Ravi Mohan's Blog

Friday, October 27, 2006

Cracking the GRE

Update: Analytical Score updated.

I wrote the GRE a few days ago.

Scores -

  • quant- 790/800
  • verbal 800/800 (heh!)
  • Analytical Writing - awaited (I am not too worried about this).- 6.0/6.0

I am going through the annual "Should I apply for this year or next year, MS or PhD, Applied mAths or CompSci? " dance.

Choices .. choices ..

21 comments:

VeggieDreaming said...

I'm preparing to take the GRE myself. Can you tell me how the math section was and any pointers in preparing?

Thanks

Anonymous said...

That is a great score.

Congrats.

-Manoj

Ravi said...

@the cases,
The math section was typical. nothing special. just like you see on a sample test.
As to pointers in preparing, I didn't do much prep.Just brushed up some trigonometric formulae, which had gotten rusty.

Good Luck with the exam.


@Manoj,
Thanks dude.

Anonymous said...

800 in verbal!!!!!!!!!!!!!..thats amazing...

Anonymous said...

Hey Ravi,
Awesome scores...great going!

Arif :-)

Nested said...

Ravi, I don't know you personally, but based on some of your previous blog postings, I really think you should go for it. It seems to me that it's something you really want to do deep down inside, and I think if you don't go for it, you'll regret it.

Sometimes in life, you just have to take a leap of faith and hope for the best. Even if it doesn't work out in the end, it's better than the thoughts of what may have been.

My oprah-like two cents :)

Anonymous said...

Dude,
Great Scores! All the best.

Ravi said...

@Vlaidimir,
Thanks for the nudge!

I am in no doubt as to whether to go through a PhD or not. What is not yet decided is the timing :-)

I've been working steadily the last few years to "raise my level" to a point where I can make real contributions to whatever field I work in (vs just grinding through the requirements and getting a paper stating I have a PhD). I know too many people from India who get an MS or in some cases a PhD without really learning anything or advancing the state of knowledge in a field.

The uncertainity is about *when* to do a PhD not "whether".

I have to strengthen my research (vs purely technical) skill. Think reseracher/scientist/mathematician vs programmer/sw developer.

I've made some progress on this this year but not as much as I'd like. I plan to rectify this in 2007/8.

Life is good :-D

Anonymous said...

Hi Ravi,

You mention "I've been working steadily the last few years to "raise my level" "

Can you share with us, how you have been doing this?

Great scores and good blogs !!!

Ravi said...

@prashanth.

That sentence ("levelling up") is about a focus on improving my science/maths/reearch skills. The first two are hopefully self explanatory. The third is about how you apply what you know to solve interesting problems (which haven't been solved before). This article is a good introduction to the idea. It is a little academia/Ai specific but you can mentally subtract those concepts.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ravi. :)

Anonymous said...

scanning through a few of your earlier posts, you seem to have an interest in programming languages.

yet you're not sure on which field to advance ? you believe the programming languages of today are as good as they can be ?

STOP TRYING TO DO IT, AND DO IT !!

-hal

Anonymous said...

Great blog Ravi. You have exceptional writing skills. How did you manage to develop such a rich active vocabulary? I take pride in having a rich vocabulary, but it is mostly passive. I can score good in vocab tests, i needn't refer the dictionary while reading...but still i am not able to get the right words at the right time while speaking or writing. How does one "activate" one's passive vocabulary ? Please be kind enough to share your thoughts.
Thanks,
SUndaresh

Ravi said...

Sundaresh,
I don't do anything to "activate" my vocabulary. I used to be a debater/public speaker during my student days but that was all.

And fwiw, i don't think of myself as much of a writer. (This is not false modesty. I know many people who are at least 10 times better)

Anonymous said...

Excellent score! This calls for a celebration. Let me know when.

Ravi said...

Hi Ravi

congrats for your score.
what is ur plan now?

Anonymous said...

What happened to the 10 marks for quant ?

Mehdi Azarmi said...

Good grades!
How you got such a great verbal mark?!

kiran said...

Hi Ravi!!
Was introduced to ur blog via AIMA java thingy!!Though it may take ages to digest the stuff there( :( Im not a geek liku u ),ur work shud b deemed da best for AI course!!Thanx for pointing me towards Norvig's site - I loved it!!Are u a student still?Why did u write GRE after all the accomplishments u made??

Hareesh said...

Hi Ravi

Congrats ! Great scores!! I am also planning to take a test can u give me a brief on how to prepare for verbal and developing writing skills.

Ravi said...

@hareesh,
I didn't "prepeare" for teh evrbal section at all. I brushed up on the quant formulae. That's all.