Next Day

I did survive the GRE. I didn't like it, but I survived. It felt a little bit like being arrested when I got to the tiny room in the huge building where all the testing was going on. I knew not to bring a bag or anything since you're not allowed to carry anything into the space, but even the tissue in my pocket couldn't come in with me and my watch had to wait outside! I'm surprised they didn't put us in jumpsuits. Then, after being wanded (yes, like at the airport - I saw someone else being fingerprinted, but they didn't do that to me), I walked into the room full of cubicles and computers (the test is computerized now) and was asked to wait by the door as the administrator walked over to unlock my cell - I mean, my computer. Then I sat down, put on some headphones they had provided just so I didn't have to listen to the sighs and pencil-scratchings and eye-rubbings from the cubicles around me. Six sections, a one-minute break between each, each between 25-35 minutes in length - I ran out of time a few times, felt a little silly quite frequently, and arrived four hours later, dazed, back in the room where I could pick up my watch, sign out, and leave.

Since it's computerized, I got my scores for 2/3 of the test already, everything except the analytical writing section. And did I blow it out of the water? No. But were my scores respectable? Yes. I hate standardized tests. I remember getting one of the lowest scores on the SATs out of my college-brat friend group in high school (in fact, my SAT score wouldn't have been enough to get in to Mills - I had to take the ACT instead), and I've shuffled up a little in the ranking since then, and normal tests (i.e. ones you take on material you have been taught in a course) are fun for me. The real deal will be October's Math Subject GRE. The plus side there? I'm interested in that material. I'm not interested in which two words best fit the sentence with two blanks. :P

(I had a funny moment as I left the test- the last screen that pops up shows you your numerical scores on the sections where there was bubble-filling in instead of writing, so two numbers just glare at you from the screen, and of course, you have no idea what they mean. What percentile? What - just what? And of course, I thought: "I'll just look it up on my phone once I'm out of the room." And then - realization: my phone is five blocks away, in the office where I dropped off all my stuff (since I couldn't take it into the testing facility) - at least ten minutes in which I could think about the test, but not do anything about it. It was kind of funny. It reminded me of a poster I saw downstairs in this work building: "In the event of a fire, exit the building BEFORE tweeting about it.")

In other news, I've been working for Primarq for almost two months now. I don't really know how that happened. I'm also about to move to Berkeley - I feel like I just started getting used to San Francisco. The nice thing is, I'll still get to come here to work every day. And I do love the East Bay. 

Alright. I have to go back to my algorithm now. Risk assessment is fascinating.