GRE

This morning, I took the GRE Subject test in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology. It was much harder than the one practice test the ETS gave us. The test is supposed to reflect what undergraduate coursework looks like, but the ETS's idea of what that was in 2005 seems more similar to what I actually learned these last couple years.

When I take tests, I tend to use my intuition a lot. I analyze it and see if it might be wrong for any of the usual reasons (which I've learned from taking myriad tests - always mark up/write your thoughts on the paper so you can see what you were thinking when you get it back), but for the most part, I trust it. And I do pretty well. As long as I was paying good attention when I first learned it in class, it sticks with me. The details don't necessarily remain as they are, but their place in my understanding of the topic is preserved. To put it more simply, I have a map in my head. Sometimes, the names of the towns along the route may be missing, but their locations are still marked.

That's the way my intuition works. Because of this, some days it's really good, and some days (particularly if I haven't slept soundly/enough)...not so much.

The problem with this is that I don't know how I did on a test until I get it back. This time around, there were many questions where I could narrow it down to two or three choices, and then I had to choose based on what I was leaning toward. So I'll just have to wait (6 weeks!) and see.