1590

My blogger dashboard says that my last post was on March 1. That's over a month ago. It's been a very long time indeed, since I've posted on these hallowed pages. But that's all about to change. My buffer is primed and ready to disgorge its contents. (In tech lingo, lots of push() calls. Now it's time to pop()).

Enough cheap humour. I've had very good grounds for not writing for such a long time. I gave the GRE (the Graduate Record Examination) on March 12. In India the exam is a ticket for bored college students to be admitted to an American college, supposedly so they can get a quality education. What they don't know is that it's merely an opportunity to pay your fees in dollars (the actual figure doesn't change, just the currency) so that you can get get even more bored and then get placed in the American equivalent of TCS (who have currently made me an offer of employment upon graduation). I'm kidding of course, and if any admission-in-charge at any university is reading this a year hence, please disregard this paragraph. I really want to join your school (really!).

My score on the GRE was 1590/1600. This was, to me (and to others as well), nothing short of astonishing. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the score on the screen, ready to sell my soul for a camera phone, just so I could take a picture and have proof that it wasn't a dream. There wasn't any way to actually record the score; I could just look at it and trust my eyes and brain to convey it correctly to everyone who asked me my score. I couldn't trust my eyes however, no one who's seen my glasses could, and my brain is more like a sieve. Thus, whenever someone congratulated me on my score, I felt a vague unease and I mumbled "Thanks", instead of saying it proudly. This was mistaken by people, I suppose, for diffidence or modesty. Nothing of the sort.

I had to make sure so I called the GRE Hotline a week later to confirm my score. They charge a larcenous $12 just to let you hear your score (on top of the phone charges for the international call). I didn't care much though, the score was confirmed, with me making the call to the hotline, and my father listening in on the extension. It was the best $12 I've ever spent.

The days afterwards were spent replying to messages of congratulations, telling people how I prepared. My preparation methods, by the way, really aren't something that can be very successfully employed by anyone else and I told this to everyone who asked me. I've been a voracious reader (cliche, I know, but I don't have much more time) since the age of eight. Since fourth standard (when I first went to the US and had access to a large quantity of books), I've probably read an average of 3 books a month. This, of course, includes the lean engineering years. In school, I'm sure I approached the rate of a book and a half a week.

The upshot is that I never really needed to study for the verbal section of the GRE. And since the quantitative section is only high school maths, it wasn't too challenging either. That was my big secret for getting a good score in the GRE.

Of course, a high score doesn't assure a good school. I've since learned that about 15% of an application's weightage is the GRE score. There are a lot of other factors. Let's see how it works out. Ciao. My next post is coming up in exactly 11 hours.