The Road to a PhD Program: One Step Forward...

I took the airport bus from Vienna Erdberg to Bratislava Airport (€20 round-trip) to take the GRE on Tuesday. The good news: the GRE is finally over. The bad news: my score was not what I'd hoped for. My verbal score had been much higher on the practice test I took, which lulled me into a false sense of security. Had it not been for that, maybe I would have studied more vocabulary and taken more time preparing. There's always more you can do and also more you can blame yourself for not having done.

There were also a couple of pleasant surprises, however. The first was that the experimental section of the GRE, which is usually hidden among the others, was stated explicitly and was optional. I found that fantastic. It came at the end, so I didn't have to worry about my score being dragged down by having the math section that counted come at the end of a three-hour test when I was worn out and ready to melt into the drain on the floor like that one Star Trek character from the show I obviously only watched once or twice. No really.

The other surprise was my math score: it was 90 points higher than on the practice test, which brought it up to where I thought I ought to be according to my own assessment of my math skills (nothing spectacular, but decent).

Overall, the total score was 20 points higher than the practice test score, but 450% of that gain was the math section. The actual verbal test seemed easier than the practice test, too! I was shocked when I saw the result.

For me, interested in a line of study/career that would involve a lot of analytical writing, the analytical writing section of the test is probably the most important. That has to be graded by a human, so I won't know about that score for another two weeks, probably. I am hoping essentially for a perfect score. That may be a little over-the-top, but that would save the rest of the GRE for me so... why not? I've aimed high and I'm hoping I've hit the target. If not, well, one of my favorite expressions is: "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." You can't control everything (but you are free to try as much as you like ;-) ).

The Road to a PhD Program: Update 1

All right, just a quick progress report: moving along on steps one and two. I've gotten the latest Cracking the GRE from the Princeton Review and have begun reading it. I also downloaded the program CueCard, which is a program that allows you to make computerized flash-cards. I'll be using it to study vocabulary, as that's a big part of the verbal test.

I took the online practice test today to get a baseline score, which I'm not going to share with you. Suffice it to say I didn't realize what I was supposed to be doing (the directions weren't displayed, which I think was a program error) and was trying to associate words rather than find their antonyms. First question (the most heavily weighted one) was therefore wrong! I also suck at basic math even though I can do calculus, apparently. So I'll be studying up on all that and now have minimum score goals in mind to work towards.

I've also already talked to a professor about Chicago. He suggested asking the admissions depts. there if there's a PhD student I could talk to. I should ask him/her about the experience there, then consider talking to my possible future professors as well. He also had some personal opinions about the schools, but I'll be keeping those to myself.

In sum: I've been making progress.

Next step: make an appointment to take the GRE in mid June.

Also: starting to fish around for a thesis adviser and make serious thoughts about my proposal, which must be turned in by July.

That's all for now. Glad to have a plan with goals and steps along the way!

Goodnight!

Soon to come: thinking about entries on Iran's nuclear program (already started a draft on that) and on East Jerusalem (Israel's facts on the ground). Stay tuned!