Regarding GRE and Going to USA

This is a part of an email intended to the students of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh. Mail attachments will be found in the links at the end of the post

I am getting a lot of email and phone querying about the total procedure from quitting my job in Ericsson to getting visa. I have promised them to write an email in KUETians delineating the whole picture and this is the outcome of my word.

Annual planning
Starting from a decision of higher education in USA to actually fly for USA takes more or less a whole year. Now, how to plan for this time?


In US universities, there are generally 3 semesters. Fall, Spring and Summer. Fall is roughly from September to December. Spring is from January to April and Summer is from May to August. They study in Fall and Spring semesters but summer semester is for vacation. Often somebody takes summer as a short semester and does few courses specially in weak parts. For others, summer is mainly vacation or time to do jobs. Remember, TA/RA allowances is not available in summer semester. That is, if you get a 1000$/month funding as an RA, it means a 8000$/year funding. The general intake of students mainly happens in fall semester. Some universities also take students in Spring semester, however, I don't know much about that so i'll not discuss about it ether.

So, you need to target for the fall semester. That is, for the next September (class starts in Sep, 2010). The deadline of admission varies from university to university. Generally, good universities have a deadline (for fall) from 15th January to 15th March. Relatively low ranking universities generally have a deadline upto 1st May. For the safest case, you should take your GRE and TOEFL before January, i.e. within 31st December.

Since preparing for GRE and TOEFL requires almost 5/6 months, therefore, this (June/July) is the best time to take a concrete decision (resolution) to go for higher education. I left my job in July 21, 2008. But I would not recommend quitting your job. It is very possible to prepare for GRE while continuing your job and that is a good decision (as I felt later). However, you have to start preparing from now. Take GRE within the end of November and TOEFL in December.

How to prepare for GRE
I can't discuss the every small aspects of GRE here, but I can give an outline of preparation. The first initiative to start preparing for GRE is to start studying something motivational. check out the book Acing the GRE (http://grementor.blogspot.com/2009/04/ebook-to-start-with-acing-gre.html). This is a very inspiring book. This will give you much confidence and the perseverance needed to good well in GRE. Once you have read the first 2/3 chapters, you'll feel much confidence. Side by side, read the introductory materials in Barron's GRE to know your enemy. Study well what are the features of CAT test, how many parts are there is GRE, what is the timing requirements etc. You'll need 1 week for these. After this week you'll feel much more confident to start with.

Now, think like this, divide the time ahead you in two equal phases. The 1st phase in only for word memorizing. You'll need to grasp 2000+ words in these days. There are some extremely effective methods for word memorizing.

1. Reading words mean a whole lot of things. You have to grasp every new word you encounter from the morning. Read as much English writings as you can. You'll get new words there. Read Daily Star, Wall Streat Journal online, Barron's word list or whatever you think suits best for you. Maintain a notebook. Write the word with its meaning and an example sentence. Remember, you'll not only memorize a weak meaning but all the meanings including the context where it will be appropriate to use. Use a good dictionary for that. (More tips on this: http://chayansdiary.blogspot.com/2008/08/building-vocabulary-appropriate-tools.html)

2. Read at least 50 new words a day. But that's not all. You also have to review the words read in last two or three days (preferably a week). Once you've read a word for 7 consecutive days, it is expected that you'll not forget it for the next 30 days.

3. Take a pause after every 7 day: This day, you'll not read any new word. You'll just revise the words studied in the last 7 days from your notebook.

4. Take a pause for 3 to 7 days after a month: In this pause, you'll study all the words you have studied from the beginning. Remember, this is the most crucial part of the study. Without this, you'll forget all the words and every effort will go in vain.

