When I decided to go back to school to get a graduate degree I was full of optimism. I thought the timing was right, as I had just graduated from college. I was currently unemployed so I had plenty of time to devote to a great application and to study for the required GRE. Well fast forward a few months and you will see how insanely loopy I must have been at the time. (Personally I blame the new mommy hormones.)
First of all I am a mother of three, one of which is a new baby. Actually she is now six months old, but she hasn’t gotten any easier! I also have a toddler in the throws of the terrible two’s (which he should have outgrown two years ago but I am still waiting…) and a ten year old in baseball and boy scouts. BUSY doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Second of all I have a full time job that requires long hours and weekends on occasion.
OK, so when to study?
Well If I was as well put together and organized as I claim to be I would have scheduled some time each week. I had the software, the books. I should have been prepared. Long story short, I procrastinated. I put it off for kids, work, sleep.
I waited until the week of to even take a practice test, which I did miserable on. I thought I had a fairly decent vocabulary so it was quite a shock to see so many words that were absolutely foreign to me. Were they even actual English? I have my doubts.
I probably should have rescheduled, but having failed to read all the paperwork I missed the cancellation window so I was in fact stuck. Needless to say my scores were not pretty but I take heart in the fact that I can re-take the test next month. This time I promise to study! Well right after I write this press release, oh and then I have an exhibit to work downtown, and that interview has to be scheduled and then I am chaperoning a field trip and the baby needs her shots….ok so maybe grad school will just have to wait after all.
The point of all this? The world will not wait for you to catch up. Time management is the PR professional’s best friend. LEARN IT. USE IT. SUCCEED.
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3 comments:
So you lived to tell the tale? I think that is one of my biggest fears, that a bad grade will make me vanish into a puff of smoke.
Not true. You learned something from your experience.
It sounds like you have a lot going on - I might need to chat with you when I plan to have kids, which is hopefully soon!
The main thing I learned is that these tests are very poor indicators of what you can accomplish in grad school. As it turns out, my scores had very little to do with me getting in, at least that is what my advisor tells me.
So don't worry too much about tests that were only designed to pigeonhole our talents. From reading your blog you have a ton to offer that you will never learn in a class. good luck!
Oh, if and when you do have kids, I am always available for a chat or a rant as the case may be. :)
I remember my experience taking the GRE. My advice to you would be to take a practice test early, possibly before you even start the actual studying process for the exam. This way, you will get a good feel for what to expect and you will see where you stand without any preparation. After you get the results from your first practice test, you can assess your strengths and weaknesses. Like you, I also felt I had a pretty strong vocabulary, but upon taking a practice exam, I realized that my performance on the verbal portion of the exam was severely lacking. My score on the quantitative section of the exam was solid, so I wasn’t too worried about my math skills. Writing has not been a problem for me, so I didn’t even prepare for that portion.
I don’t know if this is the best way to study, but after seeing my poor vocabulary results on the practice exam, I immediately went to www.dictionary.com and began printing out their past “Words of the Day.” In all, I had about twenty pages worth of vocabulary. I made a pact with myself to memorize one page a day. I thoroughly studied one page for about an hour, and then reviewed all the past material. After about a month of this system, I had a pretty good grasp of some obscure vocabulary.
The key about the GRE is that it adjusts based on your past performance. As a result, if you answer questions 1-5 correctly and get all the other questions wrong, you will score higher on the test than if you answer questions 1-5 incorrectly and get all the other questions right. Thus, it’s very important that you take your time in the beginning of the exam to make sure you have the right answers. After that, if you notice the questions are extremely difficult, chances are you have achieved a good score and are in the higher bracket of questions. If you find the questions are a breeze, you probably did pretty poorly on the first five questions and have fallen into the lower bracket of questions.
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