TOEFL GUIDELINES: READING

The most important instruction is to: NEVR READ EACH AND EVERY LINE.

That is the key of time saving. You should not be reading each and every line. You are supposed to read the first paragraph very carefully to get an idea about the passage. Then skim through the rest of the paragraphs and note down what each paragraph of the passage is about. In this way you will know which paragraph to read while answering a specific question.

Look for the words having

1.      SAME DIRECTION: and, because, even, therefore, another, for example, one reason, due to

2.      OPPOSITE DIRECTION: although, however, yet, despite, but, in contrast to, on the other hand, rather

TYPES OF QUESTIONS:

·         FACTUAL: You will be asked about a FACT or any FIGURE stated in the paragraph. These types of questions are very simple.

·         NON-FACTUAL: You will be asked about any other thing apart from an obvious fact stated in the passage.

·         INFERENCE: you will be asked about the purpose of some line. You will have to deduce yourself that what that paragraph is stating because it will not be mentioned exactly, you will have to “infer” it from the paragraph.

·         RHETORICAL: these will include questions like: to illustrate, to explain, to contrast, to refute, to note, to support

·         VOCABULARY: you will be asked about any word used in the passage and you will have to select its meaning with reference to the usage in that specific sentence

·         REFERENCE: there will be questions with specific reference in the passage, e.g in line 21..

·         SENTENCE SIMPLIFICATION: You will be asked to choose a sentence which simplifies a complex sentence of a paragraph. Remember: in simplification you must not chose an option which is not covering ALL essential elements.

·         INSERT TEXT: You will be asked to insert a sentence in the passage and three or four locations will be given. You will have to choose the most suitable place keeping in mind the context and fluency of the passage.

·         SUMMARY: the passage will have a question in the end about summary. There will be points given and you will have to choose 4 that will summarize the whole passage. This is very tricky. Keep in mind you don’t a line that is not related to the major topic of discussion. The main idea of the passage and all the important points from every paragraph should be covered.

·         FILL IN A TABLE: Either a passage will have a summary question or fill in a table question. In this case too you will have to carefully choose the sentences falling in each category mentioned in the table. Make sure that you don’t chose a sentence which is true BUT is not mentioned in the passage.

TIP: one very useful tip for choosing the answer is that if you don’t know the right answer you can start crossing out the options for which you know that is not right. So you start eliminating the wrong options. In this way you will have more chances of getting the right answer.

OVERALL TOEFL GUIDELINES

Although I might not remember all the things still I will state the overall experience.

I prepared for at most one week from the two sources:

1)      ETS online TOEFL course

2)      Princeton Review 2017 edition

Both were very helpful resources and I didn’t need a third resource neither I had time for that. Some people think that those who have scored excellent in verbal can secure good marks in TOEFL too. This is a misconception. I have seen people getting great marks in TOEFL while their GRE was low and those getting lower marks in TOEFL whose GRE verbal was good.

BECAUSE:

You need to understand the format of every test. You need to know what are the things that they look for, precisely. What should be the format of your answer? What should be the structure of your essay? How to start and how to conclude? Which words should be your preferred ones while speaking? How to support an idea and how to refute it? How many reasons or examples to support your opinion? This is what is more important than your vocabulary. TOEFL is not about memorizing 1000 words, it’s about understanding the sentence structure and understanding the meaning behind each sentence spoken, written or illustrated.

FORMAT:

Coming towards the format it is divided into four particular sections:

1.      Reading: You will be given passages and each passage will have 5-7 questions and each question will be of different type

2.      Listening: You will have to listen to some conversations and answer the questions. Once answered you cannot go back and change them.

3.      Speaking: It will be a combination of reading and listening. There will be two types of questions. One that are open and about a general thing. Second, about a specific topic and you will have to take notes about that while listening or reading.

4.      Writing: It will require you to write two essays. This section will also require your listening and reading skills.

So the complexity level increases as you go for each level of the test.

