1Q84

<puts on tin foil hat> The purported variations in tests this past cycle are clearly evidence of collusion between ETS and test prep companies to sell more and newer guides. Gotta justify those yearly editions! <not taking off tin foil hat>

I always wanted to do this but it seems particularly labor-intensive. Any tips?

Thanks, all! Glad to know other people think about this. I'm definitely going to err on the side of over-communication now.

This has always been a weird social anxiety thing for me. I hate that moment when you get a response to a question from a professor (or administrator) and have to decide whether or not to respond with a thank you or affirmative. I know professors are often so inundated with emails that they would prefer to keep any correspondence to most spartan, essential communications necessary. I also try to think about it from the perspective of a teacher: usually I don't even notice if a student doesn't respond with a thank you after a back-and-forth, so maybe it's the same for profs? Ack! Is there any standard rule for this or am I just being weird?

I bought an iPad for this reason but found most professors a little hostile towards notetaking on it or even having any electronics out during seminars. Anyone else experience this?

Also, for those on a budget like I was, this nifty little site was useful as a (very supplemental) guide. I don't know who made it and I know it's incomplete in many places but it was easy to browse while waiting for the train! https://vademecumgre.wordpress.com As for me, as an early modernist, I was lacking a lot of American knowledge, and I think this site has a decent introduction to early American.

I love how I'm made to go to the US international student orientations even though I'm a Canadian citizen. Yesterday's was a fun introduction to "US culture" and how US banking works.

But my God is Dr. Atkins...

All the childish namecalling aside, I don't think OP is off-base in seeing gender studies as a "fad." (This is coming from someone who wants to specialize in one of the most "faddish" studies in academia--queer studies.) We all know that academia does move in cycles of fads, especially when it comes to hiring and publishing, and it would be foolish to not admit that. I don't think it's prudent to ignore all fads based merely on wanting to be a nonconformist or someone who "doesn't follow trends" but it's still certainly possible to eke out an academic career without being a Marxist or a gender feminist queer disabilities studies what-have-you. Do I think ignoring Derrida would harm OP's relevancy in some circles? Sure. But assuredly there are plenty of scholars out there that would take to OP's "old-school" approach to literary studies. What I find even more disturbing is the tendency of people like ED to harangue people into agreeing with her under the guise of giving advice because of some perceived elder/experienced status. If there's one thing I'm really dreading about fully investing myself in academia, it's this penchant for arrogant condescension.

FWIW, I was one of the folks in the other thread that mentioned feeling like the Princeton Review guide didn't align with the actual test. I'll offer two minor correctives to that statement: 1. I forgot that I was using the 2012 edition (I was a keener and bought it super early, before my MA even began), so the 2013-2014 edition may be more up to date, for all I know. 2. I think what unraed says is correct in that the strategies for general test-taking are still very accurate and useful. (I was also going to mention how I liked Princeton's analogy of a "cocktail party" level of knowledge being sufficient for that test but Wyatt pointed that out already.) What I do think could use some more emphasis on their part, however, is the fact that reading comprehension questions have both become more prevalent and also more tricky, in my eyes. The biggest problem for me was that the ones on my test felt simply far longer than I anticipated. I know the Princeton guide mentioned long passages and how to deal with them but these were long. It threw me for a loop getting so many long passages in one test, I think. Anyway, that's all to say that I didn't mean to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I'd still use Princeton as one of several study aides if I had a second go at it! PS. I'm happy to send my 2012 Lit Test guide to someone in need + the General Test guide too. PM me!

I wish this kind of "I'm a bitter graduate student sent here from the future to save you" advice would just go away. I can understand venting your bile when a poster here is questioning his or her drive to consider/begin/complete their Ph.D. programs (misery loves company, right?) but this was not the case for OP. Your post was useless and completely unwarranted. Edit: Even though, as folks are saying below, OP has expressed doubts about graduate school in other posts, ED didn't actually address those concerns at all but instead chose to speak condescendingly to OP's abilities. Still pretty gross.

Or advizer and just imagine that he or she is your own personal Dumbledore.

