What to do after B.E/B.Tech?
This is a burning question in every undergraduate engineer’s mind when he/she
reaches pre-final/final year of engineering. Whilst many decide to go for a job
there are still many others who want to opt for further studies. I want to
dedicate this post of mine to all those who have decided to go for a post
graduate degree. There may be many questions in your mind, regarding different
entrance exams, many dilemmas, many doubts and confusions; well if this is the
case then be rest assured this post will surely help you in clearing some of
your questions. The sole aim of writing this post is to help you guys to move
through certain parts of this decision making process more swiftly and save
valuable time-a privilege which I did not have.
DISCLAIMER:. Please don’t accuse me of plagiarism or of
providing improper information. The things mentioned below are just an
expression of my own experience and knowledge. Also, I would like to thank my
friends Aman Baviskar, Sai Manoj Kumar Yadlapati, Nishant Panchal for helping
me through this blog. Thanks a lot guys! This would not have been possible
without your coordination. The information that has been provided below can be
categorised as under:
GRE- Jaineel Dalal
CAT- Nishant Panchal
GATE-Aman Baviskar, Sai
Manoj Kumar Yadlapati
Also, the rules and
regulations as well as acceptance rate for different universities and business
schools are subject to change from time to time. So, do keep an eye on any
changes that may occur and stay tuned to any updates that may come from time to
time.
So moving back to the main
point, there are usually 2 career options once you are done with your
engineering. Pursuing M.S./M.Tech or opting for an MBA degree. If you are like
me and 4 years of hard-core engineering still hasn’t dampened your spirits or
you still have some hope inside that you will yet survive some more engineering
then opt for M.S./M.Tech.. M.S or as it is known, Masters of Science is
basically a post graduate academic master’s degree in Engineering. It is
equivalent to an M.Tech (Masters of Technology) degree in India. The only
difference is that you need to give GATE for pursuing masters in India and GRE
for pursuing masters out of India. However,
GATE score is also considered at some places outside India. I shall
discuss about it in detail later. Coming back to the original classification,
if 4 years of engineering has sapped out the energy out of you, or you feel
that you want to add a tinge of marketing to your technical skills you can opt
for an MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree. For pursuing MBA abroad
you need to give GMAT and for India there are loads of entrance exams such as
CAT,SNAP,XAT,CMET to choose from. I shall mainly focus here on CAT and give
rather superficial details about the other.
GRE:-
GRE, or as it is known as
Graduate Record Examinations is basically a standardized test required for
admissions mainly in USA and other English speaking countries. Conducted by ETS
(Education Testing Service) it basically measures your analytical, verbal,
quantitative and critical thinking skills that are not related to any specific
field of study but are usually acquired throughout a long period of time. If
you are a little weak in technical matters and still want to pursue MS be rest
assured, GRE will only test your general aptitude. It will not ask anything
related to your field. GRE can given at any time throughout the year with a
restriction that you can give it only once in a month and maximum 5 times a
year. However, giving it once can burn quite a hole in your pocket since you
have to shell out 150$ each time you want to give the exam.
Since GRE can be given round
the year you can start preparing for it anytime but make sure that you select
the exam date appropriately so that you don’t miss out the application
deadlines for universities. (They are unusually early for USA as compared to
Canada and Germany) Also select the date
in such a way that it does not clash with any of your other exams and you have
atleast 2 months spare time for doing nothing but GRE. In my opinion 3 months
of coaching and 2 more months for giving
a final touch to your preparation would suffice. Moreover, since GRE score is
valid for 5 years it is advisable to give it as early as possible so that in
case you have a bad score you can retake it sooner or later without delaying
your application process. However, again here I would suggest studying the
websites of the universities your interest very carefully since many
universities consider only 2 years validity instead of 5 years. So it’s better
to know about it before hand to avoid problems in future.
According to the new
pattern, GRE score is given out of 340. (The old pattern gave the score out of
1600). If you want to compare your new score with the old one and see where you
stand follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gre
The test is divided into 3
sections (1) Analytical Writing Analysis, (2) Quantitative Reasoning, (3)
Verbal Reasoning.
Analytical Writing Analysis
(AWA) is given a rating out of 6 marks. Here you are asked to write 2 essays.
First one is an issue and second one an argument. The least score you can get here
is 0 and the maximum is 6. Most of the universities don’t bother going through
an applicant’s AWA score. However, a word of caution; if you score less than 2
in AWA, your entire GRE would be invalid irrespective of your Verbal and Quant
score. But be rest assured, this won’t happen unless you completely
misinterpret the subject or write in very poor English. i.e you are asked about
the sun and you write about the moon.
In the remaining two parts i.e Quantitative
Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning score is given on a scale from 130-170. So the
least score in GRE is 260 ( You will get this score even if you don’t attempt a
single question) and highest is 340 (170 in both verbal and quant each). AWA
scores are counted separately. Apart
from that there is no negative marking in GRE, so don’t be afraid to guess
answers in case you don’t know them. Every answer counts.
Getting admission into a
good university depends largely on your GRE score. If you have average acads,
good GRE score may turn the tables on your side. Whilst a score above 315 can
be considered as a good score, more or less it depends on the university in
which you want to apply. Different universities have different requirements.
Some require 320+, while some require a good score in AWA too, while some don’t
require it all. e.g. It is not compulsory in Germany and Canada to give GRE
however it is compulsory for USA. So instead of thinking that a score above 315
would do you good, spend some time researching about the universities where you
want to apply. Find out what are the requirements of these universities.
How to score good? Well keep
some patience for that. I will soon write another post focusing on how to crack
GRE the right way.
(To be continued in portion-2)