing.com". My first Kaplan test had my V at 166 and Q 156. I realised why because I did 3 Qs with one of them being adjudged as the experimental and my last section was my second (I was tired my the last section). So I restrategised and did the next test this time V was 160 and Q 160. When I realised I needed to be improving my Q score more (as an engineering graduate) I began skipping the V and focusing on the Q. Immediately, I saw a good jump from 160 to 164 to 168 and 170 by my final Kaplan test.

The Peterson platform is a bit different but I noticed I always did well in my easy and medium sections for the Q and did badly in the hard part. By badly, I mean 11/20, 10/20 etc. Just hovering around the 50-60% mark. I somehow found a way to console myself claiming that ETS will not set that level of difficulty all through the 2nd test stretch. Also, I consoled myself with the fact that I never did less than 18/20 in the easy or medium sections.

I rounded off my preparations for my second GRE using the ETS guide. It wasn't the regular one we had here but a bit of the same questions. Only difference is this edition was still dealing with the 800 scale and they had two V and Q tests each 25 in number with a specificied 35mins for each V and 40 mins for each Q. I got 21/25 in the first V and 18 in the second. But I had 22 in the first Q and 21 in the second. Then I did the 2nd PowerPrep which came out as Q-166 and V- 160.

I tried pysching myself up by saying Adrenalin will help me in the hall to raise my V to 164 and keep my Q at that range of my PowerPrep. In my heart, my target score was 330 combined but minimum of 166 Q V 164 and atleast a 4.5 in AWA.

I saw VQVQV yesterday and in my estimation did V1 and V3 very well. My V2 was iffy to call a spade and spade. I prayed my V2 will be experimental but I now doubt that was the case. My Q on the otherhand was harder and more time consuming than I hoped it would have been. In fact, I did not have time at all to review any of my sections. I realised I made one mistake but that was in hindsight. The eventual score was Q-164 V-160. Just a 6 mark differential from the first one.

I can't pretend I am excited but I am wise enough to know that my focus should be on what it will help me do- which is to get the admission I want and funding. I don't know how to guage my AWA this time around but I think it was just about the same with my first GRE. I did not practice AWA that much either of the times. I read HappyDay's post on how he got his 5.5 and I think I emulated his template (without his content obviously ).

I am never going to rewrite the GRE. The exam is more of an endurance test than one for acumen or intellect. Also, I would like to thank everyone that has contributed one way or the other on this thread starting from Danja Ninja to Drhopeful to Seeker88 (without whose help I wouldn't have gained access to Kaplan). I was also buoyed by the testimony of Believerspraise and how he got admitted into LSU with a 304. I am saying this because my initial fear was that (from Africa, particularly Nigeria) if one didn't have > or = 328 with a solid GPA etc. You stood no chance. I have since disvowed that notion.

I will keep the house informed how my application goes. I am trying to get it all submitted before the year runs out. ETS TOEFL is yet to make my scores available to me, so that's pretty demoralising.

I apologise for the long post and typos if any. I made this post with my phone. I will edit it when I am settled. Cheers.

doziej84:
for those who have written
Can you select the institutions who can recieve your gre scores before the test or must it be done on the test day?

Must be on test day. I believe it is TOEFL that you can select the schools a day before the test.