When did you take it? I think I had something like that on my test–but I had no logic problems at all…and I am in grad school for library science, as well. Small world. 
Word, Sampiro. I think we got the exact same scores.
The worst part about the whole thing was getting my practice materials in the mail 2 months after I took the test. 2 months. Yeah, you can videotape me for identification on the way in, force me to take approved bathroom breaks like a goddamned prisoner, but you’re not on top of your mailings? Eat it, ETS. Eat it and throw it up later and then eat it again.
Um, I think 2001?
Oh that was unreal, I’d forgotten about that. At my testing you were allowed a 15 minute break between two of the segments, but you could not leave the building AND, since everybody’s test is self-paced, you had to raise your hand to be allowed to leave the tiny claustrophobic room. It’s the first time in over 30 years I’ve had to raise my hand to pee.
As a smoker I wanted to use the 15 minutes to smoke and, I couldn’t believe this, I had to go outside the building to a smoking area (that’s not the part I coudn’t believe) that was around the corner and in front of a window so that the woman at the desk could see me smoking and make sure I wasn’t consulting answer books or anything of the like. Okay— you can’t be excused until you’re finished with the Quantitative and Writing portions anyway, there’s really no way to study for the writing portion and the Quant. is past, you can’t say “ooh, I need to go back and change number 13 to D!”- the only conceivable thing you could do is look up some vocabulary words for the Verbal perhaps and I don’t even understand why that’s verboten. I mean, I can understand not having anything with you in the room, but you’re allowed to cram up to the minute you present yourself for the test, what’s 3 minutes of looking at words while smoking going to do? (I hadn’t planned to anyway as that type of cramming always hurt me more than it helped.)
I made a comment to a friend that I felt like the prisoners at Nuremberg sleeping on their backs with their hands on top of their blankets and their faces looking straight up under all night scrutiny. It was bizarre and just a tad more draconian than need be. I understand not being allowed to take scratch paper (that’d be the perfect way to smuggle formulae or whatever in) and not being allowed to talk during testing and even having to leave my jacket in the waiting room, but having to raise your hand and wait to be summoned, having to be timestamped when I went to the restroom, etc.- it reminded me of taking a urine test the level of “let’s be sure you’re not cheating… now just step through the metal detector, let the bloodhound sniff you and once we do the anal probe you’ll be ready to start”.
Oh, and my testing asked if I would mind answering 10 additional questions on Quant (with however much more time- 3 or 4 minutes or what-not) and on Verbal that were being considered for future tests, and again you weren’t told which they were. Since it assured you there’d be no penalty in your scoring if you didn’t take them and no bonus or rebate if you did, I declined as I saw no advantage to answering them.
I signed up to take the test about 10 days in advance, not a whole lot, but I just assumed that they didn’t send out the study materials to people taking it that soon from registration. Now I’m wondering if the materials are in the mail.
Oh, a “just so’s you’ll know” thing to anybody who’s having to take a standardized test of almost any type in the near future, remember to consult your public library. Most public library systems of any size have test tutorial subscription databases that will give you pointers and let you take mock or former tests, and they’re free with a library card and you can do them from home, but many libraries don’t publicize their databases very much so you may not know it. These are exactly the same quality tests included with the $40 and up study guides and they even include non ETS things like law enforcement and EMT exams.
I just remembered - when I took my general GREs, I arrived at the place half an hour early, the way we were told to do, only to find that IT HAD BEEN MOVED. The new place was a twenty minute walk away, and I was in an area where there were no buses nor cabs. Apparently ETS had changed it at the last minute. Those who’d been attending classes at the Princeton Review or other some such place had obviously been informed beforehand, but I’d been studying on my own and consequently nearly got seriously fucked over. They almost didn’t let me in because I hadn’t come half an hour early “like I was supposed to.” Fuck you, ETS.
I took it in 2005, right before they made some major changes to it (can’t recall what those were going to be, though).
I bought a review book (Princeton) and did the 4 practice tests. I had no choice, given my lack of ability in math. I’m glad I did. I looked into a course–but at $1000 and up, I said if I don’t pass, greeter at Walmart looks real good…
You would think the test monitors would at least smile or something–I think they moonlight from the DMV.
Blame the CEO.
He’s a greedy bastard.
I hope he chokes on every penny of that bonus, especially after the pay cuts he doled out to everyone else.
Wow, my testing guy was cool. He explicitly told us not to do the extra section, because he wanted to go home earlier. My extra section was a quant section, but they told you which one it was (the last one) and they gave you an onscreen calculator to use too. The incentive for it was a chance to win $250. I think two or three students can win. That’s two or three out of all the thousands of kids taking it. Plus, it was dependent on some sort of ratio between how well you did on your real quant and how well you did on the fake. So I left, and the proctor thanked me for finishing quickly.
Mrs. Shoshana does these puzzles for fun instead of reading books. I just do my best to keep her in Dell Logic Problems and try not grimace.
Not to step too hard on a highly attractive rant, but I do feel the need to say, as a former humorless drone ETS/MCAT monitor, that you have no idea how many people are trying to cheat. I had to literally yank a pencil out of someone’s hand more than once when they refused to stop work when the timer went off. This was back in the old days, when tests were administered on thin, flat rectangles of “paper.”
Ah, I had a nightmare happen the first time I took the GRE, the papyrus and quill version, in the mid 90s. And that, I have to say, wasn’t ETS’s fault. I realized to my utter terror that I had skipped an oval long about midway through the test and therefore every answer from that point down was off, and of course I discovered this when the time was almost up, which meant I had to go back and re-enter the answers and I was only about halfway through when the bells rang. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly a stunning score for that section. I took it on computer a few months later even though at the time that cost about $40 more than paper version, but there was absolutely no chance of anything worse than a skipped question happening.
