Well, I took my GRE this morning. I did badly on the math, but I expected as much. Got a somewhat-above-mediocre score on the verbal (570) which I am not happy about, but will take it for now. Even after studying and widening my vocabulary (which wasn't even narrow to begin with) a lot of the questions threw me off due to their tricky nature and use of words that I believe no living person uses. Argh.
I did better on the more intuitive questions, like the sentence completions and reading comprehension. I just don't use big old dead words very often. It's frustrating. As my friend Kristin, who's studying for her PhD in English at Ohio State University (I think) said, "The GRE is the most annoying pointless test ever." Well said.
I do feel a bit confident about the essays; I just hope the readers think I did a good job. I believe I addressed the issues coherently and with sound structure and arguments. *crosses fingers*
I was a bit depressed afterward, but then I remembered what everyone ever has been telling me about applying to MFA programs: the writing sample is the most important thing. Besides, the programs I'm applying to don't SEEM to have minimum GRE score requirements. It's time to continue polishing my prose and then pick which piece I want to submit. I'm quite nervous. That is all.
Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!
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3 comments:
I dread taking the GRE. I am procrastinating because of the math. At least you have it behind you now.
Hi! Thanks for reading. I dreaded the math part too, and even though I didn't do very well it still wasn't as agonizing as I thought it would be. I wish I would have spent more time learning more vocabulary...that's what killed me in the verbal. I got an okay score but still, I regret not studying the verbal more.
I did terrible on the math section and as an English person I'm ashamed of my verbal score - but I still got into grad school. It's true: the essay part is all that matters for the GREs, and even that isn't as important as your writing sample.
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