u/HospitalFresh2050

Hey all,

I'm a B.E. student from India (CS/AI specialization), graduated this year (2026), and I'm targeting English-taught Master's programs in Germany for the Summer 2027 intake.

Currently working on: IELTS prep, planning my APS application, and just started German A1. I come from a research + industry background with a published paper and some internship experience.

I know the Summer intake is less common than Winter, so I'm especially curious to hear from others on the same timeline. A few things I'd love to compare notes on:

• dMAT: How is your preparation and what are your sources?
• IELTS targets: When are you planning to take the exam?
• GRE: What's your thoughts on GRE, is it ok if I skip?

If you're an Indian student targeting Summer 2027, let me know where you are in the process. Would be great to find some people to share this journey with.

Hey all,

I'm a B.E. student from India (CS/AI specialization), graduated this year (2026), and I'm targeting English-taught Master's programs in Germany for the Summer 2027 intake.

Currently working on: IELTS prep, planning my APS application, and just started German A1. I come from a research + industry background with a published paper and some internship experience.

I know the Summer intake is less common than Winter, so I'm especially curious to hear from others on the same timeline. A few things I'd love to compare notes on:

• dMAT: How is your preparation and what are your sources?
• IELTS targets: When are you planning to take the exam?
• GRE: What's your thoughts on GRE, is it ok if I skip?

If you're an Indian student targeting Summer 2027, let me know where you are in the process. Would be great to find some people to share this journey with.

I saw some news on social media that the dMAT exam is now mandatory for Indian students who are targeting the summer 2027 intake in Germany for master's (for the fields like Engineering, Finance / Accounting / Commerce / Accounting , Business / Management). It is mandatory for students to get an APS certificate.

This is not some fake news. I even checked it on aps-india.de (official website of APS). As I am also an engineering student who is targeting a master's in public universities, this is a big shock for me when I woke up this morning and I'm still worried about the exam preparation and taking the exam may affect the timeline I prepared for myself.

I've noticed a pattern in Bangalore offices: someone gives a colleague a lift once, and suddenly it's an unspoken daily commitment. No one talks about money. No one sets boundaries. The rider assumes it's permanent; the driver quietly resents it but can't say anything without looking like a jerk.

Is this a Bangalore thing? An Indian workplace thing? Or just a human thing?

What I've seen:

• The "one-time favor" that becomes an obligation
• The money conversation that never happens because it feels too transactional
• The driver who starts leaving 10 minutes early just to avoid the passenger
• The passenger who never senses they're unwanted

Has anyone else observed this? Why does it happen? Is it because Bangalore traffic makes carpooling (even for the bike pooling) feel like a bigger favor than it is? Because we don't have a culture of direct communication about shared costs? Or because there's no neutral way to say "this was nice, but I want my alone time back"?

And if a company or app tried to solve this - handling the scheduling, the cost-splitting, and the opt-out without awkwardness - would people actually use it? Or is the awkwardness the point, and any formalization would feel even weirder?