GRE- Take One

This morning I took the GRE test for the first time. Now that I'm done mourning over the exam, I can begin studying more to retake it. I got some of the results right away but need to wait for the essay scores. The GRE consists of two essay questions, 2 verbal reasoning sections and 2 math sections... as well as an additional section in one of the areas that isn't graded, but you aren't told which one is just for study purposes, so one of the sections don't count towards your score.... but you don't know which one.

It takes about 3.5 hours to get through the exam. That's 3.5 hours of staring at the computer in a frenzy to answer all the questions in the alloted time. You start with an essay analyzing an issue and are given 30 minutes to read the prompt, put together your stand on the issue with supporting ideas, review your work and submit it. Then you get a 60 second break if you want it...and since it takes several minutes to check in and out of the exam, that doesn't give you time to get up from your seat. It's enough time to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and click "Continue". Then you begin another essay where you are given an argument and you have to analyze that argument. You're given 30 minutes for this one as well. I think I did fairly well on both of these, but they must be submitted to an actual person who will read them over and give you a score of 0-6 on each essay. A 4 is acceptable. Anything less is just not good at all. This is the only area that any of my colleges have a required score in. After reviewing all of my schools, I need to get a 5 or better. I might be ok in that area.

After another 60 second break, I dove into the verbal reasoning section. There are 25 questions and you're given 35 minutes to answer them. Some are complete the sentence, some are articles with questions attached and others are fill in the blanks. You get another 60 second break and dive into the quantitative reasoning section. You get 40 minutes to answer 25 math questions. This is not a lot, regardless of what that looks like. As I struggled to set up formulas to solve the problems or comparisons, the clock ticked away. It was awful and I knew it. I marked ones I didn't know and came back at the end of the section to guess away at 5 or 6 of the questions.

Then there was a 10 minute break. I peed and got a sip of water and sat back down to start verbal reasoning section 2. There was a 60 second break after that and into math section 2. Knowing I did badly on the first math section, I tried harder to solve problems I knew I could solve...given the time. But I wasn't given the time, and then was shocked to see that I was out of time and had to go back and review another 5 or 6 questions that I had marked. In less than 2 minutes, I randomly selected answers to about 6 questions. I was exhausted and dejected. But I was done.

BUT WAIT! Another verbal reasoning section popped up. Son of a bitch. Excuse the language, but seriously? Ah yes. The dreaded "extra section that doesn't count towards your score but you don't know which one that is" scenario. So there were 3 verbal sections and one of them didn't count. But I didn't know which one so I had to give this last section all I had...which wasn't much.

At the end of the exam, you get the scores for your math and verbal, and then the essay scores (average of the two) are mailed in about 2 weeks. I really did not want to see my scores, I was pretty irritated with the testing process by that point. But I clicked through to see my scores anyway...because I kinda had to.

So the scoring works like this. Between the two math sections, you can score between 130 and 170. And then the same applies to the verbal. You get one math score and one verbal...and then 2 wks later, also one writing score. The lowest score you can possibly score on the math and verbal is 130. The highest is 170. So basically 130 is equal to zero. I scored a 158 on the verbal and 150 on the math. Pretty freakin' terrible. Especially the math. Putting that in perspective, there are 40 possible points in each subject matter (170-130 = 40). So on the verbal I scored 28 out of 40 (70%) and on the math I scored 20 out of 40 (that would be a whopping 50%).

I got home and googled what the averages to these exams are. Obviously, a 70% is fairly average, and so my verbal score is not terrible. Had my math score been in that range, I could just let it go. Of course, as long as my written score is 5 or above, I could still just let it go. But then I would be telling my potential grad schools that not only am I terrible at math, but I'm content in staying that way and am not going to make an attempt at getting a better score. Being as I will be required to take 3 semesters of Calculus, I just don't see that as being a wise choice.So I'm starting again.

I've got a new study book for math and will focus on each section until I feel I have it down so well that I can fly through the math problems with ease (because that is what's required if you want to do well). Most of the problems I can answer given enough time to struggle through it, but that obviously does not work in this case. I can't take the test more than once in a 30 day period and not more than 5 times in a year. So in June I'll do a mental check on where I'm at with the math and schedule a second exam. Of course I will also continue to study my vocabulary words so I can get a better score in the verbal as well, but the concentration will be on the math.

When I got home from the exam (it was an hour drive one way to the testing center) I took a nap. I dreamed I had run a marathon that I wasn't totally thrilled with, but I figured since it didn't take that much out of me to begin with, I'd just do another one. This is funny because I just realized that the exam took me about 3.5 hours to do, and my marathon time is 3:31. If only I had energy gels and water with me throughout the exam (you can't take those in with you) and two bathroom breaks as opposed to the one. Pretty funny.