I’m just sitting here laughing at the “logic” problems. If they were actually that interesting, I might have done better on them…
Shoshana -one can still be civil and friendly, but enforce the no cheating. Not referring to you (of course), but the woman who proctored my exam acted like she had just come from her proctologist. Of maybe she took her Bitch pills before breakfast…
If Susie takes the GRE on Tuesday, and Billy and Jack can only take it on Mondays, but they only have transport available two days a week, which test day will the proctor smile at any of them? (this one’s easy…).
I agree entirely. If anyone has a problem with a proctor, they should inform the testing coordinator or phone ETS and make a specific complaint. There’s no call to increase anyone’s stress.
I took the GRE several times (I have three graduate degrees), and my math score decreased commensurate to the increase in my verbal. I dare not take it again lest my math abilities be even further compromised. And no, in the 29 years since I took geometry, I have never used it for anything except calculating the hypotenuse of a city block to determine whether it would save me much time to walk across the grounds of a high school rather than to stick to the street. I have had opportunities to use arithmetic, logs, exponents, algebra, and basic descriptive statistics, but not geometry.
The Miller Analogies Test better correlates to success in my field (the GRE, generally speaking, correlates to SAT, which strongly reflects parental socioeconomic status), but tends not to be used for doctoral-level admissions.
I sincerely hope to never take the GRE again–or any standardized test.
I, too, have never used geometry (or at least not consciously). I have had use of basic algebra for calculating drip dosages and the like. I think geometry would come in handy for some of the gardening I like to do, but I can’t even formulate a word problem into an equation, so that’s out. To all you math oriented people out there: I envy you (a bit, let’s not get crazy). 
Old thread bumped cause I ain’t b’lievin’ this:
I registered to take the test in late November. The test was for 21 December. It didn’t surprise me that they didn’t have time to send me the tutorial CD program- that’s quite reasonable- so I assumed they just ignored that request.
Until today, more than 2 months after I took the test/3 since I registered. Guess what came in today’s mail- the tutorial CD program. :dubious:
But I have to give ETS props for one thing: my GRE results were all sent immediately (ridiculously overpriced to mail but immediately). My transcripts have been a frigging nightmare getting to where they’re supposed to go in a timely manner even when requested well in advance and with addresses verified and all that jazz. One arrived last week at an institution after being requested two months ago.
PS- If anybody needs the tutorial CD program I’ll be glad to send it to you. Just send me an email.
You got off easy. I’m doing law school apps at the moment and the ass-raping began long ago.
**Signing up to take the LSAT ** = $(some crazy amount. I can’t remember.)
**Signing up for the LSDAS ** (the service that compiles all of your application data. Nearly every law school requires it. It’s run by the same company that administers the LSAT. Like you say: How is this not a classic monopoly?) = $115
Each LSDAS report sent out to a law school = $12
On the other hand, you get to complain about bad service, while my service has been fine so far. But I am required to pay a completely ridiculous amount of money for a service that essentially takes applications that I compile and forwards them to my law schools.
Hey, let’s DO get all Ayn Rand on these people and start our own testing company.
Those people would be the Law School Admissions Council. I temped there for a couple weeks last fall. I realize they aren’t particuarly helpful to you, but I think they are to law school admissions departments. They do seminars for new admissions profressionals on a variety of topics, issue a lot of different publications meant to be passed on to students, that sort of thing. They are absolutely serious about security and I had to offer up my firstborn son as security against mentioning to anybody what was served in the cafeteria on any particular day. OK, maybe not that bad, but it was the most serious confidentiality agreement I ever had to sign as a temp. In fact, I’m not sure I ever had to sign one before as a temp. I think only in real jobs. The people who make up the tests are locked into glass offices, as are the graders. It was really kind of creepy walking by them. It was kinda like the primate house at the zoo. Just a little too close to be comfortable watching them like an attraction, but something about those floor to ceiling windows compels you to at least glance that way. Anyway, if there had been a job opening I would have applied, but apparently the only way people leave there is feet first because it’s such an incredible place to work. They only needed me short term to help them get ready for seminar season.
So Gil; you on board for Sampiro’s and my new testing company to compete with LSAC and ETS?
I’m glad these people take it so seriously. It just frosts my pumpkin that you have to pay $100+ to take the test, and then you have to pay $100+ *again * to be able to use the results of that test.
Honest, Sampiro, the GRE is a load of shit. You are absolutely right about it.
Of course, Mrs. Small took it a few weeks ago, so in early summer I should be getting a tutorial cd. Woo Hoo! What a bunch of fuckwits. That’s almost like the letter they sent us with the address. It said 4 President St. (or something to that effect) and I grew up in the town that the test was in. I know there is no president street. Apparently, Yahoo maps found it, and I drove right to it. It is not a street. It is the side of a building - Maps showed me to go between street x and y. Apparently, there was a street there before they built a huge parking garage/computer lab. You’d imagine that the GRE people would know where to send people to take their own fucking test…unless they don’t want you to show up on time (then keep the money you paid)…bastards…and I have to take this test in a year. :rolleyes:
Brendon
Oh, you wouldn’t want me. I’m not especially talented at anything in particular. Hence the temping. And frankly, I agree with you, it is outrageous. I know there isn’t room for everybody, and so you need some way of weeding out those who aren’t likely to make it but I don’t think standardized tests really do that. Or at least not well. I don’t think I’m putting this well. I believe that standardized tests do not test for all the qualities that make up a sucessful student, and therefore cut out valuable candidates before they get a chance to prove themselves. However, whatever it is that they do measure is a good predictor of success for that measure. Does that make sense?