Hold the phone (GRE rambling)
Okay, so, I've been taking GRE practice tests. Today I did WAY better on the "Present A Perspective On An Issue" section, mostly because the issue was something like "Advances in technological tools and the way we use them creates societies and cultures that are increasingly lonely," which is something I vehemently disagree with and have anecdote after anecdote as to why this is not correct (people who know Renee will also know why this is topical. I kind of wish I could save the essay I wrote and send it do her.) My biggest worry here is that I tend to get too far into poetics and anecdotes and that my actual argument supports are not entirely clear (the samples make it seem like you REALLY have to beat the test takers over the head with them, though actually being able to write English coherently helps.)
I did... okay on the analytical section. I'm just not good at it, but I think I still managed to do decently, even if I was seriously grabbing at straws this time. The key here seems to be to be as nitpicky as possible and to never, EVER trust statistics EVER.
... Now here's the weird part.
On the first practice test, I got 620 on the verbal, putting me in the 88th percentile, and 580 on the mathematics, putting me in the 48th percentile. This isn't so bad, becuase for me the verbal is obviously more important than the mathematics. I determined that if I took my time, I would do better; thus, this time I forced myself to leave extra time for each question. Basically, my rule was this: if, given the number of minutes you have left and the number of questions, you have more than one minute to answer each question, you can wait until you have exactly one minute per question for the rest of the test to answer. Ie, if there are 14 questions left and you have 16 minutes, you then have a maximum of 2 minutes to answer. This worked surprisingly well, and though I had to rush the last 8 questions of the quantitative I still managed to finish.
Using this strategy, I got my Verbal score up to 640, putting me in the 91st percentile. Not bad!
And then I got a 680 on the quantitative.
Lol what.
Granted, this only puts me in the 70th percentile for quantitative, but uh. I'm an English major. Why the hell is my quantitative score higher than my verbal?! Queeeeeeeeh?
My hope is that on the actual test, a combination of careful budgeting of time will get the Verbal up even higher, but... man, I am perplexed by that quantitative score. I mean, I'm not complaining! Yay, I got a good score! ... on the section that doesn't matter as much! Queh?!
I guess I am just that awesome. I've always been of the opinion that one should know one's maths, god damn it, I just. Find it really funny, I don't know.
TL;DR - Taking one's time on the GRE = good, my practice scores = acceptable, let's rock.
I did... okay on the analytical section. I'm just not good at it, but I think I still managed to do decently, even if I was seriously grabbing at straws this time. The key here seems to be to be as nitpicky as possible and to never, EVER trust statistics EVER.
... Now here's the weird part.
On the first practice test, I got 620 on the verbal, putting me in the 88th percentile, and 580 on the mathematics, putting me in the 48th percentile. This isn't so bad, becuase for me the verbal is obviously more important than the mathematics. I determined that if I took my time, I would do better; thus, this time I forced myself to leave extra time for each question. Basically, my rule was this: if, given the number of minutes you have left and the number of questions, you have more than one minute to answer each question, you can wait until you have exactly one minute per question for the rest of the test to answer. Ie, if there are 14 questions left and you have 16 minutes, you then have a maximum of 2 minutes to answer. This worked surprisingly well, and though I had to rush the last 8 questions of the quantitative I still managed to finish.
Using this strategy, I got my Verbal score up to 640, putting me in the 91st percentile. Not bad!
And then I got a 680 on the quantitative.
Lol what.
Granted, this only puts me in the 70th percentile for quantitative, but uh. I'm an English major. Why the hell is my quantitative score higher than my verbal?! Queeeeeeeeh?
My hope is that on the actual test, a combination of careful budgeting of time will get the Verbal up even higher, but... man, I am perplexed by that quantitative score. I mean, I'm not complaining! Yay, I got a good score! ... on the section that doesn't matter as much! Queh?!
I guess I am just that awesome. I've always been of the opinion that one should know one's maths, god damn it, I just. Find it really funny, I don't know.
TL;DR - Taking one's time on the GRE = good, my practice scores = acceptable, let's rock.