₦airaland Forum

Miaanita:
Good morning beautiful people, thanks for always assisting and also being there for Us

Pls i'd like to know if i can include my unofficial transcript copy with the mail am about sending to the "Graduate Program Coordinator" when asking for FUNDING POLICIES though am just about to write GRE and TOEFL..


very Urgent pls

Hello Miaanita,

I assume you just intend to inquire about funding from the Graduate Coordinator and have not contacted a potential supervisor.
Personally, I think it's too early to ask for funding in your first mail (assuming it is), especially if you've not written your standardized tests or made an application.
The first thing you should do is to connect with these grad coords. Mention your research interests and your profile. Ask for guidance as to making an application to their graduate programs. Yes you may include your unofficial transcript.
From here you would be able to make an informed choice on whether the school is a good fit, and afterwards ask about funding opportunities.
It's very important you check the program's website, because a lot of info would be made available on it.
Contact potential supervisors too. You'll see their info and research interests on their website.

I wish you the best!

DARKLASER:
Evening bosses, please I need your advise concerning choice of schools. I've done my search though, buh would welcome your thoughts concerning them.
Profile
Petroleum Engineering graduate
No publications
Gp-4.62/5.0
MSC/PhD Petroleum Engineering.. Preferably MSc though.
Schools in view
TAMU
U of Southern California
Texas Tech
Colorado school of mines
Louisiana state University
U of Oklahoma
U of Houston
U of Tulsa

I would really appreciate your contributions, even if it's small.
Arigato..

You have a good profile.
You just need to ace your standardized tests and contact potential supervisors.
You've made a good selection of schools, because they are good sites for petroleum research (close to the Gulf of Mexico).

Admits for Fall 2019 has begun for some schools, so you need to act fast about your next move.

All the best!!!

I could actually change the schools I was to report my scores to long after registration. I think they had a rule concerning being able to change them until 10 pm or so, the night before the d day. I did change mine a couple of times before writing. But once that deadline is met, you would have to pay for any other scores reported.
It might just be that there's a new policy.
Macaulay10 send TOEFL contact an email. I have done so recently and I believe they would respond soon enough by rectifying this issue.

.

scipy:
Hello guys,

Tried following the thread from beginning though I skipped some pages

I want to apply for a masters in business analytics in the US

Elect/Elect engineering 4.67/5.00
1yr consulting work experience

GRE: December 2018
TOEFL: January 2019

GRE approach (please help critic this):
AWA - Kaplan & Barron
Quantitative - Barron, Gruber, Nova & Manhattan
Verbal - Gruber & Barron


Schools I am considering are:

Georgia tech
University of Maryland
University of Illinois Chicago
University of California, San Diego

I know I am yet to write the GRE and this may heavily influence the choice of schools but I would appreciate advice on these ones and possibly others I can consider to land full funding. At this point, I just want to have a large pool of options to review.
Target number of applications is three.


Please I am here to learn, every opinion is welcome

Cc: Quoran, Scholastica16, shakaz,Sherlock5577

You have a really good GPA there. All you need to do now is ace your standardized tests. Believe and work hard towards achieving a great score.
I would advice that you contact Professors Of Interest from now. I hear it is possible without having your test scores ready, but you will need to let them know you are going to take them soon (please I should be corrected if I am wrong). Also as suggested by masterforcell, Princeton and Magoosh materials are helpful. Magoosh has provided answers to most quantitative practice questions online. I think they have videos for this, although I didn't use them.
For the AWA (I got a 4/6), what helped me especially in the argumentative essay aspect is that every statement made has many possibilities. It is either true or false, or an assumption without stated evidence. Also in some cases where one statement holds false then the next statement would be made false. I hope I am making some sense. Always ask yourself could this statement be false and why. Then you would have some points to argue about. Kaplan helps with this. But make use of numerous materials to have a wide scope of what to expect. Each material has its strengths and weaknesses.
Also on the exam day time yourself well for the essays. I didn't have enough time to proof read my first essay due to poor time management. Also try practising using the topics on ETS website.

