After so much drama happening earlier this month, life took a turn towards serenity. I completely isolated myself from college and friends to an extent during the course of my GRE preparation.As I always say, I have no plans of going abroad as of now, nevertheless,I thought it will be nice giving it a shot and am glad with my decision.
The last 10 days have been quite banal with a very few exceptions. Waking up late in the morning after a study session at night was the routine. I,without my own knowledge, was getting accustomed to the U.S timings with no motives to go there..Or perhaps, I was just getting a little nocturnal.
My sole reason for writing the GRE is future planning and my parents' desire of me writing all the exams possible. They cultivated this habit when I was really small and I guess by now it has got into my blood too. So with parents' expectations and some peer pressure being my motivation, I decided to write the exam. I booked my test dates even before I got my passport hoping that the passport will arrive on time. I am glad, it did. I also timed my exam in such a way that it will not come in the way of my placements,internals or any other activity.
I got my first surge of inspiration for the preparation while I was having a look at the Workout Manual for GRE from Princeton. With friends quizzing each other on words, the wheels of my preparation started rolling. I must admit it is one of the best way to learn words.With around a week for the D-day, I realised I had a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, I had not done much.
That was the time,I did something I've never done in my life. Truly said, "Zindagi mein bahut kuch pehli baar hota hai". I decided to bunk college till my GRE exams got over. I used to utilize some time very constructively. Not surprisingly, there were times which I simply wasted. But I guess that was needed to maintain a balance.
I started taking atleast one practice test per section, learning new words,googling through various sites for assistance(which was not very successful) and whiling away some time.I also went through various books from friends whether it was Barons, ETS, Princeton or Kaplan.
Despite the pair studies once in a while and these routine activities, I was nervous.Nervous, about the what the future had for me.Nervous, about how I am going to tell my score to everyone if it is not good Loads of negative thoughts cropped in too, but I tried my best to keep myself optimistic.
I have always seen people using Word Power Made Easy while preparing for GRE. But the thickness of the book always scared me,especially since I am a tyro at reading. Three days before my exam I decided to have a look at it.After reading the first 50 pages of the book in half an hour, I fell in love with the book. I parallely decided to take down notes about the root words and their origins and finished skimming throught the book with appropriate notes in about 5 hours.I was myslef shocked on achieving that feat. The mini-dictionary was the last section which I went through the next day. With around 2 days for the test, the nervousness only increased.
Giving a friend a surprise on his birthday, buying the Ganesha idol, rides on the HH Pleasure and a series of serials on TV were a few de-stressers that time. A couple of days before the exam, I used to just follow the routine and worrying about the results.On the eve of the exam, I just managed to read for the analytical section which I had almost neglected and revise already known concepts. I decided to not take any practice tests that day for the fear of being de-motivated.
The D-day finally arrived. It was 31st of August. When the world was relaxing at home, my friend and I were getting ready to leave for the all-important exam. Reaching well before time, we had some time share a chuckle and clam oursleves down. 45 mins before the scheduled time, we were called in for the confindentiality agreement and security checks. On its successful completion, we were alloted cubicles in which we were to spend the next 4hours sweating it out in an air-conditioned room for the GRE.
I would certainly not be able to exactly put that 4-hour feeling here, but loads of thoughts were flowing in and I tried to keep myself as calm as possible. The first section was the analytical writing section where I had to write an issue essay on "Learning being a matter of personal discipline; schools and colleges alone are not sufficient" and another argument issue on "Mandatory driver's education for teenagers of Centerville school". The AWA was followed by a quants session and a verbal section. The 10-min break helped me to calm down after a not-so-good verbal section. I was happy that half my test was over. The next 3 sections were quants,verbal and quants.I was praying that my experimental section would be verbal since I had a terrible first section of Verbal but I was happy solving the Quants qs.
After a hect 3 hour 45 mins, my test was finally over and my scores was displayed. i was happy with my quants range of 750-800 and I had mixed feelings about my verbal range of 410-510. After choosing my 4 universities, I walked out of the room relieved that the test is over.
I was not very happy with my score but I knew that it was an OK-performance. The day followed with preparations for Ganesh Chaturthi,which was on the next day.After a long period was holidays, I was craving to go to college which was supposed to be a mass bunk. But fortunately nearly half the class turned up.
After college adding some colour to my life, life is going to be followed with more
exams and the placement season.
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