Test Day
The day of the test actually began early this morning, when my neighbors came home at 2, and 3:30, as they're wont to do, making a great deal of noise. Leaving me with about two hours of sleep by the time I was able to fall asleep again. So I was fighting fatigue throughout the Biology GRE. I plan to use that as the excuse.
It was hard. 200 questions. It's a bit frustrating, as it doesn't really test the skills I would need for the field I'm interested in. Happily, many marine bio programs don't require the Bio GRE.
We had to sign a document to not reveal what was on the test, so I'll have to write the test details in hidden text- highlight to reveal:
Are you kidding me? It's illegal to share GRE Test details!
But in general terms, I'm glad I reviewed the cellular info, as it helped significantly- but there were still a lot of questions I left blank. Studying more wouldn't really have helped. Studying more plant life definitely would have helped; I had forgotten to do that. My friend Anne would have done great on those questions. And the experimental questions were even more difficult- they required you to know experimental procedure, and the intimate biological details of each experiment. This required time to answer them, and I didn't pace myself well. But I aced the marine biology questions. Both of them.
The most intriguing moment was actually after the test was over. The two proctors told us to put pencils down, which we did. Then five seconds later, one of the proctors said loudly to a woman in front of her, "Put the pencil down now!" She was still busily marking ovals. And she kept right on doing it, as if she didn't hear the proctor. So the proctor repeated it, but shouting now. And the test taker continued. This went on about four or five times, as the test taker continued taking the test a full thirty seconds after the end. Finally the proctor is yelling at her right in front of her face, and the woman stops filling in the ovals, and the test is grabbed. I was shocked. It's the kind of thing I expect from high school students, not an adult working to get into graduate school. Here she spent time studying, and $130, all down the drain. And I'd guess there will be some sort of mark on her record for attempting to cheat.
The next GRE will be on Friday- the general. I'm not so concerned about the English portion, but I need to brush up on algebra and geometry this week. My Bio scores will come in in six weeks, at which point I'll see if I want to retake that test.
It was hard. 200 questions. It's a bit frustrating, as it doesn't really test the skills I would need for the field I'm interested in. Happily, many marine bio programs don't require the Bio GRE.
We had to sign a document to not reveal what was on the test, so I'll have to write the test details in hidden text- highlight to reveal:
Are you kidding me? It's illegal to share GRE Test details!
But in general terms, I'm glad I reviewed the cellular info, as it helped significantly- but there were still a lot of questions I left blank. Studying more wouldn't really have helped. Studying more plant life definitely would have helped; I had forgotten to do that. My friend Anne would have done great on those questions. And the experimental questions were even more difficult- they required you to know experimental procedure, and the intimate biological details of each experiment. This required time to answer them, and I didn't pace myself well. But I aced the marine biology questions. Both of them.
The most intriguing moment was actually after the test was over. The two proctors told us to put pencils down, which we did. Then five seconds later, one of the proctors said loudly to a woman in front of her, "Put the pencil down now!" She was still busily marking ovals. And she kept right on doing it, as if she didn't hear the proctor. So the proctor repeated it, but shouting now. And the test taker continued. This went on about four or five times, as the test taker continued taking the test a full thirty seconds after the end. Finally the proctor is yelling at her right in front of her face, and the woman stops filling in the ovals, and the test is grabbed. I was shocked. It's the kind of thing I expect from high school students, not an adult working to get into graduate school. Here she spent time studying, and $130, all down the drain. And I'd guess there will be some sort of mark on her record for attempting to cheat.
The next GRE will be on Friday- the general. I'm not so concerned about the English portion, but I need to brush up on algebra and geometry this week. My Bio scores will come in in six weeks, at which point I'll see if I want to retake that test.
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