Table of contents with descriptions:
- Part 1: how to maximize success in applying to undergraduate programs. This part is made for high-schoolers who are about to apply or have already started applying to undergraduate (Bachelor’s level) programs at universities.
- Part 2: how to use your university years to the fullest. This part is made for current university students (both in undergraduate and graduate programs) who want to know how to what to do and how to productively use their university years to maximize their future success in applying for graduate/postgraduate programs and jobs.
- Part 3: how to maximize success in applying to graduate and postgraduate programs. This part is made for current university students who are about to apply or have already started the process of applying to graduate (Master’s level) and postgraduate programs (PhD level).
Part 1: how to maximize success in applying to undergraduate programs
Part 1.1: before applying to undergraduate programs
Although everything that has happened during school years matters, the last 3 years of high-school is the time that will truly define your success in applying to universities. Even though the focus of this course is on applying to universities abroad (mainly in North America, South-East Asia, and Europe), some tips shared here are also relevant when applying to some local universities in Kazakhstan (such as Nazarbayev University which follows international education standards and accepts IELTS and SATs which will be talked about extensively in this course). Also, while the focus of this course is on students who study in Kazakhstani national education system and will receive Kazakhstani school diploma, much of the information and tips from this course will still be relevant to those studying in international programs, such as IB.
- Tip: start documenting all your achievements and activities that you have been engaged in. Document all of your awards (both small and big), certificates, courses where you did well in, and all the volunteering or work experience that you had. Any and all information can be useful (even helping your dad fix his car or working on his farm), and it will be needed to build your personal statement and/or statement of purpose when applying to universities. Also, start documenting a plan for applying to universities, and make sure to include useful information from this crash course. In general, ability to document is a very important skill that will be useful to you in the future, and you should stick to the habit of documenting even throughout your university studies and beyond.
- Important note: do not bet that you will get accepted into a university abroad and will remain there. Admission process is a black box and also unexpected things happen which may cause you to change education plans. Therefore, do not focus solely on international tests and make sure to put effort to study well at school too, as you may also have to prepare for and take national exams (such as "EHT") in addition to international tests so that you will be able to also apply to Kazakhstani universities.
Make sure to start thinking and discussing with your parents about applying to universities abroad as soon as possible. One of the very first things to discuss should be “what do you want to study?” or “who do you want to become in the future?”. It is perfectly fine if you are not sure what to study or what major to choose in university, but you should at least start narrowing down your search. A first thing you can decide is whether you prefer STEM or non-STEM profession. This can be decided based on your personal interests (for example, interest in playing LEGO could indicate potential for Engineering, while interest in trading could indicate potential for Business). I would highly recommend taking personality or professional orientation tests too (there are a lot of such tests online) which can help you in decision making process. Next, you can look at your school grades to give you idea of what you are good at. If you have good grades in math and physics and bad grades in biology, a career in Mechanical or Civil Engineering may suit you well, while a career in Biomedical Engineering or Life Sciences may not. There were studies that demonstrated correlation between performance at school in certain subjects or skillsets and what specialties a person ends up being good and bad at (Frontiers, Academic Commons).
- Important note: remember that nothing is absolute and there are always exceptions. For example, a bad grade does not mean that you are bad at something but could simply be that you had a bad or biased teacher. Moreover, there are different types of intelligence, and there is always something that a person is good at. I personally know a lot of people who did not study well at school at all but have unique qualities that made them successful - make sure to find something like this about yourself too!
- Tip: a good way to know if you are good at a particular specialty/major or if you like it is to try doing some work related to it. The best way to do it obviously is to join a real company as an employee or intern, and it is amazing if you have connections that you can leverage to do that. In general, however, is not very likely to happen for you as a high schooler. Other good options include asking parents to help with their work (if their specialty is similar to what you are interested in) or doing some freelance work if the specialty allows you to (such as web-design, coding, music) even for free. Other possible options include taking online courses and practice tests, or simply visiting workplace and talking to people who work in that specialty about their work (options are really only bounded by your creativity). It is almost always better try doing something practical related to your specialty or major of interest before committing to study it in university to be sure that this is what you want.
