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I have always wondered about the relevance of GRE/ GMAT / SAT/ IELTS. These exams have their own flaws and may be perceived as regressive patterns of testing the knowledge, aptitude and analytical abilities of a graduate student. I am in no which way an expert, scholar or authority who can strongly detest the usage of the aforementioned exams in selection criteria of students for a study abroad program. The bottom line is that these exams are bridges across global schools which facilitate the selection of deserving students.
In my honest opinion exams like GRE are a matter of hard work and luck; both the determinants sharing the credit of your success equally. However, at times you may have a bad day or may be you are ill while you appeared for the exams. The results obviously are skewed towards the lower percentiles. Now- a- days some institutions have been realistic enough to understand that the undergraduate GPA, work experience and a good resume, compounded with a professional letter of intent (for the desired study program) actually decide the capability of a student rather than the scores of standardized exams like GRE. The list of programs which may help you earn a MBA degree without GRE/ GMAT is given below. These institutions are in no which way associated with my professional or academic interests. As a matter of fact there are a growing number of students who have exceptional work experience and great… [Read More...]

Earlier I discussed prepositions and Idioms for standardized exams. In this article I will discuss a less important but unavoidable part of speech which you will see in abundance when you take your GRE / GMAT/ TOEFL. The sentence completion and reading comprehension questions which appear in the standardized exams require you to have a good knowledge of a variety of interjections. The problem here is that, you have a huge number of interjections in vogue but only a few will be tested. Lets see a few examples-
Ouch, that hurt!
Ouch, you stepped on my toe!
Oh no, I forgot that the exam was today.
Wow! That is a giant pumpkin!
Yippee! We won!
Whoa! Hold your horses!
Bravo, you did a great job!
Hey! Put that down!
I heard one guy say to another guy, “He has a new car, eh?”
I don’t know about you but, good lord, I think taxes are too high!
For the first time when I was learning the concept of interjection usage, I could infer from my textbooks –
1. It’s not wise to use interjections in professional, formal, academic texts.
2. Interjections are often used alone as a full sentence i.e. they stand by themselves, but they are a part of complex sentences used in routine conversations.
3. Interjections are words or phrases used to express sudden anger, joy or emotion of other kinds. They are used to exclaim or protest or command. They… [Read More...]

What is an Idiom?
An idiom is an expression (i.e. term or phrase) the meaning of which cannot be inferred from the dictionary definitions and the arrangement of its elements, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through conventional use. This explanation is an adaptation from wikipedia. What I am concerned about is the usage of idioms and a thorough understanding of their occurrence in study abroad qualifying examinations like GRE GMAT TOEFL and SAT.

Most students who don’t have English as their native language face difficulties in the aforementioned exams due to the surprise elements like idioms .One obvious reason is that idioms are manners of communication which are natural to the native speakers of a particular language. You may have idioms for your native language and admittedly, in modern times it is in fact difficult to converse without idioms. The knowledge of these elements of speech doesn’t bother you most of the times because you use it in your native language. When a study abroad aspirant faces idioms in exam preparation it becomes cumbersome because most of the study abroad exams are in English and English has a vast range of idioms currently in use. However, most of the educational and testing services have a basic collection of idioms which they want to test or expect you to know.

If you plan to take any exam like the GRE, GMAT, TOEFL you won’t face a lot of complex idiomatic expressions in the… [Read More...]