If you are planning to study aboard after graduating from university, it is better for you to get start earlier! I know you probably are thinking ” I am an English major student, taking examinations won’t become a big problem at all! ” If you consider taking certification exams as an easy job and it won’t spend you much time since it is your strong point, you could be totally wrong! Though you are good at English, it doesn’t necessary means that you will do a good job in taking exams. I assume that you already do some research about several kinds of examinations that you must take before applying for graduate school, that is, take study aboard in America for example, not only you have to take Toefl, you also have to choose either GRE or GMAT. All those three exams are difficult to get good grade. Even though your major is in English, don’t be too assured that you can deal with all those thousands of vocabulary that you have never learned before. Some of vocabularies are even beyond native English speaker’s mind. Don’t over-estimate yourself!
Now, you probably think that the hardest part is over; all you need to do is to sit back, relax, and have fun until school starts! If you think so, you are wrong again! Taking exams are not the only one task that you need to deal with, how to apply for graduate school is also difficult. You have to choose few schools that you have in your mind according to the score you get, and be careful, choose wisely, otherwise, you may jump into a graduate school that is so far away that it’s in the middle of nowhere of the America! You could become the only Asian in the school.
Take myself for example. I am going to graduate in three months, since I realized being a student is the most happiness thing I could ever be, and besides English, I want to learn more. I decided to go to graduate school ever since I was in sophomore. Nevertheless, I haven’t started to apply for any foreign graduate schools yet, because I haven’t finished taking all the examination, such as Toefl and GRE. Only because I am too lazy about it! Normally, people spend more than one year to prepare for both Toefl and GRE, and people will spend another few months to apply for schools. That is to say, it will take you about a year and half to enter a graduate school.
Let’s do an easy math, if you are going to graduate in June 2012 and right after that you want to go abroad study in September 2012, since when you need to get start, prepare for all the examinations and submit you application forms? The answer is summer 2010! You need to get start when you are in the second semester of sophomore. It is always good to start taking steps earlier! So, think about it yourself, if you would like to go aboard study after you graduate from SooChow University , then make your plan and work out a study schedule, follow it, and let your dream come true!
Stephanie