TOEFL and GMAT Preparation

Some of you should be familiar with TOEFL, yet still sound strange with GMAT. In this post, I want to share some of my experience regarding two kinds of test. Since, I want to pursue graduate school in US, I need to pass both of tests.

TOEFL

What is the TOEFL? Why should I take that test? What is the difference between TOEFL and IELTS? Actually I had willingness to take TOEFL test when I was excited to apply master degree in Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi. But, for several reasons I canceled my plan. I changed it actually. I want to Pursue MBA in US. It still plan, but I am developing my capability to reach that goal.

As we know, TOEFL is standardized test that measure our ability. We can't say "I can english well, or I used to write everything in english, so I have good capability for that". We need to take that test and know how is our score. Is it 120? Is it just 70? etc.

There are two types of TOEFL. A familiar one is TOEFL PBT (Paper Based Test), which has score around 300 until 680. And for TOEFL IBT (Internet Based Test), it has highest score 120. And maybe some of you ask, so which one should I choose? PBT? or IBT?

I highly recommend to choose IBT. Why? Because, actually there are no PBT anymore hahaha. I mean, if you take test from official institution, there is just IBT test for TOEFL. You can visit its website for more detail about price, what kind of section, is there any speaking test? and other detail information.

But, there are still many institutions which conduct TOEFL PBT test such as ILP and others. Maybe you can just take TOEFL PBT test if you want to apply some jobs such as Pertamina. They can receive our PBT score. But, if you want to apply for university, you must take IBT test from official institution, ETS.

Then the other question, do I need to take TOEFL? or IELTS?  Actually it based on university you want to apply. Generally TOEFL is required for universities in US and IELTS for universities in Europe or Australia. But, most of universities can receive either TOEFL or  IELTS. So, it depends on you. You need to take free samples question from both official website and try to solve them. Which one do you think easier? Just take that one. If you ask some of your colleagues. Some of them will answer, TOEFL is easier and the others can be choose IELTS as the easier one. Personally, I choose TOEFL because I want to pursue graduate degree in US, in TOEFL we need to choose the multiple answer instead of fill in the blank in IELTS test. And based on my survey the price for TOEFL is cheaper than IELTS.

GMAT

If you want to take master degree in US, you need to take not only TOEFL or IELTS but also GMAT or GRE. GMAT or GRE is the test to measure your intellegence skill. I can't explain detail about GRE because I do not prepare for that instead of GMAT. Actually it same with language test. If you want to choose GMAT or GRE, you need to check requirements in official website of the university. Based on my research, even for MBA, they require either GMAT or GRE. But based on my chit-chat and browsing, GMAT is generally required for MBA. I don't know what kind of major which need GRE. But, as I know most of universities in US will ask your GMAT or GRE score.

For GMAT, the maximum score is 780. Several top tier b-schools have average GMAT score around 700. In university website, it doesn't state the minimum requirement for GMAT. Eventhough, there is class profile informed about average and range GMAT score of student who accepted in previous year. You can visit GMAT official website to more detail information.

Based on my experience, it not easy at all to get good score in GMAT. The last score I got just 500. I have target above 700. That's why I need to study hard for reaching the target. I took one month preparation with Nick Pascale in Patra Jasa tower. That one is the cheapest that I know for GMAT preparation. The price is IDR 3.000.000  for basic level. If you want to extend in advance level as I know you need to pay for IDR 3.500.000. He taught us with mindblowing idea. He said we can't calculate detail to do GMAT test since we just have limited time. So he gave us framework to answer some types of questions.

If you want to pursue master degree or other occasion which require two kinds of tests, I really recommend you to prepare as soon as possible. I don't say you have to take preparation class you can learn by your own. Each of us has different capability, different style of study and different strategy. Just go on to aspire what we really want. And hopefully we can achieve that together :D

NIZARLAND

"Where The Land Inspires The World"

[Seminar] Pursuing Graduate Study in US

It was insightful seminar from US Embassy and Indonesia Mengglobal in @america this afternoon. Some speakers shared their experiences and insight about pursuing graduate study in US. This event was separated into several sessions. It was opened by Mrs. Sophia Blake as Madam Ambassador of US. She mentioned three reason why we should pursue graduate study in US. First one, widely diversity. Second one, high quality infrastructure such as library, laboratory, even professor, etc. I forget the third one, actually.

