Now, I didn't look over my last few posts, like I usually do when I post because I never remember what I say, so I apologize in advance if I repeat myself.
I'm currently working at an elementary school with 3-5 graders doing recess duty and helping in 6 different classrooms. But it's a job, not a career. Therefore, I'm currently working on applying to graduate school!
SURPRISE!!! I am applying to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UW-SP) for an Masters degree in Environmental Education. This should help me not only get a job, but be better at it when I get one. Being a biology major at St. Norbert College (SNC), I never learned things like how to teach, or how to write curricula. Getting an advanced degree from UW-SP will not only teach me these things, but even more, AND it will show to others that I've been formally trained, and had informal practice.
Applying to grad school is really kind of a pain, though, I'm finding. It's not like applying to college--here are my grades, my money, my community service, my AP test results=welcome to college. For UW-SP, I not only need to apply to the university, but also to the College of Natural Resources. They need my transcripts, which is easy enough, but that means I need to track down my ID number from the University of the Sunshine Coast, so I can get my transcripts from my semester abroad. I need to pick out the perfect collegiate paper for a writing sample. I needed 2 letters of recommendation--luckily I knew exactly who to choose: my supervisor from my 9 months of interning in the education department at the Northeastern Wisconsin (N.E.W.) Zoo my senior year of college, and my favorite professor from SNC, who also happened to be my faculty advisor for my internship. I still have to write my personal essay/letter of intent, among a few other little things, but the one aspect that was causing me the most stress was covered this weekend: I had to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).
Surprisingly a lot of people have no idea what the GRE is. The GRE is basically the ACT or SAT for grad school. Except that there is no calculus and no trigonometry on the GRE. Essentially the GRE makes sure you can take a test. And I can take a test :) This year the powers that be (who create and administer the GRE) changed the test dramatically. The test still has 3 sections: Analytical Writing, in which you must write 2 essays-Analysis of an Issue & Analysis of an Argument; Quantitative Reasoning=Math; Verbal. The test is almost 4 hours long, I spent a total time of about 4 hours 10 minutes in the testing center. The GRE used to be scored on a 200-800 scale. In 2012 (actually as of Fall 2011) the test is scored on a 1-point per question scale, with a perfect score being 170. The way the test is administered was even changed. The test is what is called a Computer Adaptive Test (CAT). The old test would give you a question, if you got that question right, your next question was harder, if you got that question wrong, you got an easier question. Now the test still adjusts to how you do, but instead of deciding the next question, now the test gives you a harder or easier next section of the test. The test has 3-ish sections of math & verbal questions. If you do well on the first math section, you get a harder 2nd math section. Changing this aspect of the test allows the test taker to skip questions (instead of being forced to guess) and review questions (to me, this was super awesome). The Verbal section of the test no longer is mainly vocabulary based--not just big words, but big words no one knows or has ever heard of. Now the test focuses more on reading comprehension--way more important than big words, if you ask me. They also changed the way certain questions are asked.
So while the Princeton Review book that was withdrawn from the SNC library (the James J. & Miriam B. Mulva Library, for those of you keeping score at home) was helpful to my studying (strategizing the essays), the first 1/3 of the book was obsolete because of the changes. I also didn't have a target score because of the scoring changes--UW-SP's old GRE requirement was 1000 total points.
I had this whole study schedule that I got off the Internet, and I made these giant calendars, and got all organized--color coordinating each section (math, verbal, essay) with a color; i.e. math was blue, thus I had a blue highlighter, blue post-its, and purple (there wasn't blue in the package) flags for my studies. However, my brain had different plans...like anything that wasn't studying. Even over Christmas break--I wanted to cram; my brain wanted to chill out. This was stress inducing. I just couldn't make myself study. I'd try to read a section, and it was like my brain shut down. I just didn't care. (In case you're wondering, the GRE costs $160. I make $8.00/hr. If you do the math, before taxes, it took me 20 hours to pay for this test.) I had to care and didn't want to. And then to top it off, I'd talk to people (who care about me very much) and they'd tell me I would do great. My friend Steven had taken the GRE, and he was like, "You're smarter than me and I did okay, so you'll do great." I appreciated all of it, but it made my brain go, "SEEEEEEEEE, you don't need to study. Go watch something on Hulu, play with your new NOOK Tablet, and plant something in Farmville" (you'll see I don't have much going in the way of a social life).
