Anyone for the October 29th subject test?

[othersamantha]

Hi all! Just curious to see if there are others who are planning to take the 10/29 subject test, and if so, what your study focus is going to be over the next two and half weeks or so. Currently trying to brush up on literary terms and verse forms. If anybody has any good resources regarding verse form/scansion, I'd be very interested to know!

I'd also like to suggest Quizlet as a great study tool for making flashcards-- if, like me, you find making hand-written flashcards to be exhausting, it's a good way to speed up the process and give your hands a break from writing. They also have an app, so you can create the cards on your computer but then have access to them on the go.

Best of luck to everyone taking the exam!

Edited October 13, 2016 by othersamantha
Additional information

[hmss9245]

7 hours ago, othersamantha said:

Hi all! Just curious to see if there are others who are planning to take the 10/29 subject test, and if so, what your study focus is going to be over the next two and half weeks or so. Currently trying to brush up on literary terms and verse forms. If anybody has any good resources regarding verse form/scansion, I'd be very interested to know!

I'd also like to suggest Quizlet as a great study tool for making flashcards-- if, like me, you find making hand-written flashcards to be exhausting, it's a good way to speed up the process and give your hands a break from writing. They also have an app, so you can create the cards on your computer but then have access to them on the go.

Best of luck to everyone taking the exam!

I am! Using Princeton Review now.. but don't think time is enough...

[AnimeChic101!]

I took it last month. I refuse to do it again. 1) I can't afford it, and 2) most of my schools don't require it. It's a wallet drain and it hurts my spirit to sit there doing it. Plus, as an AfAm/Africana lit person, there were less than 5 questions on the exam that related to me area of study. It is terribly skewed to represent the traditional, white, cis, male and western cannon. This is an issue in literature studies and I don't want to pay into it. /end of  off topic rant lol

Edited October 13, 2016 by BlackRosePhD

[Dr. Old Bill]

1 hour ago, BlackRosePhD said:

I took it last month. I refuse to do it again. 1) I can't afford it, and 2) most of my schools don't require it. It's a wallet drain and it hurts my spirit to sit there doing it. Plus, as an AfAm/Africana lit person, there were less than 5 questions on the exam that related to me area of study. It is terribly skewed to represent the traditional, white, cis, male and western cannon. This is an issue in literature studies and I don't want to pay into it. /end of  off topic rant lol

Yeah, last month was my second time taking it, and while I felt pretty confident both times, I found time management to be MUCH more difficult the second time around. Simply put, almost all of the questions were related to long passages of text -- more than the Princeton book tells you, and definitely more than the first time I took it. If you're a relatively slow reader, you just have to hope that you can skim and scan the passage effectively enough to answer the questions. You certainly won't have time to actually, you know, read it critically like we're trained to do.

A big part of me feels (quite strongly) that it's a nearly impossible test to study for. Tips and tricks are all well and good, but having taken it twice now (and again, feeling confident about what I know on the test), I'm not sure that even the POE method the Princeton book recommends is all that effective anymore.

[AnimeChic101!]

1 hour ago, Wyatt's Terps said:

Yeah, last month was my second time taking it, and while I felt pretty confident both times, I found time management to be MUCH more difficult the second time around. Simply put, almost all of the questions were related to long passages of text -- more than the Princeton book tells you, and definitely more than the first time I took it. If you're a relatively slow reader, you just have to hope that you can skim and scan the passage effectively enough to answer the questions. You certainly won't have time to actually, you know, read it critically like we're trained to do.

A big part of me feels (quite strongly) that it's a nearly impossible test to study for. Tips and tricks are all well and good, but having taken it twice now (and again, feeling confident about what I know on the test), I'm not sure that even the POE method the Princeton book recommends is all that effective anymore.

There were soon many long passages in the last exam. I went through the packet and did all the questions with shorter passages first. TBH, there was only one question in my field. It's not something that somebody can study for but I did study. That was my second time taking the exam. I'm doing the general in a few weeks. At this point I've had to take out some credit cards to even afford my applications so there's NO WAY that i'm redoing the subject test. The thing is, I know my stuff. I really know my field. I really hope that I can get to the interview stage and prove this (as is shown in my SOP and writing sample). I think that the people in my field understand how unrepresented my field is in these sort of exams and that they look at my materials with that in mind. 

Anyways, may the curve be in my favor. We get scores back in a few days. 

 

p.s. we're applying to a lot of the same schools. What's your area? 

Edited October 14, 2016 by BlackRosePhD

[Dr. Old Bill]

1 hour ago, BlackRosePhD said:

 

Anyways, may the curve be in my favor. We get scores back in a few days. 

 

p.s. we're applying to a lot of the same schools. What's your area? 

Yeah, I think pretty much everyone knows the subject test is utter bunk (and I promise I will say the same thing if I manage to snag a good score this time). Unfortunately, until top schools stop using it as a weed-out factor, it will remain a necessary evil for the Ivy hopefuls.

As for my field, I'm an early modernist. In other words, I'm sort of the ideal demographic for the GRE test, and yet I still had to skip a bunch of questions due to a combination of lack of time and unfamiliarity with certain texts. Such a silly, irrelevant undertaking...

