Wet Cleanup on Aisle 5

She Shoots, She Scores! GRE Olympiad Comes to a Close

Holy moo-cow. I took the GRE yesterday and THANK GOODNESS THAT’S OVER!

Following the advice in my Kaplan study guide, I took it easy on Friday and didn’t study at all. Instead, I went to the zoo for a last minute reminder as to why I was putting myself through the torture that is the GRE. I got to see the pachyderm demonstration, where they filed the bottom of an elephant’s foot and then had her step into some foot baths, and I got a good look at a gorilla, and watched the polar bear blowing bubbles out his nose while underwater. It was a nice, lazy afternoon, complete with ice cream cone.

I didn’t take into account that standing in the sun all day and driving from here to Denver and back (an elevation change of about 2500 feet) might not make me feel so great the next day.

I woke up yesterday morning with a pounding sinus headache and a bout of nausea – not an auspicious start to the day – and I was a bit nervous to boot. Why so nervous? Because I wanted a killer GRE score. My undergraduate grades, while not awful, are all over the map. My undergraduate experience was a miserable one, and grades were the least of my worries at that time. I never suspected they’d come back to haunt me, because I had no intention of ever returning to school. Well, seeing as how that changed, I was hoping for good GRE scores to help prove that I am not a complete imbecile, incapable of getting a decent grade in an undergraduate science course.

The writing section went fine. I would have liked about ten more minutes, but I felt as though I’d done well on it. Ten minute break, and then came a verbal section. It went fairly well, although it didn’t feel quite as good as some of my practice sections. Then came the last question – it was clearly an experimental question, because its structure was completely different from any practice question I’d seen. Phew. Guess I didn’t have to worry about that section bringing my score down!

Next came a math section, and the first question I thought was rather odd. I can’t remember now why it was odd (and even if I did, I couldn’t share it with you lest the Educational Testing Service [ETS] come beating down my door for breaching the confidentiality agreement), but the question made me suspect that section was also experimental. So, I flew through the section feeling confident that any errors I made were unimportant. Towards the end, I was running out of time, but was happy to see a standard deviation question, which, they say, means you’re doing well. I rushed through the last five problems in a blur. I was glad that I didn’t feel as though there were any problems that stumped me entirely, but I didn’t figure it really mattered on that section anyway.

Next came another verbal section, which I figured must be the real thing. I was pleased that it went better than the prior verbal section. Thank goodness I studied Kaplan’s list of most common GRE words. Sure enough, several of them appeared on the test.

By this time, I was running out of steam, and I braced myself for the final, actual math section. I clicked “Proceed” after the verbal section, and the computer asked if I’d like to see my scores. What?! But I’d thought that math section was experimental! I blew through it! Ack! Kaplan advises that you never cancel your scores, and I figured I didn’t really want to put myself through that again, so…

HOLY COW! I wasn’t intending to share my scores on my blog, but I also wasn’t expecting to score an 800 on the math section! I did a double take, but sure enough, an 800. Verbal was a 740, which, oddly enough, is still in the 99th percentile. There were a few tears of joy (okay, lots of tears), then the feeling of pooled adrenaline draining from the body. I was completely wiped out, and ready for a long nap.

The nap didn’t come for quite a while, since I was due at the wildlife sanctuary for my weekly volunteer shift, but when it did come, it was fitful – full of GRE questions and nightmares about receiving a letter from ETS that said, “Oops! Sorry, but we made a mistake on your scores…”

So, will my score help me much on my vet school application? Good golly, I sure hope so. Colorado State’s DVM admissions philosophy says:

“Exceptionally high” overall or individual scores (usually over 700 in one or more of the tests) may contribute positively to the assessment of academic potential.

Sounds like it might help a little, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. And I’m headed back to bed.

 

 

 

P.S. For anyone who might be curious, I started studying about two months ago, and really buckled down in the last two weeks, studying a few hours a day every day. My test prep materials included Kaplan’s GRE Premier Program, ETS’ GRE Powerprep software, and 800score.com’s GRE Prep Course.

The Powerprep software, which I felt most closely mimicked the actual test, only comes with two full-length practice tests. I did one at the beginning and one at the end of my studying. There are also practice questions of each type, and those were helpful as well. I didn’t find ETS’ written reviews terribly useful.

The bulk of my study was with the Kaplan book. I found the book easy to read – even interesting! – and felt there were a number of tips that were very useful during the actual test. The book comes with a written practice test, plus three more tests on CD and another two online. These, too, were fairly close to the real thing, although I think the scoring might have been slightly tougher. If I could choose only one tool, it would be this one.

The 800score.com purchase was a last minute attempt to get more practice questions; they offer five practice tests for about $27. I didn’t think their explanations were very well written (unlike Kaplan’s), so I didn’t use those. Both the verbal and math portions of the practice tests were FAR harder than the actual GRE. Some of the verbal questions were ridiculous, and included really esoteric words. The big benefit from 800score.com, I felt, was in the math. By forcing myself to do a bunch of harder math problems in the allotted time, I found it much easier to do the actual GRE problems. They also provide a “test pacer,” which gives you an idea of what question number you should be on at a certain point in the countdown. I think that helped me pace myself on test day.

God forbid that you should actually need any of that information, since I wouldn’t wish the GRE on anyone, but if you do need it, I hope it helps!

Aug 10, 2008 | 0 | Getting In