QxV

Have you tried Mechanical Turk?

I think the assumption here is that a forum catering to graduate students would be excempt from the rubbish that goes around the rest of the internet.

I prepared for about 1-2 hours a day for 4 months. For the quant., time is really the most important thing to work on. You'll probably get most of the concepts down quickly (they're really simple), but the challenge comes in doing X number of problems in a fixed amount of time, so I recommend timing yourself. As for the verbal, I just used flashcards to memorize a thousand or so new words - that helped on a few questions. I was aiming for a 1350 and got q800 and v700, and was happy with that.

Congrats!=)

I guess it depends. I'm a very divergent thinker. I like hearing about research done by others, and enjoying thinking of new ideas for them just for fun. It's a strength, but only if focused properly. I'm not arrogant enough to think I'll make a career out of doing research on "everything", so even though I'd probably feel better with a lax mentor, I'd probably do better and learn more with one who's more structured. My current (undergrad) adviser is like that, and I'm lucky enough that I'll have two in grad school who will be the same. Of course, in this case, it's even more critical that I identify strongly with my mentor's research. Luckily, I do. Just my two cents.

Hi, Your academic record looks sterling. Much better than mine, in fact! It's probably your GRE scores that let you down. While I don't think high GRE scores will get you in, low ones will definitely keep you out. Think of it this way: admissions committees receive hundreds of applications which they obviously don't have the time to look over in detail. What would be the easiest way of cutting down that pile? From what I know, 1350 is a safe number that should make your file stick in the future. If you want to talk more, you could PM me. All the best!

Hello, I was just wondering who the other accepted candidate was. If you'd like to make yourself known either here, or via PM, that'd be great =)

I was thinking of doing that, unless the faculty member in question is actually at the institution itself, in which case I'll refer to him/her as Professor so-and-so.

Hi All, This might seem like a rather mundane thing, but when talking to my mentors, I often refer to other researchers by their full name (without "Dr." or "Professor). It just seems pretty natural since you already cite them by their last name when writing.I was wondering if this was a faux pas during an interview? Thanks!