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stormdogMathematics is such a beautiful language. It's not about arithmetic and numbers. I've realized more consciously, lately, as I approach math after so much exposure to concepts in language, linguistics, and communication in general, that, in it's purer forms, math is about metaphor. Or as Danae put it when I was talking to her in the car today, it's about abstraction. It's about one concept and another concept and how those things are related. And that's exactly what language is about. It's about relationships between the things that we see and feel and think every day. I wish that, when I was younger, I'd been more able to pick up the skills in the language of mathematics in the same way that the English language just seemed to soak effortlessly in to my brain.
But I wasn't, and I didn't. And over the next month, until my GRE test on the 7th of November, I'm going to spend an hour or so a day, on top of my regular coursework, and my oral history work, and, in theory, working on grad school applications, trying to get all the math that ought to be there already into my head. When I took the first GRE practice test, I scored 150 out of 170 on the quantitative section. I thought that was decent until I learned that the 130 is the floor. There's a lot of work to do.
Danae, as an early birthday present, is buying an online test prep package for me. I've started out with some of their free content, and it looks pretty good. I think it'll be a big help. When she suggested the idea, I'd just been spending some time going through some of the issues I had with practice questions in the official test prep book. After having already lost my record from the computer-based test I took due to user error, and then trying to go through another set from my book so I could get her help on them, I was super-stressed. When she talked about setting me up with a preparatory package, it was such a relief and made me feel so loved that it made me cry a little. You've all heard me say it over and over, I know, but I love her so much.
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Coincidentally, my birthday in November notwithstanding, this weekend was *her* birthday! I didn't so something quite as nice as she did for me last year, when she organized surprise pizza, surprise cake, and surprise at my parents' house. But I did take her out for dinner, and to a local game store where I used most of the rest of my store credit to pick up the newest Dominion expansion and a Seven Wonders add-on. And my parents supplied the cake. *grins* Have I mentioned that my parents are pretty wonderful too?
But I wasn't, and I didn't. And over the next month, until my GRE test on the 7th of November, I'm going to spend an hour or so a day, on top of my regular coursework, and my oral history work, and, in theory, working on grad school applications, trying to get all the math that ought to be there already into my head. When I took the first GRE practice test, I scored 150 out of 170 on the quantitative section. I thought that was decent until I learned that the 130 is the floor. There's a lot of work to do.
Danae, as an early birthday present, is buying an online test prep package for me. I've started out with some of their free content, and it looks pretty good. I think it'll be a big help. When she suggested the idea, I'd just been spending some time going through some of the issues I had with practice questions in the official test prep book. After having already lost my record from the computer-based test I took due to user error, and then trying to go through another set from my book so I could get her help on them, I was super-stressed. When she talked about setting me up with a preparatory package, it was such a relief and made me feel so loved that it made me cry a little. You've all heard me say it over and over, I know, but I love her so much.
---
Coincidentally, my birthday in November notwithstanding, this weekend was *her* birthday! I didn't so something quite as nice as she did for me last year, when she organized surprise pizza, surprise cake, and surprise at my parents' house. But I did take her out for dinner, and to a local game store where I used most of the rest of my store credit to pick up the newest Dominion expansion and a Seven Wonders add-on. And my parents supplied the cake. *grins* Have I mentioned that my parents are pretty wonderful too?