I'll step onto the side of the "academic" readers. Before I started my MA, I read a couple beginner's guides to lit theory and I felt like the very broad summaries helped me to grasp the details when we later discussed them in class. It really helped to have the background when it came to class discussions, not only because I wasn't busy engaging with the ideas for the first time but I was able to help lead the conversation to a greater degree. (Of course, as you'll find, these generalized summaries tend to drain extremely complex fields and theories of any subtlety and the contradictions and raging debates therein, but those you can find out by engaging with your colleagues in class discussions.) This is the one my program used and I found it rather accessible: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008N7Q2SQ/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb One thing that I wished I did was read a couple of the most recent articles in my field of interest. I was very interested in queer theory but started from ground zero instead of knowing what were the most up-to-date and relevant discussions. All that being said, I've elected to do way more pleasure reading this summer--about 2 contemporary novels to 1 theory work. It's been rejuvenating!

The thing is, none of this is really "against the rules." Of course, it's heinous behavior to watch one's S/O physically assault someone but I can't imagine there is any university policy governing this type of situation. As was summarized before: off-campus event, assailant is not employed by university. You can't accuse the professor of wrong-doing just because she "has a history." That's not how the legal system works and that's not how university adjudication should work either. I think the mods took a somewhat... less tactful route but the core of the matter is that OP believes that the events that transpired are directly linked to an unpleasant email exchange and thus qualifies as a university matter because it links the professor directly to the assault. (Again, based on what has been posted, this is as far as "proof" goes.) The Title IX stuff, which seems like kind of an off-the-cuff suggestion, has unfortunately turned into something of a red herring for the rest of the thread. tl;dr there's a tenuous to nonexistent link between professor and the assault. To pursue further action against the professor based solely on that evidence would be irresponsible.

Just chiming in to say I'm a huge Leah Marcus fanboy. What I would give to work with her!

Someone I consider a friend and whom I quite admire (as a fellow non-trad student) on TGC is attending WashU next year for cultural anthro. I think he comes to the English forums every once in a while. Let's see if I can summon him!

I hesitantly suggest that you learn some rudimentary Latin to help with exactly what you mentioned. Instead of being flustered by similar looking words, you can pinpoint the actual root or pre-/suffix and be confident in your selection. Websites like this are designed for specifically this purpose: https://msu.edu/~defores1/gre/roots/gre_rts_afx1.htm Now, I'm going to be that guy and say that I think that the GRE General Test is actually somewhat important. Lots of differing opinions on this on TGC, but I know quite a few schools have a Graduate Division hard cut-off score that will either disqualify you from funding (if it's not guaranteed) or will not even get your app passed onto the English Department. English Departments themselves usually have a soft/rumored cut-off score, so that's something to keep in mind. Obviously, your SOP and WS are far more important than a GRE score, but don't discount the leverage that the score can give you--unless a POI has explicitly told you that the department doesn't care about scores (as I had one professor tell me when I called him.)

As for your second question, the Princeton GRE prep book is really amazing for the General Test. I would say the test-taking strategies in there definitely helped net me the 169 V (especially because I had never done standardized testing before, being from Canada and all.) Also, what did you have the most trouble with in the Verbal section? That might allow us to give more specific advice on how to improve.

Nick Diamonds - City of Quartz Algiers - Algiers Jamie xx - In Color Shamir - Ratchet Mad Max Soundtrack

I was using the Kobo Mini so I don't think it was an accurate representation of the Kobo experience but... it definitely did turn me off from e-ink for quite a while. That thing about borrowing books from Canadian libraries is awesome, though! By limitations I meant that I was trying to make it into a word processor/notetaker along with my reader, which was a frustrating combination. Trying to type notes or, god forbid, an essay on an iPad was a horrendous experience. Absolutely agree with you on the portability, convenience, and readability points. I especially love the Books app layout and intuitive UI.

Good to know! Definitely going to hold off on this one for now.

Awesome! Thanks. How come you don't use it for reading papers or articles? (I'm mainly interested in it for those purposes.)

See, I've been trying to switch over to e-reading for a while now but I was very unimpressed with the Kobo (from 3 years back). I tried the iPad and found that I was trying to do too much with it and bumped up against its limitations (and found myself just using my phone or laptop instead.) I was interested to read reviews of the new Paperwhite. It's appealing to me because a) it's cheap and b.) it is so limited in its function that I would only ever use it to read (and thus cause less distraction). Anyone else use the old version of Paperwhite and want to share their experiences? ETA: here's a review that makes the new model look particularly sexy http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/17/8797749/amazon-kindle-paperwhite-2015-hands-on-photos

I have a Princeton GRE book up for grabs! All I ask is shipping! PM me.