Remember that Wall? Well... surprise! It's actually a Bridge.

Turns out the GRE is moving onto a completely new system. Notable changes include:

• No antonyms and analogies,
• Individual sentence completions,
• More passages,
• An on-screen calculator,
• Multiple answers for multiple choice questions, and
• Two verbal and two quantitative sections.

So now it is basically a beefed up version of the SAT except there is no multiple choice writing section. Maybe this reflects the increased decisions to go to graduate school? Maybe. maybe.

A piece of news I am ambiguous about is that the scoring system is changing from 200-800 per section (in increments of 10) to 130-170 per section (in increments of 1): as if the 200-800 scoring was not arbitrary enough. ETS claims that the new scoring system is only to the benefit of test takers: small differences in skill can be identified, while large differences in skill are still obvious. I suspect this is probably in reaction to increasing numbers of test-takers scoring 800s, thus making it difficult to differentiate one 800 from the other 800. But does this mean grad schools will simply draw a smaller circle for test-takers to jump through?

EDIT. turns out it's changing in 2011. not 2010. reading skills hellooooo!

Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck

Fucking Fuck Fuckity-Fuck-Fuck.

I think it's going for the insensitivity argument. Hear it enough times and then you won't notice it anymore.

REPLAY REPLAY REPLAY REPLAY REPLAY

Finally, my greatest loves combine.

I'm so glad how seriously they take themselves.

A Real Goal

My Graduate School Project:
Play Final Fantasy I - IX.
Play Metal Gear Solid 1 - 4.
I might do some studying too.

Ow. Ow. Owwww.

Just cut my finger open. Not just any finger - my index finger.The only worse finger would be my thumb - but there are only five possible fingers to cut.

Okay Maybe It's Not a Wall

I forgot about how the computer-adaptive part of the GRE works. So the problem is not that bad because questions will get gradually harder as you approach the 800 score. Why did it take until I took a practice computer-adaptive test to figure this out?

Lately I got Armored Core: For Answer and I get to spend (literally) hours customizing my mech before I do a five to ten-minute long mission. The amount of customization is insane and it makes all the difference in performance. This makes me wonder whether there is a perfect combination of parts, or what a mech with every possible attribute maximized would perform like. Otherwise, there is simple a trade off between attributes across different parts.

Here's the Wall

Right now I am not making much progress in my GRE score. It feels like I have hit a ceiling and I guaranteed to get 2 questions wrong every time I take a practice test. The consistency is rather frightening - I have even made a list of rules to follow whenever I do questions:
1. Read the question!
2. I have plenty of time, so calculate instead of estimating.
3. Plug in negatives, positives, zeros, and fractions whenever possible.
These basically outline my problem: I am not a good test taker. It is frustrating to know that I cannot fully grasp all the questions. They are all written in plain English and I can do all the questions, the problem is the psychology of taking the actual test.

On a related note, remember the high school senior fanaticism with webforums (I'm looking at you, collegeconfidential.com). Well graduate schools have their own parallel for each field. (http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/99553-faqs-about-graduate-school-economics-links-useful-threads.html) So there goes a lot of spare time. Surprisingly, looking at them does not generally make me feel more anxious. Maybe my anxiety has reached a ceiling as well.