shepardn7

I'd rather not share mine because I still am in the revision process (thankfully I have time to do so now, since the GRE Lit is done), but I'd look at either of your starts if you want to PM me. I'm curious to see how other people have started their sample. My start feels a little informal, currently.

I think it will be interesting to see how we all do in light of our post-test feelings. I've resigned myself to a score below 600, but my boyfriend is convinced I'm just a pessimist and will end up with a 620 or 630. He's like, You know more than you think you do, there's no way you got more than thirty wrong, etc. I'm like, You didn't see this test. But I wonder if we'll all end up with scores higher than we expected. Here's hoping. Wine sounds like a good idea.

I thought there was one question on Donne (at least, the one I noted), but I don't think there were any more. I was happy to see Marquez on there. It was such breath of fresh air, after all the meandering, inverted, archaic language of the poetry passages. And also the Nabokov. Otherwise, yes, it was absolute hell for me, too, and we are in completely different areas. The test was relishing in its own obscurity, laughing at all the knowledge we had stored away but could not use. I couldn't believe it when I (a gd poet) recognized a poem by Keats. The worst part was getting bogged down in all the long reading passages with 5-7 interpretation questions, which means I had to rush through the remainder of the test. I get so anxious during these things that I sometimes I don't register what I'm reading and need to reread the passages to find the "treasure," which really hurt my time. I left thirty-six blank and am thus starting the test with a 710, so I expect to see a score ranging from 550-640 (please not lower than 550!). Most of the questions I skipped were straightforward ID questions or comprehensive questions on passages I didn't have time to read in full. I didn't recognize that translation Beowulf because I had it drilled in my head that Beowulf would always be untranslated. Though I considered it might have been BW, I decided to play it safe (always trust your instincts on this test, I think). Which means I got one question wrong in that section, at least. I have a lot of expletives for ETS right now. I wasted a lot of time preparing for this test; I could have walked in there with the knowledge I already had and received the same score. I just hope my guessing didn't hurt me too much. Edit: I am also upset it was not at all like the practice test they sent, because I knew the majority of answers on it and could move through it quickly. I didn't do a simulated practice test for it, but I was surprised how much I knew on that test -- I think that if I took it I would have gotten a 700+. It was just geared to my interests. This test was the opposite of that test for me. I floundered about, hoping for the best.

Yes, I think I'm just going to try to plod through the whole thing from start to finish. I'm glad you were able to finish using that strategy, because it seems like a more "relaxing" way to take the test to me. I have a question, though. Suppose I want to make an educated guess or guess at an interpretation of a passage, but would like to return to it and reevaluate should I have time. Is there any way to mark/star it in the test book or on scratch paper? Or are we not allowed to write in the test at all?

Many sources, including the Princetown Review book, say to do an initial "sweep" of the test and pick up all the easy points. Did this work out well for people, either for the real test or practice tests? This isn't how I took my one and only practice test and I'm worried that a "first sweep" will eat up too much time. What was your "first sweep" strategy? Did you only answer simple ID questions (e.g. NOT the long "match the passage" questions) first, and save ANY reading for later? Did you find that even just reading the questions to see if you could answer them quickly wasted time? If I'm going to do this tomorrow, I want to do it right.

I'm taking it Sat. and am pretty much freaking out about it. I've been studying sporadically since September (when I decided to apply) and have revved it up in the past couple weeks, but I'm scared because even if I remember titles and characters and key lines, there is still a chance I'll royally screw up a lot of the interpretation questions (at least the early Middle English ones). I just really want it to be over.

Thanks -- I think it might be the website acting screwy. I might have two separate accounts, one for Subject and one for General, because I'd think that it would show my previous test date and "absent/not available" even if something went wrong otherwise. When I log in and click "My Scores Online," I have no option anymore to input a #; it just goes straight to the page, which of course only lists my Subject Test as a valid date. I suppose I should call them, though, because I have no way of accessing this mysterious "second account" even if it's there. I think I get worried because the very thought of standardized test terrorizes me and I have absolutely no faith or trust in ETS to do anything right.

