Took the GRE

On Thursday I went in to schedule my appointment to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). On Friday morning I was in the quiet little enclosed room, looking at a computer monitor as it asked me questions about trains leaving Detroit and how the views of women's research has changed in the past 100 years.

Before I get deeper into the thing, let me tell you how I came to need to take the test. When I was in Iraq, about a 1 3/4 years ago, I filled out a little form that said I wanted to be part of the Army Advanced Civil Schooling program. If I was accepted to the program, the Army would allow me to go to a University and get a Master's degree in virtually whatever I wanted. How could I not jump on the chance? Well, soon after I got back home, I discovered that I had been accepted into the ACS program and was eligible to go to ACS in FY2009 (October 2008 or later). That was great news, and I put it on the back burner because it was far away. I knew I had to take the GRE, but I had a long time to study, so why worry about it.

After that we moved to Georgia for the Career Course. Once I saw what crappy assignments were coming out of here, I talked to my Branch Manager and got my ACS slot moved up to the FY2008 - so I can go straight to school from SCCC. I applied to some schools and then I needed to take the GRE. My "preparation" for the GRE was to get a GRE book from the library and make sure it held the coffee table down for a couple of weeks. Then I took a practice test and half-assed it while I watched some TV. I did alright, so I wasn't too worried about it.

The only thing that concerned me was that this test pretty much decided the next four years of where we would go. If I did good, we could go where we wanted, if I didn't, there was the chance I wouldnt get into grad school and would be stuck with some crappy assignment the Army wanted me for - probably Iraq or Korea.

But, in order to prepare the day before, I made sure I studied some vocab words and got a good amount of sleep. The day of the test, I went and did PT - played some football - and came home and got ready for the test. I think that was what helped me stay relaxed, PT and rest. And relaxation is the key to doing the best you can.

The first part of the test was two essays or writings about some random topic they give you. After that I had two math sections and one vocab (verbal) section.

The best part was after I finished the test. Once I finished I had the choice of seeing my results, or canceling the test. The computer makes sure to tell you that if you see your results - YOU CAN'T CANCEL after that. It's almost like they want you to think you did bad. Regardless of how I did, I had to have the results, so I clicked the submit button.

My Verbal GRE score was 670 and my Quantitative (Math) was 710. After looking around to see what "good" was, I guess I can say I did "good." My verbal seems to be higher than most and my "quantitative" is at least average. I shouldn't have any problem getting into a school.

So, our next stop should be college!