Graduate Record Exams

Since I'm applying to graduate programs this year, I had to write the dreaded GRE. Well, I've actually written it once already last year, but that was before the revised version came out and I didn't exactly spend a lot of time studying... So this year, I spent a year with the vocabulary and tried my best to do math without pulling out my calculator. Then big serious study sessions and doing actual practice problems from May until October. Being a Teaching Assistant for a writing intensive course really helped because I basically teach my students and grade them on things that I need to know for the Analytical Writing component. Around September, I realized that I actually have a lot of GRE books... It turns out I have the ETS, Princeton, and Barrons study guides (all which I purchased at a bookstore's closing out sale in Seattle) and then I purchased the Kaplan this year to get more info on the revised version. Anyways, I got sick a week before my exam and unfortunately had to write my exam sick. I did pretty good on the Verbal Reasoning and Analytical Writing, but unfortunately my Quantitative Reasoning took a hit because my head was feeling all stuffed up. Oh well, I guess I'm going to go in for a rewrite so that I don't have to worry about my Quant score being a weak spot on my application.

I think my biggest advice to people studying for the GRE Quant section would be to review the math material (I recommend Kaplan's math review section in the back of the book, AND/OR Barron's math review), take a look at some of the tips and tricks you can use to cut down on time and work spent on each question (I personally loved using the Princeton study guide for this), and then before you go drilling practice questions do one of the free Princeton FREE practice exam (timed) at http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/free-gre-practice-test.aspx this practice exam helped me figure out what kinds of questions I was having the most trouble with, provided answers, and showed me how I was distributing my time among questions. The Analytical Writing section of this practice exam also gets graded and you get feedback from people about your writing which is GREAT! Then, drill the math like no tomorrow (work do the questions throughout the study guides, at the back of the book) and don't forget to go back and try the questions you didn't get the first time again after you check the answer, do another practice test on the Princeton website to see if you're doing better. Then keep practicing the questions (you can start easing off) and do the practice tests that ETS provides (http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/powerprep2). Taking the practice exams really helped me focus and feel more relaxed (Turns out that I knew way more than I thought I did for the quant section).

When you go into the exam, just breathe, relax, and treat it like you're just doing another practice exam. I think I wore the same sweater as I did while I was doing practice exams (My moisturizer leaves this really nice smell on the sweaters I wear at home so that helped me relax a lot). I got super comfortable in my seat (curled up on the chair like I would at home) so while my mind just focused on the exam, I actually felt like I was writing the exam at my kitchen table.

I think I felt more nervous walking out than walking in because I had no idea if my score were good enough... felt like they were but turns out that I could've done a bit better on Quant. Damn headache! Oh well, learn from my mistakes... (take care of my body first before trying to power through everything) and I guess I'll do better next time. Third time's the charm!

K.

Productivity, productivity.

Our lab exec team had our semesterly "manuscript/conference presentation" meeting today, and I'm really excited because after I finish the manuscript from my honours thesis and submit it, and hopefully publish it (fingers crossed), there's also the qualitative analysis of the narratives from my honours project to write up, as well as examining the moderating role of trait rumination on state rumination and the variables I examined in my honours project. I have two posters to present at this year's ABCT, and my supervisor also suggested putting together posters for these ideas for next year's ABCT. There's also the Meta-Analysis evaluation poster that Ramsay and I are planning to submit to APA 2013 in Hawaii! So there's lots of exciting research goodness to keep me busy and productive this year! I LOVE IT!

Oh and not to mention, my dream supervisor for grad school might be dropping by my poster at ABCT this year! I'm super stoked! I'm also thinking about using my honours thesis data to apply for grad school funding because I really do hope that I can build on that project and make it bigger and better!

K

Academic Milestones

2011 and 2012 are definitely full of academic milestones for me!

Nov 2011 - Presented my first poster at ABCT. The best part was having Blair Wisco (one of my research crushes) drop by my poster and I didn't know I was talking to her until I saw the email she left me to get more information about my poster! My little heart definitely skipped a beat when I saw her name in my notebook after she walked off to see the other posters.

Jan 2012 - My first research project (completely designed, set up, and ran by me with support from my supervisor and the awesome grad students in my lab) went live!

Jan 2012 to March 2012 - Collecting 120 participants over the course of 2 months was definitely strenuous and took a lot out of me, but boy was it worth it! It was almost legit and not "just" an honours project... and now I have this massive data set full of things I want to examine!

April 2012 - Submitted and defended my honours thesis and passed with flying colours!
I am so thankful because I have the most wonderful supervisor, mentors, and also the friends I made in my honours cohort who have provided me with so much encouragement and moral support throughout the entire process. Where would I be without PERL and the Psyc Honours 2011-2012 cohort?

May 2012 - Applied for part-time social sciences VPR USRA was rejected but offered full-time sciences VPR USRA. Both posters that I submitted to ABCT 2012 was accepted. Poster from my honours project, that I submitted before Alex even looked at it, was accepted. First first-author poster!

July 2012 - Emailed Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema to see if she was accepting students next year. She said yes! Invited her to visit my poster at ABCT, and she said she'll try to stop by! Fingers crossed that she remembers me =)

August 2012 - First manuscript, from my honours thesis, is in progress!



