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Study in USA

I Increased GRE Score by 28 Points and Got Admit with Full Tuition Waiver (with Formula for Success)

Nandhini (Happy Schools Reader) wrote a comment about her American Education and Study Abroad experience at 5 Bitter Facts About Unambitious Students.

Her thoughts and comments are something every student should read, understand and follow. So, her comment is edited and published as an article to reach a wider audience.


Wow! Loved this article!

Many students have built in apprehension that they cannot score greater than 300 or 310 in GRE Test and limit their dreams.

I have felt bad about such students, seriously guys, dreaming high doesn’t cost you anything! Always dream high!

I have laughed internally at a few people (no offense) when they ask information about good colleges (with financial aid!) with GRE score 290 and TOEFL 80.

Guys, you need to be aware that US educational system is very much organized, they will NOT reject you or accept you just because of GRE/TOEFL.

They see your college application package, pay attention to each sentence in:

  • Recommendation Letters
  • Statement of Purpose
  • Resume
  • Academic Scores
  • Test Scores (GRE, GMAT, SAT, ACT, etc)
  • TOEFL or IELTS

Then they decide to accept or reject you!

Many students without prior knowledge, would give advice like, “For this GRE score, you must apply to these Universities“.

I wonder from where the hell they got such info!

Dreaming high is always good.

When I wanted to apply for University of Pennsylvania, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Texas at Austin, many laughed at me, but I am glad that I at least tried!

Be prepared to INVEST in higher studies, when you are going to spend in lakhs (thousands of dollars) for your education, why don’t you spend that and apply to many ambitious schools?

And for those you lack determination or limit your dreams in the case of the GRE. Here is me, a living example, who scored 290 (Q: 146+V:144) in May and would like to specify that I was working in a research lab.

Like any student, I was upset for a couple of days, yes it takes time to gain equilibrium.

Made up my mind, quit the position, because I knew I cannot do two things at a time!

Took up GRE seriously, joined a coaching center and many believe that if you join a coaching center, they will spoon feed you, this is totally wrong! No coaching center will guarantee a good score, they will just guide you!

Practice and Hard work are required from your side and prepared seriously for two months and obtained 318 (Q:165+V:153).

The GRE is not an exam that you can study before the exam, just think, if it was that easy, why would ETS demand $195 to take up that exam?

Why many prepare for months to get a score?

Above all, why ETS is still having a research/experimental module? THINK!

Here’s my version of the success formula:

Success Formula for Students = Dream High + Plan Intelligently + Work Diligently + Assess Your Improvement At Regular Intervals 

Update: 

Thanks Raghu, if I had known this earlier, I would have added that I am blessed with admit in UNC with full funding.


Incredible story right? Improving GRE Scores by 28 points in 2 months time. I haven’t seen many students who can do that. But, above all, her advice is practical and I wish everyone who is posting in forums for a list of universities for their profile can learn a valuable lesson from Nadhini’s experience.

NEXT: Simplified One Month GRE Study Plan >>

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17 Comments

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  2. Hey, I am going to take GRE on 13th august, well I just last 7-8 days for preparation.
    I have studied for GRE for about 2 months. I have taken 10 test till now and scored about 300-316 ,310 in ets powerprep.
    Can you give some tips to improve further so I can reach 320 by practicing in these remaining days.

    1. Hi Arpit,

      My preparation was simple, the only key was consistent and systematic. i followed only Novas, Barrons, Kaplan and my coaching center’s quant book because, I was too weak in quants, I needed extra preparation.

      Initially couple of weeks was too difficult, I was unable to sit for long hours with Novas, but at the end of 2nd week successfully completed Nova. I follow a trick here, marking question numbers on a plain paper and then mark answer options against it, I would cross check and analyse. Work again where I go wrong. This way I repeated Nova thrice! This helped me to know how questions on GRE have traps, where will I go wrong and how to avoid those. Since I began my preparation, I learnt (not memorized) 50 words per day and until I finished Nova worked on reading comprehension and critical reasoning questions.

      After I repeated Novas thrice, I felt confident and took a practice test. Moved on to my quant book to build strong fundamentals as I lacked those for about 10 days, by that time I felt comfortable as my brain got tuned! Finally worked out Barrons twice. I took practice tests every sunday and assessed myself. From week 3, I worked on text completion and sentence equivalence (as I was comfortable with vocab) in Kaplan.

      1. Hi Nandhini,
        Can you please tell us regarding vocabulary? Is it O.K if we do it from Kaplan as now there is no proper vocabulary according to new format as it was earlier .
        thanks

  3. Wow!

    Amazing…even i scored only 292 for 1st time…I am preparing again…thanku for the positive energy πŸ™‚

    1. My kind of a story ….working with a research lab…295 (147V, 148Q) …preparing again! Wud be writing in two months. Thanks a lot for that post.

  4. This new look is awesome!!
    I completely agree to Nandhini’s point, sometimes its so frustrating when people come and ask “good colleges with financial aid for 290”, I do not understand how they define the “good” and laugh at their haphazard approach to life.

  5. WOW! what a motivating reply Nandhani. Good; I learned one thing from my teachers that before surrendering to any situation better to fight, at least you have tried whatever the result is ? I’m also preparing for GRE. Thanks for such motivation.

      1. Thanks Raghu, if I had known this earlier, I would have added that I am blessed with admit in UNC with full funding πŸ˜›

      2. Thanks; By the way Raghuram, you also deserve praise and thanks for such a knowledgeable blog; I’m not participating so much in response but I’m a regular reader.

        keep it up!

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