Graduate Application Steps: GRE and TOEFL Exams
I’ve written this article as a part of an extended article which summarises the essential steps that a student applying for graduate programs would generally go through. I draw from my experience with making PhD applications in 2019. This article particularly focusses on the GRE and TOEFL exams.
GRE and TOEFL
GRE
The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) tests you on three parameters - quantitative, verbal and essay writing. I closely followed Kalpesh Krishna’s posts on GRE and TOEFL preparation. I will encourage you to read these posts as well. I used the same resources as mentioned in those blog posts (the books referred below are the same). Here are my suggestions in addition to those blog posts. I suggest some representarive times for each part of the preparation, which you should modify as per your comfort.
Preparation Time
I took about 6 weeks (in my summer vacation) to prepare for the GRE - about two weeks in May and four in June. I attempted the GRE in the first week of July. Preparing in the summer helped me significantly since I did not have any academic course load to deal with simultaneously. A few peers who gave the exam in their semester faced this issue. I would recommend students with a four year course to consider their third year winter break (since presumably they would be off on their intership in their third yeam summer) and five year course students to consider their fourth year summer break to prepare for the exam.
Verbal
Preparation for the verbal section consists of two main components: vocubulary and practice. In the first four weeks, I focussed only on building vocabulary. I practised words from the Magoosh vocabulary flashcards app. This app contains 1000 words. I only did the basic and common sections from this (which were about 600), since I found the advanced section too difficult. After that, I moved on the Barron’s Essential words for GRE book where I first practised the 300 selected words then went on to the rest (the book has a total of 800 words). There is some overlap between both sources. I continued revising and learning new words for the next two weeks. I reckon about 6-8 weeks of regular (daily) practise should be adequate for this preparation.
After the first four weeks when I had a decent vocabulary built up, I began practising questions. I practised all questions from the ETS official GRE verbal reasoning practice questions book and Barron’s New GRE book (though I think any verbal practice questions book published by Barron’s for the GRE should be fine). I would strongly recommend solving these questions under time limit, to get used to exam conditions. I feel that two weeks of regular problem solving should be enough.
Essay Writing
Two essays are required to be written: one where you analyse and critique an argument presented to you, and the other expressing your opinions on a topic of discussion. A good explanation of the expectations from both essays is given in the ETS official guide to the GRE general test book. They also provide sample essays, and topics for practice. I practised all essays (with time limit) from here, and additionally essays from the practice tests that I had attempted. After the time limit (or the practice test) had elapsed, I rewrote my essays without a time limit as a way to enhance my practice. All of them came with sample responses which I used for evaluating my essays (both, the version written with and without time limit). I think writing about 4-6 essays of both types would be good practice.
Quantitative
The quantitive section will be fairly straightforward for engineering students, and a revision of the concepts and formulae from the ETS official GRE quantitive reasoning practice questions book (with a bit of practice, as per your comfort) should be sufficient to get a good score (of 168 or higher).
Practice Tests
I attempted the two online practice tests which were included with my registration. Other than that, practice tests can be obtained from various books like Manhattan, Barron’s and even ETS.
Typical Scores
As per the heuristics I had heard, a score of 168/170 in quantitive, 155/170 in verbal and 4/6 in writing were “acceptable” for the programmes I was applying to. You can choose to follow these heuristics or create your own benchmarks after speaking to people or checking specific application requirements.
Subject GRE
Engineering programmes don’t generally require a subject GRE, but some programmes may encourage one. For example, CalTech encourages the applicant to have the maths subject GRE for applying to the CMS programme.
TOEFL
TOEFL consists of four sections: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Reading and writing will not be very difficult after practising for GRE. I would suggest looking up the format of the questions and giving one practise test. For listening and speaking, I followed the resources here. I gave TOEFL within a few days of giving the GRE to ensure that my GRE preparing was still fresh.
As per the heuristics I had heard, a total score of 90 or above was “acceptable” for the programmes I was applying to. You can choose to follow these heuristics or create your own benchmarks after speaking to people or checking specific application requirements. Some programmes may require a certain minimum score on certain sections like listening or speaking since TAship appointments may depend on that. Some programmes do accept students not satisfying these imposed requirements and ask them to do an English course after entering the unversity. It’s best to check the exact program specifics in all cases.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all my family members, relatives, friends, seniors and professors for their help during my PhD application period. I would like to specially thank Karan Chadha (who was one amongst those) who suggested quite a few the ideas presented in the articles on graduate applications to me. My thanks to Riya for reviewing the article.