For TOEFL, Notefull videos are really helpful. Although I've never posted my scores here, I got 105/120, R-30, S-22 (quite low), L-25 , W-28. Notefull videos would help you a long way. Moreover the GRE drilling helped my perception and mindset towards TOEFL.
Please be confident on test day, no need to panic. Panic doesn't help at all.

I wish you the best. Write excellent personal statements and get letters of recommendation ready. If possible draft the LORs and ask your supervisors if they could use these letters. You would be surprised that they respond positively.

Fall2019. Yes we can. Sorry for any typos.

omofola93:
Hi everyone, I have my exam this Thursday and I would like to seek the opinion of people that reside in Lagos. Is it possible for me to get to JKK before 10am if I leave Ibadan by 6am?

I would advice if you can be in Lagos on Wednesday, please be there. It would be better. I don't reside in Lagos, but from my personal experience it would best if you arrive the test venue long before 10am. At least you will have time to get settled with the test environment.
My GRE was in Abuja and I wasn't familiar with the route. I got there just in time, and was a little exhausted from trying to locate my test venue. It wasn't a nice experience.

Leoney:
Hello house,
I think I should begin by apologising because this message might be long. I have been patiently waiting for my complete scores before I'll post anything here. I can not over emphasize the importance of this thread and I hope it lasts as long as the GRE exam continues and beyond. I am corper serving in ph, took the GRE exam last week saturday.
Scores are
Quantitative - 164 (86%)
Verbal - 156 (73%)
AWA - 3.5

My AWA is really disappointing cause I think I wrote well, and followed Manhattan's guide to the essay. I'm confused a lityle sha. Anyways I started preparing since june using only the materials I got here, in my preparation when I took the first Powerprep, my scores was
Q -149
V-151. Was disappointed cause I knew I'm better at Maths. Studied up to 5 hours daily, with some cheat days though. Then when I took my final powerprep got, V-150, Q-160, I just knew my verbal was in soup. On the exam day, everything was normal until my second verbal, when it started raining and I could barely ckncentrate because of the sound from the roof. I just guessed for most of the answers, cause I was really pissed off and the people there refused giving me and extra scratch paper. Anyways I thank God.
My profile is
Geology from Federal University
Undergrad GP 3.84/4 (WES conversion, 4.73/5)
One ublication pending
I submitted my scores to
University of Texas Arlington
UT of the Permian Basin
Colorado State Uni
University of Delaware.
I thank you all for your valuable informations, I dont know anybody's name except Scholarstica16, I'm singling him out because at a time, all I did was to isolate his posts and read everything cause I couldnt go through all >400 pages. I thank you brother for your contributions. Everyone else who have made this thread what it is. I would also welcome any advice on what next, already registered for TOEFL sha, would be taking it soon.

Wow. This is good.
It's great seeing a high score in a while. It would be a great encouragement to others. I am also for geology.
Please begin to contact potential supervisors to get some form of commitment if you haven't started, and then apply early. Fall applications began in August for some schools.The importance of early and well prepared applications have been reiterated here, especially for a GA position.
For the TOEFL, I found notefull videos very helpful. The materials are on the thread, but I can't recall the link. For GTA positions, you may need to get certain minimum scores in certain sections, e. g. a minimum of 24 in all sections. It all depends on the school's requirements.
I believe your profile is really good and the sky is just your starting point.
Just google gradcafe geology and open the first web address. You would see a lot of Admission decisions for various schools and profiles of some students awarded GAs or TAs.

Yes we can Fall 19'

Tesfayee:
Hey everyone, I know it’s late but please forgive me.
I’ve been a fan of this thread for months now and I read almost all the pages before I took my GRE test the first week of this month. I prepared extensively for it honestly but it didn’t turn out as good as I expected (even though I couldn’t finish the last section which was verbal and accidentally ended it abruptly).
I ended up getting 290: Q: 145 V:145 AWA: 3.5
I studied economics and graduated with 3.57/5 gpa (I’ve not done the WES evaluation) and I intend on doing masters in business analytics.
The GRE has scarred me so much and I don’t want to write it again, I really expected myself to do well, I want to apply for summer or fall 2019.
I don’t know what schools would take me with my poor GRE scores. Please guys I need your help. I’m freaking out!