Is it bad that I get so excited about school?

Nerd Life FOREVER!

K

If there was an academic horoscope, mine would read: Today is an auspicious day for research.

So many good things are happening for my research projects today! 

I can finally complete and finalize my research poster for ABCT this weekend. I found a way to get it printed for free thanks to my super awesome boyfriend, and SHE EMAILED ME BACK! 

I have the hugest research crush on Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema, who does research on rumination and other cognitive processes and their relationship to depression. I have a binder on my bookshelf dedicated to articles with her name on it. So lo and behold, while preparing the materials for my honours project (on rumination, of course), I had the opportunity to email her for rumination inductions! I waited for a week and she still hasn't replied, so I decided to email her again to follow up and within an hour her name popped up in my email! I'm so excited for so many different reasons:

1. She emailed me back so quickly. 

2. I just need to put in the rumination instructions into Remark and my study materials are practically complete.

3. Applying for ethics is just right around the corner.

That will be two major milestones for my academic career! Definitely an auspicious day for research =)

Poster Submission and Conferences

I'm really excited because I'm submitting a poster for the ABCT Convention this year (as mentioned in previous post). I'm going through the whole submission process right now and life feels so unreal. I don't feel like just a student doing the same thing everyday. It feels like my dream of becoming a psychologist from 11 years ago is finally falling into place. My goals feel like they are within grasp. It's all happening. It's really happening. My heart is pounding. I can't believe it!

I've also just heard of the ISSS (International Society for the Study of Self-Injury) conference in June recently. It's another area that piques my interest so I'm starting to look at the possibility of heading down to New York for this one. I'm also looking for other potential conferences that might be of interest.That being said... I need more money so I can actually go and attend these conferences.

Research, ABCT Poster, and treasure hunts.

Update

So I know I haven't blogged for a while, but I've been busy... REAL busy! I'm taking 3 courses this semester to give myself a breather but it's actually been a lot busier compared to my usual 5 course semesters. So just an update, I'm in Couples Research and Therapy (I actually don't NEED it... but it looked interesting and I wanted a 3rd course), Applied Gerontology, and Health and Illness in Later Life. It's been a pretty good semester so far. All work, no exams to that makes me happy.

Research

I've been working on several research projects lately, which is really exciting. One is for my Applied Gerontology class where we are looking at predictors of vaccination status and other potential mediators that might fit in there. I'm still working on the meta-analysis project on suppression for the lab and also our treatment study is starting up at the end of March! I'm really excited! I get to code videos of treatment sessions! 

ABCT Poster

After attendng ABCT last year, which was probably the most exciting thing event I have ever attended (Yes, 10x better than cheerleading competitions), I started really thinking about contributing to research. So now I'm working on a poster to present at next year's conference. My topic is rumination as a mediator in the relationship between the socialization of emotion and depression. Originally, it was supposed to be rejection sensitivity and social avoidance but the measure for rejection sensitivity was really bad and things got too exciting when I was analyzing the data in the lab today so I could only choose one part of what I found to present. 

Treasure Hunt

Analyzing data in the lab today made me realize that research is like a treasure hunt. You're not going to hit jackpot everyday, and that can get frustrating, but you have to celebrate little successes along the way. A tiny piece of gold, is still gold. When you start making constant findings, you're suddenly obsessed and you need to find that next piece. You'll probably find something small, then something bigger, and bigger and bigger. Then you put everything you found together and there it is: your treasure. Raw data is your map and syntax is your compass. To Keyne several years down the road in grad school: when you're feeling hopeless and tired in graduate school and reading this blog to procrastinate. Remember this feeling today. Remember to celebrate those little pieces of gold. Remember, it's worth it!

APA Style.

I recently confirmed that I really hate doing group projects. I'm in Applied Gerontology this semester, and this requires us to do conduct a study on our own. I'm in a group with a social loafer, an older woman, and a nervous wreckball of a "team leader."

I was recently accused by this "team leader" of PLAGIARIZING and not knowing how to cite properly using APA Style. If I could have sent her a slap via email, I would have. Those who are in psychology know that EVERYTHING we do have to be in APA (speaking of which, did you know that new APA guidelines call for two spaces after each period?). She had "edited" my portion of our lit review for our research proposal and added citations where "she thought was needed." I had already cited my sources, and the paragraphs were basically summaries of the study and how I interpreted the graphs and data. She later changed the back to back citations of the same article to Ibid. to "eliminate some of the noise" in our lit. review. When I rebutted and showed her proof that you can indeed paraphrase and summarize things without citing every sentence (as long as the author has been credited) she told me "she stands corrected" and fears that if she didn't "fix" my citations we would fail our project on the grounds of plagiarism. She then emailed our group and commented on how "some of the members in our group" are "inadequate" in their ability to write in APA style leaving her to do all the work. The worst part is the rest of my group just follows her like blind sheep. This is a woman that also freaked out over the order of the prof's powerpoint slides.

I really hate group projects. I really hate being told I can't write in APA style even though it's all I wrote in for the last 4 years. I hate sheeple. Oh, and I hate being the youngest person in a class of people who all have a degree already. Nobody listens to me, and nobody takes my suggestions seriously.