Tests

I took another test today. It was an important test, of sorts. My GRE scores -- my great, great GRE scores, expired last month, and I had to retake the test to submit current scores with my PhD application. I did as much as I could to prepare. I actually taught for Kaplan Test Prep for more than a year since I last took the test, so I knew all the tools for different kinds of questions. I tried to review vocabulary, but I didn't keep up with it in the rush of end-of-semester assignments. I got a good score today, only thirty points lower than my old scores. My math was actually higher, my verbal unfortunately lower, and I think I did equally as well on the essays (but I won't get those scores until the printed results arrive). It's good enough to not be a problem in my application, probably high enough for a few professors to say, "Wow, she did really well," but even that won't be enough to get me in without many other merits in my application. Peabody (the ed school at Vanderbilt) gets around 600 applications to their PhD program and take 40.

It occurred to me as I was checking in today that I have taken a lot of tests -- you know, the kind you go to a Prometrics Center for (or, in the olden days, went to a local high school on a Saturday with your #2 pencils and graphing calculator). I took the PSAT and the SAT at least twice. I took the PRAXIS tests. I took a test for National Board Certification (which several people were there for today). And I've now taken the GRE three times. Plus I took all kinds of informal ACTs, GMATs, LSATs, and even verbal MCATs in order to teach them for Kaplan. I get standardized tests. So does Wes, who has taken many of these tests as well as three rounds of USMLE boards, tests that last hours and sometimes days and include hundreds of multiple choice questions with answers A-J.

I don't know if I'll get in to the PhD program, and I don't know if my test scores will make any difference. If nothing else, Wes and I should have kids who do great on standardized tests!