Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Practice Makes Nervous
I took another practice test for the GRE over my lunch hour, a quantitative section one. I'm sure my speed is increasing, but my overall score stayed about the same. I'm not sure why, but I felt drained after I scored the test, I also felt edgy, almost shaky. I find with practice, instead of becoming more confident and less stressed, just the opposite is happening. I know how to do the problems, but racing against the clock pressures me to a degree I wouldn't have imagined. Hopeful things will get better; I still have over a month to get ready for my first GRE exam, the general exam.
I'm not sure how this happens, but I find I brag quite a bit about my intelligence to my wife. I'm sure I'm smarter than average, but now I'm in a situation where I must prove my assumed intellectual mettle. And then what? Graduate school? More pressure on trying to get in and pay for it.
My friend Apollo (a Java programming expert) did very well (really, really well) on the general GRE, though not so well on the subject test GRE. My fiend Tom has two PHDs and just recently became a professor. My friend Bryan is very successful in business. I think in some way I see doing well on the GRE as an attempt to keep up with my closest friends, who for one reason or the other have all far exceeded average expectations, and until now perhaps I have been bring up the rear.