AT THE CENTER:

Do bring your proof of ID, a valid one ofcourse, and also your registration proof to the center. You might be asked to do some paper work, for their own record. Then you will deposit your stuff (handbag, wallet, jewelry, watch etc.) in a locker. After that you will be taken to a room where your picture will be taken and you will be asked to read a few lines (that will be written on a piece of paper), to record your voice. This is to validate your response from the test. After that you will go through screening and security checks, you will check in your time and go to your seat.

You will be given PENCIL AND PAPER, there is no need to bring your own neither you will be allowed to take your own. You will be given two pencils, if one goes rough you can always ask for a sharped one, as you will have to write a lot. You will be asked initially to speak something just to check if the mike and headphones are working. You will then validate your details on the computer screen and start your test.

TIP: try to enter the test hall as early as possible so that you can start your speaking section before the others start speaking, because most of the centers are not sound proof and you cannot concentrate much.

One more observation that I would like to share in this post is that I saw a pattern in the paragraphs or conversations regarding to the major fields. One passage or conversation will be from Psychology, one from Physical Sciences (Physics/ Astronomy), one from Environmental Sciences, one from Biology/Chemistry and one from Arts (Literature/Music/Architecture). That is what I observed during the test.

Do make your mind of spending 3 to 4 hours in the test center. Be patient, because this is what these tests are all about. I know at the end you will be fed up of listening, reading and writing English. But you will have to endure it for your own good. It is not that tough if you follow the guidelines.

More on separate section and types of questions: COMING SOON J

Cheers!!

RMK J

Fulbright Interview Experience and Guidelines

So, this one is about my Fulbright Interview experience. Please ignore the grammatical mistakes and typing errors. It was a long document and I didn’t have time to read what I wrote.

PRE_INTERVIEW TASKS:

My interview was on 23^rd, and I got a call a week before the interview. Also in the email there are one or two forms that you need to fill and send back to them ASAP (usually they expect the response within 24 hours). Also you would need to register for TOEFL as early as you get the call because the seats will fill up quite quickly before you expect. TRUST ME, register yourself ASAP after you get the interview call. Your TOEFL registration date MUST be within two weeks after your INTERVIEW DATE. So you get like two weeks to prepare for your TOEFL exam which is more than enough in my opinion if you follow the right resources.

PREPARATION:

Make sure you are well prepared about some basic questions. Well prepared means you have a short and complete sentence in your mind about that question.

TIP: They don’t like long answers. Be short and precise.

The questions you should consider can be:

1.       Introduce yourself

2.       What is your major field of study?

3.       Why you chose his field?

4.       Why do you want higher education?

5.       What will you do after your degree?

6.       Why USA?

7.       Why Fulbright?

8.       Why these specific universities? (if you have mentioned preferences in your application)

9.       How will your PhD or MS contribute for Pakistan?

10.   Do you know about US culture?

11.   What difficulties are you expecting to encounter?

12.   Can you adjust there?

13.   Do you have any publication?

14.   What it is about?

15.   What results you deduced from your (they will pick up any from your CV) research?

16.   How much experience do you have?

17.   What was your job at (any xyz from your CV)?

Don’t worry you won’t be asked this much. It is just the common questions that you might encounter and then you should go through all the documents you submitted which includes but is not limited to

1.       Your Fulbright application as whole

2.       Your essays in particular

3.       Your CV

4.       Your publications

5.       Your work experience

6.       Your ongoing research (if any)

It is better to try and answer these questions to a friend or sibling, this will increase your confidence.

You will have to answer all questions in ENGLISH, so be prepared for that.

Last but not the least make sure you have a GOOD SLEEP before your interview day. Especially for those who will be travelling to Islamabad.

INTERVIEW DAY:

ARRIVAL AT USEFP:

At my time I didn’t knew that interviews happen in batches so I thought I should reach half hour earlier than my reporting time, but you should not that. If your reporting time is 12, make sure you reach around 12 and not earlier as you still will have to wait for an hour before the process starts. You can also reach with in half hour of your reporting time.

