sopaniitroorkee

[sopaniitroorkee]

GRE Guide

Note: This guide is the summary of a mile-long email thread of IIT Roorkee alums about GRE preparation - mostly meant for their juniors. Though people managed to boost their scores by a good margin using this guide, it comes with no guarantees whatsoever.

 You need a valid Passport to appear for GRE. Apply for it in time. 

When to take GRE:

GRE is valid for 5 years. Hence it is advisable to give it while you are in Academic setting even if you plan to take a break of 1-2 years before applying to MS/PhD. 

4th years: GRE by the end of August. In extreme cases, you have time till 1st week of October.

3rd years: GRE takes 100 to 150 hours of focused work - which translates to 2 months at max during an ongoing semester, or and a dedicated sprint of 15 to 20 or 25 days in general, obviously varies from person to person. Strongly advised to give your GRE in spring semester of 3rd year. However, personally spending the second year summer time for prep is not suggested. Perhaps winter break of 3rd year is a good time, with January relaxed you can appear in Jan end or Feb start.

2nd years: Bookmark this link and visit it again in your 5th Semester. Stop reading it right now.

 Google drive link: -------------- We can’t make the Drive link public, so kindly contact the persons mentioned at the bottom of this page for the link ----------

Overall idea:

GRE one needs around 1000 standard words repeated in GRE exams, practise at comprehensions, and essay and argument writing practice – and some brush up over the Highschool Math.

To get overall picture: Read the Official guide to Revised GRE by ETS. It will explain what GRE expects from you. DO NOT read this if you have <15 days remaining.

Details are available here: http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/about/content/

 Apps:

1.      Magoosh GRE Flash cards  

(Must have app. Complete it fully, or at least 15 to 16 decks out of 20.)

2.      Magoosh Vocabulary Builder

3.      GRE Exam Tests

 Overall Preparation Strategy (Use this with the help of the upcoming sections):

0.  If you don't just want good score but also want to improve English, then completing Word Power Made Easy is advisable. GRE can be a good motivator to finish this book. If you are starting early (have 1-2 years) you can start improving your comprehension by reading good quality English literature.

1.  It is recommended to start with an introspective mock GRE test for self-analysis of the strengths and weaknesses. You can use one of the Barrons mock tests. You can skip AWA section as of now. Most likely you would score 163+ in Quant, and ~145 in Verbal – which makes the total score in range of 305-310. You are expected to feel comfortable with all questions in Quant section. It is perfectly normal if you don’t have any clue about even a single question in Verbal section.  Official Mock tests (Powerprep II software) available from GRE (3 Total) are also best representation of what to expect. You can use them too.

2.      Now, you can decide on the time needed to dedicate to Quant section – ideally if you have scored 165+, it shouldn’t be more than 5-10 hours – that too mostly for practicing questions. Rest of your time is for Verbal and AWA section.

3.      First and foremost importance is the vocabulary building. Start it using Magoosh app and Magoosh Vocab ebook (google it to get it). Target should be 100 new words every 3-4 hours spent. Don’t forget to revising old ones, too.

4.      Technically, it’s impossible to start Verbal questions practice without learning a threshold amount (around 500) of new words – which might take few days. So meanwhile, spend the rest of your time on three things: i) start reading any GRE preparation book line by line – I suggest reading Princeton Review. Learn and practice all strategies. (ii) start Reading Comprehension practice. (iii) AWA practice.

5.      A note about Reading Comprehension: people usually ignore it and term it as difficult, but in fact RCs are the easier portions if approached correctly. Unlike other sections of Verbal, RCs don’t require much vocab – and best thing is, all answers of RCs are inside the question paper itself. If we practice enough to increase our skimming skills, then it’s not difficult to score 7 out of 10 in RCs. If that’s done, then you are assured to get score around 320 very easily. So, it is highly recommended that start practicing 2-3 RCs everyday in timed manner from first day of preparation itself.

6.      After 20 to 30 hours, when you learnt ~500 new words, do all 3 processes in parallel: (i) Keep learning new words to reach to 1000, (ii) Verbal (SE, TC, RC) practice – an effective way for this is to write one  Kaplan section wise 30 mins mock test every day – the software should be in the Drive folder, (iii) AWA practice – writing one essay and reading 5 essays.

7.      When you reach 800 to 1000 words mark, start writing full mock tests in timed manner and refine your score by improving the weaker sections.

8.      3 or 4 days before the exam, write 2 GRE Powerprep Mock tests – one a day.

9.      Now you are ready!

To prepare for Vocab:

1.      Use the app, make own sticky notes and put on room wall, make a small diary of nasty words that you tend to forget. There are some PDFs in folder with the word list.

