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Yeah, I noticed some had suggested it as well. At the time that I took the GRE this last time (second attempt) I had gotten off of my ADD medication about 1 week before taking the test. Cause my thoughts were- hey, I'm 33, I'm an adult, I don't need them?!?! I am wondering now if that was such a wise thing to do right before a test? I know...duh? Right? I don't know what I was thinking, I guess I wasn't. I simply was trying to go all organic and stay off of it, but now that I am planning on taking it a third time and have opted against getting extended time (because trying to do so would take a very long time to process or approve). I am currently back on ADD medication. I can read and focus much more on my medication. I know in some of my responses I had stated that I was going to try and avoid meds, but- it actually is working for me now. I didn't get off of them before because they weren't working. I was going through this phase where I was trying to go all holistic. Now, I've learned not to experiment with holistic/organic remedies before an important test. I've learned that it's not such a bad idea to maybe stay on the meds especially on the day of the test. Ha ha ha....I just have to laugh at myself. It has helped me concentrate and with the added support of all of you here that have been kind enough to offer some great suggestions and better study habits, I think three time's a charm. I am striving to do much better this next time around and have a sense of humor about it all. By simply lightening up about it, I'm much more relaxed and able to focus more during my study sessions.

Yeah, I noticed some had suggested it as well. At the time that I took the GRE this last time (second attempt) I had gotten off of my ADD medication about 1 week before taking the test. Cause my thoughts were- hey, I'm 33, I'm an adult, I don't need them?!?! I am wondering now if that was such a wise thing to do right before a test? I know...duh? Right? I don't know what I was thinking, I guess I wasn't. I simply was trying to go all organic and stay off of it, but now that I am planning on taking it a third time and have opted against getting extended time (because trying to do so would take a very long time to process or approve). I am currently back on ADD medication. I can read and focus much more on my medication. I know in some of my responses I had stated that I was going to try and avoid meds, but- it actually is working for me now. I didn't get off of them before because they weren't working. I was going through this phase where I was trying to go all holistic. Now, I've learned not to experiment with holistic/organic remedies before an important test. I've learned that it's not such a bad idea to maybe stay on the meds especially on the day of the test. Ha ha ha....I just have to laugh at myself. It has helped me concentrate and with the added support of all of you here that have been kind enough to offer some great suggestions and better study habits, I think three time's a charm. I am striving to do much better this next time around and have a sense of humor about it all. By simply lightening up about it, I'm much more relaxed and able to focus more during my study sessions.

Oh, thanks John- I certainly appreciate it. It has been a struggle for me. But, I try my best to stay positive. It's hard sometimes to do, but staying positive is like working a muscle. You simply work at it everyday. There are lots of things that have humbled me, the test being one of them. But, as I said in another post- Film School was a humbling experience as well. I used to work in LA in the Entertainment industry and that definitely helped my skin to thicken. All of these odd situations in our lives build or spirit and character. I guess- it's back to studying... Thanks!

That is exactly the same problem I had too. I didn't expect it would be such a long and painfully annoying process. My brain starts to get overloaded with having to stare at the screen and these passages are advanced reading- which is fine. However, the questions are pretty tricky. I did go over some of the methods on how to read and answer quickly. Yet, I still found having to scan the reading was not as easy to do. For example, some of the answers are inferred. Meaning- the answer is not right there in black and white. You have to read the entire thing in order to get the inferred answer. So, scanning and trying to fish for the answer often takes longer than actually reading the entire passage and then answering the questions. Most, if not all of the questions can not be found by simply glancing at the passage. Especially if you are asked what ought to be the title of the passage; you would have to read the entire thing in order for you to know what that title should be. Also, there are questions relating to using analogies to that of the passage. They will use a different example altogether to parallel that to the actual passage. You then choose which analogy is saying exactly the same thing as the actual author's intent. This takes time. This takes reading the passage completely and thoroughly understanding it and doing all of this in under a minute or so, otherwise you run out of time. If the section is 30 minutes and there are 28 questions, you only have about 1 minute per question. So this means you have to read the entire passage in 10 seconds and allow yourself the remaining 50 seconds-2 minutes to begin answering the questions. Reading a passage and comprehending it in 10 seconds is a little bit of a challenge for me. I find it to be unrealistic to expect everyone to be able to do it. Regardless of ADD or not- give that task to ANYONE and it is a challenge. It's tough- I guess all I can do is time myself and try to get this done as best as possible and as quickly as possible.

