A thank you for the AsylumFollow

As I've mentioned in numerous places, I am preparing for the GRE exam next week. One thing I am not concerned about is the essay section of the exam. Thanks to everyone here, I have a strong chance at a very high score on the essays.

For example, I learned how to pick apart gbaji and Varus' twisted reasoning and formulate point by point rebuttals based on failures of logic and evidence at hand. This trick will surely serve me well in the analytical essay. All I need to do is merely imagine one of our beloved conservatrolls spouting off the argument, and the answer flows from my fingertips as if I had hit the reply button.

I also was trained to present my evidence and citations up front, as they can and will be challenged by both friend and foe alike. I must pick my position and stick to it firmly, but not so firmly that when my own logic or arguments are deconstructed that I am left wafting in the wind with nothing left to ground them upon. Noting the viewpoints from the other side is important, but anticipating them and preemptively rebutting them is even more important.

Most importantly, I learned to proofread, as nothing deflates a wonderful zinger quite as well as 'This post was edited by Catwho' on the bottom. If I cannot get my rebuttals and talking points down the first time, everyone knows it. I still make the occasional mistake, but the first thing I do after hitting submit is to read over it once more, for it is better to catch the grammar error myself rather than have it pointed out to me by my foes.

So, when I receive my formal scores in a month or two, if I obtain a 5 or a 6, you will all be among the first to know. You may be proud, knowing that your efforts unconsciously helped me along in my graduate school career. Thank you.

Remember to take a bunch of foam red arrows with you to throw at other people taking the exam nearby. It adds realism!

Good luck!

Or just take some regular arrows. They'll become red, soon enough.

I took them myself last week. The writing sections were very simple: one argument creation and one argument analysis.

Also, since I don't study for anything, or prepare at all really (nasty habit, that,) I didn't realize that verbal averages are about 150 points lower than math averages (on average!) so don't be sad like me if your quant is the same as verbal; it's apparently a good indication.



I don't think that this is a good plan, personally, and I don't know how facetious you are. The analytic essay is meant to judge your ability to appraise form, not soundness. Certainly the latter must follow from the former, and is required of you in the other essay (when you craft one yourself,) but judgments of analysis might ideally be hypotheticals.

Have the GREs really fallen that low?



Of course you are. You are not, however, meant to argue yourself.

That's retarded. I thought people left that behind in freshman year of highschool. What an insipid guideline for an exam meant to judge people worthy of doing theses.

Just think, 5 years ago, every reply to this thread would have included "GFY", and half of them would have been Thundra.

Pensive, it's just part of a standardized test. It's just a small part of an application. Like for me, I had to have almost fifty pages of written work to pass in with my some of my applications. The shortest one only required about twenty pages. That was more relevant

Look lady, other than some sort of cool irony here in that you're raining on a parade of rants, that's got nothin' to do with it.

Length isn't the really troubling thing. It's the notion that since we have five fingers and think of it as a nice round number that is forms some magical formula for an essay. If something -happens- to become that length, awesome! but writing to a formula, especially in that retarded three pronged thesis assertion, is a self-defeating criterion for the test. "The format" is ludicrous insofar as it is a format, not in how long it is or not.

Edited, Dec 12th 2009 12:42am by Pensive

I dunno, maybe. After 9 and a half years it all runs together. The really ******* scary part is I have the oldest active admin account now. Darqflame has been an admin longer than me, as have some others (maia, fleven, etc.) but i've been here longer than all of them now. never saw that one coming.


Good old days, old days, who knows?

I think the bar was already set incredibly low. I was taking a few GMAT practice test to assess my potential score, and the math is just ridiculously easy. GMAT is supposed to be harder on math and easier on vocab than the GRE, but the most difficult problems I'm seeing are 9nth grade geometry. A perfect score is very reasonably obtainable, which makes the test a joke.

Edited, Dec 12th 2009 2:29am by Allegory

Just because it's only of minor importance doesn't mean you shouldn't try to do good work.