I hate standardized tests. The SAT, the ACT, and now the GRE. And I don't hate them just because you normally have to get up and the crack of dawn to go take them and then they take forever and ever and you basically waste a day out of your life (or more if you must do a retake) so that college people will be happy and think that they have an accurate measure of your intelligence. But it's that last part that I really hate.
The only thing I think any of these tests manage to measure is whether or not you can manipulate the test to beat it and score well. In short, for my current situation, I am fairly certain that the only thing the GRE tests is whether or not one can successfully take the GRE. I know that it is supposed to be a measurement of whether or not one can be a good student in grad school. But there really isn't anything about your knowledge that is being tested. What is being tested is whether or not you can pick up on when the test is trying to trick you. Because that is all it seems to do. I just spent two hours taking a practice exam, and reviewing the questions that I missed (particularly the math ones), the issue was not my not comprehending material of any so much as just not figuring out the silly little technicalities that provide one with the GRE-correct answer.
This, in my humble little 21-year-old opinion, is some of the worst bureaucratic bullshit that college students must deal with. And to be honest, it's kind of stupid. And expensive. I had to plunk down $140 just to register for the damn thing, which I am taking for real in six days. My results today were 550 on verbal and 600 on quantitative. I feel like I really ought to do something because that isn't that great, but part of me really just doesn't care because there really isn't much one can do in the way of preparation for these things. This is why I like places like University A State Away, who does not require that the grad students even submit a GRE score. They don't care. No one should.
But now I'm going to forget about it for a day or two and go to The Lake with The Family and see Gamer Guy. That is the goal.
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1 Force connections:
As you suggest, the GRE doesn't mean much. Live and learn and do, and most of all, enjoy. You have all the aptitude you need for whatever you want to do :-).
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