dimanche0829

For the lulz, I'm here's an actual answer given by *me* on a test recently handed back:

Q: Name three types of extragenic codon specific supressors.
A: Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry (honestly, I have no clue)
Prof's comment: No, but those are good flavors!

I think that you should probably consider ways to relax- panicking like you're doing does not sound healthy. Find something that relaxes you- anything (I go with scented candles and copious amounts of hot chocolate). YOU CAN DO IT. Admissions doesn't know you're panicking if you don't tell them. Find strategies to help you get through the stressful times, like a schedule or checklist (try to put only the 2-3 biggest things you need to get done that day on the checklist to avoid adding anxiety). Set aside 45minutes to an hour of each day just for relaxing thing- during this time you may only do things that calm you down (music, candles, video games, tv, etc.) Viciously suppress all worries during that allotted time.

Oh dear...here we go again. I'm in trouble again. Okay...those were just instantaneous fantasy ideas. I know I cant drop classes in the middle of the semester and I TA so I cant just quit. And I cant even leave the internship cus that'll be like throwing out hundreds of hours of work and the PI was one of the PIs that wrote LsOR for me so that wouldnt be a good pay back.

I definitely could have worded the last paragraph to express how funny the idea was when I was typing it out.

It is so cool to know that you're willing to reward with continued hard work not only those who gave you the research internship but also the qualified applicants that were turned away so you could do your thing..

for what it's worth, i was trying to be rude to tittywriter83. whenever i read/hear someone complaining that they are unfairly graded because they're so brilliant and their peers with higher grades are let off easy, i think they deserve a bit of rudeness. people think too damn highly of themselves. and while i appreciate sigaba sticking up for me, i can also handle myself and any negative recs that may come my way. sometimes delusional people need to be told that they're delusional, and i'm always happy to provide that service.

You've been clear on this point. You've also been clear that you accepted a situation in which you'd have been able to review a 'draft' of the LoRs and that you were disappointed when that opportunity did not materialize. So while you did not ask to cross a boundary, you were more than ready to step over it when the opportunity arose. In my opinion, that sensibility is highly problematic. MOO, LoRs are the most important aspect of the application process. IMO, all stakeholders need to understand how confidentiality contributes to integrity of the process.

My $0.02.

I am getting angry with the long line of posters who demand to see their LORs. I think complaining about the content of a good LOR is just completely on another level of being spoilt. I am really not a mean spirited person but you have to let go the things you cannot control(and you are not supposed to control it only with your excellent work !) and have to concentrate on the things you can. And I would thank my coworker the effort he/she made for me.

I am getting confused in another thread you said that the recommender did not show you their LOR. My first thought after reading these two posts was: what is wrong with you???? I will write it here even if I will get negative points.
-you are NOT supposed to see your recommendation letters. it seems to me you pressured someone to see it.
- the letter of recommendation said nice things about you and you cannot stop whining. frankly you would be the last person I would show anything after this reaction.
-if for some reason you would not get into a program you found someone (something ) to blame. congratulations.
it seems to me that you are playing an unfair game and you are trying to coerce people to obey you. I am shocked you want to get into councelling.

Congratulations, you're happy. You tested well. Your methods and background worked for you. Consider yourself lucky.

You'll have a long and difficult road ahead if you think you can successfully slack your way through grad school, too- assuming you're even accepted into a program. You're not nearly as clever as you think you are; slacking on any part of the application is just a BAD idea. If you're not even willing to put forth an honest effort to study for an entrance exam, you really just don't belong in the applicant pool.

My 0.02.

I certainly don't dispute your statement. In fact, most of the faculty I know think the test is ridiculous and incapable of measuring intelligence. I wholeheartedly agree. Yet the GRE sticks around anyway. Why? Because it narrows down the applicant pool, especially for programs that receive 500-600 applications with only about 5-10 acceptances to award. I'd also like to point out that many financial awards are given based on high GRE scores, so there is some incentive to try for high scores. A low score obviously doesn't guarantee that you won't be accepted, just as a high score guarantee that you will be accepted or receive awards.


