So, approximately 2 hours after I posted that my father was going to pay for my GRE course, I get a call on my cell phone while I'm out. It was my dad. He calls to inform me that his car insurance bill just came and it's due next month, as well as the property tax (it increased by like 328% -- not a typo), and that he's not going to be able to come up with the money to pay for my GRE class. This is a problem. This is a big, big problem. I'm upset. I'm sad. I'm mad. I'm... I'm smad. I'm completely beyond furious. Had I known this 2 months ago we could have bought materials for me to study and I could have made a study schedule for myself. As it stands, I'm screwed. I don't have the money -- I barely have enough to cover actually taking the GRE and applying to grad school. Everyone's telling me it's not a big deal, but it is. They all tell me how they all took it and got into grad school and that it was fine and how I have all the time in the world. I do not. Their programmes work differently and no one I know has ever had to have their thesis proposal ready WITH their application and do all that crap on their own without any classes under their belt and decide what they want to study before they do it. And everyone I know who's had to do that has spent a considerable amount of time debating and deciding what they want to study. So, I somehow doubt that most people quite understand the stress I'm undergoing. I have to go through the archives and see what's available and see if I can get any sort of ideas from that. I'm expecting hours upon hours going through the stuff just to come up with an idea. Plus, I'm taking a graduate course in the fall and I have several other obligations during the week and having to study on my own and not having a nice little schedule with tips to help me out (because I freak out when taking tests that have everything riding on them) is really going to screw me over. I can't handle all of that at once and expect to do decently on the GRE. I have hit meltdown point twice already today, and I just don't know what to do. I'm freaking out and I need help, and I can't contact the only person who can really calm me down and level me back down. Oh, and did I mention that I'm screwed?

Blah grr blah grr blah blah blah.

This probably won't help a bit, but the GRE is not that bad - I went and took it without even knowing what the questions were really like (I think I glanced at them online), and didn't even study... I did pretty good, not *great* but pretty good... good enough, at least.  If I recall, when you sign up for the GRE they send you a CD with practice stuff on there and online tests you can take.  I think if you would have had time to learn this stuff in a class, you could probably learn the stuff from a book/online classes.  I know that I personally learn stuff better from teachers, but this isn't stuff you don't know already - you just have to learn how to take the test (it's just like the SAT, except on a computer - at least my version was).  Besides, I've heard the classes are a big ripoff anyways.

 Good luck Lindsay!

This probably won't help a bit, but the GRE is not that bad - I went and took it without even knowing what the questions were really like (I think I glanced at them online), and didn't even study... I did pretty good, not *great* but pretty good... good enough, at least.  If I recall, when you sign up for the GRE they send you a CD with practice stuff on there and online tests you can take.  I think if you would have had time to learn this stuff in a class, you could probably learn the stuff from a book/online classes.  I know that I personally learn stuff better from teachers, but this isn't stuff you don't know already - you just have to learn how to take the test (it's just like the SAT, except on a computer - at least my version was).  Besides, I've heard the classes are a big ripoff anyways.

 Good luck Lindsay!

It all just came at a really inopportune time. I've been having an incredibly rough go of it the past week or so -- well, before that, but that's when things started getting really bad. A lot of bad things have been happening and it's all just been terribly crippling for me. It just really sucks, because there's only one programme I want to get into. I mean, there are approximately 5 programmes in the English-speaking world, but 2 of them are certificate programmes, and if I'm going to pay money I'm darn well going to get a degree for it. And then 2 of the remainder of the programmes are out of the country -- one in Toronto, the other one in Leeds (England). Plus, my programme is faster, which essentially means less money in the long run. It just puts more pressure on me because it's not like there's another place I can really go or another programme that I've fallen in love with. I just have one chance, more or less. And it's a good school. Blaaah.

And, as sad as this may sound, I was hoping on finishing my paper from last semester that I took an incomplete on and uh, I have... 5 more books that I had hoped to get through before I go back. And they're not short. They're also borrowed. Or, rather, one is borrowed and the others were forced upon me.

It all just came at a really inopportune time. I've been having an incredibly rough go of it the past week or so -- well, before that, but that's when things started getting really bad. A lot of bad things have been happening and it's all just been terribly crippling for me. It just really sucks, because there's only one programme I want to get into. I mean, there are approximately 5 programmes in the English-speaking world, but 2 of them are certificate programmes, and if I'm going to pay money I'm darn well going to get a degree for it. And then 2 of the remainder of the programmes are out of the country -- one in Toronto, the other one in Leeds (England). Plus, my programme is faster, which essentially means less money in the long run. It just puts more pressure on me because it's not like there's another place I can really go or another programme that I've fallen in love with. I just have one chance, more or less. And it's a good school. Blaaah.

Well, one good thing about the GRE is you can always retake them if you need to - and since it's a "smart test" you just have to schedule it, it's not at certain times (like the SAT is).  Plus, I think the GRE is sort of like the SAT - it's important, but it's not heavily weighted.

And, as sad as this may sound, I was hoping on finishing my paper from last semester that I took an incomplete on and uh, I have... 5 more books that I had hoped to get through before I go back. And they're not short. They're also borrowed. Or, rather, one is borrowed and the others were forced upon me.

  Well, you have another month, right?  I actually took an incomplete on the class I did my master's project in, and of course, waited until the last possible moment to finish my project.  I think it's a normal thing for people to do.

Well, one good thing about the GRE is you can always retake them if you need to - and since it's a "smart test" you just have to schedule it, it's not at certain times (like the SAT is).  Plus, I think the GRE is sort of like the SAT - it's important, but it's not heavily weighted.

It is a comforting notion, save for the fact that I am but a poor lout. Poor in the money sense, that is.

Well, you have another month, right?  I actually took an incomplete on the class I did my master's project in, and of course, waited until the last possible moment to finish my project.  I think it's a normal thing for people to do.

Yes, about another month. I'm hoping to have it finished by this week. It's actually a paper on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've finished all the work for the paper, now it just needs yet to be written.

It's actually a paper on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

That is totally win.

That is totally win.

You have no idea.