- Tip: another way that can help you decide what to study in university is to look at how successful the graduates in a certain subject or specialty are. A very basic way to judge success is to look at and compare average salaries of people in different specialties. Although this can give you an idea of what you should expect from studying a certain subject after graduating from university, it should not be the only metric that you use (average salaries are not always accurate, especially for not-so-popular majors or jobs). Another factor worth considering is the future demand for your specialty. For example, although starting salaries in Civil Engineering are not as high as in IT, Civil Engineering has and will continue to have a lot of job openings and will remain in demand for a very long time as Kazakhstan's population is forecasted to increase steadily and big cities will continue to expand, while the supply of Civil Engineers is not high, while the number of IT students has skyrocketed, thus making finding an IT job more difficult.
- Insider information: currently in Kazakhstan there is a very high demand for Project Managers with Engineering experience. There is also a high demand Engineers and Financiers/Bankers with experience in IT and AI.
- Important note: in some universities you do not have to choose/declare your major in your first year of studies, and can study for 1 year and take courses from different specialties (this is the case in many universities in the US). In this case, it is perfectly fine not to know what exactly you want to study and still apply to a university. But it is still recommended to know your general area of interest (for example STEM or non-STEM) so that you can craft a more specific and detailed personal statement/statement of purpose and so that you can choose subjects for international tests (such as AP) more effectively which can give you advantage in admission process.
After you have basic understanding of what subject or area you are interested in (for example, Engineering, IT, History, or Performing Arts), your next step should be finding the universities that you would like to apply to and study at. The first question you should ask yourself is whether you want to study in Kazakhstan or abroad. This focus of this website is mainly on universities abroad, plus a few universities in Kazakhstan (such as Nazarbayev University) that follow international education standards. If your decision is to study in Kazakhstan, the best source of information on admissions are your teachers who are usually very familiar with the process. For most of the Kazakhstani universities, you will need your final school grades and take “EHT”
- Tip: even if you study for your undergraduate degree in Kazakhstan, you can still apply to study abroad for Masters. Many Kazakhstani universities also have exchange programs with universities abroad, and you can get a chance to study abroad for one or two semesters even during studies at university in Kazakhstan.
- Important note: studying abroad is a big decision, and choosing a good country and a university is very important so that you won't go there only to be disappointed by your experience there and come back (after all, you may have to spend 4 years there or more). Things you should consider are not only prestige of the university and the major that you want to study, but also local language, culture, and even food. For example, I spend 4 years studying in Singapore, which was was a very safe and highly developed country with stellar education system, but the local English accent and the food was quite difficult to adjust to. There is beauty in experiencing and learning about new culture, new language, or new food, and they are all important for you to become a truly "global" person, but sometimes there may be practical implications if the adjustment required is very big. For example, if your university education is fully in English, but university is located in a country or city where English is spoken only by tiny fraction of population, you may need to learn local language too in order to be able to experience student life to the fullest.
- Tip: is it great if you can visit a country or university before applying there to get a first-hand idea of what it looks like to study and live there. For example, you can apply for FLEX program, which is a program that allows Kazakhstani high-schoolers to spend half a year living in the US and studying in an American high-school for free. A good information resource on any such programs are websites and social media pages of embassies of the countries that you are interested in (in general, embassies are also a good information resource on scholarships, grants, and any special programs offered by the country).