First you will go through security checking and you will switch off your mobile phones and submit them at the counter to take the visitor’s card. Then you will sit there till your reporting time (girls wait inside whereas boys have to sit outside, so do not try to reach too early). After that you will be asked to place your bags in the locker and you can only take your academic documents and your locker keys with you.

INTERVIEW ROOM:

You will not go to the room where you gave your GRE test, there a second building beside that. You will enter that building and again wait for some time. There were 20 aspirants in each interview batch last year. When all aspirants will be in the room you will be given some paperwork to do. One will have some general questions about some community work, and if you have relatives in the US or not. Please make sure to answer it similar to the one you did in your application.

Also you will be given an essay to write and I think 15 minutes. The purpose of this essay is not to judge your knowledge but to match your writing style. My batch was given the topic:

“What was the biggest social movement of the last century?”

So it can be any current affairs of Pakistan studies related topic. Just think for a couple of minutes and then start writing whatever comes to your mind.

SOCIALIZE AND CONNECT:

You will have a plenty of time there to talk to each other. Do that, it will relieve you and you will not feel tensed. Connect with all other students, take their contact numbers, add them to the whatsapp group or you can make your own group for those people who received interview calls.

INTERVIEW BEGINS:

You will see American panelists entering the room. There will be two panels going on simultaneously, so each panel interviews 10 people. Make sure you don’t have any other plans after your interview as you will be spending a good 4 hours in USEFP atleast. Especially for those whose turn will come late. A name and that person will have to sit separately on a chair that is away from the main table and near to the interview rooms. Then that person will be called inside. On the panel there were 4 people, 2 from Pakistan and 2 from US.

MY INTERVIEW PANEL:

My interview panel consisted of two female Pakistani panelists and two male US panelists. None of whom understood my field.

TIP: do not use technical terms specific to your field in your answers. Try to be more general and use lay man terms. Try to show the benefit of your work rather than going deep into the technicalities.

When I was told to sit in that chair, yes panic started to hit me. But just cool your nerves and say everything is going to be alright. When I entered the room there was a person sitting separately behind my chair and 4 people (as described earlier) were sitting in front of me. They all introduced themselves and one of said that I am going to set the timer for 15 minutes because that’s how long will be the interview and he started the clock.

Q: Introduce yourself. A: I deviated from the norms by not saying that my name is blab la and I am doing my MS from xyz etc., instead I said that all the academic information about me is within your hands so I will introduce myself as a responsible daughter, a caring sister and a sincere friend.

I might not remember the order of the questions but I will share which questions I remembered.

Q: Why Fulbright? A: This was the first opportunity that came and secondly US was pioneer in my field of research, so that is why.

NOTE: My answers here could be different from what I actually said there, but the essence is the same. Wordings might have been different.

Q: what is your field? A: I described my field and then explained in lay man terms about its advantages as they had no idea about my field.

Then there was a question about my experience from my application.

Q: Why do you want to do PhD?

Q: What would you do after degree completion?

Q: How will your PhD help Pakistan? A: I focused my answer on the gap filling between academia and industry.

Then there were a few questions about my publication which was related to my BS project.

Q: How much do you know about American culture?

Q: Well then how will you adjust there? A: I supported my answer by sharing my MS experience of getting along people from all the provinces.

And I think this was it. Then the timer rang. These 15 minutes passed by real quick. To pass the time sitting outside is very difficult.

MY VIEWS:

I thought at that time that I could have done better. I was not satisfied by my interview at all. People who came out before me has smiling faces and they seemed very satisfied. However none of those candidates received the letter and Alhamdulillah I did and that too as a Principal Candidate. So I have not yet understood their criterion of selection so I will advise to answer everything correctly. If you don’t know a thing or you don’t have any quality, just admit that. They want a candidate who is willing to learn, not the one who already knows everything.

Lastly, by actually living here I have learned that they highly support those people who accept their flaws, who know their area of improvement because we all are human beings and we all do mistakes. It takes a huge amount of courage to accept where you are wrong and they highly support that.

