₦airaland Forum

drhopeful:
I am so sorry. Will put you in my prayers. Was it a paper test?

Computer based test o. Thanks.

Ndawe:
Exactly, I was very naive then and paid for it. They're so rigid; oh wow, so sorry about that and I sincerely wish you all the best. It will all be worth it in the end

I pray so. Thanks.

happyday:
Your last line ended it well. Be strong and hopeful, things will surely get sorted out by God's grace. ETS needs to, at least, carry people along even if they are investigating anything. Your result is on its way bro.

Thanks man, I appreciate.

@TheZed and Gunbiz, sorry I created the email to this NL account on a whim. I don't seem to remember the password to it. I will respond once I find it. Bear with me, please.

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

Did all that and as I type this I am yet to see the result. Apparently, the time most people used to submit their tests in my centre raised red flags to ETS so a board has been set up to investigate it. If their resolution falls against me, I might be required to retake the test either on their tab or on mine. Any which way, the nearest date they might give me will be in January (I know this because I read about some centre that had an issue in October and they rescheduled them for Dec 2nd).

I now need the same hope I implored you to have the other time.

Ndawe:
No you can't. When I was to write, I went with another form of identification but wasn't allowed to write the exam. Couldn't go and get my International Passport and come back in time to still meet the exam so I had to forfeit. They're very strict on this and no grammar or form of begging would get you into the hall to sit for the exam with any other form of ID apart from your Int'l Passport.

I am sorry you experienced that. I read about people's experiences here and even on quora.com in order to forestall such eventualities. Even at that, I made a costly mistake in my time and left my energy drink in my bag that was kept in a certain store inside the hall. They refused to let me go in to get it during the break so I ended up writing the whole 4hr 30mins test on an empty stomach.

I won't let anyone make the same mistake I made.

OGreene:
Please house, what do i need to take with me to the exam. Make dem no send person back.

Intl passport.
Email notification showing registration details.
.......

??

You don't even need the Email notification. They already have the names of all the candidates for that particular day.

Dexcmd:
I don't understand why because on the mail notification they didn't specify to bring international passport, they only said any form of valid ID. Some were even trying to show them the mail page but they didn't buy it. It's so unfair, some missed the exam.

They specified it everywhere and repeated it to annoying levels. I am surprised many didn't go through the ETS website. They listed all the forms of ID that could be deemed eligible. Remember you want to go to the USA to do what is majorly, research.

sod09:
wengay is a disgrace as a manager he doesn't deserve to manage afc again.... fucking old coward afraid of a mere manager.... Wat was Ramsey and El neny doing in d line up...
we got lucky d ref decided to free d penalty cos it's was 200% sure penalty

It was not a penalty. Wenger is not a good coach but our ire at him should not allow us concede to ideas by the idi.otic Phil Neville. Darmian deserved to be red-carded I wonder why people are not saying that.

This game would have been far easier had Wenger played the way the game deserved- direct. This just shows us more how average Wenger is.

amanonymous:
I enjoyed reading all the post on this thread it was educating. Pls guys can u pls help a friend I graduated with 2.80cpga can I get a school that accepts that for masters?

Naa fam, you didn't read all the posts. You didn't even read any. You clicked the link that was posted on the USA student visa thread and it led you here. That's pretty disingenuous if you ask me. Most of the information you require is already on the first page or so. Take some time to glean through. It will help.

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

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

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

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

Sorry guys for the rant. Needed to vent.

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

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

ponpon:
320 sir

That's a hasty response and it could very well be wrong. Most banks (save for Standard Chartered or so) use the subsisting black market exchange rate.

Gunbiz:
finally got to read this long post, though i was not notified when u edited ur 1st quote, can u explain how to get the keywords, cos i get fagged out when reading passages and feel tempted to skip reading the passages. thanks for taking ur time to explain this

As you can see from the images, there may be not any rule of thumb for determining keywords. Repeated practice is just the way to go. However, some words particularly jump at us and you can always use such words. Words like names, or stylistic qualifications can help as the examples I attached may show.

1. You can use "long-billed" to scan through the passage and it will be helpful. Long-billed is the qualification for the type of bird being discussed and it helps narrow the search down to the latter part of the 2nd paragraph.

2. Foreign ecosystem is another word that jumps at one in the second question. You may as well have searched for billions and it would have yielded the same result. Practice helps train your eyes quickly enough to find such words in a real exam situation. I hope this helps. Sorry for the belated response.