Your GRE is kinda low, but it takes a lot of courage to face GRE.
I don't know much, but you'll have to make some research on possible schools were you could be funded with your profile. You may need to check msinus.com and gradecafe.com, connect with students from certain schools on LinkedIn to have an idea of what scores are competitive in such schools. Whatever you confirm from these sources, may inform your choice of either going ahead with the score or rewriting.
I believe you would find schools were your profile may be fair enough. But these schools may be tier 2.

I wish you the best in your endeavours.

shakaz:
Thank you so much for the Tips. I'm already contacting Grad cord and some current students in the schools I am interested in. I must confess their reply were catalyst to me accepting my scores.

I hope we all get in. #fall 2019

Same experience with mine.
You're doing great then.

Yes, I hope we all get in.

Yes we can #Fall19'

shakaz:
D – Day. ( August 31, 2018)

• Usually, this is where people go on to elaborate at length. However, in my case it would surprise you to know I have little memory of what happened that day. I woke up feeling scared, worried and nervous. All kind of negative emotions one shouldn’t exhibit on test day. I struggled to even eat my breakfast. I figured that reading too many posts about GRE top scorers and having my eyes fixated on top school, plus friends and family high expectation led to the whole negative emotions I exuded.

Fast forward to the start of my test. VQVQV ( I prayed against this )

• AWA
The topics were straight forward and the argument presented had obvious flaws. And even though I am not fast at typing, I was able to come up with 5 paragraphs for each tasks ( my major mistake here was not saving up time to proof read).

Next up was Verbal.
My verbal experience was terrible. I couldn’t just get myself to stay focused. I was just glossing over the screen. I promised myself that on test day that I wouldn’t peep at the options, until I come up with an answer. I couldn’t adher to this. I totally forgot all my practice tests experiences. And I spent 50% of the time looking at the timer (worrying that time wasn’t enough). The comprehension were obviously incomprehensible. At some point I was totally lost in my thought. The TC and SE had not even a single unfamiliar Vocab, but comprehending the sentence was an issue here. At the end of the First verbal I knew I wouldnt do so well in the test.

Quantitative:
Now this section was funny in the sense that the questions were far easier than I had expected but I goofed up. For example, I spent 5 long minutes on question 1 ( if that wasn’t me abandoning 3 months of GRE home training and torrent of advice, I wonder what is) . The most annoying part is that, when my official scores came out, I discovered that even though I ended up answering that Q1 correctly, the victory was in every sense pyrrhic. Q1 difficulty level was 1 – easiest - , 5mins on an easy question. And the summary of what happened in question 1 is that I was being overly fussy. Reason being that, under the first 1mins I had gotten A as the answer (QC). But I wasn’t sure because I used plugging in method. So I spent another 2 mins trying to use algebra to confirm A. after 3mins of struggling I just had to mark and move on. At the end of the Section, I Still had 3 mins left. I still had to waste 2 out of the 3 mins on question 1 and my final answer was still A.

Now, you may be wondering why so much emphasis on Q1. The answer is not far fetch. That single question determined my mood, approach and pace in the whole section and inadvertently led to my score.

The other sections were just complete reiteration of the above. With my last verbal being worst off because of exhaustion. And by the last 10mins of test, my whole mind was on pressing the submit button and knowing my fate.

End of Test: I clicked submit.

Final score : 313 ( Q161 V152)

AWA 3.5 (whatever you do always spare time at the end to proof read and correct errors. you wouldn't want your grader to see " He it a boy". I'm sure that was my case, becuase I certain about the contents of my essays. I expected 4.5+ self)

I was just there confused on what to do. The institution codes I had taken, hoping they would be moderate schools judging from my practice test scores, are now overly ambitious. So I just left the hall without sending scores to even a single school. Knowing fully well that I have to re-take the test.

It took me days to accept those scores ( or rather to reject those scores as a definition of my ability).

Well, there you have it. My GRE experience. I would have posted sooner, but I clearly wasn’t pleased with my scores initially. But right now I'm super grateful to God I survived, it could have been worst.

I hope prospective test takers learn a thing or two from my experience and I also hope my story end up having a happy ending. The aim is admission and funding and not to enhance your status amongst the Asians.