I hope I have covered everything. If you have any questions ask in the comments section but please don’t ask questions like “I have xyz profile so what are the chances if selection” I cannot answer that.

Best of luck for your interview, and I am not offering mock interview because I am unsure about the selection criterion but if you need to discuss something I am there to help. But I may not respond as quickly as I used to do before, so have a little patience. J

How to Evaluate the Essays Yourself?

Dear Fulbright Aspirants!!
With two days left for final submission, there is no time to place an order and then wait for a review. You all are well educated and can evaluate yourself on the given criteria. You can review your own essays based on the following points:

Firstly: The "English" should be correct. No grammatical, spelling or tense mistake.
Secondly, there should be continuity in your sentences. Also try to make equal sentences: neither too big nor too small.

Now for Personal statement:
It should reflect how you developed as a person based on the challenges faced. It should not only contain a detail about whats wrong with our country, but how you managed to survive your conditions. Plus, how your experience links with your field of study or your future plans?
It should clearly tell about how determined you are about this, your passion for your future goals, that thirst should be clearly seen from your essay.
Your statements should not show any kind of religious or political bias. Your harmony with other cultures is important, not only for this but for any scholarship because they expect you to understand their cultural and ethical values and respect them.
Most importantly and I have pointed this out to many who have seeked review: You should be passionate about how can you help your country. and do not write the cliche sentences, be SPECIFIC about your role. Just don,t say I will work towards betterment of my country and stuff.
And of course it should be ORIGINAL which will automatically make it UNIQUE.

For Study Objectives:
As the name indicates, you should be clear about your objectives. What you want to study exactly? Which topic to research? Make sure your research goals, objectives and future plans are workable. Don't say that I want to build an empire on Jupiter or something like that. Make sure your research goals are practical and can be implemented in coming couple of years.
You should mention everything from your academia and extra-curricular which supports your reason for higher studies in your respective domain. Be as specific as you can, do not leave out any thing considering it unnecessary but also do not go into much depth. Cover all things briefly. If you have changed your field of study then it should be clearly mentioned WHY.
And as you have shown keen interest in betterment of your country in your personal statement , this is your chance to make that very clear by linking it with your study objectives and the current condition of Pakistan. Again do not go into much background detail, focus on what you want to do and how will that help rather than writing about issues faced by Pakistan.
Lastly , you should be very clear about why US? what you expect to learn from there? What element is missing from your degree taught here that you want to have it from US.
In conclusion again mention about your future plans: what you want to do after your return? Job or academia? which level specifically? and apart from earning money what will be your goals?

Make sure that you cover all these points in 750 words, if so then you are good to go.
We have provided you with a platform but if you have not utilized that properly then its not your fault. I have been posting about Fulbright from three months, yet again in the last days you are sending me your essays for review. I cannot review documents of 20 or so people in one day. This post is also for you people so that you can counter check your essays yourself. MA after 16 years of education I expect form each one of you that you can evaluate yourself :)

Regards
RMK!!

Reminder for Fulbright Aspirants 2018!!

Dear Fulbright Aspirants!! I hope that all of you would be done with GRE registration and few of you would have already given the test.

You have one month left almost to apply and trust me that is not much.

By this time you SHOULD have done the following things: 
1) Registered yourself for GRE and more than half way done with your GRE preparation.
2) Written your draft for Personal Statement because that is the tough one, Study Objective one is easier as compared to this.
3) Talked to your professors about reference letter or done with them
4) Atleast saw the online application and its section once.
5) Started finding your relevant universities, searching for their programs and seeing professors' profile (for PhD)

Things to do now is:
1) Keep preparing for GRE
2) Finalize your personal Statement and Study Objective
3) Ask your professors to fill in the recommendation letter and send it online. For that you have to fill in the references section of your application first.
4) Make your CV.
5) Scan all of your documents: ID card, Passport, Passport size picture, Degrees, transcripts, certificates etc and save them in the form of image or pdf..
HEC Attested documents are NOT required at this stage.

