People say, they do not get any email responses. I had a different experience here though. In August 2022, I started emailing to the professors and got a really good response from professors of CALTECH, RICE, U Arizona Wyant College of Optics, UT AUSTIN, USC, UMD etc. places. They appreciated my work, showed their interests in taking me to their labs, told me my profile is up to the mark for those universities and this gave a boost to go beyond my imagination. However, I was struggling with stress and anxiety in September and October. What if I cannot end up in my dream University CALTECH and RICE? This significantly lowered down my performance and I did not even go to sit for IELTS on the day of exam. A broken sleep schedule imprinted lack of confidence and I started finding flaws in me. I started taking preparation for GRE but later on, I decided not to sit. In November, I sat for IELTS and credit goes to Dr. Ahmed Zubair who told me that it is absolutely fine If I cannot crack CALTECH and RICE. To be frank, my profile is not up to the mark for CALTECH but, those email responses made me think to do my best so that I do not regret later.
In November, I secured full-funded position in U Buffalo and U Utah before applying. In December, I applied to places where my research interests significantly align. In january, I realized how significantly important it is to be in a good health, to keep myself separate from a rat race. Therefore, I decided not to email, not to send follow up emails anywhere. I decided if I am not getting CALTECH and RICE, I am not going to try for any other university. In March, as a first Bangladeshi (Please correct me if I am wrong), I secured fully funded MS position in U Arizona Wyant College of Optical Sciences, my another dream place. I was waiting still for the results of my two favorite places. After the rejection from the two, tons of thoughts and factors I want to consider in my life, I decided to end up in UB.Â
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English Language Proficiency Test
It is a game of concentration and confidence. I followed IELTS Liz. I Practiced few speaking topics from here, memorized the paragraph writing structures, do and don'ts etc. for reading and listening segments.
I gave 2 free mock tests and few practice tests from British Council Website (can be accessed after payment). Testglider also is a good place to practice, I completed 2 free tests here.
I read quite a lot of articles that time from different places to maintain the habit of reading. I had to work on my concentration significantly as COVID and my broken sleep schedule literally disturbed my concentration to a great extent and I used to lose my concentration during listening segment. I once sat for TOEFL in August without preparation (huge mistake I still consider). This has reduced my confidence to the extent that I suffered a lot during Sept. - Oct. with unreasonable anxiety. I worked on other stuffs that time.
During Late Oct. - Mid Nov., I maintained Quizlet for building vocabulary (being a Bangla medium student, learnt tons of words, forgot too lol). I went through those math problems too but I needed to practice more to secure 325+ in GRE, little did I want to invest my further time here, so dropped the plan later. Most universities do not even require GRE these days.
My IELTS Score: 7.5/9.0 (S - 8.0, R - 7.5, L - 8.0, W - 6.5)