Three hundred sixty-eight days ago I was in snowy Binghamton, N.Y., taking the GREs — the only thing I thought stood in the way of me going to grad school. The GREs or Graduate Record Examination, is a standardized test that many graduate schools require for admission, thus making your life a living hell and jeopardizing your hopes and dreams of attending graduate school, but there is hope.

Let me introduce you to the GRE. The exam consists of three graded sections, plus a required experimental section that is not included in your score. The three graded sections are analytical writing, verbal and quantitative. The analytical writing section always appears first, while the verbal, quantitative, and experimental sections can appear in any order on the test. The entire test procedure takes roughly three grueling hours. During the test you’re not allowed to use a calculator, or go back and change the answers to previous questions (like the SATs). But you are allowed to cry and/or to pray to the deity of your choice during the length of the exam.

You’ll have to sign up in advance because test centers only offer certain times on certain days to take it. The general test is around $140 and the GRE scores are valid for 5 years (We’ll come back to this…)

The analytical writing section consists of an “issue task” and an “argument task” both of which are graded on a scale of 0-6, in half-point increments. The essays are written on a computer using a word processing program specifically designed by ETS. The program is more like Text Editor than Word. It only allows basic computer functions and does not contain a spell-checker so don’t use any big, fancy words you aren’t sure on how to spell.

Issue task
This section gives you 45 minutes to choose between two topics and write an essay on one. Pretty straight forward.

Argument task
You’ll be given an “argument” and will be asked to write an essay in 30 minutes that either agrees or disagrees with the argument at hand. ALWAYS, ALWAYS argue AGAINST the issue! Arguing against the issue allows you to critique the flaws of an argument, suggest an alternative proposal and why it is a better choice. Test evaluators like to see that.

Verbal section
What’s an synonym for screwed? The verbal section consists of enough analogies, antonyms, sentence completions, and reading comprehension passages to drive you crazy. Multiple-choice response sections are graded on a scale of 200-800, in 10 point increments. This section is designed to test your vocabulary, and average scores in this section are substantially lower than those in the quantitative section. You’ll get 30 minutes to answer 30 questions.

Quantitative section
The quantitative section, the other multiple-choice section, consists of problem solving and quantitative comparison questions that will test all the math you were supposed to learn and remember from high school. You don’t get a calculator, so you’ll have to re-write all the graphs and equations on your scrap paper. You’ll get 45 minutes to answer about 30 questions.

Scoring
The multiple-choice sections of the exam use computer-adaptive testing (CAT) methods that automatically change the difficulty of questions as you take the exam, depending on the number of correct or incorrect answers that are given.

The first question that is given in a multiple-choice section is considered to be an “average level” question that about half of the GRE test takers will answer correctly. If the question is answered correctly, then questions become more difficult. If the question is answered incorrectly, then questions become easier until you answer a question correctly. What does that mean? It means you want to take your time and make sure you get the first few answers right; you’d want to get harder questions wrong, as opposed to easier questions wrong. In other words, just do your best.

Once you’re done, you are faced with the toughest question of the day — Do you want your score to count? Since the exam is given on a computer, you have the option of knowing your score right then and there, but not before they show you your score.  You have to commit before you can view your score. If you really feel like you bombed it, you have the option of your score not counting. You can walk away and it’s as if you never took the test. You can later sign up and take it again for another $140.

So what was my experience like?? It sucked. I had signed up months in advance and had purchased numerous study books, flash cards, and practice tests. They were pretty much useless. I did not see one vocabulary word on the test that had been included in my “500 most common GRE vocabulary words” box I had purchased. So much for that… I will say that the practice tests helped me with the format of the test-time management and being familiar with the format of the test will greatly benefit you and avoid confusion during the test. The nearest test center was an hour away from Ithaca College and I had to be there at 9 a.m. I didn’t want to get up early, then drive to a place I wasn’t familiar with and then have to do well on an important test, so I got a hotel room the night before in a sketchy area of downtown Binghamton. My breakfast of champions consisted of two Red Bulls and a blueberry muffin, which only led to a major crash about a third of the way through the test.  Make sure you have a good breakfast and bring a snack you can eat during your test breaks. During your breaks between the sections, go do jumping jacks or push ups in the hallway to get your blood flowing. Seriously.

I’ll admit that my scores weren’t great. My undergraduate degree didn’t require any math courses, and I hadn’t taken an English class in three years. I had my portfolio, my transcript, work experience, strong recommendations, contacts at the school, and top notch essays. My GRE scores were not the highlight of my application. I did well on the writing sections, which showed I could at least string a sentence or two together. But guess what? I’m convinced grad schools don’t look at GRE scores as the deciding factor. I was trying to get into the photojournalism program at BU, not the advanced quantum physics department. I think a lot of schools just want the scores to see that you took the test to show that you’re serious about going there. If their students do particularly well, they can use the scores to show off to other schools.

But here’s a little secret: GRE scores are valid for five years! If you are a senior in high school, or a freshman in college, take them now while the math and vocabulary are still fresh in your head! The material is very similar to what you’d find on the SATs, so get them both out of the way now and I’ll bet your GRE scores will be significantly higher than if you wait.