- Important note: there are also important practical aspects that you need to consider when choosing a university and country. First is obviously the cost of education. In Anglophone countries (US, Canada, UK, Australia, Singapore, etc.), education can be quite expensive (ranging from 20000 to 40000$ or more per year), and you may want to make sure that your family is able to cover both the educational expenses and living expenses (500-2000$ or more per month). In some European countries, such as Germany and Italy, education and living costs can be cheaper. The living costs can also vary substantially within country depending on the location. Another important aspect you should consider is what are the job prospects for you after graduating from university in that country. Systems in different countries can be vastly different: in the UK, you will be given a temporary visa of 2-3 years to find a job if you graduated from a local university there. In Singapore, if you graduated from a good local public university, it is not very difficult to find a job (and they also give you 1 year of temporary visitor visa to look for a job). In the US, you can work for 1 year after graduating (or for 3 years if your specialty is in STEM). Therefore, where to study should not be judged based on the cost of education alone, but also on future prospects that you will have after graduating for a university: for example, you can go to a very expensive but reputable university in the US or in Singapore and secure a high-paying job that can pay your money back. On the other hand, graduating from a cheap but not reputable university may not give you an opportunity to work abroad and you will have to come back to Kazakhstan immediately without any foreign practical experience. There is no universal formula, and your final university list should be based on extensive research of many factors, such as country & location, safety, your selected major/specialty (which would affect your potential future salary), cost of education, living costs, availability of grants, local culture & food, and future prospects. Another important thing that you may want to consider is if the place that you are applying to has any special perks or things that make it different from others. For example, universities near Silicon Valley have great startup culture and support, so if you are interested in starting your own project and commercializing it (or if you already have a project that you would like to expand), this factor should be an important consideration for you. It is also possible that you may have a personal project that may be interesting to a particular university of country because it is aligned with what that researchers in that university are working on too, or if a project aligns with values of the university.
- Tip: the best way to learn authentic feedback about certain university/program is to contact someone from that university/program. You can use online forums (reddit), social media (linkedin, instagram), and also contact reputable educational agencies that have experience of sending students in that particular university or country. Remember - no place is perfect, and every place has some downsides, but if you do proper research and gather good amount of information, you will realize which options are better and which are worse, and make an educated decision.
- Tip: many universities and programs also offer scholarships and grants to certain students. Usually, it is difficult to obtain a scholarship or grant as an international student in Anglophone countries unless you are an exceptional student with prestigious international awards, stellar test scores, or amazing portfolio with impressive past experiences, projects, etc. However, some countries or universities can guarantee scholarship, grant, or even free education as long as your satisfy certain requirements (for example, if you know German at advanced level, you can study in some German universities for free).
- Insider tip: many universities abroad put a lot of focus on diversity to build a student population from all countries and all walks of life. If you are Kazakh, you will be a minority group almost everywhere, which means that you can potentially contribute to diversity of that institution - make sure to talk about this in your personal statement, especially if there is something concrete that you would like to contribute to (for example, start a cultural club for Central Asian students). If you are a woman and are interested in STEM specialties, you will belong to even more underrepresented group, which can give you even bigger advantage in admissions
Part 1.2: understanding university admissions
When applying to foreign universities, a first question that may come to mind is what the admission committee is looking for in applicants and how they decide whether they should admit you or not? Foreign universities (Europe, North America, Singapore, international programs in China) typically look at 3 big aspects in their applicants: international test scores, school grades, and a holistic component (personal statement/statement of purpose, essays, short-answer questions, past experiences and awards/achievements). In Anglophone countries test scores typically include English language tests (IELTS/TOEFL), general college admission tests (SAT/ACT), and subject specific tests (AP). make sure to start preparing for tests as soon as you decide which universities and programs you would like to apply to. You should ideally give yourself 2 years before the deadline to start preparing for tests and working on applications. So, if your school has 12 grades, typically the deadlines for applying to universities will be in the middle of grade 12, which means that you should start preparing in the middle of grade 10 (if your school has 11 grades, then it should be middle of grade 9). But again, this is a conservative estimate, and there are a lot of people who only decide to apply to universities abroad much later and still end up getting into their dream universities (my school had 11 grades, and I personally decided to apply to universities abroad only in the middle of grade 10, and shortlisted universities only in the beginning of grade 11, giving me merely 6 months to prepare for and take tests and work on applications – this is not recommended as I ended up being able to take SAT test only once before applying to some universities. Even though my subsequent SAT attempts have resulted in a better score, I was only able to use it for universities which had application deadlines later).
