Lev Lazinskiy

The GRE

I took the diagnostic test that accompanied my 2010 GRE study book by Kaplan and I failed miserably. I am glad that it was only a diagnostic quiz, because otherwise I would not have the smallest chance on the coldest day in hell to get into a graduate program.

The problem that I have with the GRE is that the questions are irrelevant. They do not measure how likely you are to perform well at graduate level study, instead they measure how many complicated and useless words you can learn in a given number of months, how many irrelevant passages you can read in 45 minutes, and how many unnecessarily complicated math problems you can do in an hour.

It is sad, that I find calculus relieving after taking the math portion of the GRE. It is not difficult per se, it is just worded in a strange way and forces you to think in terms of theoretical math. Not algebra, not trigonometry, not calculus, but some weird ass backwards math that does not remotely apply to the real world.

I don’t want to sound like I am complaining that the GRE is “too hard”. I will take it in January, and I will get a great score. I am just frustrated at the fact that everything I learned in college has not prepared me for this exam, and nothing that I learn in Graduate school will relate to it.