Amity Lounge

"I wish there had been an Imagine Cup when I was growing up. It gets people involved in seeing that software is changing the world."

--Bill Gates
Chairman, Microsoft Corp.

When do I take my GRE?

One of the toughest questions to answer is perhaps: "When do I take my GRE?" There is no answer to this question. Atleast, no appropriate answer. It caries from person to person. For people who do not know about Engineering, most universities follow the Semester system. There are a total of 8 semesters to be completed.

There are two periods considered to be most ideal. But I'll discuss a few other scenarios as well.

Gearing up for the Analytical Section

This is perhaps the most neglected section in GRE. Most of us neglect this section thinking that we can give it a good shot by reading just four-five days before the exam. But this is not right. There is a general saying that "Writing is more complicated than Speaking" The reason behind this is because when you are speaking something, the evaluator cannot review what you've spoken but in the case of writing, the evaluator has a chance to review a sentence as many times as he desires. So what does this mean? Well, it only means that you have to be careful while framing your ideas.The Analytical Writing Section of the GRE consists of two tasks: the Issue Task and the Argument Task. The Issue Task measures your ability to express your thoughts on a given issue in a logical and critical manner. The Argument Task measures your ability to analyze and critique an argument. We'll look into both of them in a detailed manner.

A few things are worth noting:

• You are supposed to type your essay. This does not mean you have to posess superhuman typing speed. But, snail typists better work on improving their speed.
• Spelling, grammar and minor typographical mistakes are not counted to as great an extent as are the logic and arguments of your writing. However, chronic mistakes that detract from the overall coherence of your response could have a negative impact on your final score. As far as possible, when reviewing your essay for the final time, eliminate most of the typo errors. After all, who wouldn't like an essay that has no errors?

Now, lets see how we can go about cracking the two sections.