Afterward Mr. Haryanto T. Budiman as graduated from MIT shared his tips:

1) GRE/GMAT/TOEFL and other score requirement should be prepare by along time before. It's not easy to get high score. That's why preparation is so important.

2) Please write essays personally. It should be tailor-made. State our short term and long term goal. Tell our unique background.

3) Please keep in mind that recommendation letter is important. We should get it specifically. For instance, if our recommendation letter just like "Mr. X is the partner of me in office. He is good person, fast learner, and you should accept it into the school". It was so general and cliche. The recommendation also need to be specifically written detail abour ourselves through people's point of view.

Actually Mr. Haryanto told more that what I wrote, but I cannot remember the detail. So I just share the big point. Then, seminar was continued by Mr. Donny. He showed us three different essays and discuss about the strength and weakness of those essays. So he shared some big points:

1) We don't need to be fully free of grammar. But, the silly grammar mistake is literally the problem. For instance, one of essays written as "Introducing, my name is XXX, you can call me XXX...". It would be better if the sentence is "Please let me introduce myself ......". Introducing is so silly, moreover written as opening sentence.

2) Do not write your essay gramatically boring. For instance, My name is Nizar, I am 23 years old, blablabla However blablablabala, furthermore, blablablabla. The sentences look like in high school student task which contain of conjuction, then subject, then verb. Then conjuction again, subject, and verb and so on and so on. Try to collaborate with passive sentence for example.

3) Write an essay directly fit to its school. If we want to pursue in Harvard, we should write that Harvard really fit to us because blablabla, please do not write general matter. Browse the website and get the information specifically. If we want to apply for another school, we can not just directly change the school name. We should match another sentence, about academic culture, or school vision, etc.

4) State the your goals. It can be short term, mid term, long term goals or even three of them. Make inspiring goal which can contribute to many people. But, please, once again, do not write general statement. For instance, I would continue to Harvard so that I can back to hometown then empower people there. But, we should write, what kind of people whom we want to empower? How's the way we empower them? Ya, it should be specifically.

5) Start your essay dramatically. One of essay written as "My aspiring career is being the first person who ring the bell in NASDAQ". I forget the detail of that essay. The point, we should attract people to continuously read our essay just by reading first sentence.

6) Tell your unique and exotic background confidently.

7) Do not try to figure out how to create a well-packaged essay. We do need to be the person in our dream or thought. Just be ourself uniquely. Admission officers are quite intelligent to distinguish whether the essay is really makes sense or not. Whether it personally described or an cliche article.

Beside Mr. Donny, There were also officer from LPDP and AMINEF for scholarship and also 4 graduated speakers who tell about their experience. I cannot write the detail, I will write some point down:

1) Please choose the RIGHT school. The school which fit to us. Please do not just consider the brand of university. Choose the fit program.

2) Taking master degree is too expensive just for showing that we have same academic background with friends of us, or just demanded by our parents.

3) We need to be have story, insight or anything which can be shared in school if we accepted. Graduate study is not just being sit in class, take notes, doing exam and get A score. It obviously more than that.

Yeay! Thank god I got this valuable book for free caused asking question

I think that's all I can share to you about the seminar. I know that this is to short and maybe so general. But It hard to me to write the detail one by one. I didn't take many notes. Just a few points. And so sorry for my silly grammar. I know that I still try to improve my english as well. If you need more information, I think it would be better ask @usembassyjkt or @IndoMengglobal. And you can visit www.indonesiamengglobal.com to get much information. See you :)

NIZARLAND

"Where The Land Inspires The World"