My Life As I See It: The GRE Test

GRE is a test most US universities require you to take for graduate admission. The revision books say that starting 2011, the test has been "improved" (which actually means it was made much harder). One of the US graduate student that I met during BTN said that she was disappointed with her GRE result. She prepared for the test for four months and scored about 800++. She said that admission to ivy league universities would usually require marks of above 1000.

Mr.H and I took the test today. It was quite jinxed from the start (if you believe in such thing). I woke up at 5 am with a slight fever. We were told to arrive half an hour before the exam. The exam was supposed to start at 8.30 am. We arrived at 7.50 am. The center opened the exam hall at almost 8.15 am. Nothing was allowed to be brought into the hall except for your passport and locker key. A valid passport, not your MyCard. Even coins, watches, and handkerchiefs had to be left in the locker. You had to show that your pockets were completely empty and they'd scan you up and down with a hand-held scanner. One of the candidates joked that the "security check" was much tighter than American airports. Since I was wearing long sleeves, I even had to roll up my sleeves and show that I had nothing "up my sleeves". Ahaha. This procedure dragged even more time as the check was done one candidate at a time. I entered the exam hall at about 8.45 am.

I was given a computer at a partition where the 'kalimantan' light above me was blinking quite rapidly. I prefer for that light to be switched off (and do the test in half-darkness) but the personnel told me there's only one switch for all the lights and it would cause the whole hall's lights to be switched off. The personnel told me that they have called the repairman. I sat there, deciding not to press the computer's "start test" button until the issue was fixed. After about 5 minutes, I was starting to have a headache because of the rapid blinking. I told the personnel I can't take the test in that condition (of blinking, distracting light) and she told me to wait outside the hall while waiting for the repairman. The repairman never came and since a candidate did not show up, I was allowed to use another partition. I was delayed for about half an hour and started the exam at almost 9.30 am. The personnel apologized many times but honestly, I wasn't at all angry coz I understand that despite the best preparations, sometimes "shit happens". The personnel were really polite. How can you be angry at polite people? Mr.H was waiting for me outside. I thought he was waiting for me all alone for hours since I was the last to finish the test. Turns out he had his "penghulu" from "Kursus QA" who came for the GRE's 2.30 pm session test accompanying him.

Right after the test (a total of 4 hours and 30 minutes...countdown starts once you press the "start test" button), since it's fully computerized, I immediately got my marks for "Verbal Reasoning" and "Quantitative Reasoning". Both were about 150. I seriously have no idea how the mark is calculated as the lowest score (for each "Verbal Reasoning" and "Quantitative Reasoning") you can get is 130 and the highest is 170. Not only was I not able to finish answering about 5 questions for every paper coz I ran out of time (nak tembak pun tak sempat), most (more than 60%) of the words that I encountered in "Verbal Reasoning" I have never even heard of, what more to understand the meaning. Seriously. My vocab must be very bad compared to the American standard. Since the "Issue Analysis" and "Argument Analysis" were essays, the marks would have to wait for a few days. The total mark would be out in 2 weeks. Since I only managed to study for 4 hours, I'm not even expecting to get 800. I'm not the most confident of people and taking the test made me feel even dumber.

As usual, when I feel stressed out, I don't feel like going straight home so we went to Mines. I bought a 1TB WD HardDD at RM270, a 16GB pendrive at RM45 (hopefully I would remember to bring it to the office so that I won't always borrow my colleague's pendrive anymore) and a new iPhone 5 case coz Umairah "decorated" mine last night while I was busy "studying", just like she "decorated" my handbag coz she probably felt it was too plain.

I had my first durian crepe which costed RM9.90 for a box of 6 pieces. Can't understand what the hype's all about. A real durian tastes much better. And why is it so expensive when besides the durian, it's mostly flour and whipping cream? If I did it myself, manage to sell 20 boxes, that would cover my fuel cost to and fro the office for more than a month. Berangan. Ahaha.