Most people are told to do "just enough" because even "just enough" requires effort and hard work. It RARELY favors a slacker mentality.


I obviously used "entrance exam" in the most general sense--kind of like using the phrase "if you want to say" on internet forums to describe something that is written, and not actually spoken. Mere technicalities of the least importance and productivity, my friend. Nevertheless, I shared my opinion and am sticking to it. Can people score well without studying? Yeah, of course. Can people score poorly without studying? You betcha. Are people rejected from grad programs due to poor GRE scores and slacking off on apps? It's been known to happen.

So, yeah, I do take issue with the OP's assertion that studying in advance is unnecessary just because they happened to score well. That's good for them, but many people won't experience similar results, and it's just not smart advice to give to others who have very real concerns about the test.

Congratulations, you're happy. You tested well. Your methods and background worked for you. Consider yourself lucky.

You'll have a long and difficult road ahead if you think you can successfully slack your way through grad school, too- assuming you're even accepted into a program. You're not nearly as clever as you think you are; slacking on any part of the application is just a BAD idea. If you're not even willing to put forth an honest effort to study for an entrance exam, you really just don't belong in the applicant pool.

My 0.02.

Doc--

Then why are you trying to provoke a confrontation with a highly respected member of this BB?

StrangeLight: there's no need for rudeness. And it seems a little strange for a criticism of another's writing to be so badly plagued by poor punctuation.

As regards jealousy and the unpleasantries it spawns, my experiences have taught me to ignore it completely. Throughout graduate school I had a nemesis colleague in my department who took every available opportunity to criticize my ideas and talk poorly of me to my peers and professors. One of my friend's attended a workshop on turning a seminar paper into a publishable essay. During the meeting, my friend mentioned that I had been published in a specific journal, at which point my nemesis felt the need to suggest that I had stolen the ideas for the paper from someone else. Amazingly, she had been a student in the seminar when I wrote the first version of the paper and had heard me give a presentation about it! The fact of the matter is that some people feel a deep sense of insecurity and choose to lash out as others as a means of dissipating that feeling. Whether it's childish, sociopathic, or just plain silly is beside the point. You will never win an argument with another person's irrationality. The best option for you is to preserve your reputation as a collegial scholar, and that usually means avoiding confrontation with provocateurs.

you're a literature student and that is probably one of the most poorly written paragraphs i've read in a while, so i'm guessing you actually earned those Bs and think far too highly of yourself.

in my experience, it's way more common for students to reinterpret criticism as praise. i've been in the room while a student gets told, gently, that everything in their writing needs to change, but "the ideas are there" or "the content looks great," because people need something nice to say other than "this is a train wreck." and those students leave the room thinking, "everyone loved my ideas and content," not "everyone basically told me i need to rewrite this."

Congratulations, you're happy. You tested well. Your methods and background worked for you. Consider yourself lucky.

You'll have a long and difficult road ahead if you think you can successfully slack your way through grad school, too- assuming you're even accepted into a program. You're not nearly as clever as you think you are; slacking on any part of the application is just a BAD idea. If you're not even willing to put forth an honest effort to study for an entrance exam, you really just don't belong in the applicant pool.

My 0.02.

I was just reading Joyce's raunchy love letters to Nora the other week. Explains so much...

Manatee it is pretty easy to see that you posted originally in order to flaunt your superiority. Your tone was immodest and implicitly mocked those who prepare diligently, you made a pathetic and self-aggrandizing attempt at humor, and it is questionable whether or not smart people who do not need to prepare much to do well even need the "advice" you offered. An hour with some prep questions would be all that it takes for someone of that nature to gather such information.

I got a 690 V and 750 Q on my preliminary exam and I still felt the need to study. Some people are just perfectionists and others need very high scores to get into their dream schools.

Congratulations, you're happy. You tested well. Your methods and background worked for you. Consider yourself lucky.

