Tests by Amar Sapra (Cornell)

Following are the tests which may/must be taken:

Required

1)GRE
2)TOEFL

Optional but advised to take

3)TSE

4)TWE - not required as such but comes free with TOEFL and so everybody takes it.

GRE has three sections: Verbal, Quantitative and Analytical. All of them are scored out of 800 and so the maximum possible score is 2400. 200 is the minimum score in each section, which a person gets even if all answers are wrong.

More information about GRE can be found at http://www.gre.org/faq.html

TSE: Most of the Universities require TSE score of 50 or above to consider for TAships. One example of exception is Cornell, which DOES NOT require TSE, scores before awarding TAships. There are no special preparation kits for preparation of TSE. The duration of the test is 30 minutes. It is conducted in the morning on the same day as TOEFL is conducted in afternoon. The questions in actual examination are normally vers similar to the practice test given in the booklet. When I took this exam, the last question was very similar to the last question of practice exam and the question asked to announce some changes in schedule for a picnic. The word schedule is pronounced as "ske-ju-ale" in American accent. As some other people also confirmed, there is normally one question in which the word "schedule" is to be used. Clearly, the best strategy would be to pronounce it as mentioned above. However, it is not advisable to imitate American accent unnecessarily. The score is calculated on the basis of clarity in speech and correct grammar and speaking in Indian accent does not make one unclear. One way to practice for TSE is to take the practice test and record the answers and hear them for possible improvement.

TSE: The best piece of advice I got on speaking, was to simply speak a little slower. Imitating the "American accent" is a lot more difficult than it appears. Its better to let the inflections slip into your speech naturally, as you spend more time here. Speak slower and clearly and the TSE is a piece of cake.

By Sanjay Vijayaraghavan (Univ. Florida)

TOEFL: TOEFL has three sections: Listening Comprehension, Structure and Reading Comprehension. First section is the only one, which requires some preparation. The best way to prepare for that section is to watch Hollywood movies!! Essentially, first section consists of an audio clip followed by (a) multiple-choice question(s). The questions are very easy and if a person is able to understand the clip, questions are just sitters. Watching Hollywood movies helps in developing listening comprehension if you are weak in that.
Structure of the Section: There will be two parts in this section -
A) Each question in part A consists of short conversation between two people followed by a single question.
B) In second part, a long conversation is followed by several questions based upon that conversation. There are several such conversation-question sets in this section.

The second section called "Structure" has two parts:

A) In first part, you will have to complete the sentence given in the question out of four given choices so that the completed sentence is grammatically correct.

B) In second type of questions, there will be four underlined words or phrases and you will have to identify the one, which is making the sentence grammatically incorrect.

The questions in this section are normally very easy and they donot require any special preparation. It suffices to take some practice tests for this section.

The third section is Reading Comprehension section. If you have prepared or are preparing for GRE, you do not require any preparation for this section. The questions in appearance are very similar to Reading Comprehension section of GRE but are actually much simpler than them. Again, as above, taking some practice tests is sufficient preparation for this section as well.