GRE Debrief: Some Thoughts in the Aftermath
So. The GRE is done. I got my tentative scores when I finished, consulted a few professors, and found out I probably won't have to take it again, unless I really messed something up in the essays (those scores are sent later). Thank my heavenly stars, is all I have to say.
It wasn't as horrific as I had made it out to be the night before, when it had loomed over my pillow like a skyscraper. Once I sat down at the computer terminal and began to calm down, it occured to me: oh, yeah. So this is really just another test after all. Same old shit. Well, slightly different for reasons I will describe briefly below. But basically, same old thing.
There are three parts to the GRE: the essay section, the quantitative (math) section, and the verbal section. This is the order they are taken in. It worked well for me because of my strengths and weaknesses. The essay section is 75 minutes long, and is comprised of two essays: persuasive (45 min.) and argument (30 min.). The time was adequate for both, although I had to act pretty fast for the argument essay, and didn't have much time to proofread. But basically they are looking for the good old five paragraph essay.
I thought taking this part first was going to be terrible - writing the essays cold, without a warm-up, so to speak. But the essays actually functioned as a rather good warm up in themselves. By the time I was done with them, I was comfortable with the environment, the icky orange headphones I was wearing to cut sound (similar to what baggage handlers wear at the airport- so trendy!), the computer, and all that jazz. I even managed to work Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle into one of the essays (something I've been reading up on a little lately) - so I felt very clever by the time it was done. And this was a good thing, a confidence booster. I needed it, because the math section was next, and that was the part I was really worried about.
You know it's bad when the first question appears on the screen and the only thing that runs across your mind, like a screensaver, is - shit, shit, shit... etc. I stumbled through the best I could though, and evidently did much better than it seemed I was doing. This made sense in light of a little tip I read in my Kaplan's book. Here's the theory:
The GRE is an adaptive test. This means that each question you receive is chosen in light of the way you've answered previous questions. So, if you get a question right, the next question you get will be harder. If you get it wrong, the next question will be the same, or easier. The hard questions are worth more points. You get the picture. Well, I was reading the pep talk "night before" section of my book, and they presented an interesting idea:
If you get a question that is hard, it must be because you're doing well. So, I figured, if you look at a question and your mouth dries up and you get the urge to vomit, it probably means you're doing really, really well!
Okay, so it's a serious rationalization with the slightest kernel of truth to it (if you angle everything the right way). But during the quantitative section I clung to this little bit of twisted logic. Every time I got a question where the first thing through my head was WTF?! I would soothe myself by thinking about how well I must be doing to get such a mind-boggling question.
I know, I know. But it did keep me calm. And desperate times, as they say...
The verbal section was difficult, but at least it wasn't in a foreign language like the math section. I muddled through fairly well, although it was sincerely depressing how many words appeared that I had no flippin' clue as to their meaning. Definitely should have spend more time studying word roots.
The perfectionist part of me wants to take it again anyway, even though I don't think it is necessary. I know I can do better, having been through it once now, and it's sort of an intrinsic part of my nature to want to seriously kick ass on standardized tests. I don't know why, what I'm trying to prove, or to whom. But, at a $130 bucks a pop, I think I'll try to restrain myself, and simply take pleasure in crossing the GRE off my list of MFA Things To Do.
Yay!
It wasn't as horrific as I had made it out to be the night before, when it had loomed over my pillow like a skyscraper. Once I sat down at the computer terminal and began to calm down, it occured to me: oh, yeah. So this is really just another test after all. Same old shit. Well, slightly different for reasons I will describe briefly below. But basically, same old thing.
There are three parts to the GRE: the essay section, the quantitative (math) section, and the verbal section. This is the order they are taken in. It worked well for me because of my strengths and weaknesses. The essay section is 75 minutes long, and is comprised of two essays: persuasive (45 min.) and argument (30 min.). The time was adequate for both, although I had to act pretty fast for the argument essay, and didn't have much time to proofread. But basically they are looking for the good old five paragraph essay.
I thought taking this part first was going to be terrible - writing the essays cold, without a warm-up, so to speak. But the essays actually functioned as a rather good warm up in themselves. By the time I was done with them, I was comfortable with the environment, the icky orange headphones I was wearing to cut sound (similar to what baggage handlers wear at the airport- so trendy!), the computer, and all that jazz. I even managed to work Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle into one of the essays (something I've been reading up on a little lately) - so I felt very clever by the time it was done. And this was a good thing, a confidence booster. I needed it, because the math section was next, and that was the part I was really worried about.
You know it's bad when the first question appears on the screen and the only thing that runs across your mind, like a screensaver, is - shit, shit, shit... etc. I stumbled through the best I could though, and evidently did much better than it seemed I was doing. This made sense in light of a little tip I read in my Kaplan's book. Here's the theory:
The GRE is an adaptive test. This means that each question you receive is chosen in light of the way you've answered previous questions. So, if you get a question right, the next question you get will be harder. If you get it wrong, the next question will be the same, or easier. The hard questions are worth more points. You get the picture. Well, I was reading the pep talk "night before" section of my book, and they presented an interesting idea:
If you get a question that is hard, it must be because you're doing well. So, I figured, if you look at a question and your mouth dries up and you get the urge to vomit, it probably means you're doing really, really well!
Okay, so it's a serious rationalization with the slightest kernel of truth to it (if you angle everything the right way). But during the quantitative section I clung to this little bit of twisted logic. Every time I got a question where the first thing through my head was WTF?! I would soothe myself by thinking about how well I must be doing to get such a mind-boggling question.
I know, I know. But it did keep me calm. And desperate times, as they say...
The verbal section was difficult, but at least it wasn't in a foreign language like the math section. I muddled through fairly well, although it was sincerely depressing how many words appeared that I had no flippin' clue as to their meaning. Definitely should have spend more time studying word roots.
The perfectionist part of me wants to take it again anyway, even though I don't think it is necessary. I know I can do better, having been through it once now, and it's sort of an intrinsic part of my nature to want to seriously kick ass on standardized tests. I don't know why, what I'm trying to prove, or to whom. But, at a $130 bucks a pop, I think I'll try to restrain myself, and simply take pleasure in crossing the GRE off my list of MFA Things To Do.
Yay!
Labels: school
posted by erin | 8:29 PM
4 Comments:
Congrats! I'm still to scared of the GRE to do anything!
Congratulations Erin! oh...but I still feel sick at the thought of taking it. Thanks for the tips though. Very helpful.
Now go celebrate! (if you haven't already)
;)
Sadly, on my test the essay scores disappointed me the most (not bad, but mediocre is bad for me). I was pissed because I'm a writer damnit!, but then I comforted myself with the fact that maybe it's because I'm a writer that I couldn't force myself to conform to pointless standardized essays anymore.
I'm interested to know how those turn out for you...and congrats on being done!
I will point out, as I've done on other blogs, that standardized tests are bullshit. I say take the first score you got and stick with it.
as for the words that you didn't know their meaning...I've found the easiest way to deal with that is that they are making shit up. Those words don't ACTUALLY exist.
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