Just booked my online GRE and LSAT tests eee! I'm literally shitting myself, I'm so scared. Literally thought the SAT would be the last major standardized test I'd ever have to take. But now I have to take two more...
I really want to attend graduate school either next year, or take a gap year and then apply for the following Fall 2022 year. Either way, I have to take the GRE and LSAT so I can get scores back in time so I can send out the Spring applications for Fall 2021 semester.
It's nerve-wracking to think about taking such huge tests that dictate admissions so heavily. Especially for me personally, I have extreme test-taking and performance anxiety, so I often don't test as well as what I actually know. So it's actually an advantage because of Covid-19 that the exams are administered virtually at home. Not sure about you all, but even just physically traveling to an unknown testing center and taking the test around a bunch of strangers really gets to me. And because the environment affects my mental state so much, I don't perform as well. Beside which, I just have generalized anxiety, which makes it hard to sit still and focus.
I'm still incredibly nervous though for these exams because I have a short timeframe to really take the exams so I can get my scores back in time to submit with applications. I'm really worried I won't have enough time to truly prep.
On the bright side for the GRE especially, a lot of my peers have expressed the hardest part for them studying for the exam was the math section. A lot of the math tested in the GRE is old high school math that college students tend to forget, like exponent rules or logarithms. Thankfully for me though, I took an upper level theoretical statistics course this past Summer, so I actually had to review a lot of this old math to use in the course. So I'm hoping the overall studying process won't be as hard for me. Also, I've been working as a writing center tutor at UMD's writing center, so I've been really focused on tools to make a better writer. Hopefully the combo of these two will ease the studying process for me.
Wish me luck! I'll post more about some tips I find when I'm studying for both to help those of you who are considering taking either the GRE or LSAT, or just for those unfamiliar with the tests.
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