I scheduled my GRE for Saturday 1/8/12. So when it came to last week Thursday (1/5/12) I was like, "You know, Brain, we haven't read ANYTHING about the essay section...which I really need to work on based on the 1 practice test I took when I was supposed to start studying" (back in October/November).
[Side Note: the essay section of the GRE is graded on a 6 point scale. When I took the original practice test, I got a 151 on both the math & verbal sections, but only got like a 2 on the essays...out of 6...FAIL]
So here's Thursday night, and I start reading about the Analysis of an Issue essay. I figure out the strategy, and do my best to remember it. We (the parentals & myself--they're great people if you don't know my parents) packed Thursday night, so we could travel to Madison Friday right after work. They were gracious enough to pay for a hotel room for Friday night, since my test was at 8am, I had to be there by 7:30am, we live about 1 1/2 hours from the east side of Madison and my test was on the west side of Madison. We left for Madison around 4pm Friday, checked into the hotel, went to dinner, and by about 7:30 or 8pm Friday night, I finished studying the Analysis of an Issue and crammed the Analysis of an Argument. I made note cards with the strategical outlines suggested by the book I was studying with and went to bed at about 11pm, Friday night.
And of course, I slept terribly. I was so concerned with being late to the testing center, and nervous about not studying as much as I would've liked, I woke up every 2 1/2-3 hours until 6am. I got up and dressed in the dark hotel room, went down & got breakfast, and was off to the testing center!
The testing center was filled with more people taking the CPA than the GRE. I emptied my pockets, shoved my coat into a little 1' locker, got my picture taken, got wanded for metal (or whatever) on my person, showed my ID, and was shown to my computer (#19). It was basically a computer lab in a basement. There were a total of about 25 computers, which were between 1/3-1/2 full. I utilized my time and my scratch paper and went to town on the GRE.
I feel pretty good about my scores. Because it is a CAT test, you get to see your "unofficial" scores immediately after the test (awesome!), except for your essay scores, since they are read by humans (bummer!). I figure my essays are far superior to the essays I wrote on my original practice test: I was organized, used specific examples, used transition/key words, and had paragraphs of decent to respectable length. I'll have to wait like 2 weeks to get those scores. BUT I did get my "unofficial" math and verbal scores. I got a 155 math and a 156 verbal (WHOOT)! If these scores correlate directly to the old scoring scale, that's somewhere between 729 and 734, which is a pretty great score. This is also a score I didn't really expect. It was a great unexpected surprise, however it did make me wonder what my score would have been if I had actually stuck to my study plan (it's like how many licks will it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop...The world may never know). Hopefully UW-SP will be as impressed with my scores as everyone I know seems to be.
Next up in my life: finish my UW-SP application; hopefully get accepted to the Environmental Education graduate program for Fall 2012 at UW-SP; go to grad school for 2 years (and hopefully rock that like the GRE); get a job that can be a CAREER; be able to move out of my parents' house.
[Side Note: It's not that I want to move out of my parents' house because I don't like living here. It's more that I have soooo much stuff from living in 2 locations for the last 5+ years I can't even sleep in my own bedroom right now & I don't even know where all my stuff is :( So when I get to move into an apartment or whatever of my own, I'm so excited to, hopefully, find stuff that's been missing since I moved home from college after graduation.]
Okay, that's too long for me to re-read, so if anything in here doesn't make sense, comment and ask me to clarify, and I'll do my best. If you know me, you know my brain doesn't usually make sense, so to write like this, things happen :)
Hopefully wherever you are, you're enjoying the weather--today we had about 50 degrees Fahrenheit & sun, tomorrow we'll be having a snowstorm, wind, and about 25 degrees. And I can't wait for the snow!!!
