Happy New Year

Weekly Journal



All the best for a great 2007!


January 1, 2007

2007 is upon us. Y2K seems like another century. It was.

Instead of doing a recap of the year (snzzzz), or resolutions for the upcoming one (ugh), I thought I'd share my experience with the GRE this week, the graduate entrance exam. It's a requirement for MFA programs and I spent the last month preparing.

Thank God it's over. It was like reliving high school -- geometry, simultaneous equations, reading comprehension. All I was missing was homeroom and Mr. Johnson's gym class.

The last standardized test I took was the GMAT back in 1984. I scored in the 96% that year. I'd taken a course, studied my butt off, but in 2006 it was all on computer and I struggled.

Like all advancements, there were pros and cons to this change. Computer tests are offered daily and that's damn convenient. You can still take a paper administered test, but only a couple of times a year. I'd missed the date because I made the decision to apply to these writing programs after my visit to Oxford, Mississippi, back in October.

I practiced at home on my PC to simulate the testing environment and quickly uncovered an issue with the reading comprehension section. The text in reading comp is intentionally dense and obscure. The questions are awkward, and because it is a timed test (you have roughly a minute per question), it is really a verbal scavenger hunt. In a paper based test, I could ace this, but the words just don't jump out at me on screen.

I improved with practice, but the testing center didn't have the nice LCD flat screen that I had at home; they had much older CRTs. My eyes fatigued quick on those screens, and by the time I got through the preliminary questions and tutorial, my eyes were red and throbbing.

I had a splitting headache two hours in, just in time for the most important part of the test, the verbal section. If only I could have popped a couple of aspirin, or drank some water, but everything was prohibited from the testing area including coffee, snacks, even wallets and purses. They actually checked your pockets and there were several video cameras keeping watch.

I was dying of thirst and I've had a brutal bronchial infection for almost two months. The proctor confiscated my water, but he didn't catch the cough drops I'd slipped into my underwear in anticipation of the pocket search. It was tricky fishing them out without getting caught on camera or looking like a pervert, but I managed.

The computer administered tests had other quirks too. The worst was not being able to skip something for later. Once you moved on, there was no going back.

It was also a computer adapted test, meaning questions varied depending on how well you did. If you missed a few early, the computer assumed you were an idiot, and started feeding you easier problems. If you blew the first part of the test, it was impossible to get a top score.

I thought I did well on the first half of the verbal, but I took too much time, and had to rush the 2nd half. And that's where the dreaded reading comprehension section was. I had three passages and by the 2nd I was too far behind. I was forced to guess on numerous questions and made unlucky choices.

When the test was done, I got my scores -- in the old days you had to wait 6-8 weeks. I was bummed, I landed in the 65th percentile on the verbal, a long way off from GMAT '84 -- and yet it wasn't a total diaster.

I didn't prepare nearly as much as I had back then. I crammed using a book I picked up at Barnes four weeks ago, but I still would have done better with a paper test. Hopefully it doesn't matter. The stories I submit are the most important part of the application process. At Iowa, GRE scores aren't even considered.

I'm also hoping to get a break for being an older student.

There were also two essays on the test. That score takes a few weeks to arrive. I'm sure I did well on that part, and I actually did okay on the math part.

Still, it was a humbling experience, one I hope never to repeat.


Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by.





I won't be needing this book anymore.