[jungThug]

anybody here know if the Oct 29 Subject Test results will be out in time for Stanford's 6 Dec deadline???? what about the Dec 15 deadline for other places?

[AnimeChic101!]

12 minutes ago, jungThug said:

anybody here know if the Oct 29 Subject Test results will be out in time for Stanford's 6 Dec deadline???? what about the Dec 15 deadline for other places?

the scores take about 5-7 weeks to be shown in your GRE account, and then (according to the people I spoke to at the are) another 6-7 weeks to get to the programs you want.

[WildeThing]

So, with a cautious time-line, someone wanting to have their scores in early December should take the test in August at the latest?

 

EDIT: Just realized that that is impossible. I guess September is the way to go.

Edited October 16, 2016 by WildeThing

[jungThug]

18 hours ago, WildeThing said:

So, with a cautious time-line, someone wanting to have their scores in early December should take the test in August at the latest?

 

EDIT: Just realized that that is impossible. I guess September is the way to go.

I would also like to know the answer to this if possible...

[Ramus]

26 minutes ago, jungThug said:

I would also like to know the answer to this if possible...

I seem to remember taking the exam in October, and I had no problem with scores arriving on time for application deadlines in December. 

[jungThug]

6 minutes ago, Ramus said:

I seem to remember taking the exam in October, and I had no problem with scores arriving on time for application deadlines in December. 

This feels very heartening!!! Thanks for the update. This link - https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/scores/get/ - gives the approximate mailing date for scores. I'm hoping that they can send the scores earlier and that my grades will reach on time.  

[othersamantha]

1 minute ago, jungThug said:

This feels very heartening!!! Thanks for the update. This link - https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/scores/get/ - gives the approximate mailing date for scores. I'm hoping that they can send the scores earlier and that my grades will reach on time.  

I too am taking the October test with the intention of sending scores for this application season (December-January). To be honest, I didn't even consider the possibility that October scores might not make it in time, because why would it be timed that way?! ETS is just such a horrible entity. I am happy to hear though that @Ramus seems to think that it won't be an issue!

Can anyone else weigh in on this?? Has anyone taken an October test and NOT had their scores arrive in time? Feel quite paranoid now.

[othersamantha]

On 10/13/2016 at 8:13 PM, Wyatt's Terps said:

Yeah, last month was my second time taking it, and while I felt pretty confident both times, I found time management to be MUCH more difficult the second time around. Simply put, almost all of the questions were related to long passages of text -- more than the Princeton book tells you, and definitely more than the first time I took it. If you're a relatively slow reader, you just have to hope that you can skim and scan the passage effectively enough to answer the questions. You certainly won't have time to actually, you know, read it critically like we're trained to do.

A big part of me feels (quite strongly) that it's a nearly impossible test to study for. Tips and tricks are all well and good, but having taken it twice now (and again, feeling confident about what I know on the test), I'm not sure that even the POE method the Princeton book recommends is all that effective anymore.

I couldn't agree more with this-- I took the Princeton Review practice test this weekend feeling reasonably confident with the preparation and studying I had done, and ended up with a 550 :/. I agree that Princeton's POE method has flaws, and I think in the real test I will guess slightly less aggressively to avoid the 1/4 point penalty (ie, only guessing if I can eliminate 2 answers or more, and passing over any questions that I truly have no knowledge of).

It's so difficult because it comes down to so much recognition-- I definitely missed a lot of the "match this obscure excerpt to the author/title" questions. As a tip for others, I've checked out this book https://www.amazon.com/Literature-SparkNotes-101/dp/1411400267/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476711721&sr=8-1&keywords=sparknotes+literature+101 from my local library, and it's been helpful in picking up character names and basic plot details.

Thanks again to all, and good luck to those still studying! Will be crossing my fingers that scores are sent in time for December 15 deadlines!

[othersamantha]

I've thought of another, more general question-- I will also need to resend my GRE general scores, since I took that exam last year. Anyone have any idea how long "additional score reports" take to send?? The sooner the better I would imagine, but definitely need to budget the cost of sending them out! Thanks!

[Ramus]

4 hours ago, othersamantha said:

I've thought of another, more general question-- I will also need to resend my GRE general scores, since I took that exam last year. Anyone have any idea how long "additional score reports" take to send?? The sooner the better I would imagine, but definitely need to budget the cost of sending them out! Thanks!

They send out scores within five business days of receiving your request. 

[AnimeChic101!]

9 hours ago, jungThug said:

This feels very heartening!!! Thanks for the update. This link - https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/scores/get/ - gives the approximate mailing date for scores. I'm hoping that they can send the scores earlier and that my grades will reach on time.  

This is so interesting. When I called in to confirm this information about a year ago, I was told that it takes much longer to send out because it's physically mailed or some such nonsense. 

[meh16]

Hi y'all! Most of my schools don't require the exam but I'm taking it anyway because why not? I'm studying by doing as many reading comp questions as I can because that's my strong suit and the focus on the more recent exam. I probably will stop "guessing aggressively" because that has killed me in practice exams. 

Good luck!!! 

[othersamantha]

Just wanted to say that I hope everyone did alright and is content (if not thrilled) with his or her score!  Nice at least that they got them to us a bit early, eh?