Wednesday, June 27, 2007

i do think about things that aren't my hair

look, i do study too! this isn't my main study, this is occasional part time GRE study, for the exams at the end of the year. GRE stands for Graduate something Exam, and it's one of the things the americans use to sort out who gets into phd programs. there's two parts, a general test which is vocab and argumentative essays and mathematics and other stuff, and a subject exam, which is being able to identify, from extracts, every piece of literature from _beowulf_ to virginia woolf, and know when it was written and who the author was mates with. that's right, kiddies - in order to study 20th century children's literature i need to know which pilgrim wrote which story and how to do algebra. isn't that logical?

i'm quite enjoying the studying, actually. it's sort of satisfying. i am developing techniques to overcome my weak rote learning skills. this is what happens when you grow up with a special ed teacher:
i have this up in the kitchen. note glitter glue. note also that every single author on the poster is a white male. illustrations by ziggy (who can identify which texts they're for?).

how to process lingering anxiety from school maths:
this workbook is the only GRE study material i've had to buy, thankfully. i inherited two other workbooks and two nortons from eleanor who inherited them from saf, and so on. i shall pass them on in turn. you can spend thousands on this stupid exam, with books, exam fees, tutoring, etc. it's a whole industry.

wish me luck!

4 comments:

itchy fingers said...

no you don't!

Nimmersatt said...

WHERE are you taking it? WHERE are you going to be come September and beyond? So many tantalising possibilities have been raised. What's the current plan?

Anonymous said...

careful your head doesn't explode and ruin yr hair

xg

gumtreefid farmer said...

itchy - do too! you smell!


tuchfrau - yes, it is an elliptic post, come to think of


g - good point. what would i do without your careful mothering?