#Fall 2019 Yes We Can. Peace

Great post!!
You went into a lot of details. I sure couldn't get into much details back then because I was destabilized for a long time after I saw my scores. Also, especially because of my goal and extent of preparation. Just like you, when I saw my scores it felt like I was deceived by all the practise tests I took.
It's a good score. You might have to reconsider some schools.
The next best thing to do is contact as many potential supervisors and I strongly believe you'll get some positive responses. It would'nt be easy at first. You'll get a lot of no responses. Then some negative, in between and then some positive ones.

I believe your TOEFL would be much better. In my case the TOEFL was like a "revenge mission".

We would make it.

I would still reiterate on some points made here. Application for fall 19 has begun. Prepare your SOP and if possible draft your LORs and hope your recommenders make use of them as they are, or prepare something close to or better than it.
You should use msinus.com and gradecafe.com to guide you towards the schools you have better chances of being a GA.

Thanks for sharing!!!

We would make it!!!

#Fall 2019!!!

Cetona:
Hello, house. Please, a friend of mine just registered and applied for Psychology this evening, only to go back to check her page and it seems the system automatically gave her "social and personality psychology", and it has part time not full time. She is so worried as she can't edit. Please what can be done is this case? All the numbers on the website are not going through.

This happened to quite a number of people.
If she hasn't submitted, she should be able to modify her details. When She wants to log in she should select "log in to modify data" rather than "log in to continue application". I hope you understand this.
But if she has submitted her application, she would need to make some payment, about #1,100, to reactivate her submission and make corrections.

Al the best!!!

Yildiz:
Good day all,

Please I have a little info on how to contact prof.

I use google scholar site and search for the research area of my interest. I check on the profile of people conducting research in the area. Usually on their google scholar profile page there will be a list of research interests. If you click on any one it will take you to a page with list of people with similar research interest and their number of citation. That way you can then see all of people from different school and countries with similar interest as yours.

Thanks

You should also check these researchers' profiles on their university websites. You might even get links to their personal websites which has more details or links to their research groups.

All the best!!!

bioemmy:
To the gurus in the house, what are my chances of getting a straight PhD admission with funding in the USA?

I have a bsc in Microbiology (4.46/5) with 2 publications yet to be published.


Gradually preparing for my GRE

Yes it's possible.
Your GPA is really good. With a good personal statement, good letters of recommendation and stellar test scores you stand a great chance. But you'll need to also contact potential supervisors with similar research interests.
Read through this thread and you wouldn't regret it.

bolubej:
House, is it possible to fill some schools when registering for gre and later report scores to other schools on the test day?

Yes it's possible, Just go along with the names of those institutions and their GRE institution codes.
But as I believe pronto543 is trying to say, a lot of changes and reconsiderations may occur before you apply, due to unforeseen circumstances.
But yes it's possible to make changes to institutions you'll be reporting scores to on the test day for free.

Hello house!!!
Please is there anyone here for MSc in Geology?
Please I need help with regards to the nature of the departmentmental test.
Thanks!!!

fabyom:
please, how can one lauch powerprep 2

It's just like the normal software you know. Just double click on it.
If you're still faced with a challenge after the software is opened, kindly check my post on page 388 for a possible solution (Jul 26, 7:28am).

Cheers!!!

pronto543:
Thank you so much Sherlock5577. You guys made it possible. I remember your contribution helped to resolve the issue I was facing wifth launching the Powerprep II software.

Didn't realise sef.
Glad to be of help in my little way!

Freely we received, freely we'll give!

Fall 2019.
We will get there!!!

P. S. Applications for Fall 2019 should have started for some schools. Some others would begin next month.

No time!!

pronto543:
Recommendations:

For prospective test takers, endeavour to review and practice all the questions and concepts in the Official Guide. In my opinion, the best test material for Verbal are Official Guides. Others are Magoosh videos for the SC and RC. Manhattan 5lb RC passages are very close to the topics you will likely come across in the RC on the test day.

For AWA, I recommend following the Kaplan template. Also, review the sample essays in the Official Guide to understand what the graders place emphasis on.