- Tip: English tests such as IELTS and TOEFL, as well as college admission tests (SAT/AP) can be taken multiple times a year with no hard limit on the maximum number of tests that you can take. This gives you an opportunity to retake tests and improve your scores. This is why it is recommended to start preparing for tests as early as possible (ideally two years before application deadlines) so that you can give yourself enough time for complete preparation and at least two or three attempts at taking each test. Some people even register and take actual tests long before the deadline as part of preparation or practice.
- Insider tip: demand for IELTS/TOEFL is not very high, and it is possible to take them almost every month and register only a few days in advance. SAT, however, is a totally different game, as it is offered only 3-4 times a year in Kazakhstan, and many of the test centers can get filled up very fast (especially in Almaty), so try to register for SAT at least 4 months in advance (or as soon as the registration for a particular date opens) so that you won't have to travel to another city to take it.
- Tip: before retaking the test, make sure to spend at least a month to practice it more, because taking the test too often with little practice or learning in between typically does not result in much improvement. Also, after every attempt make sure to analyze carefully what went wrong and try to spend more time focusing on your weakest sections (for example, if your Reading/Listening score in IELTS is 7.0 while your Writing/Speaking is 5.0, it will be much more productive to spend most of your time working on Writing/Speaking; some universities in addition to having a total minimum acceptable score also have a minimum acceptable score per section - it is important that you satisfy both the total minimum and the minimum per each section).
- Tip: if you score above the minimum acceptable score that is provided by your university it does not mean that your score is already "good enough". It only means that your application will not be rejected outright. To have a better idea of what is a "good enough" score, you need to search internet and try to find statistics of admitted students which provide information about their test scores, such as mean score or 25th/75th percentile. You can also try to connect with admitted students using social media (such as reddit) and ask for their scores, or post a question about it. However, you should still remember that there is no such thing as "good enough" as application process is a black box and your application is considered on many other things in addition to test scores - of course your score must be above the bare minimum that is accepted by your university, and of course it would be great if you score in the 90th percentile of admitted students, but spending too much time and money on such tests is not productive, especially after you take each test more than 4 times and your scores have little to no improvement. Maybe it would be better to work on your school grades, extracurricular activities, or a personal project which can potentially make up for your not-so-good test score.
I personally benefitted from taking SAT multiple times, as my first attempt resulted in 1360 (780 in Math and 580 in Reading-Writing), second attempt resulted in 1450 (780 in Math and 670 in Reading-Writing), and third resulted in 1480 (800 in Math and 680 in Reading-Writing). As you can see, my Math was good from the beginning, but my Reading-Writing was not good and this is what I was focusing on most of the time (my poor English at the time was a big factor, and improving my general English has helped a lot with this SAT section). In case of IELTS, however, my results did not improve a lot, since on my first IELTS attempt I received 7.0 (8.0 in reading, 7.0 in listening, 6.0 in writing, 6.0 in speaking), while in the second attempt one month later I got 7.0 again (7.5 in reading, 7.5 in listening, 6.5 in writing, 6.0 in speaking). Looking back, one thing I would have changed is to take it two or three months later instead of only one month later to spend more time preparing for it, and focused most of my attention on writing and speaking. I would have also considered making one more attempt at IELTS, perhaps 3 months after my second attempt, as I was continuously working on my English which may have given me a better chance of scoring higher. In general, however, I knew that my test scores were good enough as IELTS was above minimum for the universities that I was applying to, while SAT was somewhat above average of admitted students based on my research (I would suggest shifting your focus completely to SAT as soon as you get IELTS score that exceeds the required minimum by around 1.0), and for this reason I did not have a big motivation to make more attempts at these tests and instead focused on other parts of my application. Sadly, however, I wasn’t able to send my best SAT score to one of my reach universities as the last two attempts were taken after the decisions were already made.
