Wednesday, October 3, 2007

flaming hoops of evaluation

Recently my waking mind has been consumed with the Literature in English GRE--and the fact that it is coming up this Saturday (6 Oct). I'm not great at standardized tests. This one is particularly hard to study for because it has the honor of being possibly both: a) extraordinarily important to my future acceptance into a PhD program or b) useless. The test itself is a multiple-choice test of grabbag trivia which pulls its questions from anything that has ever been considered part of the canon of "big-L" Literature. Beowulf to Virginia Woolf...it's all fair game.

The test is supposedly designed to test your general knowledge about literature. Whatever.

Some programs in top universities (*cough* Columbia *cough*) don't even take this test into consideration when evaluating potential PhD candidates because they deem it as not being a reliable indicator of an applicant's potential.

Some universities in the US don't care about it. Which is both comforting and frustrating. Some schools require it, some schools toss it out. So, I still have to take it--with the knowledge that even those schools who require it probably know, just as well as I do, that it is nothing but a flaming hoop for applicants to tumble through--nervous, and caffeinated.

The fact that I'm looking into MA programs abroad makes Saturday seem even less important. Universities in the UK, obviously, don't require the test. If I followed that path, I wouldn't even be trying to get into a PhD program for another year. PLUS the experience gained studying aboard could possibly off-set any kind of bombing that takes place in the literature jeopardy game.

So...In conclusion: I'm going to go to the bookstore. Tomorrow I'll study a little more--but probably just go look at kittens and drink coffee. This isn't just my year to write--it's my life to write. This test has no bearing on that.

*takes economy-sized "chill pill"tm*




At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing--a sunset or an old shoe--in absolute and simple amazement.
Raymond Carver, "On Writing"

Posted by nabero @ 3:48 PM

quotable...

"You have to choose the places you don't walk away from"
-Joan Didion

Reading...

Listening...