Monday, August 12, 2013

That overwhelming sense of...

I'm just so glad this is over!!!

Seriously.  I'm so tired from all that that test involved today, but any feelings of exhaustion or disappointment with my scores (I'll get to that in a bit) are completely overshadowed by the immense relief that I feel that this is just over and done with and I don't have to stress about studying for it anymore.  My plans for the next 48 hours basically involve getting out of my bed as few times as possible.  It's going to be grand.

My test was scheduled to start at 12:30, but the appointment ticket said arrive at least half an hour early.  Since neither Mom nor I totally knew where we were going, and I knew we'd need lunch and stuff, I told her I wanted to leave at like 10:00 because it's about a 90 minute drive to Wilmington on a good day.  I slept okay; I went to sleep easily just after 11:00, but woke up at like 3:40 and took almost an hour to get back to sleep.  So I didn't get up until 8:45.  Surprisingly, Mom actually got up without a fight and we only left a few minutes after 10 (which is really, really good for us), but of course, she had to get cigarettes and fill up on gas, and we got caught behind some absurdly slow cars, so with all of that and stopping for lunch and figuring out where to drive on a campus Mom hasn't been on in 15 years, we pulled into the parking lot by the building two minutes before noon.  And of course, I originally forgot my snack and water for the break, so I had to go back to the car.  Luckily, Mom hadn't driven off yet, and it didn't matter that I found the room a few minutes after noon.  I thought the paperwork would take at least until 12:30 either from the amount of it or the number of people starting at that time, but nope.  I walked in, put my stuff in a locked locker, wrote out these two sentences that basically said I promise not to cheat and signed the paper, and was signing in to start the test at 12:13.

With six sections (the writing was an hour, the three verbal had 30 minutes each allotted - and one of those was an experimental section and didn't count, though I don't know which one, and the two math had 35 minutes allotted each) and a ten-minute break, the test was due to take four hours.  But see, if I finish a section early, I cannot go back and go over answers I've already chosen or I will drive myself crazy second guessing my decisions.  So when I finished a section, I just went on to the next one.  So I checked out at 3:19.  There was some intense rain on the way home, so we got in about 5:15, and aside from getting food, taking out the trash and recycling (my weekly Monday chore) and taking a shower, I have not gotten out of bed since.  It has been wonderful.

Now to the only part anyone is probably remotely interested in: my scores.  My head has been absolutely awful since the moment I woke up this morning, so I knew I was going in at a disadvantage, but thankfully, I didn't feel as nervous as I expected to be.  I got a 154 on the Verbal section, which is 64th percentile, and 158 on the Math, which is 79th percentile.  Obviously, it'll take a bit before I get my Writing score since people, ya know, have to read the essays.   I was greatly disappointed at first, especially considering I didn't get to answer like 3 of the last math questions because time ran out, but after a pep talk from my mom and some encouragement from my friends, especially a few who have already taken the GRE and similar tests, I feel a lot better.  This isn't going to be the only thing schools look at, and my very good GPA and what I'm certain will be some excellent recommendation letters will help balance it out.

And in the end, I know that I did the best I could, especially given the circumstances with my head and how that was affecting my vision.  Even more than that, though, I know that God will direct me to the school that is perfect for me, just like He did with Campbell, which was such a total surprise.  He's good like that.

And speaking of Campbell, only SIX MORE DAYS until I return HOME!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited? ;)

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