What records are you examining?

Earlier today I took the GRE. I do not have a specific graduate program in mind I will be applying to, but I want to have some scores handy in case they are needed.

Like many people, I have given ETS a large amount of money in my educational career (SAT, 2 SAT IIs, 9 AP tests, and now the GRE) and still might be taking the Physics GRE, or even the GRE again. Before I recap today, I will explain what I did beforehand.

Preparation
I prepared for the test by going through all the problems in the math review pamphlet ETS put out and at least one round of all the different types of questions in their Powerprep software. It helped a lot, as I made many simple calculation mistakes the first few times I did such unusual things as subtract integers and multiply one and two digit numbers. If there was an operation a competent fourth grader could do, I found a way to screw it up. After a little practice I got past the computation mistakes.

The only conceptual problems I had were remembering things like the median (I still don't know why people think this is so important), the standard deviation (the last time I calculated this was the first or second week of quantum mechanics in 2006), and some of the probability. I still do not understand how to get the answer in number 3 of this set. For a while I forgot about the Pythagorean Theorem. I knew what it was, I simply forgot it is very useful when dealing with geometry problems.

There was a sour problem about people in a survey. Below is a question I made up based on a concept from the Powerprep software. This was the hardest type of math problem for me in the software.

In a survey, 72 people like apples, 68 people like oranges, and 73 people like bananas. Of the people, 8 said they only liked apples, 9 said they only liked oranges, and 8 said they only liked bananas. 38 people said they liked all three. How many people said they liked apples and oranges, but not bananas?

A) 4
B) 10
C) 16
D) 27
E) 29

I will post the answer in the comments after someone gives it a try.

The Test
When I got my unofficial scores at the end of the test today I was very disappointed: Verbal 630 and Quantitative 660. I looked online for the percentiles of these scores and found a table from 2005-08. This puts me in the 90th and 62nd percentiles for the verbal and quantitative sections.

I can think of a few factors that pulled my math score down. I had not worked with some of the concepts and calculations in a long time. There were some issues with charts where I had to find a number, find a percent, do comparison to another graph, and give the answer as a percent. There were proportions, where there were x students to every 1 teacher and they wanted to know how many something about a graph. I am carefully avoiding revealing any details of the test. The exam cost $160 but it took very little of that to create, administer, and process. That leaves a lot of money for ETS to pay lawyers to file suits against hapless test takers.

I had a bad mental state and poor time management. On a few of the earlier (and easier) problems I was second guessing myself and checked my answers more than I should. On one of the early problems I spent over a minute to think, compute, try one way, and retry another. I know there was a time in high school I would have looked at that comparison and known the answer without doubt in ten seconds. I did not even get to the last six problems in the section because of my poor time management. I also let the idea of adaptive questioning and being unable to go back weigh on my mind.

I think I did well on the verbal section, but anything below 700 means I could have done better. The results for the writing section will come in a couple of weeks. I think I did well on them, except the graders might want longer essays than I wrote.

If I decide to apply to a graduate program, I will retake the test. In the meantime, if I feel the need to take any tests I will prepare for the Physics GRE. Even if I do not take the test, it would be a good review of physics I will be using at some point in my life. Until then there is fun to be had.


Tiger in your Tank

1 oz Jagermeister
1 oz Early Times (or other bourbon whiskey)
2 oz Orange Juice
6-8 oz Coca-Cola (or however much you want to add)

This drink was found here under the name dirty butt whore. Unless I am setting up a joke "A guy walks into a bar and asks the bartender..." I think the name needs to be changed for many situations. In the vein of naming drinks after critters and this being the year of the tiger, my Mom came up with Tiger in your Tank.