GRE postmortem

I don't know my scores, and won't know them until November, but I can say with some confidence that I probably performed at about the 5 or 6 level on the Analytical Writing section, and may have done better on both the Verbal and Quantitative sections of the new test. I'm glad I did all that drilling; even if Kaplan's problems were occasionally poorly constructed, the manuals did help familiarize me with the new format, so there were no surprises on that level. I also managed, this time around, to finish every single section without running out of time-- I even had time to recheck most or all of my answers for some sections, which was a good thing, because I think I caught one or two gaffes. I know: first instinct is best when it comes to multiple choice, but when I scored a 20 out of 20 the other night on that Kaplan GRE Quant section, that was because I had gone back and found errors before my time ran out. I think my instinct for sniffing out such mistakes is pretty good.

I do hope I scored above a 730 on the Verbal; that would be encouraging. As for the Quant, well... I seriously doubt I'll get the coveted 800, but I'm also pretty sure I did somewhat better than a 710. I can't talk about specifics (you have to sign a form to that effect before you take the test), but I think it's OK to say that there were two questions related to standard deviation that tripped me up; I definitely got both of them wrong, since I don't recall ever practicing standard deviation in either my Kaplan or my ETS manual. Will have to work on those; standard deviation might make an appearance in the tutorial section of the Kaplan GRE Math manual.

I have more to write about how today went, but that'll have to wait: I'm off to Fredericksburg to visit my buddy Mike and his family, hang a bit, and then get back home before the storms get truly bad. While I look forward to a good and hearty thrashing from Mother Nature, I do worry about whether my flimsy apartment building will survive the onslaught. Most of my own possessions in here aren't precious to me, but because I'm the keeper of many of Mom's possessions, I'm worried about those things-- especially her ashes, which are in my care, but which don't truly belong to me or to any one individual.


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