My GRE test is coming up this week (Wednesday, at 12:30, so of course now they're saying there might be a chance of snow the night before), and I've checked out three books from the local library and read the math sections front to back (I'm pretty sure I can handle the English stuff, but I won't neglect to look those over too), and I can safely say that I hope they grade on a curve...a very large curve.
In all seriousness, the GRE isn't really a test you can study for; either you paid attention and learned all that stuff in your math classes during middle school, or you didn't. In my case, it's about fifty-fifty, though I will say that looking thru the books this past week has been good refresher-style practice on the sort of stuff that might (I stress "might") show up on the test. It's just something that has everything to do with whether I get into grad school, no pressure whatsoever...wait, why is Queen and David Bowie cueing up in my head?
The horror, the horror...
I am given to exaggeration and hyperbole, naturally, so in the long run I'm guessing the test will be merely a prelude to my glorious entrance into grad school in the fall, provided my application meets with approval...shit, my application! Knew I forgot something!
I kid, but I know from past experience nothing is in the bag. I don't care how much I try to say "meh, it'll be alright," I'm hard-wired to stress about such things, either on a grand scale or a mini-grand scale, until the ordeal is over. For that reason, I have chosen to distract myself with another book that, like Moby-Dick, I always meant to get around to but never had found the time for.
In this case, it's Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude, which as well as being an apt metaphor for my GRE-studying living conditions, is pretty good so far. I have circled around this one for a few years, only getting a few pages into on various tries before throwing up my hands in dismay. So far, though, I'm a hundred and twenty pages in and it's not too shabby.
Anyway, Wednesday can't get here fast enough, but then again it can. I respect the GRE test because I fear it, but I know I won't sweat the English sections too hard (unless I've been wrong to focus on math and get to the English test after receiving an emergency lobotomy that reduces me to a drooling mess). Anxiety is both a blessing and a curse before a test that could have serious impact on your life and future plans. But once the test is over, I can sit back, relax, and kick myself for the questions I know I got wrong. Stupid fractions, why you gotta be messing with my flow?
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