- Insider tip: make sure to read through policies of test taking carefully. If the test allows a calculator, make sure to bring one, and use one during practice too (in general, try to simulate real testing environment and conditions during practice). If there are only certain types of calculators that are allowed, make sure to bring the one that is allowed as international testing policies are usually quite strict and you will not be able to use anything that is not allowed by test's policies. However, some test invigilators can be unduly strict and disallow you to use items that you are allowed to use by the test policy (it happened to me once when I brought a watch to SAT test and an invigilator tried to take it away from me), so always be prepared to defend your rights.
- Important note: language is a big component when preparing to apply to universities abroad that many people tend to underestimate. For example, in non-international local schools (and even some international schools) in Kazakhstan, English language education is poor, and without additional practice students typically score only 4.0 - 5.0 or even less on IELTS. For this reason, it is very important to start practicing language as early and as intensively as possible. I took a diagnostic test in 2018 (one year before applying to universities) and scored 5.0 on IELTS, which was unsatisfactory for most universities that I was interested in, and in one year of extra practice I managed to increase it to 7.0. The way I learned English was by reading online books (at least 20 min a day) and attending IELTS preparation lessons twice a week. I also connected with a native English speaker using social media and practiced speaking with him for at least 1 hour per week. What helped me the most, however, was switching all my laptop and phone apps to English and trying to use everything including googling, watching youtube and movies exclusively in English. I also started speaking English with my family and especially siblings who also learned some English at school and were able to have a conversation on a basic level (even if you do not have family members or close friends who can speak basic English with you, you can still let them speak in their native language but respond to them in English, which would still enable both you and them to learn it). Attending English speaking clubs is also a great idea because it will enable you to learn to hold conversation in group setting. The earlier you start learning the language, the better, because learning language is always easier for younger people and especially small kids. You will need language not only for international tests (IELTS/TOELF, SAT) but also in academics of your future university, and even for job hunting, so getting proficient in language will be extremely helpful both in short-term and long-term. If you do not master the language, you may suffer not only because you will find it difficult to listen to lectures or understand the content, but also because you will be too shy to communicate openly with your peers and will find it hard to do presentations with confidence. On the other hand, getting good with the language will not only help you in academics and university life in general, but will also give you an advantage in job hunting as you will be able to show off on your resume that you are proficient in multiple languages which will look impressive. Everything is possible - I had only intermediate English in grade 10, increased it to advanced in grade 11, and after 4 years of university reached almost a native level.
- Tip: while most of your language learning will come from you, it is still recommended to attend test preparation courses (there are a lot of IELTS/TOEFL preparation courses in Kazakhstan in almost every city; although there are online courses available, you should still prioritize in-person courses because they are more effective especially for young people (Cornell Chronicle)). Same goes for other tests such as SAT and AP, since it is more difficult to stay on plan when you do not have someone overseeing you, and also it is easier if you have someone who can explain you the answers. However, make sure that your teacher took the test in the past and received a good score as there are a lot of bad teachers who do not have proper testing experience (for IELTS, it would be good if your teacher has received 8.0/9.0 or more, and for SAT it should be at least 1450, or close to 800 if your teacher is only teaching you one section of SAT (Math Section or Reading and Writing section)). You should also check if your school is offering any test preparation courses (many schools offer IELTS preparation lessons for free). In parallel to in-person courses, you can also consider taking online courses that are taught fully in English (or any other language that you are learning), which you can easily find on youtube because they quality tends to be higher.
