When we started college, we naturally assumed that standardized testing was behind us. Finally, we got beyond all that stress related to SAT and ACT. You can imagine our disappointment when we slowly approached towards our goals to get into graduate school. According to Superior Papers writing company, plenty of students encounter serious difficulties during the preparations for the GRE Revised General Test. Our bad memories of useless study groups, endless readings, and hefty test prep books are back to haunt us.
Working towards graduate school was hard enough. We had to deal with tough courses, a great deal of research papers, and extracurriculars. We achieved an impressive GPA, but that wasn’t enough. It’s time to stand up for ourselves and speak up with the truth: GRE is a useless, boring test that does not show our true capacity for graduate school.
In fact, we would rather do other boring stuff than take this test. Here are some ideas:
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Take some sleep
Who doesn’t need it? If you ask me, I haven’t gone to bed at a reasonable hour since I was in high school. Why don’t students get enough sleep? I’m not talking about partying, although that’s part of the problem. When you have a great deal of papers to write, tons of research to do, exams to prepare for, extracurriculars to attend, and GRE to study for – sleep deprivation becomes a lifestyle.
If we had a choice, we would definitely get those 8 hours of healthy sleep per day. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to keep up with doctors’ recommendations when you’re expected to take a standardized test.
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Submit applications
That’s right; we would prefer spending hours completing boring forms and writing application papers than preparing for this test. Each graduate school has different standards and application requirements. When we want to increase our chances of getting into a program, we have to apply to multiple schools. What does this mean? We have to write several high-quality personal statements.
Ask a student how he feels about the application process, and you’ll probably get this answer: “I’m bored to death!” Nevertheless, he wouldn’t mind that process if he didn’t have to deal with GRE registration and preparations. We would rather go through the applications without this unnecessary test.
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Write homework
Give two options to a student: write several lab reports, math assignments, statistics projects, and book reviews, or take the GRE. Of course we’ll choose the homework. In fact, we already do tons of homework because our college professors convince us it’s necessary. We do homework with hopes to achieve higher GPA, but it turns out it’s not enough.
If the educational system is burdening students with too many written assignments, they should already have a solid foundation when they apply to graduate school. There is no point in taking a single test when we’ve been studying and answering questions for years.
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Get some recommendation letters
We have to beg for them whether we like it or not… and no, we don’t like it! It’s not easy to get a professor to write you a recommendation letter. Even if you come to an agreement, you have to hunt for them throughout campus if you want to get the recommendations on time.
We would rather make those connections for the sake of our academic and professional future than to spend entire months preparing for the upcoming standardized test. We do go through a certain level of anxiety when we have to talk to college professors and ask them for recommendations, but that discomfort cannot be compared to the one related to the GRE.
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Learn something interesting
We are students with intentions to go to graduate school. That being said, we are not intimidated by studying. In fact, we like learning new things, especially when they are related to our interests. Why can’t we do that in our free time? – Because we have NO free time when we have to prepare for the GRE.
When we study something we enjoy, we are thrilled to research the new issues we discover. Studying for the GRE, on the other hand, is repeating the same old information until you memorize it, since memorizing is necessary for the types of questions you get. That’s boring.
Why Force Graduate School Applicants to Take a Test They Hate?
The whole point of graduate school is to prepare us for greatness. Universities want motivated students, who are ready to make changes in this world. Why would you limit their capacity with standardized rules that put all students in the same pattern? All of us have different knowledge, interests, and talents. Universities need to think of an application process that allows us to show our individuality.
GRE is not an extremely difficult test to take, but it’s not necessary and the preparation for it costs us a great deal of nerves, health, and sanity. We would all prefer not to take it.
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