Yeah, when you are in the creative world you have to be prepared for criticism: the good, the bad, and the ugly. That's just the way things are and I've gotten extremely immune to comments. I have learned to never take things personal and that people are coming from where they are at, they simply suggest based upon their life experiences and what has worked for them. My undergrad was in film production, so I've learned to allow people to say what they have to say and accept it. Sometimes it's not easy and it gets uncomfortable, but not everyone will respond to what you write, create or whatever- well. I have considered schools that do not require GRE scores. Matter of fact, there are a few top MFA creative writing schools that rank within the top 10 in the nation- that don't require the GRE score. But, I'm preparing myself because I believe the some of the schools back east (where I'll be moving soon) will require them. I have to be prepared because it's not enough to write well, it's all subjective anyway and some schools may look at my writing portfolio and hate my style or what I've written? Some may love it? It's just not as cut and dry the way other schools function. Such as Med school for example. You take the MCAT, score well, have a good GPA and boom- you're accepted. It's easier in some ways than artistic degrees because it then becomes about GRE scores, GPA, Portfolio/writing samples and then if they actually like your style or see potential in your writing. So, we'll see what happens and how things turn out. I may in the end up, not actually need the darn GRE score and it was all stress that I didn't need to go through. But, I'm working my left brain muscles and it's been good for me to get back into studying like this. In film school it was all about directing and writing and other stress- but all right brain activity, so my left brain is a bit rusty. I do feel those muscles getting stronger daily-

By the way, one more thing I would like to add to your above comment. When it comes to any diagnosis, people who are diagnosed with depression or ADD or whatever- they don't have to wake up convincing themselves that they are feeling a certain way. Sometimes it is not the fault of the person that they are the way that they are- sometimes they are born with a condition. Some people are in that state automatically (good or bad) and no rational or positive self talks can talk them out of it. In other words, it's okay for people to be born with chemical imbalances and it's okay for people to be different. Having said that, I do acknowledge that I could learn to apply reading strategies to help me.

Hello Honest Friend, I agree with your assessment, as I realized that I haven't worked on reading strategies that may not at all be attributed to this diagnosis or it could be? Who knows, I'm not necessarily an expert. There are tricks with the reading comprehension portions, those of which you listed. Focusing too much on ADD can be causing some sort of strange self-fulfilling prophecy. I am not ashamed to admit that this may be true and it may have hindered me. As you stated, International students is a fine example- those that do tend to score high on verbal because they worked on that specific weakness. This is good- the purpose of my post was to narrow down what went wrong and how I can work on specific weaknesses. I feel confident that I have gathered some great suggestions and help through everyone who has responded. I will be honest and say that I arrogantly assumed that the reading portion would not be a problem for me initially. I didn't take into account prior- that I tend to read slowly and methodically. It wasn't until after the test, that I realized where I went wrong. In the case of timed test-taking my approach has to change. I forgot that the test can randomly give you more reading or more math and etc. So, now I know what I need to work on. I have narrowed down what my weakness is and I can work on it. So, I am admitting that perhaps there is some truth in what you are saying by pointing out these reading strategies that I should have worked on and not negated. I was so focused on trying to work on math and other portions of the test. I didn't realize that the reading portion would cause me to run out of time as it did. Regarding medication for ADD, I have taken them and they don't always help. At this point my preference is to focus more on testing strategies, rather than medication which has proven ineffective for me. They may work for some people, but they are not for me. Thanks, again- I agree there is some truth to your assessment.

