On GREs, and Updates

My official scores have finally arrived, along with fun statistics (found here)!

Verbal: 770 (99th percentile)
Quantitative: 730 (79th percentile)
Analytical Writing: 5.5 (90th percentile)

The analytical writing is on a 2 to 6 score in .5 increments. So, 5.5 is the second highest possible score. Personally, I think I could very well have done better.

Now for some up-to-date statistics for comparison:

General Test Mean Scores

Verbal: 462
Standard deviation: 119
(over by 308 - standard deviation destroyed)

Quantitative: 584
Standard deviation: 151
(over by 146 - so close)

Analytical Writing: 4.0
Standard deviation: 0.9
(over by 1.5 - good enough)

General test mean score by future graduate field

Highest Verbal/Analytical: Humanities
V: 545 Q: 561 A: 4.6

Highest Quantitative: Engineering
V: 468 Q: 717 A: 4.1

Every group got a higher quantitative score than verbal. The smallest spread was humanities, with quantitative 16 higher. I am an outlier, to say the least. Also, the lowest verbal and analytical writing scores both went to business, with 441 and 4.0. I found that humorous (we now know why they use words like 'synergy,' 'touching base,' and so on).

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Now onto the second subject: when I'll actually do something for this blog. The answer is: not right the hell now. Right now I'm completely focused on Being and Time for my directed study. After I finish re-reading that I will go back into Nietzsche so that I can write a thesis which will become my graduate writing sample. That is my focus. That does mean, however, that I will very likely write a second part of my discussion of Being and Time at some point, since it covers the parts that I am focusing on.

Also, after this semester (and graduate applications) things should become very smooth, with a twelve credit final semester and no difficult classes left to take (I've bled the philosophy department dry, unless they give me another (my third) directed study.) That and no grad school mess means that, from this winter to next fall, things should be smooth sailing, and I've suddenly come upon a huge store of new texts to go through. When fall comes again I will enter the bowels of hell, but until then!