You'll have a long and difficult road ahead if you think you can successfully slack your way through grad school, too- assuming you're even accepted into a program. You're not nearly as clever as you think you are; slacking on any part of the application is just a BAD idea. If you're not even willing to put forth an honest effort to study for an entrance exam, you really just don't belong in the applicant pool.

My 0.02.

To OP - Glad to see someone out there is enjoying grad school. Our department has professors who don't communicate with each other, students who don't like each other, and there is little respect between professors, students, or anyone really. Most of the students have established lives, but use that as an excuse to turn in work late or try and complain about how they don't have time to read/write. I hate my program, and consider it one of the worst decisions I've made. I look forward to seeing if my doctorate program will provide me with a redeeming experience similar to yours!

I studied about 2 hours a day for 3 months and got only an adequate score. You are lucky! I also took only one math course in undergrad. I forgot everything so therefore had to relearn everything. So if I were to have read your post and said, "oh, great, I will be ok not studying so much in advance," I probably would not have done very well. If you KNOW you aren't getting a lot of the questions right, then why wouldn't you study?

I have that problem too; we will do working drafts and read them in class and get feedback, and other students say my ideas are complex and the professors provides positive feed back and gives the gold star. someone else will turn in a craptacular draft that is obviously not graduate level work, but b/c it's good work for THAT student, I get a B and they get an A. Talk about wanting to slit some tires. Final papers don't get feed back from our profs, which is total BS, b/c none of us ever know why we earned the grade we did. In a way grading each student is fair, but for the good students who are graded harshly, it is counter intuitive. Our program is full of students who think doing the work earns them an A, because for the most part, our professors have no back bone and don't want to hurt/offend them. The few really great students made Bs and keep it a secret b/c we are being treated unfairly and know it, but can't do anything about it. I don't tell anyone my grade, they assume I made As b/c of how good my work is that we are forced to share. But my profs grade me harder than anyone else, so they always mange to give Bs. Sounds like all of your graduate peers are being graded fairly though, but I still wouldn't give out my grades.

My intention wasn't to advise people to not study, rather it was to alleviate the fear some people may experience upon first reading this forum. The first time I visited here, I was a bit worried because I saw several posts from people who studied several months and felt like that wasn't enough. If you're planning to take the GRE, I'm assuming you're smart enough to realize what does and doesn't work for you, so my post was more aimed at people like me who might become overwhelmed by all the posters here who seem to think you need to take a prep course, 10 practice exams, a personal tutor, and 3 different books to get a good score.

And lol at people taking the slacker comment seriously. Apparently some people need to brush up on their critical reading skills. And sense of humor.

The OP made no blanket assertions. He simply made a post to say that it's not always necessary to study- telling people that if they haven't had the time to study as much as other people here seem to, that they aren't necessarily doomed.

You can't say it's either necessary or unnecessary to study for the exam- it completely depends on your backgrounds, strengths, and weaknesses.

My general suggestion to people that are worried is to read a bit about the format of the test, then clear an afternoon and take one of the whole powerprep tests that ETS sends. You'll get rough scores, and from there you can decide how much you need to worry about studying- if you bomb the practice, then figure out what you were weak on and brush up. If you do "good enough", then don't worry about it.

GRE scores are used as a cutoff, sure.... But that's really about it. It's more of an "oh, they made over a 1200... put it in the "keep" pile". After that initial "did they meet the cutoff" look, I don't think GRE scores play a very large part of the equation. I think it's worth getting a score that's comfortably over 1200, but after that, I don't think it's worth the time to study significantly more- take those hours a day that you're studying for the GRE and use it to read articles in your field, do research, etc. I'd even say that you'd be better off putting that extra hour a day for several months into fine-tuning your CV and SoP.

Congratulations, you're happy. You tested well. Your methods and background worked for you. Consider yourself lucky.

You'll have a long and difficult road ahead if you think you can successfully slack your way through grad school, too- assuming you're even accepted into a program. You're not nearly as clever as you think you are; slacking on any part of the application is just a BAD idea. If you're not even willing to put forth an honest effort to study for an entrance exam, you really just don't belong in the applicant pool.

My 0.02.