For those who do not know what Fulbright is, please go to this link and READ.
http://www.usefpakistan.org/Programs/FulbrightDegree.cfm…

If you have finalized your essay, only then I can review it. 

You can contact me on rabiamunsaf@gmail.com
If you want me to review your essay, it should be written in standard font and size, justified, 1.5 line spacing and in WORD format. Also it should be between 700-750 words.
Do NOT send me your rough drafts please. I will focus on the serious candidates only.

Cheers!!!
RMK!!

TURKIYE BURSLARI SCHOLARSHIP GUIDELINE

The link for turkiye Burslari scholarship is

https://www.turkiyeburslari.gov.tr/en/english-home/

Click the apply button.

Register yourself first.

REGISTRATION:

In name tab write your first name, in second tab write your middle name and in third write your family name. Write your email address and password.

Password should be of 8 characters minimum and should contain numbers also.

Write the verification code given in the box, check the agreement line and save.

VERIFICATION:

Wait for the verification email. It will contain the link, click that and your account will be verified.

Now login with your email and password.

You will go to home page, there it will show you some instructions, read that carefully step by step.

Now, it’s time for you to start filling your application.

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Click the edit button to complete this tab.

Fill in the info: gender, date of birth, ID card number, pdf file of ID card copy.

There are few options optional, religion, ethnicity (search for Pashtun, Punjabi, sindhi etc),,and about disabilities.

Click save. If two green ticks appear that means you are good to go to the second tab.

FAMILY INFORMATION:

Your mother’s name, is she alive, your father’s name, is he alive, how many brothers and sisters you have (write excluding yourself), tick mark if your mother and father earns, monthly income (add two zeroes with the dollar amount to estimate in (Pakistani rupees).

CONTACT INFO:

Give in your country and city. If your city is not in the list, chose the tehsil in which your city is included. Write the postal code. The format of address is different. In street you can mention your street no and muhalla, like street xyz, DHA phase 1 and in building no you can write your house number and block number like 123 AA etc. You can skip the door number, it is not necessary to fill. Give your contact number and mention from how much time in either months or years you have been staying at your current address. If your residential address is different from your contact address then mention that too. Give your social media links, if you don’t want to then at least give your link to LinkedIn profile, if you have one.

EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION:

This tab is confusing for many people.

Start from middle school. Put in your matriculation result. First add your country, your city, and then your institution. After adding your city, wait for a few seconds for the website to load all the institutions.

In grade type there many options:

For matriculation chose grade type 100, so this is your percentage basically. Now in grade type your percentage i.e. 87, in grade point decimal write the decimal part i.e.67 if your percentage is 87.67% in total. If its 87% then chose 0 for grade point decimal. For transcript and diploma, there is first initial marks sheet issued, use that for transcript, then there is final marks sheet also called as your degree, upload that in diploma part. If you were a position holder mention that, and if you have a proof of your position then check the option and upload the document.

For high school, enter your Intermediate result. Everything is same as matric, now you also have to choose your field. Go for science related option if you are from pre medical, pre engineering or general science. For inter, in grade type you can chose 1100 as they are the total marks of inter.

Leave the associate degree option if you don’t have one.

Now for Bachelor’s enter your BS grades, similarly following the previous educational formats. If you cannot exactly find your degree, chose the nearest option.

Same goes for masters if its applicable.

If you have two years BA and two years MA, try adding both in the Bachelors section, if that does not work then only add your Msc or MA degree in the Bachelors section.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES:

Here you can add your thesis, research publications, book chapters, conference proceedings etc.

LANGUAGE DETAILS:

Give your native language. Also add additional languages.

For English you will be asked if you have any proof, there you can add your TOEFL/IELTS etc. test report.

Tell whether you know Turkish or not.

DO SAVE EACH AND EVERY STEP.

WORK EXPERIENCE:

You can add your internships or job experience and also upload your CV here.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION:

IF you have given any standardized tests like GRE, GMAT, GAT, etc. then you can add their score reports here. It is not a compulsory step.

