I wasn't dreaming (& bit of a disappointment)

A week before I was expecting them, my GRE scores arrived in the mail today. I must confess there was a part of me that wondered if I had imagined my scores on the verbal and quantitative sections (those they report immediately on the computer screen). But good news! I wasn't dreaming or hallucinating; I did indeed get the scores I thought. Hurray!

However, my score for the analytical writing section was the final unknown. This was one of those times though that I boldly & confidently acknowledged that I'd hit this one out of the park. I was so sure that I presented a supremely insightful, in-depth and thoughtful argument on both essays that was sure to impress the two readers whose combined grades would result in my score.

Apparantly they weren't impressed.

Rather than the score of 6 I was expecting (6 being the highest), I ended up with a 5, described as "provides generally thoughtful analysis of complex ideas..." Perhaps if 5 were the next best score I wouldn't be so disappointed, but alas its only the third best score. I realize I sound a tad petulant right now, and in reality, 5 isn't a bad score...Still, it's hard/frustrating/disappointing to do worse than one expects. Especially since I considered this area to be my greatest strength.

Mourn with me, won't you? Just a little. And then I'll move on.

Signing off,
Kelly with her 5

:-(