2.       It is easy to learn words if you do it with a partner or in a group.

3.       Remember, Revision is must.

4.       Key to score high in verbal section is to attempt all 20 questions thoroughly.

5.       There are 3 types of questions verbal section have:

      1.      Sentence Equivalence (SE)       2.      Text Completion (TC)       3.       Reading Comprehension (RC)

SE and TC purely depends on your vocab. If you have done with around 500 words then start practicing these section.

Reading comprehension depends on your time bounded practice, practice it from manhattan’ 5lb and RC book. Initially you might not score well in this section but with practice this part will be backbone to your gre score.

6.       Keep working on vocab and keep practicing RC (practice it considering time constraint). 

7.       Checkout Official Verbal Reasoning Practice Ques. You will understand all type of questions. There are 3 practice sets for each time. This will increase your speed. This is the level of actual GRE. This book will take 8- 9 hours to complete the exercises and 6-7 hours to read all the explanations and will benefit enormously. Read the explained answers of each set, this helps in introducing new techniques which save time and eliminate options. 

8.      6- 7 tests, magoosh 1000, barron 333, GRE book words 100 should be enough vocab. 

9.      6-7 tests, official verbal practice book, official guide verbal part, Manhattan book 7 (chapter 7 and 8), should be enough verbal practice.

10.     If you are not comfortable with some type of questions, practice those types from Manhattan 5 Lb. book. 

To prepare for maths:

1.      Relatively very easy. Giving 5-6 full length papers is enough. No separate practise needed.

2.      But most vulnerable to silly mistakes.

3.      It does not need extra attention but practice quant section sincerely during mock tests.

4.      Try to finish all 20 questions in 20-25 minutes then recheck it. We can't afford silly mistakes in this part. It will affect our final score badly.

5.      Checkout Official Quantitative Reasoning Practice Ques. It takes 4 hours to do all exercises and 1 hour to read the explanations. Then read explanations to your wrong answers. Few things are typical to GRE like stacked graphs, rounding off, even-odd integers, etc which we might miss in first glance but will get accustomed to if we do these exercises. If you still have more than 3-4, days do it. You don't want to make silly mistakes there.

6.      If you are not comfortable with some maths topics (official practice book), do those topics from Manhattan 5 Lb. book.

7.      6- 7 tests, official quant practice book should be enough for quant practice

To prepare for Essay and Argument Writing Section

1.      There are some videos in my folder. First Step is that.

2.      Minimum writing practise of 5-7 essay and argument is must.

3.      Take a template from any GRE book (e.g. Princeton Review) and stick to it completely.

4.      This section is not for flaunting our intellectual capabilities. It is only to show that we can articulate what we know.

5.      Focus on not making spelling mistake or Grammatical mistake.

6.      More length helps. Longer the essay generally means better score. We have experienced over the time that the length of your essay determines the minimum score you can get. If you can write simple essay of 600 words, most likely you won’t get anything lower than 4.0.  

7.      Try to write more than 600 words for good score (>=4). Around 8-9 paragraphs to score 5 or above. It’s all about speed and not ONLY about the correct place to flaunt intellectualism.

8.      Hence again reiterating, practice is the key, in 30 minutes one needs to first conceptualize thoughts, write 7-8 paragraphs avoiding spelling mistake in a flow and also check once. Hence a challenging task,

9.      A single para for single point.

10.   For this section is manually checked by GRE, and out of 6 one gets a score.

11.   Included in folder is .exe in 'Kaplan Test' folder where one can practise for same.

12.   Since it can't be checked by software, it will be good if you can email it to people who have already given the test to review and point out at mistake.

13.   First step is copying what you have written after exam in MS Word and looking for simple spelling and grammar mistake. I always wrongly used, 'then' and 'than'. Similar mistakes should be looked after.

14.   For appropriateness one should email seniors.

15.   Now, the Issue or argument topics are always asked from a pool of topics mentioned here: http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/argument/pool They don't give a topic outside it. So, keep an practise of just reading this solution essays something like 3/4 everyday hardly taking 10 mins before going to sleep. The solutions are available in GRE Exam Test mentioned above.

For mock papers:

Most important phase

Take at least 6-7 mock tests. 2 from ets, manhattan, princeton review, kaplan, barron etc.

One can appear for free full-length papers on Magoosh prep and similar websites for free

If possible, use a friend/senior’s account (like Manhatten prep)  to access more full length test papers. You can also share an account among a group of friends.

Manhattan papers are difficult so don't get disheartened by low score. Around 310 score in it's papers is equivalent to around 325 in actual.

