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More preparation 2003-10-18 - 7:02 p.m. 
This daily posting thing is fun. I took another full length test today. Ok, so I re-took a 2003 test I'd taken a few weeks ago, but these are adaptive tests. An adaptive test literally tracks your progress and assigns you questions of a certain difficulty based on what you've answered. In the practice test case you can get a fairly new test by answering even one question differently.That aside, the writing sections were easy for me. I'd seen the questions before but I hadn't written responses to them or thought about them much. I'm about to complete word list 45 of the 50 word lists in my Barron's book. Seems hard to imagine: I've almost reviewed 3,500 words. Wow. I've tried associating bizarre or relevant visual images with them. For example, the word soporific means 'causing sleep or feeling sleepy.' My visual image via cinematography: It's effective, especially for some words that I've forgotten. This is mostly an exercise so that if I get some really off-the-wall word like 'abstemious' I have some chance of remembering what it means. I also talked to Selene (very old friend of mine) today. She's a grad student over at the University of Pennsylvania. She's been coaching me on the GRE and grad school stuff mostly, but I occasionally help her mull over some stuff of her own. U. Penn. is one of the schools I'm applying to so she's excited to see if I'll get in. The guy I want to do research with there isn't what you'd call a personable fellow but, as Selene assures me, that's just because he hasn't gotten tenure yet. I should find more than 4 schools to apply to, but at the moment I've put that with the "everything else" file. That's where everything that isn't GRE-related goes for now. I'm not sure if I actually do feel confident about this upcoming test or if I'm in massive denial. Considering I didn't break a sweat and made it through an entire practice test with no complications, I believe it's the former. I wish I had new tests to practice. Part of me is afraid that the real test will have way different questions..but I gotta have faith in the system, because the system is consistent. So are my scores. These are good signs. ---- Part of me is tempted to post more essays, like a kid who wants to put their artwork on the fridge, but honestly: there's a difference between harping on a subject and turning the firehose on you lot. I could use feedback, true, but hopefully I'll get that today when I try that "score it now" service the GRE's got. ---- (three hours later) Hiking is good, gets the kinks out and preoccupies you. I should tie this to the stuff above but eh: exercise is uplifting. |
