blargblog

The Long Dark Night of the Soul is Over

I took the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) yesterday morning. It's done with. Finished. Out of my way. Thank goodness, God, the primordial ooze, whatever. I hope I never have to take an exam like that again.

For those who don't know or don't recall, the GRE is much like the SAT: breaks into two parts, one verbal and one "quantitative" (i.e., math), each with a possible top score of 800. A new addition to the GRE is the essay section, also broken into two parts: an "issue" section in which you take a side of a presented issue and argue for it; and an "analysis" section in which you read an argument and discuss its soundness, how it could be better, what it's missing, etc.

So how did I do? My preliminary scores, available because the test is computerized, were 700 verbal, 520 quantitative. The result is consistent with my SATs, so I'm not disappointed. Admittedly, I wish I could score better on the math, but I've always had a certain "dyslexia" when it comes to mathematics. (I think the term might be "dyscalculia", but I don't know if that actually applies to me.) As for the essay section, I have to wait for an actual human being to grade my work before I know for sure; probably in about ten or fifteen days I will find out. My hunch is I got a 6 (out of 6) for the issue task and at least a 5 for the analysis task. I hope so, at any rate.

Whatever, I am glad the waiting is over. Now I just gotta prepare my applications for grad school. Woohoo!

Oh, and: There will be a new cartoon on Monday. My life is back.