An unexpected score, at an unexpected time...
After realizing how long this post was, I figured I'd spare those who don't want to bother reading any of my stupid sh*t and cut it. For those who do want to bother, enjoy!
Hello all. I just don't post much, I suppose. It might be laziness, or it might be me guessing that the happenings of my insipid days are of no interest to enlightened intellectuals such as yourselves. Either way, it hasn't been happening. Something happened recently that seemed post worthy, though, so here I am.
Saturday was the culmination of almost two months of work as I took the GRE in preparation for my triumphant return to the ring. As I began to study it became clear that my vocabulary wasn't what they felt that it should be, as I simply didn't know most of these words. Acrimony? Pusillanimous? Give me a f*cking break. Who talks that way? Here's a word, how about "asinine"? I know that one.
The quantitative section was going better. I'd average about 18/20 on the practice sets and only miss questions when I made stupid mistakes, so I felt confident there. Figuring out the semi-complex geometry ones also made me feel like I still "had it", so I was ready to go.
Saturday morning came and I felt like a deer in headlights. The verbal section had gone like I figured (I used the age-old "pin the tail on the multiple choice answer" strategy) but the quantitative was having me for lunch. These questions asked me to find information that I simply didn't know how to obtain. The geometry questions had gone from "clever" to "shrug". This was bad. I was counting on the quantitative score to be my real selling point on the applications and all I could do was watch it as it circled the bowl. Naturally, I panicked.
When time ran out on that section I had just answered the final question (with the wrong answer, I realized, when I had time to think it over) and I was practically in shock. At the end of the GRE the computer gives you a chance to cancel your scores and never see them, banishing them to the undelete zone forever. The mouse hovered over that option for a little while and almost settled there when I remembered something that my neighbor had told me. She said that she, too, had felt like she was botching the quantitative section and that she had almost canceled her scores. She finally decided that she should just go ahead and face them and so she did. She, unbelievably, got a 780. (For those not in the know, the GRE is much like the SAT with 800 being the highest score on each section.) Still, she was smarter than me and what I had just gone through had to be worse than what she dealt with, right? Her "clueless" feeling couldn't possibly compare to mine, could it?
Well, maybe it could. Thinking about what she had told me made me decide to accept the scores and deal with them. So, I clicked on that other option and prepared for the 500-600 range score that I was positive I'd earned to appear. Here's what I saw:
Verbal: 610
I can live with that. I'm no Engrish major but I have an idea on what all those funny little symbols mean so that should be enough for grad. school. The other score was the kicker:
Quantitative: 790
Words failed me, which was good, since I wasn't allowed to talk in the test room. But still, I just couldn't believe it. Still can't really.
So, for those to whom this is relevant, I'm definitely going downtown to my favorite beer hall to celebrate this tonight. Who's with me?
Hello all. I just don't post much, I suppose. It might be laziness, or it might be me guessing that the happenings of my insipid days are of no interest to enlightened intellectuals such as yourselves. Either way, it hasn't been happening. Something happened recently that seemed post worthy, though, so here I am.
Saturday was the culmination of almost two months of work as I took the GRE in preparation for my triumphant return to the ring. As I began to study it became clear that my vocabulary wasn't what they felt that it should be, as I simply didn't know most of these words. Acrimony? Pusillanimous? Give me a f*cking break. Who talks that way? Here's a word, how about "asinine"? I know that one.
The quantitative section was going better. I'd average about 18/20 on the practice sets and only miss questions when I made stupid mistakes, so I felt confident there. Figuring out the semi-complex geometry ones also made me feel like I still "had it", so I was ready to go.
Saturday morning came and I felt like a deer in headlights. The verbal section had gone like I figured (I used the age-old "pin the tail on the multiple choice answer" strategy) but the quantitative was having me for lunch. These questions asked me to find information that I simply didn't know how to obtain. The geometry questions had gone from "clever" to "shrug". This was bad. I was counting on the quantitative score to be my real selling point on the applications and all I could do was watch it as it circled the bowl. Naturally, I panicked.
When time ran out on that section I had just answered the final question (with the wrong answer, I realized, when I had time to think it over) and I was practically in shock. At the end of the GRE the computer gives you a chance to cancel your scores and never see them, banishing them to the undelete zone forever. The mouse hovered over that option for a little while and almost settled there when I remembered something that my neighbor had told me. She said that she, too, had felt like she was botching the quantitative section and that she had almost canceled her scores. She finally decided that she should just go ahead and face them and so she did. She, unbelievably, got a 780. (For those not in the know, the GRE is much like the SAT with 800 being the highest score on each section.) Still, she was smarter than me and what I had just gone through had to be worse than what she dealt with, right? Her "clueless" feeling couldn't possibly compare to mine, could it?
Well, maybe it could. Thinking about what she had told me made me decide to accept the scores and deal with them. So, I clicked on that other option and prepared for the 500-600 range score that I was positive I'd earned to appear. Here's what I saw:
Verbal: 610
I can live with that. I'm no Engrish major but I have an idea on what all those funny little symbols mean so that should be enough for grad. school. The other score was the kicker:
Quantitative: 790
Words failed me, which was good, since I wasn't allowed to talk in the test room. But still, I just couldn't believe it. Still can't really.
So, for those to whom this is relevant, I'm definitely going downtown to my favorite beer hall to celebrate this tonight. Who's with me?