Everyday Cait

View Original

Blogmas #3: My experience with the GRE

Hey guys!

I’m stuck inside today, studying for my upcoming exams, and eating grilled cheese in my pyjamas even though it’s 2pm. Oh the life of a student. But I thought I’d talk about something different. Like the GRE.

I graduate this year with a bachelor’s degree (fingers crossed), and am hopefully going on to grad school, so I needed to gather up the requirements, including the GRE.

It wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Getting into the GRE is a lot like going to the airport. When I first came in, there were forms to fill out to “check in”, saying I wouldn’t tell you the questions, and that you are who you say you are. You have to have adequate ID to prove that last part too. Then comes the pat down. They check your wrists and ankles for writing, go through all of your pockets to make sure they’re empty and go over you with a metal-detector wand.

They gave me a locker to put things into, but it wasn’t very big. Large enough for a small purse and my cell phone, as well as the watch that I wasn’t allowed to wear into the room. It wasn’t even a digital watch. You can’t bring anything in the room, including your own pencils or Kleenex. They provide all of that for you.
The room I was in had six little cubicles each with a desktop computer, a book of scratch paper, two pencils, a very uncomfortable noise-cancelling headset, and a place to put your ID and locker key. There are also cameras everywhere, pointing at your front, back, the computer, and the door. The cameras can also record audio, so they know what’s up. The proctor types in a password, and then the test starts
The same agreement you already agreed to pops up, and you have to confirm it again. Then you jump right into the first couple of sections, which are the two essays. You get a 60 second break in between each one, and you should take every last moment of it, or else your eyes will start to give out. After the essays are complete, the test alternates between the verbal reasoning sections and the math (quantitative problems) sections. Halfway through the test, you get a ten minute break. It can be very tempting to skip this and just soldier on through, but you shouldn’t. Take the break, even if you don’t want to. At the very least, it breaks up 4 hours of staring at a computer screen.
Without being specific, I found that the math section was significantly harder than I was expecting. In hindsight, I would have put more study time into that section. Other than that, all I can really say is that it’s tricky but not impossible. I didn’t do the most rigorous studying I could have and I still got a pretty good score.
That’s about it. I’m not a huge fan of standardized testing, but sometimes you can’t get away from it. I’m still waiting for my mark on the essay portion, but I’m feeling confident. Oh! And the essay questions are all online, so I recommend reading through them before your test.
Today was another day on the advent calendar as well! On the third day, I got an itty bitty It’s Potent! Eye Cream. 
I’ve used the Total Moisture Face Cream in the past, and it was okay. It’s not my favourite though. I checked online and this stuff is supposed to be great for brightening up under eye circle, of which I have more than my fair share. I’m looking forward to trying it out. My skin was pretty much destroyed when I had chicken pox, because it also meant I couldn't do a lot of my skincare routine. I'm just now starting to get back into the swing of things, so this couldn't have come at a better time.
What are you up to this fine Tuesday?