The Scheming and Screaming was Worth It

The Scheming and Screaming...

Well, tomorrow is the day of reckoning. I've done really well on the practice tests. As an offside, it is amazing how ETS offers two free GRE practice tests as well as practice problems. I heard it is one of the most accurate predictors of your actual GRE score.

And then I'm moving onto campus on Saturday! Summer will officially be over tomorrow on Thursday after the GRE though. I haven't started packing yet so that will be done on Friday.

The video game playing has also died out because I've gotten to those really hard missions. So the marginal cost of accomplishing each mission just shot up... but I will do Mission 55 before I leave! I must.

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!

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.

Made it... !... ... ... ?

Today I achieved my GRE math section score of 760 on a practice test. So early! I still have little less than two months left to repeat my performance on the real GRE. When I was taking the SAT, I never reached my goal score on practice tests - but was able to on the actual test. Is the SAT so different from the GRE?

The test taker population between the two are drastically different: the SAT is for perspective undergraduate degree earners. Nowadays, undergraduate degrees have changed in two major ways. First of all, there is no longer the conscious decision to go to college: many people go to college just because it's what society tells them to, and the educational degree "arms race" dictates at least an undergraduate degree to join a (reportedly) more intellectual work force. When everyone else has an undergraduate degree, you better have one too. Second of all, undergraduate degrees have become more liberal arts orientated. Before undergraduate degrees allowed intense specialization in certain fields and provided little emphasis on other topics. Today, liberal arts undergraduate degree requirements paints a different picture for undergraduate degrees - instead of field specialization, it is just an extension of the high school education where students simply learn more about the world.
Contrasted against a graduate degrees (excluding professional degrees), undergraduate degrees are too broad. Graduate degrees are in specialized fields and their prevalence has not warranted a similar (in magnitude) educational degree "arms race." Fewer people decide to pursue graduate degrees in the academics (outside of myself, I only know two other people taking the GREs) than people who decide to pursue undergraduate degrees. Perspective graduate students are also smarter: if you are very interested enough in a topic to pursue it on a graduate level, then it is most likely reflected in your academic performance.
With these differences between perspective undergraduate and graduate students, how should the GRE compare to the SAT? Due to the diverse possibilities of graduate fields, the core knowledge between the two must be the same - many (as do I) see the GRE as a much harder version of the SAT. But how much harder? GRE test takers should be smarter than SAT test takers. For graduate schools to evaluate scores, there needs to be a larger distribution. This, of course, means the GRE should be harder. A lot harder. Does this mean I am better at analysis than I think?
Well, maybe just math. The verbal GRE section score is still in the 500s.

The Summer So Far... So Far.

It's probably the most common potential blog post, "Sorry I haven't been putting anything new here...," so most people probably don't write it at all and just... leave their blogs to die. This is probably a product of paying next to nothing (except for an impulsive, short-term desire to have a blog and write that first post) to maintain a blog.

Anyway, I am in Week Three (or Four?) of summer. So far, I have made some headway on GREs. It has made me realize how inept I am at test-taking. I know the answer, but I cannot think of it fast enough before my desire to do every question on time kicks in. I can't delay when the latter kicks in, so I have to consider all possibilities and double-check my assumptions earlier. My main concern is the quantitative section for grad school. As long as my verbal and writing scores aren't horrendous (when my command of the English language is seriously questions), I should be okay. Hopefully. The quantitative section is 28 questions in 45 minutes, and the nature of the computerized exam means getting the first questions are most important. I cannot afford to make one of my frequent careless mistakes on the GRE. Minimizing my careless mistakes means I have to change my attitude about the test and become completely focused for those 45 minutes.

Moving on, I just realized how expensive it will be to apply to grad school. I want to apply to twenty schools (complete list pending, but I am looking at the top 20 schools) and each application is $120 - $160. That's... a hefty amount of money. Just when I thought I was being smart by saving most of my summer income, I will feel pretty poor just sending out my applications. What a way to start the path to grad school, huh?

Onto slightly happier things, I've been playing FFXIII way too much. A lot of people criticize FFXIII is overly linear and this restricts the gameplay. Personally, I enjoy when FFXIII differentiates between linear and non-linear parts. While playing other FF games, I was always worried about missing out on side quests so I was always online reading walkthroughs to make sure I wasn't missing anything. FFXIII is different: it tells me "Here is where you should just focus on the story," and "Here is where you should tap into your inner explorer!" It keeps things simple so I know when I can have fun pursuing the side quests or the story. Before the age of the online video game guide - I would never pay money for a guide - this would have never been a problem. Maybe information asymmetry can be a good thing? Or like they say, ignorance is bliss?

My excessive FFXIII time also means there is less time for Assassin's Creed II. I bought the downloadable content when I got home too. But I am bringing the PS3 to campus next semester, so I will have time to play then. And watch my gpa drop.

Who cares about their gpa during the summer though? On that note, I am going to phili this weekend and I am seeing the World Cup there too. Bring on the good times.