Holistic component is as important as other components because it gives you an opportunity to not only showcase your achievements or experiences that are not simple grades or test scores, and also to get the admission committee to know you as a person. It may consist of only a personal statement/statement of purpose, or it may also include things like writing an essay on a certain topic (usually a question about describing one of your past experiences or questions with philosophical undernote), and even ask for letters of recommendation from your teachers. Sometimes you have an opportunity to choose one topic among multiple topics for your essay, or even make your own topic (universities in the US usually do both).
- Important note: it is important to read instructions in your application carefully and give an appropriate answer. For example, if you are asked to write a statement of purpose, you would have to explain how your past experiences have prepared you for the program you are applying to, why you are a perfect fit for the program, and how this program will help you achieve your professional and academic goals, and in this case you SHOULD NOT write a personal statement, which is different from statement of purpose and is simply a description of your past and of who you are without focusing on your academic and professional goals and the program you are applying to.
- Important note: letters of recommendation are also important because they allow the admission committee to understand you from a third-person perspective. For this reason, it is important to cultivate a good relationship with your teachers who you think can write the best letter of recommendation for you. One problem that I faced at school is that some of my teachers that I was asking to write a letter of recommendation did not know how to one for US colleges (because they did not know English and were not familiar with Common App application system), so I had to ask them to write it in their native language and then translate it using a professional translation service, and also help teachers sign up for Common App. Then, the teachers only had to copy and paste the translated version into Common App and submit it. Remember that it is important to be proactive and take the initiative - had I not taken the initiative and helped teachers with explaining everything about the process and translating the letters, I would not have been able to apply to some of the universities. One thing to note is that a good recommendation letter is the one that brings something new, specific, and unique about you rather than simply reiterating very vague or not specific statements such as "this student was one of the best students in their class".
Part 1.3: completing applications and applying to undergraduate programs
After you have decided about which universities to apply to and what to study, you should create applicant accounts in all your universities and start filling the applications.
- Tip: some universities share a unified system of university applications. For example, in the US, a lot of colleges use Common App or Coalition App, while in the UK many universities use UCAS. This makes it easier to apply for multiple universities that use the same application system at the same time, since you won't have to complete your applications from scratch for every single university and some universities may even share same application questions or essay prompts (typically universities in the US in addition to asking for your personal statement/statement of purpose also ask you to write an essay on a certain topic and/or answer a few questions; before reusing answer or essay from another application, you should double-check if it is allowed to do so). Using a unified system of applications makes it easier to apply to multiple universities in the same country simultaneously.
- Important note: remember to take all deadlines seriously. While at school you may have always been able to ask for leeway with deadlines, university life will be much more serious and all deadlines will be strict. This especially applies to university application deadlines, and you cannot assume that you will be able to submit an application after the deadline. It is possible, however, to submit new test scores after the application deadline by emailing them to the office of admissions before they made a decision about your application, but it is not always guaranteed that your new scores will be considered (but still worth a try).
- Tip: most of the applications are quite straightforward - usually you need to fill in your personal information, information about your family, and answer some questions about your school system and the courses that you took, and also attach your school transcripts. Some universities ask only for your transcript from the last grade that you have completed, while others may ask for multiple grades, and even for half-year grades. You will also need to provide information about the tests that you took (such as IELTS or SAT), and attach test score reports.
Most of the applications are quite straightforward – you only need to fill your personal information and
Part 2: how to use your university years to the fullest
4 years is a lot of time. The vast majority of people come out of university as a different person compared to when they came in. Some go through little change and don’t do much at university, while others undergo a ground-up transformation and come out as a totally different and a much more successful person. While you can simply go with the flow and “just study”, there are several things you can do that will completely transform your university experience and will let you to come out as a 10000x more successful person in the end.