 Also in drives my folder, one can find .exe files that can be run to give full length papers.

Give full tests because it is difficult to write an 4.5 hr exam. Simulate these conditions.

In mock test, don’t forget to write AWA section. It is important!

 Tips:

1.      Comprehensions need practise: don't ignore them. If you can crack those, you can easily go beyond 330+. One can get extra practise for them through books. For example : Manhattan_GRE in the folder

2.      In AWA: One has to keep minimum last 5 min to review and make the storyline coherent. Sometimes 30 minutes seems less. Practise is the key.

3.      For Maths, they provide on screen calculator, use it. Don't be overconfident on your JEE time mental calculations and make silly mistake

4.      Don't Overstretch preparation period. One tends to forget the words over the time. Maximum 1.5-2 months. If one feels his/her english is too weak then 3 months.

5.      Get into the vocab world. Don't waste single minute even. While going to mess, department, in between classes, travelling continuously one can be on mobile app and browse across flashcards

6.      Aim for 325+ at least. Full 170 in Maths

7.      August-September sees a heavy rush of final year students.So people should get registered themselves as early as possible

8.      Those techniques (eliminating, guessing) are important; words alone won't suffice. ***Do as much practice as you can do. *** It will help you imbibe those techniques and increase your speed.

For any query, contact:

Deepika Sharma, deepika.sharma.3265@gmail.com

Divya Kumawat, divyakumawat.iitr@gmail.com

[sopaniitroorkee]

About Us

Sopan is a voluntary group of like-minded students engaged in the activities that aim to understand the relation between society and technology from various perspectives and create sensitivity among students towards it. The group consists of students and alumni working in various fields i.e. research, academia, entrepreneurship, Social entrepreneurship, Humanities etc.

We work towards the development of student-volunteers in the domains such as social, intellectual as well as professional so that they can themselves work towards the betterment of society in their future endeavors. While different activities may carry different goals, the underlying idea of these activities as a whole is to create and nurture the students with strong understanding and sensitivity towards society to lead for development in future.

Social Activities

We hold the regular teaching and interactive sessions in the nearby villages of Khanjarpur and Bhangedi with a view to providing first-hand exposure to working in rural areas to our volunteers. At the same time, our engagement with the school children through teaching, training and counselling activities help them academically. It gives us the opportunity to closely interact with children in villages and with their parents sometimes; to identify and nurture the agents of change among them. The activity also helps us to identify societal problems and working towards their solutions.

Keeping in mind the diverse nature of India villages, we broadened our Social activity by organizing 4 days long camp in every semester. In the end or beginning of each semester, we visit certain NGOs or organisations working to provide socio-technical solutions to the problems in the rural/tribal settings across the country. In the past these camps have seen us visiting the following places: 

Deendayal Research Institute, Chitrakoot, M.P. - http://www.chitrakoot.org/html/index.htm

Dev Sanskriti VishwaVidhlaya (DSVV) - http://www.dsvv.ac.in/

Vivekananda Reasearch and Training Institute, Mandvi, Gujarat - http://www.vrti.org/

Kushhali Foundation - http://www.khushhali.org/

Shiv Ganga Foundation, Jhabua - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiAAWyw6m1c

Sampoorna Bamboo Kendra, Khandwa - http://bambooshrushti.com/

Some of the camp reports are may be found at : 

Memoirs of DSSV camp

Jhabua camp 2015

Youth Day Celebrations

Every year, we celebrate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on January 12 and organise various events for the same like Readathon - Group reading for a long duration, quiz and essay competition, guest lectures, etc.  

Technological and Professional aspects

Being a part of an IIT ecosystem, each of the volunteers is committed to achieving excellence in his or her academic and professional domain. The problem-solving capability, aptitude and research rationale an IITian have are the best asset he may have while tackling the societal problems. To develop strong knowledge about stuff ranging from essential basics to  State of the art of a particular field, we pioneered Special Interest Group (SIG) for different branches of Engineering. In weekly meetings of SIG, students together rigorously discuss and learn about novel ideas and theories through a collective reading of Research papers, presentations and short term projects. We also try to serve the students with philosophical and societal aspects at the same time. For example, the IEEE SIG for Electrical and Electronics arranged meetings on “Eigenvectors in Google search algorithm”, “Holography and Holographic data storage” etc. More can be found at IEEE SIG blog at https://ieeeiitr.wordpress.com/   Currently, we have 4 Special Interest Groups functioning for Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Entrepreneurship.

It makes a perfect blend when skills thus learned combine with the thought process we develop through various social activities. It reflects in several initiatives and technical projects undertaken by some of the volunteers. 

