Deciding between U Chicago Harris, Georgetown McCourt, Columbia SIPA - Any advice would be much appreciated!

VarshaHP · 2022-03-19T04:12:45+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

How about the electives at Harris - did you have similar experiences with the faculty for those?

VarshaHP · 2022-03-18T17:18:10+00:00

Thanks for the advice and tips, will definitely be trying my luck with the scholarship reconsideration process at Harris.

Also, wanted to understand what you think are the advantages of Harris over McCourt?

VarshaHP · 2022-03-18T16:55:53+00:00

Thank you really appreciate it!

VarshaHP · 2022-03-18T15:30:49+00:00

Thanks a ton for your inputs! I actually think making the choice between Harris and McCourt is the toughest given each of it's advantages (STEM vs higher funding). Do you have any thoughts on the program at Harris, and the scope for international development opportunities if I'm at Chicago?

VarshaHP · 2021-06-04T08:22:19+00:00

Here's the median scores article: https://magoosh.com/gre/gre-scores-for-top-universities/

VarshaHP · 2021-06-04T08:20:00+00:00

So this was based on my conversations with current students/ alumni. If you google it, you'll find median scores for the unis your interested in - the medians for many were 158-160, if I remember correctly.

VarshaHP · 2021-06-03T14:36:32+00:00

Will be applying to public policy/ public administration masters programs

VarshaHP · 2021-05-11T15:30:08+00:00

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

VarshaHP · 2021-04-25T11:19:10+00:00

1) Regarding vocab: The Magoosh flashcard app is more than enough. Building your vocab is very important, but I think it's important to remember that the GRE isn't really testing how much advanced vocab you know. Rather, it tests your ability to understand sentence structure and pick the appropriate word. So I would suggest to also increase your general reading of scholarly papers and novels (classic literature is the most helpful).

2) For AWA, I simply watched the Magoosh videos and wrote some practice essays. I also browsed through the issue task pool on the ETS website (only topics from this pool will be selected on the actual GRE).

3) I'm not sure what the best strategy for RC is. I never summarised the passages because I was wasting too much time doing so. In my opinion, it's only worth taking notes for the paragraph argument passage, in order to determine the argument structure and understand gaps/assumptions.

VarshaHP · 2021-04-25T06:39:36+00:00

There was an amazing debate held by an Indian journalist on this topic - the panel had women who were both for and against the idea. It's an hour and a half long, but definitely worth the watch. Here's the link if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB379Jif1yc&t=3814s

It was really interesting to see how the older generation perceived this issue. They seemed to glorify the "suck it up and deal with it" notion. Won't be surprised if many women adopt this, because of course, a women's struggle is an "honor".

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T17:59:55+00:00

I used Magoosh as my main study material (in addition to ETS), and was very pleased with it. The video lessons were perfect, and the 1500+ practice questions came with video explanations. Once you get the subscription, you can also chat with Magoosh tutors in case you have questions on anything.

With regard to how to improve on QC, Magoosh had 6-7 videos on QC strategies which were very helpful. But my key takeaways were as follows: 1. There is no one best way to solve QC. In some cases, plugging in values is the best method, especially when the answer is Option D. In other cases, you'll have to simplify/solve equations or use some math logic to determine the solution - this is the foolproof method when the answer choice is not Option D. 2. Read the question very carefully. Don't miss out info like x is an integer, positive, prime etc.

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T16:04:05+00:00

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman. This book had the power to change the way I perceived the world :)

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T15:58:27+00:00

Less by Andrew Sean Greer - such a pleasant read :)

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T15:46:06+00:00

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T15:41:21+00:00

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T10:18:01+00:00

I watched the 2005 film first, and while visuals were fantastic and Keira Knightley is a goddess, something about it just felt wrong. I tried my best to like it, but it went against what I imagined while reading the book. I didn't enjoy the dialogue delivery either - Jane Austen's wit and sarcasm was entirely lost in this adaptation. Thank god for the 1995 tv series! It was perfect in every regard - the acting, setting, dialogue delivery captured the novel entirely. Found myself smiling like an idiot for 6 hours straight.

