Introduction

Hello, Blogosphere. One of my new year's resolutions this year was to finally take (and pass) the GRE. The portion of the exam that has always given me fits of fear is the section on Analytical Writing. Since my days in high school, I have always fancied myself to be a poor writer--at least I semi-conciously wanted to be. The rebel inside wanted something to despise, and apparently he chose writing.

Now that I am nearly ten years removed from high school and thinking about re-entering the academic world, I am compelled to defeat that inner rebel and learn to write.

Last night I was browsing the Official GRE Website looking for practice questions. For the purposes of boosting my confidence, I first tried my hand at the Quantitative Reasoning questions. After all, nothing brightens the day more than a good (and solvable) math problem--nothing aside from spending time with my adorable wife and daughter, that is.

Upon acing the sample math problems, I took a deep breath and plunged into both the "sample issue tasks" and the "sample argument tasks." I began to read them and formulate ideas for possible responses. But the rebel quickly took over and asked, "How on earth are you going to be able to pass this section of the exam?" My honest answer is, "I don't know."

After some thought and some advice from a friend, I came to the revolutionary conclusion that practice makes perfect. In an effort to accustom myself to writing, and hopefully to doing it well, I have committed myself to answering all of the "Analytical Writing" practice assignments, and I am going to do so online--here on this very blog!

Your comments and criticisms are welcome and in fact desired. The more feedback, the better, says I. I truly want to do well on the GRE and I think this will be good for me.

Here's to grad school...and beyond!