Nitin Dhakad, Final year Electrical Engineering student, spent his summer working closely with Shiv Ganga Foundation at Jhabua. His work was primarily focused on the surveys for a scope of implementing solar and bio-energy to provide power for meeting domestic as well as agricultural requirements of the people of Dharampuri in the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh. It has been proved through the survey that devices such as Solar Water Purifier and Bio-Lamp desk can better meet requirements of the rural population. For more, blog post is at : http://visionindiafoundation.com/renewable-energy-in-jhabua/

Veer Bharath Chandra, Final year Electrical Engineering student, worked with Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki at IIT Bombay. The research group aims at developing cost-effective power solutions in Solar energy domain for Indian villages. 

Veer Bharath is currently working on developing a kit that can be directly employed on E-rickshaw for solar powered charging.

Manoj Sarda, Final year Production and Industrial Engineering student, presented the idea of Matrigation (Matka + irrigation = Irrigation through ‘Matka’, typical Indian clay Pot) at IET Conference.  He presented how the generations old irrigation technique can be revived with technological improvements and was awarded IET Innovation National award for the same.

Manoj also led the group of students for surveying the large campus of Army cantonment at Roorkee (BEG) for Solarification. 

We are in constant touch with our seniors, all of them are doing great in their respective field carrying this particular vision of Sopan.

Ajaey is engaged with Vision India Foundation (VIF).

Vishvendra, Gaurav, Jitin and Pranav are doing their Ph.D. in their respective fields at IIT Bombay, UCLA, USC and Iowa State University.

Siddharth, Manoj  is currently working on his startup at Bangalore.

Six more students would be joining Ph.D. programs in their respective fields soon.

We are fortunate to have close associations with certain groups inside and outside of IITR also, which are : 

Sanskrit Club, IITR (https://www.facebook.com/sanskritiitr/) : We have a close association with Sanskrit Club, which is an official campus group that organises Spoken Sanskrit Camps, and other guest lectures to spread awareness about the ancient language. First-year volunteers from our group took up an internship opportunity to work with Prof. K. Ramasubramanian at IIT Bombay. They worked on the revival of mathematical theories and proofs available in historical Sanskrit manuscripts from mathematicians like Aryabhatta and Madhava.

IEEE Students’ Chapter, IITR : IEEE students chapter was established in 1989 at IIT Roorkee. However, from last 2 years, volunteers from our group are highly involved in designing and participating in the various campus activities of IEEE students chapter. Many of the projects mentioned above were supported by IEEE students chapter.  A group of our sophomore year volunteers from IEEE addressed the problem of powering sensors in rural areas with less power accessibility by Energy Harvesting using Piezoelectric effect for Low Power Devices. This project took them to finals of Make In India hackathon, IIT Bombay this year.  

Academic Reinforcement Program (ARP), IITR : It is an initiative by the institute wherein the students of third and fourth year teach and guide the students of the first year in their first semester. Many of the students of Sopan are involved in this noble initiative.

AINA IIT Delhi (http://www.aina.org.in/) : A voluntary campus group in IIT Delhi, which organises similar kind of activities and have close relations with us.

Vision India Foundation (http://visionindiafoundation.com/) : VIF is a non-profit initiative by alumni and faculty members of IITR, IITD, and IITB. Many of our alumni are actively engaged in this initiative. It is a platform which offers the brightest youth of the country, avenues to participate in the modern nation-building movement. It conducts various activities round the year like 21-days residential policy Bootcamp (more at http://visionindiafoundation.com/bootcamp/ )  - to introduce budding minds to the amazing area of policy making,  Good Governance Yatra - to introduce various successful initiative of the central and state governments, etc.

Intellectual Activities

Every Monday, we hold discussions on various contemporary topics ranging from technology to spirituality, history to future and economics to commerce; based on articles, research papers and book excerpts from various well-known philosophers and scholars such as Sister Nivedita, Swami Vivekananda, Pandit Deendayalji, Dharmpalji etc. Some topics discussed in past are:

India - Aspirations Ahead in the light of Integral Humanism

Dialectic Materialism

Indigenous technology - concept of Appropriate Technology

Foundations for Indian Education System, Economics, etc.

Technology in Indian perspective

Philosophy of Education (Western and Eastern)

In addition to these, we also organize the guest lectures in the institute to spread awareness about various issues. Past guest speakers include Mr. Anil Swaroop, Dr. H. C. Verma, Mr. Rajiv Malhotra, Dr. Anirban Ganguly, etc.

you can reach to us at: 

Email : sopaniitr@gmail.com