Uh oh, and it's not listed under reportable scores for Order Score Reports. Now I'm really worried. I can't take this test again.

Yeah, it doesn't have "absent/not available" -- it has nothing. It only says that under my Subject Test area. I wonder if it has something to do with my printing my Subject Test admission ticket and using that registration number to log in. Hmm.

Everyday I have a new stressor. How long did it take for your GRE scores to show up online? I'm suddenly scared that they threw out my scores without telling me (for whatever stupid reason) and that I'm going to have to take the test all over again, which is pretty much my worst nightmare, short of not being accepted to school. Did it take the full 15 days they say it will? When your scores aren't yet reported, do you still see your now-past test date under your score report with "absent/not available" or is it just blank? It has the "absent/not available" under my Subject Test scores because I take that on Saturday, but it's just all blank in the General GRE column.

I heard that the USC Creative Writing(?) PhD rejected him, actually. I think he got into Utah and some other places (Iowa MFA?). I don't even know, but that's what I heard about USC.

I feel your pain. I'm taking it Saturday and have already convinced myself I'm going to fail it. Where are you applying? I think 560, while below the average at some places (like Harvard), should be high enough to keep you in the pile at most places (even top 10 programs) if the rest of your application is impressive. Someone on another board said she was accepted to a top 10 program without them even looking at her GRE scores; she said the school contacted her later to get the scores for their records, or something like that? I dunno. I've heard that the Lit GRE is the least important part of your app, behind the General GRE. You sound like a strong candidate and your score is not actually low, just about average for most applicants, which means it doesn't put you ahead of the pack. But considering how stupid and worthless everyone knows that test is, I don't think I'd worry too much.

I agree. 630Lit and 630V should be high enough, and think of all the time you'd waste preparing for the test that could be better spent on the SOP and writing sample (as well as relaxing, eating, sleeping, breathing...). On a side note, isn't it weird that you can see who is reading what thread/forum at the same time you are? I don't know why the developers found that feature necessary.

Some programs take the GRE more seriously than others. Math-oriented programs take the quant score seriously, and that generally makes sense (though it doesn't account for test anxiety). As for non-quant fields, English and History PhD programs tend to deemphasize it, but there are definitely some social science programs that take it seriously, esp. the verbal section. It's a shame they do, because the GRE is deficient in many ways (I'd even go so far to say "damaging"), but standardized testing companies have really dug their greedy little talons deep into the American education system and unfortunately this means that even some supposed "intellectuals" buy their BS. And, while I think most English and History programs will look at the academic sample and SOP first, some might look at numbers first; it probably depends on the school. Secondly, I'm not sure it's cool to come here and say the test is "not that difficult" because you walked in barely prepared and performed well. For some people, taking standardized tests is unnaturally difficult, and those are the people who come here worried (either about an upcoming test or the low scores they received). Some people study for months and, for whatever reason, receive poor scores even though they are excellent students and prepared for grad school. I do think your advice to "relax" is good, but only because getting worked up before and during the test can affect performance.

Your scores are good and no one cares about the AWA score. Do NOT worry. I can almost guarantee that if you are rejected it will not be because you got a 4.0. It's about average, isn't it? Meanwhile your verbal is somewhere between 96-97th percentile, according to this year's score chart. If you are a good writer, your adcom will know by your sample.

This is late, but I just want to say that "medical condition" does not sound too vague to me. The adcom has no right to know what the extenuating circumstances were and would be extremely unethical to penalize you for desiring confidentiality. If they are going to judge you for it, you don't want to work with them for seven years -- trust me. (Though if they were to judge you for your clinical depression, I'd say the same thing.)

This is late, but I just want to say that "medical condition" does not sound too vague to me. The adcom has no right to know what the extenuating circumstances were and would be extremely unethical to penalize you for desiring confidentiality. If they are going to judge you for it, you don't want to work with them for seven years -- trust me. (Though if they were to judge you for your clinical depression, I'd say the same thing.)

So you think it's okay to single space your SOP? I prefer the way it looks single spaced (without indentation and with a space between paragraphs), but I wasn't sure if that'd be acceptable.