LadunaI:
Thanks @Scholastica16 for this beautiful elucidation, it was whole inspiring and gratifying.

The strategy you're proposing is nice and mastering over time would be excellent.

By the way, I found this epigram passage but very intriguing when applying your strategy. Can you take a look and analysis it for the benefit of us all?

See below screenshot

TBH with you, this question is poorly constructed because it strays from the actual GRE format of RC questions. There are so many loopholes in it.

1. Entepreneurship businesses may or may not be high-value. It was wrong for the question to call them high-value businesses all in a bid to dissemble the main idea.

2. Recession does not necessarily mean a loss of jobs or high unemployment rate. It could just be that the economy of the said nation was not buoyant at the point in time.

Anyways my answer will have to be the last option E or 5. It is not clear what happened to the number of founded businesses. They may have been way less than projected and in that case, be negatively alarming or they may have increased far more than was predicted in that way be positively alarming. The passage only told us that while the unemployment rate was far worse than what was even expected, IT IS NOT CLEAR if the number of enterpreneurs were equally alarming.

The equally alarming part is the trap because one may be forced to think that since the sentence started with "while" and stated that unemployment rates were getting worse, then the number of new businesses will be getting better. But the passage clearly says we are not sure. Also, one can argue that equally alarming means that the number of new businesses was lower but one could not tell if they were lower than predicted. To take that position one had to assume that the alarming part was negative and we cannot infer that from the part of the passage. So I still think it is the last option.

Gunbiz:
can u give more examples to buttress ur point

“The events of future history… will be of the same nature – or nearly so – as the history of the past, so long as men are men”

-Thucydides (Great historian)

I could have yanked this sentence from a more involved passage and still be able to answer a question centred on it- just by reading it.

The author of the passage may have been making a case for how trends in human character or history haven't changed much because the beliefs responsible for keeping them that way are unchanged and at the end of the passage be recommending a solution or change.

But that will only help you when trying to understand his primary purpose for writing the passage.

On the surface and just by understanding the quoted statement, if a question was asked saying:

"The author cites Thucydides because?"

1. Thucydides was an expert at human history
2. To serve as an example of why men will be men
3. The events of future and past history are always the same.
4. To buttress his earlier point that past events barely differ from what could happen further down the line.
5. Men's attitude never changes.

The answer may appear confusing to someone who attempted reading the whole 55-line essay because s/he would be bogged down by the details there in. Some of the details of the passage may have mentioned or introduced Thucydides as one whom people respected because of his vast knowledge of history.

The passage may have also contained information stating that men's attitude on average remain the same over time.

These details, no matter how valuable, are extraneous to answering the question because they may either be merely supporting an idea, or just be fillers used to bulk up the whole literature.

#1 will not be the answer but it may be a good trap for someone who read the whole passage. Yes, Thucydides was an expert and most people like to quote experts but is that why the author referenced him? (Remember your answer must be something you can pinpoint directly in the passage).

#2 is an offpoint and actually fatuous answer and the ETS testmakers always include such an option. Many test takers will not fall for this except they randomly guess in a haste or with time quickly elapsing.

#3 is another good trap because it uses words in almost the exact manner that the author does, but 9 out of 10 times such answers will be wrong. Since the GRE VR is an open book exam (so to speak), the test makers will never make selecting the right answer so easy or obvious. This answer is however wrong because of the strong word ALWAYS. So in dire situations you can almost always eliminate extreme answer choices such as this.

#4 is obviously the answer and true to nature, the test makers will change the construction of the sentence as much as possible without affecting the main idea behind it. Thucydides was mentioned to give an example of a statement credited by an expert (like #1 suggested) but the author did it to underscore his claim that future history and past history won't differ much if at all they did at all. In other words, the author is saying "what happened in the past will most likely happen in the future because men do not change and Thucydides agrees with me". As you can see, if you were to restate the sentence in your own words you won't get confused no matter how much the testmakers try to contort the sentence.

#5 is not only extreme but it is a ploy at over-inference. The author only said on average men's attitude remain the same and not that it never changes.

Away from all this, how would I have found this answer without necessarily chewing through the whole passage? By using, in this case, "Thucydides" as my keyword and searching for where in the passage it was first used. Chances are, the very first place it was used will be the exact sentence I need to derive my answer and as you can tell, I didn't need whatever came before or after it, just the actual sentence.