- Tip: while it is good to connect with fellow Kazakhstanis on campus, you MUST prioritize mingling with foreigners. This is important because not only it will enable you to practice language further, but also will let you immerse yourself into the local community and culture. I have personally met several students from Kazakhstan who were hanging out with other Kazakhstanis all the time and did not make any friends or connections with local people or other foreigners, and as a result by the end of 4 years they ended up not learning language at all and felt that they "didn't belong here" and haven't managed to get accustomed to local culture and were not confident about their future. In my 4 years of undergraduate studies, I spent 95% of time with local people and foreigners, which allowed be to increase my language skills by a lot, and also gave me many amazing and unique cultural experiences that definitely made me a more global and ultimately a better person. In the beginning (especially in your first semester) you may find it difficult to adjust to a new country, new culture, and people speaking different language, but the adjustment is actually quite easy and fast, especially if you make consistent effort, and over time you will realize how easy it is to make friends from around the world (after all, you should remember that university life is new for everyone around you and it is not easy for other people too).
- Important note: gaining research experience during your undergraduate years can be very useful if you are planning to apply to MS programs and especially PhD. Research can be done any time, usually during semester, but sometimes during vacation breaks. A good way to look for research opportunities is to contact Professors/faculty members under whom you took a class and did well in. It would be even better if a Professor/faculty member remembers you and knows you personally
- Insider tip: showcasing yourself and networking are very important. In class, you should try to be active and contribute to discussion. Try to stand out. Try to show up to their office hours. Project your presence. This will all come useful when you come to them asking for research opportunities, since this will give a good reason to take you as a researcher, and they will have a good opinion of you even before you start working with them. This will come useful down the road when you will ask them for letter of recommendation.
Part 3: how to maximize success in applying to graduate and postgraduate programs
Applying to graduate (Master’s level) and postgraduate (PhD level) programs shares many similarities with applying to undergraduate programs. Also, graduate and postgraduate applications tend to be very similar and may even share the same application system (in other words you can submit a single application to both Master’s and PhD program). However, one notable difference from undergraduate applications can be that you will need to write both personal statement and statement of purpose, which should be different and you should try to avoid duplicating the same information. As for international tests, you will likely still need to take language test, such as IELTS/TOEFL in the case of English (although for some universities this requirement is waived if you studied in an English-speaking country or a university with education in English). Universities with English-based education also typically require to take GRE, which is a test that has many similarities with SAT in that it also consists of Quantitative Reasoning (similar to Math section in SAT) and Verbal Reasoning (similar to Reading and Writing section in SAT). However, unlike SAT, GRE also has a mandatory Analytical Writing section where you have to write two essays on given topics. While you can still take some in-person courses to prepare for GRE, I personally realized that there are a lot of English-based online courses with excellent quality and that are cheap, such as Gregmat, which provides one and two-month long prep plan. The only thing that I used to prepare for GRE was a one-month prep plan from Gregmat and I ended up scoring 327 (164 in Quantitative Reasoning and 163 in Verbal Reasoning) and 4.0 in Analytical Writing. I would personally suggest spending more than one month preparing for GRE and taking a two-month prep plan from Gregmat, and also spend one entire week just to practice Analytical Writing. I personally did not spend a lot of time practicing Analytical Writing because I had only one month of preparation before taking GRE, and from doing a few practice essays I repeatedly got 4.0 which was sufficient for universities that I was applying to (however, for many non-STEM programs Analytical Writing can be quite important and aiming at 4.0 may not be sufficient).
- Tip: GRE has online service that auto-grades your essays. You can use it to grade your essays and get an idea of the score that you will get on the actual test.
- Insider tip: research experience matters a lot more when applying to PhD programs compared to Master's. Networking is also more important when applying to PhDs. It would be best if you had direct experience of working at a lab where you would like to do your PhD. It is easier if you are planning to do PhD at your current university, since you just need to reach out to potential supervisors and start doing research with them, and they may even offer you to start doing PhD before applying for it. If you would like to do PhD in another university, perhaps the best thing you can do is to reach out to the potential supervisor that you would like to work with and do research with them over a vacation break (usually during summer). Competition for PhDs is much more tough than for Master's, and having personal experience with potential supervisor or the lab that you would like to work at can help a lot.
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