Umair Khan knew he had only one shot at the GRE test so he was naturally anxious going in to take the test. On the 8-10 mock exams he took prior to his GRE exam, his score ranged from 320 to 326 with his quant touching as low as 161 and verbal 159. So he wasn’t really sure if he will be able to make it above the 325 mark out of 340.
Stakes were high as he has a 3.5+ CGPA in Mechanical Engineering from NUST (College of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering) with an impending international research publication as well. So he had to match that profile with at least 164 on the quant and a 155 on the verbal to make it above 320 on the GRE. So when the he got a 338 on the GRE – 170 Quant and 168 Verbal – he was excited. The moment he came out of the exam hall he called me and said, “I am in a state of exuberance”.
The perfect quant score and a near perfect verbal score puts him in rare company. Over 4000 people take the GRE exam each year in Pakistan and over half a million worldwide. Less than 0.2% people globally get a score of this sort and above. Moreover coming from an engineering background and getting such a high verbal score is also remarkable since engineering generally tend to struggle with it. To prepare, Umair attended the July-September 2016 session for the GRE and took his test on October 3rd after 2.5 months of preparation.
And since Umair is looking at Ivy League universities and other top programs such as MIT, CALTECH & STANFORD, this score will definitely help his applications.
He has a word of advice for prospective students who have yet to take the GRE: “Anyone who studies consistently hard can get a good score. GRE fright, especially verbal for engineers, is just in the minds of Pakistani GRE test takers. GRE simply tests how laser focused you are on your graduate school applications.“
You can read Umair’s GRE preparation tips and strategies here