Please Help me! GRE or CAT?

Hi P.tejaswi,

From your post, I understand that you are interested in going for MS. At the same time, you are concerned about campus placements. Let's first focus on what you want to do.

GRE and CAT demand different levels of preparation & speed of solving questions. As far as coaching is concerned - go for CAT [if the coaching institute you want to join is good enough].

Preparing for CAT will also help you in campus placements - to solve the aptitude/analytical tests conducted by companies.

Start now!

Thankyou !and won't the coaching for GRE help for campus placements?

The syllabus for CAT / GRE is similar. But CAT demands more speed and bit higher levels of preparation. That's why I recommended CAT.

I personally do not think coaching is required for campus placements.

name a good centre for coaching

ramesh.napname a good centre for coaching

Being an engineer - don't you think you should tell us where in the world you are located?

I'm sick of answering such queries

THey are actually charging too much for gre coaching .can't i prepare individually?if so,suggest books and websites for it. plz. . . .

Now again you jumped on GRE...
first decide....GRE or CAT??
what i can suggest that you should prepare for CAT,GRE syallabi would be covered in that
what you say BIG_K???

The preparation is more or less, the same for both the exams - just that the nature of both the exams is different.

Mathematics for us (being engineers) is easy to crack. English & Reasoning are the challenge areas for most of the students. CAT/GRE preparation - anything is ok, as long as it is done with dedication & love.

OK.suggest me books and good websites for GRE? as i decided to start preparing for something.

I am an engineer with an average of 6 pointers till my 6th sem.
X- 92%
XII- 80%
Should i focus on GRE for MS or CAT for MBA?
i am in this dilemma because i have heard that IIM's dont prefer students with low cgpa's ...
though i have low cgpa .. i have a good command over English, good communication skills and a presentable personality.

what should I do?

Trisha1234Should i focus on GRE for MS or CAT for MBA?

First know your destination. MBA will lead you to a career in management and MS will lead you to a technical career in the field of your choice. Once you decide your destination, you will get full clarity on the path you should take.

Trisha1234i am in this dilemma because i have heard that IIM's dont prefer students with low cgpa's

Assuming that MBA is the path you want to take, are you confident that you will crack CAT and get into IIMs? If yes, you shouldn't think twice because you will be entitled to a great career if you get your MBA/PGDBM from IIMs. You should check out the eligibility criteria on the official website of CAT to find out if you are eligible to apply. If you are; then there should not be any problem as long as you are able to clear all the stages.

Does this help? If not, feel free to ask further questions.

As far as eligibility criterion is considered .. I am getting through them all 😁
Thank you for boosting my confidence.

Hi sir, I want to know the average cost of doing MS in US/Aus. I am from a middle class family and have got 85% throughout. Dilemma is would i be able to work in India and repay the loans taken for MS?

Anubhav@TIUDilemma is would i be able to work in India and repay the loans taken for MS?

Well, the education in US Universities is costly! Based on University that you get, scholarships and jobs - you'd be looking at anywhere around Rs. 50 - 70 Lakh Indian rupees. Most of this would be funded by the education loan that you will take from the banks.

Understand that this is a HUGE sum by any means for a middle class family. You should be ideally looking to work for about 4-6 years in the US to have your loans repaid to Indian banks.

But the problem is, once you've spent so much time in the US and are used to payments in USD, you'd not want to come back to India. That's the case with 99% of the people who opt for MS in US or Australian Universities.

Paying the same amount by working in India - you'd be looking at a big time-frame of about ~15 - 20 years; which ain't worth it, IMHO.

I could be wrong with the numbers. Let me tag #-Link-Snipped-# and #-Link-Snipped-# to give you a clearer picture.

I wrote my CAT exam last week.. Although I'm focusing on GMAT, I wanted to know what CAT was like... It is an exam in which speed matters. You get one hour for each section, after which you are automatically taken to the next. Even if you finish a section early, you're not allowed to advance before the hour is up. I've also gone for GRE prep classes, and found CAT's grammar/English section to be easier than GMAT's or GRE's, but the problems are of equal level or tougher...
Also, preparing for CAT will help you prepare for GMAT and GRE, provided you have a good grasp of language; but going to GRE/GMAT prep classes won't help you for CAT, as they won't help you get used to the time mechanics of CAT.
As for choosing which exam to write, it depends on the course you want to pursue.. GMAT or CAT for MBA, and GRE for MS.. although some universities accept GRE for MBA, it is not as widely accepted as the other two, as of yet..

