Post-Exam Bliss

Well, I won't ever have to take the GRE again, and that is a pretty amazing feeling. I got a very decent score, which is one major step towards a successful PhD application! WOOHOO!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not any less outraged than I was two days ago about this exam. I still find the whole thing ridiculous. But now I no longer have to think about it -- ever again. So, want to know what it feels like to have such a stressful exam over with and completed with high marks?  Well, to fully understand, I have to delve back to my first round of GRE misery.

I studied for months on end with a couple of friends back in the summer of 2009 in preparation for my initial application to graduate school. I got several books and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to memorize Kaplan's word groups as synonyms for words that are merely similar, but not synonyms, blah blah blah. I invested a really disgusting amount of time preparing without raising my score at all. I literally got the same exact score that I got the very first time I took it as an undergraduate in 2003.

My score from 2003 and 2009 was only in the 75th percentile, which was far lower than the cut off score at most highly ranked universities. I not only broke out into tears immediately upon walking out of the building, I went a little crazy. Just as I was trying to compose myself at home, I pulled a shirt off of a hanger in my closet. The feeling of it was so satisfying in that moment that I proceeded to rip everything in my closet off of its hanger one-by-one until the whole closet was a big pile in the middle of my room. Yeah.

So, now, fast forward two years. I was really not eager to relive the experience. I bit the bullet and signed up for a Kaplan course, and studied for exactly four weeks. I did zero preparation on math, and I did one round of vocab memorization before abandoning ship. This time I simply learned the silly test methods, and voila! 85-90th percentile!

The post-exam moments were far better this time around too...I shared the experience with my friend and colleague who also took the exam yesterday.  We celebrated with wine and stayed up until 3 am chatting outside on a beautiful night.  Ahhhhh, the relief of having completed one big hurdle in the lengthy application process, feels great!