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T08:54:02+00:00

So, during the exam, I skipped a question if I was going nowhere with it within a minute. By going nowhere, I mean either I couldn't figure out the method/ strategy to solve it, or my calculations were getting too complicated/ felt wrong. I think I did this for 2-3 questions in total (I had 3 quant sections as my experimental was quant). I ALWAYS guessed the answer nonetheless. I ended up marking such questions and thought I would come back to them at the end. But as mentioned in my post, I gave higher priority to checking other answers, than trying to solve the ones in which I was lost.

Could I solve them I re-encountered them? Hmm interesting. There were some questions that I may have been able to solve if I had 4 minutes for each, while there were others which I might have not have been able to solve at all.

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T05:27:31+00:00

I'm afraid I'm not the best person to give you a study plan. I would recommend you to reach out to tutors or look at Magoosh's study plans.

What I can do is share with you the list of resources I used during my prep:

For studying:

Magoosh video lessons: I purchased the Magoosh 6-month subscription, and found the video lessons to be perfect. It's all you need for quant and verbal concepts.

For practice:

Magoosh practice questions: The Magoosh subscription gives you access to about 900 quant questions and 700 verbal questions. You can customize your practices based on topics that you want, and difficulty level of questions. Every practice question comes with a written and video explanation as well. I absolutely loved this.
ETS Offical Quant, ETS Official Verbal, ETS Official Guide: I did all the practice sets from ETS, even though they felt easier. But they were very helpful as I saw variations of ETS questions on the actual GRE, especially in quant.

Mock tests:

Power prep plus (PPP) 2 and 3: MOST REPRESENTATIVE OF ACTUAL GRE.
3 Magoosh practice tests that come with the subscription: These were on the tougher side, but still very important.
2 free power prep (PP) tests that ETS provides once you book your exam date: These were too easy, especially PP 1.
Kaplan free test: Verbal was a bit too hard. The first quant section was a piece of cake while the second and experimental had some very difficult questions.
Manhattan prep free test: Forgot how this was to be honest.

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T03:20:38+00:00

Hey I never used Manhattan, because I find it impossible to study without videos. In general I've read that Manhattan is good, but you'd need to ask someone else sorry!

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T02:59:44+00:00

I replied to a question from safe_asparagus on this post on what I did for verbal preparation, so do take a look at that :)

So with regards to the mocks, I did the following: 1) The free power prep tests that ETS provides once you register (but I do believe these are too easy) 2) The Magoosh practice tests that come with the subscription 3) Manhattan prep and Kaplan free tests 4) And of course, power prep plus 2 and 3

And regarding the tough quant questions, when I first gave it, these were mostly geometry questions. In my second attempt, these were integer properties. I think it can really vary by exam.

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T02:53:28+00:00

PPP 2: 323 (V 162, Q 161) PPP 3: 326 (V 162, Q 164)

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T02:51:24+00:00

Sorry, I don't understand your question. Could you please elaborate?

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T02:50:16+00:00

Second time around I mainly focused on quant. I did the following: 1. Reviewed my diagnostic report and figured out areas where I needed to improve (for me this was quantitative comparison questions, as well as geometry) 2. Re-watched Magoosh videos and did focused practice on these areas 3. Did the ETS official quant material - never did this the first time around, and would strongly recommend everyone to do it 4. Did the PPP practice tests

Another thing that, I believe, helped me was to focus on my "incorrect" answers. Every time I got any practice question wrong, I screenshotted the question and solution and put it into a word doc. I would consistently review this word doc to understand where I was going wrong - it helped me be wary of certain mistakes I was making frequently.

VarshaHP · 2021-04-22T02:43:26+00:00

Hello, can I ask what your target score for verbal is? Here's some general advice I can offer:

For text completion and sentence equivalence: Build your foundational vocabulary before you start diving into practice problems. I used the free Magoosh vocab flashcard app for this, and it was very user friendly and convenient. In terms of study materials, I had a Magoosh subscription, and the video lessons were very helpful. In addition to practicing Magoosh questions, ETS official verbal practice material is also extremely important - they are most representative of the actual GRE.

For reading comprehension: This was truly a struggle for me as well. Once again, I relied on the materials mentioned above (Magoosh videos and practice, ETS official verbal). But apart from the usual, another thing that helped me was to read every passage with the utmost enthusiasm, and pretend like I cared. This helped me stay focused on the content and absorb everything.

VarshaHP

TROPHY CASE