P.tejaswiI am really undecided as to whether go for any coaching like GRE or CAT which many of my friends are going.i am in 5th semester now and i want to do MS if possible but i am not able to understand which is the right time to go for coaching as this is the crucial time to gain technical knowledge. Is the coaching for GRE enough for campus placements?

Well, miss tejaswi.. i think there ain't a connection between campus placements and gre as such. U can prepare individually for both if u have a good hold over spoken english(for campus) and vocabulary(for GRE). if u wud like suggestions for books then they are as follows:
Aptitude Solving book of R.S.Aggarwal(complete this and it should b enough to boost up your confidence and speed in solving problems)
For GRE u can refer to its sample papers and there are various apps found on google play to train yourself for these exams. one such app is GRE Vocabulary which includes questions similar to what is asked in GRE. Hope this proves out to be successful

Tomson ThomasI wrote my CAT exam last week.. Although I'm focusing on GMAT, I wanted to know what CAT was like... It is an exam in which speed matters. You get one hour for each section, after which you are automatically taken to the next. Even if you finish a section early, you're not allowed to advance before the hour is up. I've also gone for GRE prep classes, and found CAT's grammar/English section to be easier than GMAT's or GRE's, but the problems are of equal level or tougher...
Also, preparing for CAT will help you prepare for GMAT and GRE, provided you have a good grasp of language; but going to GRE/GMAT prep classes won't help you for CAT, as they won't help you get used to the time mechanics of CAT.
As for choosing which exam to write, it depends on the course you want to pursue.. GMAT or CAT for MBA, and GRE for MS.. although some universities accept GRE for MBA, it is not as widely accepted as the other two, as of yet..

Absolutely Correct Mr. Tomson.. I too appeared the exam and found a similar difference although i did not adhere to any coaching classes but I got to know from friends about what was being taught there!!! So a thumbs up to your reply

Kaustubh KatdareWell, the education in US Universities is costly! Based on University that you get, scholarships and jobs - you'd be looking at anywhere around Rs. 50 - 70 Lakh Indian rupees. Most of this would be funded by the education loan that you will take from the banks.

Understand that this is a HUGE sum by any means for a middle class family. You should be ideally looking to work for about 4-6 years in the US to have your loans repaid to Indian banks.

But the problem is, once you've spent so much time in the US and are used to payments in USD, you'd not want to come back to India. That's the case with 99% of the people who opt for MS in US or Australian Universities.

Paying the same amount by working in India - you'd be looking at a big time-frame of about ~15 - 20 years; which ain't worth it, IMHO.

I could be wrong with the numbers. Let me tag #-Link-Snipped-# and #-Link-Snipped-# to give you a clearer picture.

Well, the figure could vary heavily between 25-30 lakhs - unknown upper bound. The thing to keep in mind is that you must select universities which are ranked nicely, have your field of interest as a strength in teaching and research and have an affordable fee. That is what I did. In which case, the loan on you would be repayable within a year or two (really depending on how you choose to live during and post graduation). But yes, if you plan to go back immediately after your MS, be prepared to have a long paying off period on your loan.

ok. the fees as in Australian universities on an avg is 800 AUD per credit.
Each subject has 6 credits with it. So that comes to around 4800 AUD per subject.
12 subjects would be - 12*4800 is ~ 58K AUD.

now, avg income for an engineer might be around 70K AUD - 110K AUD , which might go upwards based on your performance.
so in total- may be over the span of 4-5 yrs the loan can be paid off if you work in AUD.

Preparing for the CAT may be good enough for Campus Recruitment, but not necessarily for GRE. For GRE also you will have to learn words, but those words should be relevant to GRE and, possibly, you will need to work on vocabulary more for GRE than for CAT. You will also need more focused practice relating to Reading Comprehension, Sentence Equivalence, and Text Completion for GRE