Archive for the ‘GRE’ Category

Strategy for solving questions during GRE exam

By epravesh in Online Admission Platform, Online Admission, Online preadmission Process, Education Articles and Alerts | July 13th, 2010 | Admission, GRE, Higher Education, Study Abroad | No Comments

Planning to appear for GRE, here is simple strategy while solving your questions of the online exam. It is crucial exam for the MS admissions in USA.

GRE uses the software which will decide next question and range of your score depending on accuracy of your previous responses. So your questions will start from average complexity level and if you keep on answering correctly, questions will become tougher gradually. So if at end you start getting tough questions don’t worry, you are on right track.

You can’t skip questions. Because software will not know what question to give next. Since the software is designed like that you would want to go to higher range of marks by answering initial few questions accurately. So take little more time to solve initial question , make sure you are right twice and then move forward.

Also one more important thing is finishing all questions. Your score will be less if you solve half questions correctly and leave rest than if you solve half correctly and half incorrectly. If you are stuck at some problem for quite some time do intelligent guess and move on. Divide your time intelligently. You will take less time for questions such as antonyms and more time for passage reading etc.

Solve lot of sample tests and review where you are going wrong. Purchase sample tests , books if needed. That money is really worth spending. With little money spent on book you might end up saving a lot by getting scholarships or funding.

Final word is – low GRE score may not stop you from getting into good college but good score will definitely help.

MS Counseling, USA Education Counseling

Strategy to Apply to Foreign Institutes, Universities for MS

By epravesh in Online Admission Platform, Online Admission, Online preadmission Process, Education Articles and Alerts | June 29th, 2010 | Admission, GRE, Study Abroad | No Comments

If your are applying for MS in US universities then application fee for an university ranges from 50 to 150$ and there are mailing expenses and lot of time associated for applying to any university. So you will need optimum strategy to get best possible school with minimum possible applications.

Usual strategy is apply for 3 ambitious + 3 middle level + 2 safe universities. You can change order depending on your profile. For example, if your academic score is low you might want to add 1 more university in safe category and remove from middle level.

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Application

Safe universities are those where you are sure to get admission based on your profile. You will put lot of efforts for study, preparing documents, applying to universities so you will always want at least 1 admit in your hand at the end of all this exercise. This will save you 1 season (fall/ summer) or possibly a year. Safe university will be usually low rank or costly, where few people with your profile will apply. So chances of admission will be high. Just make sure 1 thing before applying, if at the end this is the only admit you have will you go for it, if yes go ahead and apply.

Middle level universities are ones which have descent rank, descent chances for funding , good location. Chances for admission in these universities vary depending on various factors such as allocated seats for foreign students, aid from different agencies, focus area of university. For example, in 2007 many students who applied to University of Florida got admits with not so great profile because they had more seats for foreign students that year. As there are many factors which decide admission it is better to go through counselor or apply more of such universities.

Ambitious universities are your dream universities. Definitely apply few of these as you will do masters once in your lifetime and you don’t want to miss a chance just because you did not apply. Factors to consider are 1) Research that is done in  that university and whether you can prove to them that you can be useful to them in some particular area. 2) Whether you have good recommendation from somebody associated with that university. 3)One more factor to be considered is course that you want to do your masters in. Many very good schools might have course that is newly added and so few people know about it. You can try your luck with such institutes.

Finally, as there will be lot of things to take care when you are applying don’t worry about which school you should go in case you get multiple admits. You can always do that once you have actual admits in your hand.It is always good to have multiple admits for the MS so that you can have multiple options for specialization, institute open and it will help you to take final decision.

GRE can give you entry in USA Universities

By epravesh in Online Admission Platform, Online Admission, Online preadmission Process, Education Articles and Alerts | June 23rd, 2010 | GRE, Study Abroad | No Comments

Planning for the GRE, here is some useful information about it.

1) You are interested in working in the foreign countries like USA in the area of research. GRE is your gateway to get quality education and get job in research. In India,  till today there is very less investment in research and if you want to work in research or want to learn research methodologies have new ideas then you have to take GRE.

2) There is separate quota for H1B visa for people who have graduated from USA. Even if you end up doing same thing what you were doing before MS you can earn enough which can easily pay off your MS tuition fees. You can stay in USA till the time you want, earn money and then return if you want to. If you want to get settled in USA , GRE is best or the only option for you.

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University selection criteria

1) Funding – MS is usually costly affair. It is better if you earn money while you are studying. It helps reduce some financial burden and also you can enjoy your well deserved money after your graduation and not waste in repaying loans. You can either get research assistance ship, teaching assistance, general assistance or campus job.

2) Location of university – It is important you select university in area where there are many jobs available. California , New York, Texas are few areas to look for. When you are studying in such areas you will get to know about job fairs easily.

3) Chances of admission – It takes at least 200$ fees per university to apply including expenses for application fee, mailing documents, sending scores etc. You might not want to waste money unnecessarily.

4) Rank of university – If you are interested in research oriented job this factor is of prime importance. Otherwise even though for normal job rank of university may not matter much , you might not want to end up in community college after spending so much money.

5) Fees - Some universities life University of Southern California satisfy all of the above criteria but their fees are double then other universities. That can be one of the major factor affecting your decision.

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Sample application checklist

1. Complete application form (For paper filing you need to sign)
2. Payment of application fee
3. University / college transcript for current degree (Translations will be needed if original transcripts are other than English)
4. Official GRE scores sent from ETS
5. Official TOEFL scores sent from ETS
6. Financial documents (Proving you have or can get enough money to support your studies)
7. Three (3) letters of recommendation
8. Statement of purpose

Keep in mind 2 extremely important things
1) You need to apply before the deadline .Preferably keep sufficient time before deadline in case something in your application is missing.
2) Almost every university will have application checklist on their website. Confirm it once before you mail all documents.