Information On GRE, TOEFL & GMAT

This post contains the matter of a lecture which was held in TPO Seminar hall at MNNIT Allahabad on 15th January 2009. The lecture was given by Mr. Madhuresh Rai (Maddy, as we call him), who is our Alumnus and is pursuing MS in Finance from IIT, Chicago SSB (which is certainly not Indian Institute Of Technology). I am presenting it in form of an interview to make things interesting (don't get surprised, even i didn't know about an MS degree in Finance).

Jammy: Hie Maddy, how are you doing? (This is just to start, i still call him 'SIR' :P)
Maddy: Hello, I'm absolutely fine.


J: So, how did you know about MS in Finance?
M: Actually my interest always was in Finance. When i started searching about courses in Finance, i came to know about MS in Finance through my seniors on Orkut.

J: So, you got in through GRE or GMAT?
M: I got in through GRE but some of the universities do accept GMAT score for MS in Finance.

J: Tell us about GRE.
M: The things which matter most in GRE are Time, Centre & Place. Never give GRE in a centre where there is any kind of disturbance. I remember people giving GRE in a room at a centre in Allahabad where all the generator smoke was coming in. This will surely hamper your performance because its all about the D-day on which you have to perform. Also, give it on that time when your mind is absolutely fresh. Starting it at 9 AM or 10 AM is perfect for me. You can practice some questions before leaving for the examination to get your mind working.

J: How much time do you think is sufficient for preparation of GRE?
M: I think 3-4 months of preparation is enough.

J: Can you suggest some study material?
M: Norman Lewis Eng. Grammar (Word Power Made Easy).
Barrons for word list and to revise before exam.
Big Book - only for exam practice and for strategizing.

J: Other suggestions.
M: Look beyond word list. RCs and Analogies are equally important & tough. Maths is also important. Best time to take GRE is after your final year because life can get really busy in offices. One more thing which i want to tell is that the Analytical & Argumentative Writing is also important & you can use online material for its practice.

J: Tell us about TOEFL.
M: There are 4 sections in TOEFL namely Reading, Listening, Speaking & Writing.
Reading is quite easy and there are 2-3 passages.
Speaking is a section where we Indians loose marks. Only way out is to practice hard. You should practice like by preparing for 15 sec and then speaking for 45-60 sec.
Listening section can be tricky because the topics vary and the topic which is not of your interest can distract you.
Writing section is quite easy.
One thing that i would like to suggest is hear the barron's cd first and then take online help. Speak to yourself and go slow in exams.

J: Tell us about other things involved.
M: Many people have this misconception that GRE score alone matters for applying in foreign universities. I am giving an order of preference according to the relative importance of things :-

1. Statement of Purpose.
2. Letter of Recommendation (From Project Guide, Professors etc).
3. Resume (Take care of the US Format which is different from Indian format).
4. Transcript.
5. GRE Score.
6. TOEFL Score.

• Statement of Purpose is most important and you can get an idea about how to write an SoP from 'essay.com'. Style and formats of SoP varies for different colleges.
• For LoR, you have to take care of few things like ways to seal, how to fill the envelopes, No. of recos/Academic and Professional recos etc. Getting a reco from project guide is easy. The letter pad of different colleges are different like in our college official letter pads are in Hindi, which is unacceptable in US. So, its better if you can type the letter pad yourself.
• As i already said, take care of US format of Resume. You can take help from Stuart Resume Guide.
• Take your transcripts just after your final year otherwise it will be difficult to get time from the job for getting that.
• Your GRE score helps in getting scholarships. You can retake GRE if you want but the score will be averaged, so its better don't submit your test if it has gone bad and you know you can do better. You will lose Rs. 8000 but you will save your career.
• TOEFL score is not that important if you clear a minimum cutoff in each section.
• Do mail your details to the program directors of the colleges in which you are applying, to evaluate your probable selection, which can save your lot of money.
• Remember that the interest percentage on loan in US is very less (its like 0.7%-1%), so never take loan from an Indian bank.
  

J: Tell us about GMAT.
M:

• Scores in GMAT matters a lot as most of the b-schools want to maintain their average GMAT score which is a matter of prestige for them.
• Work-ex do counts a lot and most of the colleges have a compulsory requirement of Work-ex.
• Never underestimate the 'Essay Writing' part, it is quite important.
• Other things which you need is strong resume and stress on extra-curricular activities.
• Don't hope for much scholarship even after getting a very high score. One of our senior who got a score of 780 didn't get 100% scholarship in Tier-I b-schools in US, so he took admission in a Tier-II b-school with 100% scholarship.
• Its quite easy to get admission if any of your alumni has already gone into that college because people in those colleges don't know about colleges in India until some one gets through. It is also possible that you belong to a very good college in India and you are not getting admission whereas people from an average college are getting admissions regularly because of this very reason listed above. So its logical to find some alumni who are doing MBA or MS in different universities and then apply. You can do this with the help of Orkut, Facebook etc. or the alumni network of your college.

J: Are there any options other than MS & MBA?
M: I think in Finance you can give the exams of NCFM and CFA.

• NCFM is an exam conducted by NSE and it contains 15-16 levels. The other great thing about NCFM is its excellent study material which can enhance your knowledge of Finance a lot.
• CFA is a degree which will make your MBA degree secondary. It contains 3 levels and the study material is easy to get through people on Orkut.

J: The question which is bothering my mind from a long time is, what is the difference between MS in Finance and MBA in Finance?
M: MS in Finance is basically Finance, Finance & only Finance whereas MBA in Finance also contains many other things like logistics, operations etc. The courses are different and MS in Finance has a very compact and to the point course. MBA in Finance is quite expensive and fees of MS in Finance lies between the fees of MBA and MS in other disciplines. One more major difference is we have a very small no. of classes as compared to MBA :P.

J: Thank you Maddy for your time and the valuable information that you gave to us.
M: The pleasure is all mine as i got to visit my college which i used to miss a lot.


For any query and detailed information about something or to get the samples of SoP, LoR, Resume, Resume Guide and other things, mail me or chat to me on majicofanmol@gmail.com.