Lose it unless you use it...

As most of you know, I'm returning to school in the fall to get my certification in Montessori.  I'm pretty excited, a little nervous about my ridiculously long summer reading list, but excited none the less.  The thing I didn't talk about was the Master's in Education that could go along with my certification if I choose to pursue it.  Well, I should clarify, if they choose to let me in.  My grades in college pretty  much sucked, I really had other priorities at the time, and now 10 years later I'm paying the price for a little too much fun time.  I e-mailed the admissions board, actually the lady who heads it, and told her very candidly that my grades sucked, is there any way in hell they would let me in especially since it is 10 years later.  I have a chance, not a great chance, but a chance if I take the GRE.  Holy crap! 

So now I'm in GRE hell. I decided to go for it, minus the fact that I would actually get my M.Ed. if I get accepted, I would also qualify for all sorts of financial aid things that I do not by merely getting my certification.  Unfortunately, getting a kick ass score on the GRE, which is highly unlikely, will not guarantee me a spot but it will  help my pathetic odds just a little bit. So I decided to just go balls out and buy all the Kaplan stuff and really study.

I'm amazed about all the stuff I really don't know. I could not answer even one of the math problems and did not even recognize half of them.  And to demonstrate even further how sorry I am at this, I don't even know enough of the basics to be able to learn the advanced stuff I need for the test - how to divide decimals, simplifying radicals, finding percentages of percentages of decimals.   I really don't think I'm a stupid person, I just don't remember any of this crap.  So, I'm feeling a little tense.  The thing that irks me the most though, is after spending literally hundreds of hours to study, they probably still won't let me in but I have to give it my best.

 

On the knitting front - I've begun a sweater if you can believe it.  The Ogee Tunic from Knitting Nature.  I'm not entirely sure why I'm knitting a definitely fall sweater right at the beginning of a sweltering SoCal summer but I've committed to it.  I have at least 10 UFO's in my "knitting trunk" and there is no room for another so this must actually come off the needles in a decent amount of time. I've made a few minor modifications to it but will discuss those as the sweater comes to a finish. In the meantime, it's slow going but I must not lose hope!  Tootles. 

Comments

[Laura]

Good Luck on the GRE! The key is to get in a lot of practice. The more you do those problems and questions the easier it will be.
And congratulations on getting started on your certification in Montessori. Isn't it cool when you figure out what you want to do? I love my job (librarian).

um, I need to get back to lurking now...

[caitlyn]

I agree with Laura -- practice, practice, practice. When I took my very first practice GRE, I was totally freaked out because my scores were low. But I kept practicing and the scores went up significantly. I remember memorizing some stuff for math (like conversions between fractions and decimals). I don't think I'm totally stupid either, but you're right -- it's hard remembering stuff you don't use.
I have a M.Ed. too, but in the field of higher ed.

[Susan B]

Ah - just think of how helpful all that math will come when you need to re-knit the tunic in a cooler-weight yarn and thereby redo all of the gauge numbers! ;>

[Amanda]

Good luck on the GRE! Just keep reminding yourself that all the crazy hard work is SO worth it if it helps get you where you want to be!

[Ruinwen]

Good luck with the GRE! I know if you put your mind to it you will get through it with flying colors! Speaking of colors...I love that purple. Beautiful sweater so far! :)

[Julie]

[de-lurk]
I add my GRE good luck wishes to the pile above. I took it, and the kaplan course certainly helped. a good friend of mine taught at princeton review for years, and said that studying vocab is one of the best ways to bring up scores - flashcards, baby! i carried mine everywhere. dorking out, gre style. and going over and over the math problems, take as many tests as you can. its a grind. and the materials should tell you about the different strategies for taking a computerized test. totally different than paper and pencil. i'm sure they will let you in eventually! i had to do a year of upgrading before i could get into grad school. distance ed, whatever it takes. you're smart, you're passionate about this, you will get in, it is just a matter of when.
Good luck!
[re-lurk]