For the Quant's, there is no single book that can perfectly simulate ets questions in term of verisimilitude and difficulty. I believe ets are beginning to reinvent themselves. However, I would recommend Manhattan 5lb as it will help raise your level unlike Barrons or Kaplan that will give you a false sense of security. I was scoring in the range of 165-168 with Kaplan and Barrons. With Manhattan, my Quant's score was in the range of 163-165 after some months of intense practice. So I know what I'm saying when I say Manhattan will raise your level and awareness to avoiding trap answers. Magoosh videos are also good...I.watched the videos like 2-3 times over again.

Also, on the test date, use your scratch paper wisely. I mean solve systematically and neatly so that you can refer to a question in case you couldn't complete it or you need to review it. This strategy helped me on 2 questions which I had to come back to later on. I just carried on from where I stopped solving.

Finally, I would like to thank our patrons on this thread and everyone that has kept this thread alive. I must admit that I got all the prep materials I used from this group. For prospective test takers, you need to devote time and ferret out the materials. I come across this thread sometimes around May last year. On that fateful night while I laid on my bed worried about acing the GRE, I typed "how to score high on GRE" and eureka I came across this wonder and life changing group. Throughout that week, I was glues to my phone and PC reading all the comments from page one to the end. I downloaded.all the materials including the Magoosh videos (~1.2GB), Manhattan 8 series and 5lb book,Nova Bible and Official Guides and all other material I felt I needed. On my next trip to UI, I printed all the books costing me about 15k at that time since it is cheaper printing around campus. The books filled an A4 carton. In retrospect, I must say it was money well spent.

Congrats pronto543!!
Great scores!

#Fall19

aphyz2709:
Good evening All. Just wanna remind the house that I'm still waiting for contributions as regards this post. God bless you.

Congrats aphyz2709!!
You did well on the tests .
The truth is that the best person to help you concerning schools of interest is you or someone who has a similar research interest with yours.

I would advise you check online for schools with faculty with areas of research that pique your interest. Then contact these professors to know the possibility of being a funded research student of theirs. There are some posts on this topic which would guide you on how to contact them. Simply put, no long stories. Basically just include your profile and interest in a specific research area of theirs in your mail. Also attach you CV and transcript. Also the email subject should read something like this "Spring 2019 Prospective International Graduate Student"
Also make use of gradcafe to have an idea which of these schools are ambitious, moderate or safe based on your profile.
Another factor that might influence your choice would be the nature of response you get from professors of interest.
You might notice you choices would change as you get different responses from faculty members. You may not get much positive responses, but keep sending out emails.
Keep your options wide.

I hope this helps!!!
All the best!!

[quote author=minaty post=69767806][/quote]Hello minaty,
Unfortunately, I have never encountered that before.
I would advise you get a copy of the software from a different source and try it.
I trust quite a number of people here have the raw file.

pronto543:
Thank you so much. I had to grant it permission to run as you suggested and it worked.

I took a full-timed test and scored V:153, Q:163. Is there any way I can review the answers? I plan to take a full-timed with the Powerprep on a daily basis to become very familiar and comfortable with it.

I am glad it worked. You're welcome.
Yes you can review your answers.
It's been long I used the app, but I think it's after you are done answering and reporting your scores. You will see the option to review. You would be shown the questions you got correct and incorrect. Click on each one to see the right answer. There's are no solutions on the app, if I clearly remember.
But once you "google" the question online, you will get many solutions.

It's noteworthy that you had great scores for the first time.
Personally I think my GRE test was harder than PowerPrep 2 (probably the tension).
A word of advice is keep practising, but have an open mind on the exam day.

I trust you will do well!!

pronto543:
Hi folks,

Please I need some clarification on how to use the PowerPrep II software. I have downloaded it but whenever I try to launch it,it opens in my Internet explorer which doesn't work well compared to my Mozilla. I thought Powerprep II is offline like the TOEFL sampler software. How do I make the software open on my Mozilla? Whenever I launch it on Explorer, it gets to the point where it shows the "Continue" button but fails to respond when I click on it.