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES:

Here you add all your certificates (trainings, workshops, awards, and projects), social and volunteered work.

TURKEY EXPERIENCE:

In this you have to tell if you have visited TURKEY, do you have any relatives there.

NOW you are done with the profile filing. NOW, go back to your home tab, you will now see an option to apply for the scholarship. As I entered my MS degree so I got the PHD option only.

Click that, now you have to provide reference letter, letter of intent and preferences.

REFERENCES:

You have to upload the letter and give the details about the person. I only added one references. There was option to add more.  2-3 letters should be enough.

LETTER OF INTENT:

This contain a few questions which have to be filled carefully.

YOU SHOULD HAVE A TOPIC OR FIELD IN MIND IN WHICH YOU WANT TO DO RESEARCH.

First you are asked to state the topic only, like the main title.

In next question, explain that title briefly.

In the next question explain your research methodology used i.e. you will be using any software, you will be developing something, using questionnaire, applying some statistical methods and so on.

In next question tell about the main headings, like introduction, research methodology, dataset used, technique used, expected outcome and results etc.

Next you have to tell how your word will add to the existing knowledge. Basically what you will be doing different that has not been done. Or you have to find the research gap in your domain.

 NO ONE ELSE CAN FILL IN FOR YOU AS EVERY ONE HAS DIFFERENT DOMAIN OF STUDY.

You can extend your MS thesis for this.

Lastly mention the resources which will be helpful for you in conducting you research.

PREFERENCES:

Choose from the preferences shown, there is no other option. If you field name is not showing this may imply that there is no scholarship for your applied field.

In the preferences list, there is red mark shown after some universities, do check that. This contain their minimum requirement of GRE or IELTS or TOEFL. Not every university has these requirements.

And I don’t know the last date to apply.

At the end, click submit, after viewing your summary.

ONCE YOU SUBMIT, YOU CANNOT EDIT YOUR APPLICATION.

About GRE

What is GRE?

GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATION.

Taken after 16 years when you graduate, so basically it reflects your 16 years of education rather than 2 months prep that you do before giving GRE. This examination just not only tests your English and mathematical skills but also checks how well you perform under pressure? How you manage to complete all questions within the time limit? Can you continuously focus for about 4 hours? Can your mind continuously give the best for about 4 hours with only 10 minutes break?

I am not a GRE pro- I didn’t get high score, still there are few things that I would like to share as people are asking about GRE and the test centers. DON’T ASK ME ABOUT GRE PREPERATION OR GRE MATERIAL PLEASE.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:

Do READ EACH AND EVERY WORD OF INSTRUCTIONS.

Do timed practice i.e. note your time while attempting questions.

Do not stress out. First give a diagnostic test and discover your weak areas and then work on them.

Do not ask for study plans from someone else because no two prescriptions can cure the disease for two different patients. Find out your own areas of improvement and work on that. Only you know how much hours to spend on a particular section.

ABOUT GRE:

There are three main divisions in GRE test: First is the writing part, second is Verbal part and third is Quantitative part.

WRITING PART: Also knows as AWA

This is the first section of your GRE test. It consists of two parts:

In first part you will be given a few statements and you will have to give your OWN opinion about those statements whether you agree or disagree with proper reasoning and examples. Make sure you writing has proper sequence and you divide it in paragraphs with each paragraph consisting of one specific sub-topic.

Example: The statements can be like:

Education nowadays is limiting the mind and soul whereas the purpose of education is to free one’s mind and soul. (I am just giving an idea here, actual statement will be 5-6 lines long)

Should risk be taken? Or every consequence should be analyzed before taking the risk.

In second part you will be given a statement which is given by someone else and you have to analyze that in how many possible ways conclusion drawn by the other person can be wrong or what are the things that are being assumed in the given statement.

Example: The statements can be like:

Scientists found remnants of “xyz” animal’s bones, does that mean humans killed them or they were extinct due to drastic climate change etc.

