second_rate

hi guys, just curious, if I were to apply for an OR PhD in a US university, say Columbia, do I have to submit a research proposal? Or is it sufficient to outline your research interests in the personal statement? I'm asking because a friend of mine who applied for PhD statistics in Oxford, Cambridge, and UToronto mentioned that he had to submit a research proposal. I'm wondering if the same holds for American universities. For one, I don't have a specific research problem in mind! Perhaps the 1 year coursework would help.

Hi guys, so I just received my official scores and the ones I received right after the test were accurate! Now, I got a 5.5 for the Analytical Writing Section. I've heard that many universities just disregard this component but is this true? One school though that I checked encourages all PhD applicants to have a high writing score. I'm pretty aware that the writing section and the verbal section measure different skills but could this, in a way, be an indicator of my proficiency in English? I've never been good in verbal but academic writing is one of my strong suits, aside from my math background... I'm hesitant about retaking the GRE mainly to pull up my verbal score. For one, it's costly

Thanks for the encouragement texasguy. by the way, how do I access the free online diagnostic? It hasn't been 10-15 days yet since i took the test so does this mean I can't view my scores for the mean time? will ETS send me an e-mail if my scores are up? thanks!

Hi @tejasdkulkarni thanks for the heads up. I reviewed for it for 3 months (well not daily of course) and so I'm disappointed with the verbal score. Another thing is that I have friends from china who got 700+ on the verbal section of the old gre even though they can't really converse in english well. (They have access to websites which contain loads of questions shared by other students from China) It was a bit of a slap in the face, getting a low verbal score despite having spoken english since 5. Or maybe I just have poor inference skills, I don't know. In your case, your verbal is still high and the scores are not that far from each other which has different implications from mine. Yup, research is OK, I have 1 co-authored (with my supervisor) journal paper and I'm working on another project now. I also participated in a 6 week research attachment in Imperial College London but it didn't turn out quite well. (In short, not very productive but learned a lot from mistakes)

Hi guys, so I just took the GRE yesterday and I'm a bit disappointed with my score. For the Quantitative Exam, I got 166 (94%) which was below what I thought I would get. I'm an applied math major and I found the exam easy, I even had time to review all my answers. I was surprised with my score since I was expecting a score in the range 168-170. For the verbal exam, it was even worse as I got a score of 154 (64%) and I am unsure which one was the experimental section. I was hoping to get a score of 157-160 though. I have yet to learn how I did for the writing portion but the issue I got was relatively difficult compared to the ones I've practiced and so I'm just being optimistic that my argumentative essay will sort things out. I am wondering, although these scores are unofficial, is there a chance they'll change once my scores will be posted on the website? If so, what's the likelihood and is it normally an increase in one's score? Right now, I'm debating whether to retake the GRE or not. I intend to apply for a PhD in OR to a top school, for instance Columbia, and I am unsure whether my GRE scores will hurt my chances for admission. To be honest, I'm not really good in verbal but coupled with the anxiety you feel during the exam, there are times when I don't understand the passages I'm reading because my mind is just not able to focus. Retaking the GRE won't be an assurance that my anxiety will ameliorate so I am really unsure of how to proceed. Btw, I noticed that the words in the new GRE aren't extremely difficult and unusual. What I observed is that they use simple words which have double meanings, with the double meanings used relatively infrequently in common language.

Guys, anyone bought this book? I just want to know whether the contents of this book are the same with the free pdf guide ETS uploaded on its website: http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/practice_book_GRE_pb_revised_general_test.pdf If the contents are not the same, which I presume, are there a lot of exercises in this book which are different from those presented in the pdf? I'm a bit hesitant on buying this book because after viewing snippets of it (courtesy of google books), the AWA review section is the same as the one in the pdf above. However, there's no free preview for the verbal and quantitative section. I'm more devoted on preparing for the verbal section so any suggestions will help! I bought Kaplan review books but to be honest, I find the quantitative section a bit unrealistic with regards to the difficulty (and thinking required). From this, I'm starting to doubt whether the same applies for the verbal section. Thanks guys!

Wow thanks guys! thanks @non humilis mulier, @poeteer, @emmm, @slarlajane, and @helppleasw123! i never thought people here on thegradcafe would be this cozy.

To all the posters, thanks so much for the advice! I have just browsed through the practice essay questions on Kaplan and boy, I thought they were hard. I simply didn't have anything to talk about and this left me to read the sample answers without trying to write at all. For instance, one topic was about nuclear plants. All I know about these things are 1) the waste, 2) what happened to Chernobyl, and 3) the recent tsunami in Japan. Yet looking at the sample essay with score of 6, it merely talked about 1) & 2) in 1 paragraph while going on to elaborate on things such as politics behind nuclear plants as well as alternatives like solar and hydraulic energy. (I swear, I know nothing about the latter stuff). Another practice essay is on perceived greatness of politicians. I forgot my history, know nothing about current events so I basically cannot supply my essay with examples, rendering it unconvincing. And finally, the essay on progress as the aim for a great society left me confused. So in light of this, I'm wondering whether the actual essay questions come from the Issue Pool on the ETS website. Is this true? This would certainly help me brainstorm and read up on material beforehand.

it seems that they do require general knowledge, something which I lack. of course, personal experiences could help but by any chance, you can get an issue that you haven't heard of at all. it's best to think of me this way: i live a quite secluded life wherein i only give attention to things that cater to my very limited interests which is math. i'm suffering from it now, going over the issue pool and not knowing what to write even though i know how to write. any suggestions as to how to help me? thanks!

thanks contretremps. where'd you get the sample essays aside from the ones on the ets website? and are the questions for those sample essays from the issue pool?

Hmm, on a slightly related topic, I'm currently in my 3rd year and I'm planning to take the GRE within the next 2 months. Since applications for grad school would only open probably about 8 months after I take the GRE (assuming I don't retake it), should I have my scores sent to the schools to avail of the 4 freebies you guys mentioned? I'm not quite sure how this works, do you only specify the school code once you've started an application with that school or can you specify the school code on the GRE exam day even if you plan to apply say more than a year after you took the test? thanks guys!

I'm wondering where you would get the ideas to write about for the GRE Issue essay. It seems to me that without looking at the issue pool before the exam day, it would be hard to brainstorm for ideas to write. I haven't really been keeping up with current events nor have I taken numerous courses on the humanities so I feel that I would be just lucky if I have a lot to say about the issue I receive on the exam day itself. Any thoughts/suggestions on this?