I think the simple answer to your question is "Yes" -- for all fields that emphasize writing and reading skills -- but doing better than someone else on the GRE does not necessarily mean you have a better vocabulary (especially in the case of only a few more correct answers), and it most definitely doesn't mean you have the skills to use that vocabulary effectively in your writing, which is where it really counts. More importantly, perhaps, having an exceptional (read: not just "solid" or even "strong") vocabulary at the time of applying to grad school is a strength, but not essential. Solving tricky analogies or treasure-hunting a reading passage about shifting tectonic plates says little, if anything, about your insightfulness, your ability to digest and deconstruct difficult texts, your research skills, your critical thinking skills as required for any literary field, your intellectual innovation and the quality of your ideas, the significance of your ideas relative to others' in the discourse, or your ability to eloquently and compellingly articulate those ideas in a scholarly work (i.e, to make a worthy contribution to the discourse). The GRE Verbal section is similar to the GRE Math section in that it requires you to think both formulaically and extremely quickly. Some folks who ended up with a score under 650 might very well have received a 750, and yet still finished in thirty minutes, without the stress and panic that the ticking clock can cause (especially re: the reading comp questions). I don't think there should be a cut-off at all, and ETS itself agrees with me; they advise schools to always consider applications holistically, and to implement a cut-off under no circumstances. I think most English Lit programs know better than to discard an otherwise strong application because the student underperformed on the GRE, especially without knowing the individual circumstances surrounding the score (whether the person was distrait and/or distraught at the time of testing due to undisclosed trauma or tragedy, has an undocumented learning disability, had a fever, has severe test anxiety, had little time to prepare or practice due to a work situation, etc.). I don't mean to sound contentious, but it really bothers me when people imply that someone's intellectual potential or capacity, as required for a field in the humanities (e.g. the study of poetry), can be quantified and reduced to solving a word problem in under a minute. And, I think these tests, at their worst, maintain the status quo and make sure that the privileged among us remain so (particularly the SAT).

I'm just wondering who else is hanging around here. I'm applying to only one PhD program in Creative Writing & Lit this year, in poetry. Only one because it's in my city and I'm not in a position to move away right now. If rejected, I will apply to more programs when I'm able and/or willing to leave here. Who else is applying here? What is your genre and all that? Where are you applying? I'm in poetry. I've got an MFA and am applying to the PhD program after a few couple years of funded time to write. I'm almost done with my first book and am ready to begin work on my second one; the PhD coursework period seems like a good time to let the second book coalesce, and I want to teach in a CW program eventually .... so, well, here I am. I'm very nervous but trying to be optimistic. I have to say, though, that the GRE tests are a real blight on an otherwise inoffensive process. Just painful. I just took the GRE and received a 690 Verbal. I'm a little bummed, because I had been scoring above 700V on all my practice tests (including PowerPrep). Standardized tests have never been my thing and I was hoping to "beat" this one. It sounds stupid, but it looks as if I was one (or so) question away from "beating" it and proving to these bastards that this poet with severe standardized test anxiety (I noticed I get physical symptoms, such as shortness of breath/chest constriction ... that was lovely.) could "win." I know 690 isn't actually bad, though, so don't worry -- I hate when people come by with high scores (sometimes 700+) and act as if they failed, not even thinking they're asking advice from people who did worse on the test. Anyway, if you're curious, I received a 510 on the math, which I'm actually really happy to have. I barely studied (no time) and could have easily done worse. I didn't even take a "real" math course in college (it was something called "conceptual math," for humanities majors who need to fulfill the lib arts req), so it's been many years since I had to do any math beyond the basics. Onto the GRE Lit test now. I'm behind on my studying for that because I've been preparing for the regular GRE. I only got a 570 on my first practice test (an official one from the late '80s). I hope I can get at least a 600 on the real test. The more 20th century and lit theory on the test, the better I will probably do, so I hope people are right when they say the test includes more of that. How are you guys preparing for it? And then I plan on writing poetry and playing video games until I pass out and/or throw up from joy at being finished. Can't wait! Well, there's not much of a point to this post. I'm just curious who else is here!