ABC bakery changes butter with margarine, only 2% customers files a complaint, so this means this change can be implemented to all their branches throughout the country etc. etc.

TIPS:

From a total of 30 minutes spend first five minutes in careful reading and writing down points and making an outline for your essay. Then start writing, following your outline for a good sequence structure of your essay. There is no autocorrect or auto punctuation in that window as you can have in Microsoft Word. So, save a last few minutes to proofread your essay, or to elaborate any point etc. Do not keep writing till the last minute. Proofreading is important, too many spelling mistakes will not leave a good impression.

This is SECTION 1 of your GRE. This will take one hour.

Now the next section can be Verbal or Quantitative: it is random. There will two sections after the writing section and then there will be 10-minutes break. After that there will be three more sections and then you are done with the test. There are two verbal sections and two quant sections in the test. There is also one extra section which can be either verbal or quant whose score is not entertained for your test score, but you don’t know which section is the extra one so you have to attempt every section with full concentration.

VERBAL SECTION:

There are different types of questions in the verbal section. Sorry I am not a verbal pro but still there are few things. As it is already said by many of GRE takers that only ratifying vocabulary is not enough, it is important to understand the sense of the sentence, especially for sentence completion. You need to focus on the words like “despite, although, however etc.” which changes the sense of the sentence from positive to negative and vice versa. For reading comprehension you need to get an overall idea about the passage rather than reading each and every word. Consult any good TOEFL book for tricks regarding reading comprehension.

QUANTITATIVE SECTION:

Quant section also has different types of questions from almost every section of mathematics and basic statistics. For this section I would say that go for the basic concepts, learn the tricks to solve questions faster, cover every topic, basic theorems and formulae and then practice practice practice!!!

REGISTRATION:

Register yourself NOW if you want to apply for Fulbright, you will not get a slot after.

Make an account on ETS website and register yourself.

Make sure you have a smart CNIC and Valid passport.

Make sure that you enter the same name and detail while making your account as they are on your CNIC/Passport.

Search for you location: there are selected test centers in few of the major cities of Pakistan.

Select the date and then time and pay for your test.

Payment cannot be done via DEBIT card.

Take a print out of your Email receipt which contains all your details, just in case.

ON TEST DAY:

Make sure that you don’t give any full length test the day before your test day.

Make sure that you slept well and are well fed.

Do take your Smart CNIC and Passport to the test center.

There is no need to take any pencil/pen/clipboard etc. with you as the test will be computer based and you are not allowed to take anything with you.

Arrive early at the test center. You will be asked to mark your entry on a register, to show your ID card. They take your cell phone switched off at Islamabad center but not at the Lahore center. In Lahore center you can keep your phone in the locker also.

After your entry, they will scan you and ask you to deposit every extra material, wallet, rings, chains, watch etc. in a locker and you will take the key with you. You will also be given a visitors lanyard.

Then you will proceed into the main hall with you ID card and locker key in your hand, along with any eatables that you have brought.

BONUS TIP: Take a bite of your energy bar and a sip of your juice before entering the test area. In this way no one else can eat your snacks and they will be safe till break time J

You will be given a form to fill in which you undertake that you are the person who registered and you will not tell anyone about the test questions. After that a USEFP person will give you guideline about the test.

Then one by one you will asked to enter into the testing area. You will be asked to sit for facial scanning, another entry, ID confirmation and then full body scan. In the scan you will be asked to roll up the sleeves till your elbow and also show your ankles. Make sure you dress up accordingly.

At your screen you information will appear and you will confirm, read all the instructions and start the test.

If you need anything just raise your hand quietly, the USEFP officials will be watching you from outside, they will come to you.

Do take that 10 minutes break, refresh yourself and again all the entry protocols are followed.

After the test you have to submit your scores. For Fulbright aspirants you must send your scores to USEFP and IIE at that time, for others you can send your score reports for free upto 4 institutions at that time.

And that’s it you are done with GRE J

P.S: There are already many posts about how to prep for GRE and loads of material available.