Sorry if this post is long or even simplistic but it is the best I could do at this point. With just the right amount of practice, you would begin to see the trends in the RC questions and it will appear alot easier to you.

Remember that ETS has to make each edition of their exams fairly the same so the likelihood that they would repeat a trend is high. In that case, you may not get a 170 with this strategy, but you could definitely get above a 160 (even though this also depends on your SEs and TCs).

Renewable0216:
Scholastica, I totally get your point. However it's proved difficult for me to adapt. I've read textbooks saying "You should read less into the passage but read actively", " You don't get marks for reading the passage but for answering the questions correctly"

Sadly, I'm not sure I've got a grasp of that. From my experience, when you read the passage sketchily and eventually get to the questions, it takes a whole lot of time trying to find where the author mentioned what's being asked especially on the longer RCs. Given the smattering time, one could easily become flustered when you have to take time to search the passage again for each question.

I guess my understanding of the entire concept of minimal reading is what's faulty. Would you mind some expatiation? Probably, you'd be more limpid in demystifying the approach.

I also get your point because I faced the same problem initially. It is counterintuitive to be cursory when trying to understand something as convoluted as the RC passages of the GRE but with practice you'd get there. (Take note that if many book makers are saying the same thing then it must be a proven strategy). You have to also realise that even though it appears like time is moving really quickly when sifting through the passage it is more important to get the question right than to answer it quickly enough.

One thing that caught my attention while reviewing the answers to the RCs of the ETS material is that the answers where always backed up with a line in the passage and each time I read that particular line in isolation, I could understand it without even knowing what the whole passage was about. Also, that I didn't need to commit the whole sentence in the question to memory when searching for it in the passage, just a keyword was enough. This is a binding rule because the ETS testmakers do not change the sentence structure or wordings in the question; they only change it in the answers which means that that particular word that is jumping at you will be used in the exact way in the passage and your duty is to find it.

Take a word like Classicist for example. If a question asks something and includes such a word in the wordings I immediately sift through the passage for that word never minding if it was used more than once. The reason for this is, I also noticed that each time the passage used that word it will be surrounded by the same idea that necessitated it's use by the author in the first place. Like I said, your practice will show you these things and once you can develop the skill, you will be virtually certain of any answer you select.

I don't think saying much will help at this point but if you experience more grey areas I would be willing to share more tidbits.

Renewable0216:
Guys...Sorry I've been away for a while. II've been trying hard to study for this test but my scores from practice tests are not looking as good as desired yet. Have barely 2 weeks to the test. Verbal particularly has been the bane, RC still proving difficult. I must admit I've made considerable progress compared to when I started but I need to fast track things.

Codexgigax mentioned someone with 170 in this section. That means it's achievable with the right strategies. I'm I looking in the wrong places?

What material is best to focus on?
I think one of my issues is choosing from the deluge of materials I've got.

Unfortunately, I'm not in Lagos to help those who need study materials but I think a friend in Ibadan has the Magoosh videos. I'd confirm and revert to those in IB.

So guys, how do I up the scores? Need at least 160 in both sections. Any advice?
Thanks folks.

It may be counterproductive to attempt reading the whole passages except those that usually occur at the tail end or the shortened paragraphs. It will serve you better to pick keywords from the question and sift through the passage till you can hone down to the exact line or two where the idea is mentioned. Active reading may not only entail developing some sympathy or excitement for the author, it may just entail knowing exactly where he said what is being asked.

Once you arrive at that point, imagine that the sentence in question is from a friend who is trying to give you some information but is hoping that it will be esoteric to any other person but you whom he wants to see the message. If you can develop that fondness for the sentences you'd always see the gist behind what is being said and even better, because it will be in your own words.

You should be certain to take note that the GRE will rarely ever use the same words or construction in the answer choices and that extreme words almost always signify a wrong answer. So watch out for them. Words like "only, all, completely" etc.

If you can add this to what you already know you should experience atleast an extra 3-8 more marks to your scores and what I particularly like the most is that your brain won't feel fagged out- which is usually the case when one attempts reading through all the verbiage in the RCs (that one is barely ever tested on by the way).

I have been following the thread avidly since August. My test is in a week's time. Hopefully, I would be here with good news.

Cheers.