Also, I need folks to clarify the difference between Powerprep II and Powerprep plus. My exam is on August 6th and I'm just confused about the whole stuff. I feel my preparation is adequate and I'm doing pretty well in other full test I've taken with Barron and Kaplan as well as diagnostic Tests from Princeton Review and Manhattan 5lb books. I have exhausted the Manhattan 5lb book, Official Guides (Verbal & Quants) and Princeton Review. I have watched all the Magoosh videos I downloaded from this forum. I always try to simulate the exam condition by constantly timing myself in all the practice exercises. I use 1.75 mins and 1.5 minutes for Quants and Verbal questions respectively. It has gretaly helped me and time is hardly an issue for me when I take full timed tests.

Please, I just need the clarification and working links to ets Powerprep II and Powerprep Plus if possible. I also need suggestions on other free online full test sites.

PowerPrep 2 is offline and free.
Whenever you run the application, you are expected to grant permission to allow it to run.
The permission notification is seen below the internet
Explorer webpage.
There's also a place below the webpage you'll see "continue".
Without granting access and clicking continue, the software wouldn't work.

I hope this helps.

Hello house ,

Please has any deadline been fixed for application completion and submission of referee forms?

Thanks as you respond!

Delab:
I have tried using several browsers too, all to no avail. Even sent a mail to the information officer, but there hasn't been any reply. Just don't know if I'mthe only one experiencing this

I doubt you are the only one experiencing this.
Just keep trying it at different times of the day. Especially at night when their servers should be less busy.
There are speculations that work is currently being carried out on the site to make sure it performs appropriately.

Delab:
yes I haven't been able to go past that stage. Every attempt at submitting the previous admission history, brings an error page

The truth is I didn't encounter this. I used Google Chrome in the afternoon. The issue could be from either side. Networks issues or the likes. Confirm your network is good, also use different browsers and try it at different times of the day.
But I noticed before some features in some pages worked, I needed to wait for a few seconds after it loaded.
Just keep trying, I trust these issues would be rectified soon.

Delab:
Were you able to proceed past the previous admission history stage? i.e after the referees

Yes I did Delab.
I went ahead to other stages.
Are you having any issues?

laliga01:
Are you operating through a phone? Try use a laptop and use a reliable network.
Your case seems like a network issue

Thanks laliga, but I was actually using a laptop.
I have gotten around it. I used the Skye bank online payment.

Delab:
You can still use​ your GTB card. The Skye option is the active link for now. Just click on the Skye logo instead and follow other instructions by clicking on application, and type your invoice number. The next page would bring out​ your details. Then you proceed to pay. Input the GTB card details, and it will be successful.

Thanks boss. It worked !!

Good morning Nairalanders !!!

I am glad this topic has been created . Thanks to the admin and other contributors.

Please I have an inquiry. I tried paying for the pg form with my GTBank MasterCard, but was getting this Error 404 message.
Please can someone guide me as to how payments are made offline (at the bank). Must it be at a particular branch?

Thanks

DMainMan:
TEST FORMAT

Test format will be Dragnet Verbal, Dragnet Numerical and one function skill test in the field you chose; i.e Geology, Geophysics, Engineering, Petroleum Economics, Law (Oil and Gas/Petroleum) e.t.c

To download the dragnet past verbal and numerical questions for practise only (do not cram); come here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hv8sknun3ziw24i/dragnetgsequestions_shopygfx_upload.zip

For Shortcut techniques in solving Dragnet Numerical reasoning swiftly; come here: https://www.nairaland.com/1883541/shortcut-techniques-solving-dragnet-shl

Good luck.

From DMainMan
PTDF Scholar
CEO DMainMan and Zeltney Enterprises/Consult,
https://facebook.com/dmainmanfoundation/
https://dmainmanconsult.com/

Thank you sir!

Raylight2:
all done

Thank you sir!

Raylight2:
Good morning all.

I think it will be good to open the 2018/2019 discussion thread. This thread will give us an up-to-date information regarding UI Postgraduate program.

Anyone who is interested should come in and help others with information and other relevant documents.

Information concerning estimated form fee, school fees, duration of the program for various courses, accommodation inside and outside the school should be shared immediately. We need to help each other at this point. Forms were last sold for N15,500, I do not know how much it will be this year, but it shouldn't go beyond that same amount.

I a sample of the proficiency in English test question to share.

Admin please add this prospective's number 080**********