Tag Archives: GRE

Analytical Writing

This weekend I got my official GRE scores in the mail.

Verbal – 660, 94th percentile
Quantitative – 590, 46th percentile (Okay, so I can’t multiply my way out of a paper bag — at least I can write about the experience!)

Analytical Writing — the only one that is graded by a human and based on essays we write instead of radio buttons we click:
5.5 (out of 6)

What they say about that:
Scores 6 and 5.5: Sustains insightful, in-depth analysis of complex ideas; develops and supports main points with logically compelling reasons and/or highly persuasive examples; is well focused and well organized; skillfully uses sentence variety and precise vocabulary to convey meaning effectively; demonstrates superior facility with sentence structure and language usage but may have minor errors that do not interfere with meaning.

πŸ™‚

That and yesterday I was told that they held an admissions meeting in the morning and I’ve been accepted to the Master’s degree program at Sacred Heart Major Seminary for Theology.

YAYYYY!!!

Graduate Record Exam

I would love to say that the reason why I have been so incommunicado recently has been because I have been studying furiously for my GREs.

Alas.

I have put in maybe, oh, 5 hours *total* to studying, despite all my plans to work diligently on my study guide. Add that to the fact that I have never in my life taken a vocabulary class, have issues with language in general, haven’t seen simple algebra in years and can’t do geometry to save my life, and you have a picture of why my grades are suboptimal. I did, however, take an IQ test last night (yes, instead of studying….) and got a 155, which is in my normal range of 147-179. These things are important to know, when you are about to take a test that will kick the pants off you.

Right after taking the test, the computer gives you your verbal and quantitative scores. You have to wait a few weeks to get your analytical writing scores, which are graded by an actual person. The first thing I did after taking my GRE was (of course) go to Starbucks and get a venti peppermint white mocha. (Yums!) Then, I sat in my car in their parking lot and looked up my scores in their book, to see what my percentiles were.

On the quantitative/math section, I scored in the low 60s. Okay, so 40% of the population can do this stuff better than me. I’m fine with that. I said I can’t to geometry to save my life, and I’m sticking to it! I also don’t have any spatial reasoning skills, but they don’t test on that. πŸ™‚

On the verbal section, I scored in the 96th percentile. Yippee! I’ll take it! πŸ™‚ Hopefully, it will be good enough to get into grad school, because I am *really* excited about beginning my studies. πŸ™‚

Oh, and what does one do after taking the GREs?
1. Starbucks
2. Find percentiles
3. Go home and dance
4. Jump on the trampoline
5. Write on your blog