Okay- read some of the articles but not all of them. From what I gathered MA programs are very tricky. One who decides on an MA should consider how much of that money will they get back? After all, Master's degrees are not cheap. It is something to seriously consider and ponder. All I can do is keep studying, keep writing, and apply to some programs that will actually pay for it. There are MFA programs in creative writing that the fellowship actually pays for. It is still not concrete. Though, as long as I score well on the GRE then I will have the opportunity look at all my options. We'll see--- thanks for the article.

Me too! Thank you for your input and thoughts- they have all been helpful.

Thank you honest friend, I will have to sit down and read it, as I stated- I'm a slow reader. But, so far I've read this sort of thing before. It is a concern of mine. Currently- I'm working on a long form piece (book) for publication. Though, the publication is not a 100 percent guarantee. Therefore, the MFA program appeared to be a logical and smart fall back. Though, if I do get published, I may not need to even go through this GRE non-sense any more. We shall see, we shall see----

Actually the word "Condition" would be a better word. It lessens the feeling that ADD is an excuse forced to be categorized under the handicap clause. I think that is why most people are dissuaded by the word "disability" and why Attention Deficit Disorder is often looked at flippantly. Most people merely recall that one kid they grew up with that bounced off the walls and had to take Ritalen as a result. They shrug it off as some one who can't sit still. Most people are angry because if they have to take the GRE without special treatment and bust their ass to get a good score, then so do those with "ADD" ought to suck it up and just "get with the program". We reflect on disabilities and often associate that word "disability" with something much more catastrophic. In my mind before I was diagnosed- which was just this year and I am 33 years old. The word disability in my mind was synonymous to being blind, deaf, being in a wheel chair, and etc. These extreme visual images are still what many people immediately think of when they hear the word. So with that said, there are even people on this post that have reacted flippantly to ADD being considered a "disability" or a "condition" that requires accommodations in the same that one would have a wheel chair ramp for those handicapped and needing a ramp? In other words- ADD and ADHD to most people are not disabilities although it is considered one, not just by definition standards within the ETS manual, but by definition in the Science and Medical community as well. It is more than someone simply unable to focus or distracted by noise. It appears in other forms and in my case, although I am a writer, I am actually a slow reader. Stephen King is equally an extremely slow reader and there are many well known writers that are actually. It is not a challenge for me to memorize words, on the contrary the verbal section I do extremely well. I can absorb words and lots of them (well over a 1000 or more). I have a vocab word builder on my Mac that I have been using well before taking this test (for writing and personal reasons), that is about 5,000 words or more. I am not boasting that I have memorized all of these words, but lets just say- I love new words. Now, this last GRE test oddly enough I was given hardly any verbal questions at all and was given 5 reading passages which slowed me down big time. I mentioned this in another comment I posted, so perhaps I'm being repetitive. But, my point is- for most people reading passages come easy. They can speed read through the passage, but I get stompt. It takes me a long time to digest written material and get inside the mind of the author. Give me a ton of sentence completions, and throw the hardest antonym questions at me- and I will do well. I love words and they don't scare me. Now, being timed and having to speed read passages on insects in the rain forest or whatever other passage they give- in less than 10 minutes (5 long passages) and still reserve an extra 5 minutes to answer all of the questions, and then make time for the remaining verbal questions? By the time I got to the questions I did know, I ran out of time. I think that there is a connection between those that have ADD and how fast or slow they can read. They think fast, move fast, are always busy and do have a short tension span. Though, sit them down and compare their ability to speed read a passage to an individual who is not diagnosed with ADD- and I guarantee one can find differences in performance. If not the speed of the reading, then the ability to go back and answer the question related in the short amount of time given. So, what word would I use instead of "disability"- so to avoid flippant or negative responses? Condition. Condition is a much better word in my opinion.