GRE not the only option, look at India Inc too!
By Balu Anand
GRE or the Graduate Record Examination is the qualifying examination for students to pursue their higher education abroad, more so the US, for graduate and post-graduate studies.
In order to take the GRE, all you require is a valid passport and secondary ID. In order to qualify for an admission into a graduate programme, one requires to have 16 years of formal education and must have taken the test of English as foreign language (TOEFL - if he is a citizen of non-English speaking country) examination. The are more examination details which you can have if you have ambitions or dreams of studying in USA. (www.gre.org).
USA is fetish in India, because USA is peerless and the lifestyle of the American people is what people here fall prey for. On an average, 2 out of every 3 people possess cars (if one were to go by what the HOLLYWOOD portrays in its cinema), have wonderful abode furnished with lawns and earn in Dollars! Hmmm, Dollars, this is what is the eye catcher or the buzzword that every Indian hankers for and no wonder he'll turn his life upside down to chase those Dollars.
But the thing that makes me sad is that 'destiny USA' is seen as the only option by a huge multitude of students, who want to eat, drink and sleep USA at any cost, working as scavengers, bar tenders, gas pump agents or litter collectors. Not that these occupations are despicable, but these occupations are never ever thought of if it were for grabs in India.
Dignity of labour is jejune in India and these minor occupations are looked at scornfully, while in the USA it's not. Is that so, probably no, people there are so beguiled at their work that they hardly find time to pass on their buck at you. It's also because of the 'success of many Indians' who live abroad who have become millionaires overnight and their families now having improved considerably their standard of living here in India.
These practical and clear-to-eye results have egged many Indians to try their hands on the USA. But when this wild goose chase begins, we Indians are so blindfolded that we actually forget the modicum of flourishing opportunities here in India.
I find that GRE exam is written as capriciously as writing a college internal exam. Mind you, I'm not talking about the talent or the ability to write the exam, but I'm talking about the right kind of approach and attitude to such an exam. I'm here going to talk about Engineering students, who form the lump of the GRE takers.
I might sound a tad too rough, but that is the harsh veracity. This is how a typical Indian student's mind is made of, first if you are going to give any competitive (GRE is not a competitive exam) exam, you first zero in on a coaching centre that has great throughput in terms of success and then join these institutes.
Now you traverse the rungs of the higher education ladder one after another. But the problem writing a GRE is how well you utilise a coaching centre rather monotonously taking a beeline to the coaching centre, listen without purpose and blindly follow or execute what's being taught. It's not that one must not go to coaching, I never said that, I have some wonderful friends who have made use of coaching centres to the hilt and have borne fruits.
GRE is also an exam that is more of cracking it rather than mugging words and writing the exam. The judgmental error most of students make is that GRE - verbal section is just about mugging words from a list of 3,500 odd words. This is a booby trap and all fall prey for it. Mugging words like algebraic formulas will not solve the purpose, instead the verbal section needs a decent practice.
Many, who at the first attempt do not consider all these trivial but sleeper things do not fare well, and as they have the potential (financially and mentally), they write the exam according to clauses of the GRE again. Those who were able to rectify their bloopers fare considerably well, but others who plan unmethodically and seeing the success of others falsely motivate themselves and give it again - most of such cases do not improve considerably. Friends, others success is not our success.
What's more morose is that, as it is case with every defeat one needs to feel sad about it, but for how long. I find many students depend on this GRE as a life decider question and are so subjugated that they are unable to cope with the GRE fiasco. USA is not the only thing to happen, look inside INDIA. It's time that we grow out of this USA or the GRE thing. Life is just not GRE my pals.
Look what is happening in INDIA, management here is the shibboleth to future. Give CAT and other MBA entrance tests. GATE is always there for Engineers and don't shy away from it. There is a lot more happening.
I feel the government should also do something about this, because when they can sanction Engineering colleges like liquor outlets they must also think of tapping this 'brain drain'. When things were well off before the recession, many students were absorbed through campus placements and many didn't bother about USA or the GRE, but now when campus placements are a rarity GRE is the only option that sounds logical to many!
By the end of next year there will be more than 30,000 engineering students hitting the streets from Andhra Pradesh alone, where will they go? Is the government listening?
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