Now what about the 2nd phase? If you haven't done already, REGISTER for both GRE and TOEFL NOW!!! Extreme sit crisis happens after September. So, this is the best time. NEVER EVER GO TO GRAMEEN STAR for TOEFL. Read my experiences there in this link (http://chayansdiary.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-toefl-experience.html)

This is the actual part of GRE preparation. Take the following initiatives:

1. Reduce New Word reading (10~15 words/day enough). But continue the revision part. Specially the Steps 3 and 4 mentioned above. Continue the reading habit (Daily star/Wall street journal)

2. Start preparing for quantitative section. To me, doing all the math tips and practice questions from Barron's and Kaplan's + Attached Test Magic Files (attached with this mail) + Data Interpretation questions (These are the toughest part in quantitative) from BIG BOOK is enough for quantitative section.

Oh! you also have to keep an eye in the Dr. Raju's Website (http://www.drrajusgre.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=15&sid=9dd8cf52d64cbd8ac1b54033cbe4df8c). This (Dr. Raju's GRE) is an Indian institute for GRE preparation. They have so many students that, almost everyday, someone from this institute takes GRE. After taking GRE, this organization goes to their students and asks for questions as many as they can remember. All the questions they remember are published in the website. So, from this web you'll get an idea what questions are currently coming. GRE questions repeat for 7 days, so if you can solve these questions for 7 days immediately before your test day, you can expect to get some of them your real GRE!!! I've got 6 questions common.

3. Emphasize on Tactics for verbal section: Check the Kaplan's Verbal book for tactics on Antonym, Synonym, Sentence Completion. There are little or no tactics for the reading section. This is the toughest part in Verbal Section. All the readings you have done from the very beginning will help you here.

4. For the last month take a practice test everyday and keep record. Keeping record is extremely important because this will inform you in which part you are excelling and in which part you need more attention.

for gre resources, you can get to this website http://grementor.blogspot.com/

. For more tips read this http://www.urch.com/forums/gre/7119-how-gre-flounder.html


TOEFL

Keep December for TOEFL preparation. Nothing much to talk about it. Barron + Kaplan + Longman is well enough. You may read my article in Test Magic about TOEFL reading strategies (http://www.urch.com/forums/toefl-reading/104804-overall-reading-strategies.html)


University Selection

Whenever you'll start to take the practice tests, you'll have an idea about how are you going to do in the actual test. According to this, try choosing some universities. Use the attached university list. This is an outcome of a lot of my sleepless nights just to prepare an exhaustive list for you. This list is also available in Dr. Raju's website, but my version is in excel sheet in a sortable and search-able format.

Application:

There are 2 ways of applying in universities. If you have a good profile (CGPA 3.5+ or at least 1 paper, GRE 1300+, TOEFL 100) you have the easiest way. Just apply to 5 to 10 universities. Keep half of them to your equivalent level (you'll understand the level from the university list. Average profile of admitted students are given there). A quarter of universities higher than your level and a quarter lower. Just apply and wait for funding. After funding ... u know what :D

For students with not so good profile (like me), the path is not that smooth. Choose 20 to 30 universities at your level. Find for the research projects there. Note which professor are doing what kind of job. Also note, which professor have fund. You'll get these info in the university web pages. Now write a humble email to the professors. Don't write to more than one professor in a dept. For what to write, follow these advices from one of my friend. These really work:

para 1

kotha thake pass korsis....oitar credibility in bd(why itz best - Mostly chapa)....n result

sathe ssc/hsc result...keno aita top 5% er modhe pore... etc

para 2...kon field e previously kaj korsis....thesis ki chilo...field of interest ki

keno tar sathe kaj korte chas

kon field e tor sathe unar reseach interest match kore

para 3

tor tk lagbe...ra/ta/scholarship etc...sathe uni jodi toke nai...tui khub e khushi hobi

tui khub quick learner

toke nile disappoint hobe na

thanks

email kono vabei beshi boro korbi na

kono formatting....bold itallic/underline ..kono kisui na

sathe bsc transcript n cv attach kore dite parish

Now, once you can manage a professor, apply to that university before the specified deadline. Wait for funding .... and the rest is same.

I want to end my email here. Got very tired writing all these ....

Attachments
math-test-magic.zip
US University Lists.xls