The GRE experience

The Graduate Record Examination or GRE is a part of college life now. Gone are the days where a B.Tech degree and a job sufficed the ambitions of students. The line of thought seems to be: If i am good enough to get into IIT/NIT then i am certainly good enough for more!

So on comes 7th sem and one thing (Err.. two including placements) dominating the minds of final year junta is GRE: Where u writing it? When? How much done? Ba***rd getting 1600 rit??
and so on..

I had the GRE experience yesterday. THE NEXT STATEMENT IS FOR MYSELF FOR WHEN I SEE IT IN THE FUTURE: THE SCORE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF POTENTIAL :)

Ya ya, maybe it indeed is but then "simple" is really relative. For those who came in late, the GRE has 4 (+1 experimental section) and 2 sections reveal the scores at the end of the test. First up were the two writing sections, My essay topic was: Scholars and researchers should pursue their individual interests rather than working for the benefit of the larger society..

Next up was Quantitative section: 28 questions amounting to a total of 800.. Was decent enough except for a question involving probability of a line having a slope equal to -1/slope of another line given by solving a set of linear equations.. It was my last question n was worth the status of being the "toughest".. Upon solving the equations i got the answer but its too boring to mention here..

Saved the biggest piece of the pie for the end: Verbal section. Not gonna write much except that i messed up 3 of the first 4 questions so i knew i was gonna get a poor score here..

So here i was facing the screen, the option Exit section in front.. I knew i was seconds away from getting my score and i was so taut with tension that you could have strung me across a guitar and played a D-major tone with no difficulty! I pressed the mouse button, fingers crossed and the screen changes to:

SECTION 5: EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS WRITING SECTION... I swear i was gonna hit the monitor with all force if it wasnt for the webcam looking at me from above! I exited that section ( I wasnt gonna win $100 for the best entry in my present state anyway) and all of a sudden the screen showed my scores:

Quantative section:- 770
Verbal section :- 500

Wasnt very happy, i was expecting better even if my preparation didnt merit anything more.. But a timely conversation helped and KFC came to the rescue!

Looking at it today, i am not disappointed with my GRE score.. Philosophy is a good defence against stuff :)