If you want to go to graduate school, then it’s time to start thinking about the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). But before ruining weeks of your life studying and then wasting four hours of your life taking the test, make sure you even need to take it. Do your research! Some schools don’t require it, some care more about certain parts of your score, and some require extra sections. Whatever the case, just make sure you need to take it.

Great. Now let’s say you do need to take it. Unlike the ACT/SAT, which a lot of people didn’t bother studying for back in the day, the GRE tests you on what Educational Testing Services think graduate students should know before grad school. This means you will actually have to study. Remember probability, slope-intercept form, and all those equations from math you thought you were done with years ago? Remember analogies and memorizing flash cards and five paragraph essays? You better hope so, because the GRE brings it all back with a vengeance.

There’s four sections on this bad boy:

1. Verbal – Vocab. Lots and lots of vocab. Go buy some flash cards right now – they will be your best friends soon.
2. Quantitative – Not calculus, thank gosh. But they’re talking all the way back to math you learned in middle school. This includes arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and quantitative comparison.
3. Analytical Writing – Haven’t taken a writing class since freshman year? You may want to refresh your writing skills because you’ll have to write two essays in one sitting: one argumentative and one issue.
4. Experimental (maybe) – This experimental section might show up on your GRE exam, but it won’t count toward your score. ETS wants to do research on future questions on you, and they unfortunately do not let you know. So basically, you might end up taking two Verbal sections and not knowing which was the random experimental part that didn’t count. I was devastated to hear that I would be wasting my time in this manner, but there’s really nothing we can do about it.

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You finished your last exam early and, after waiting for someone else to turn theirs in (you don’t want to be first!), ran down the steps of that lecture hall, slammed that baby on the desk and skipped your way to freedom. As you walk home you notice how great the air smells, how bright the sun is and how beautiful your campus is. School is out and you are feelin’ groovy.

After regaling your roommates with tales from your 90-minute essay exam (“I totally rocked that shiz!”), you head to your room to start the end-of-the-year cleaning session, beer in hand. You grab a garbage bag, sit down at your desk and start sifting through the piles of papers, books and notebooks that litter your desk.

In the back of your mind, you know that some of those notebooks will come in handy for next year’s classes. In the front of your mind, though, you know you will never look at them ever again. So, in a celebratory fashion, you toss one binder after another into the Hefty. Read More »

You set your alarm for 8am, then check it 3 times to make sure it’s right. Just to be safe, you set your phone alarm too. Everyone knows the urban legend about the time the power went out and that poor student slept through the exam that was worth 50% of her grade. That’s not going to be you.

You climb into bed a good 3 hours earlier than you normally would, determined to get a full 8 hours before the big test. Then you lay there staring at the ceiling, mentally rehearsing your answers to the potential essay questions the professor hinted might be on the exam.

When your alarm(s) goes off in the morning, you jump out of bed. The exam is in 2 hours and you need ample time to review the notes one last time, suck down at least one cup of coffee and get some brain food (read: Lucky Charms) in your belly. On a normal day you’d still be sleeping, hitting the snooze button over and over. But not today. Exhausted, you wash the sleep from your face, throw your hair up into a ponytail, and put on your lucky t-shirt. Even after countless hours in the library you need all the help you can get.

You flip through your now-tattered note cards as you shovel cereal into your mouth. You’re feeling good. You know this stuff. You’re gonna rock this exam!

There’s still about 30 minutes until test time but you want to make sure you get a good seat so you pack up your bag. Pencils? Check. Pens? Check. Notebook/note cards/anything else you can possibly review one last time before the professor puts that Scantron on the desk in front of you? Check.

It’s time to rock and roll.

When you get to class, you find your perfect seat (not in the front – that’s too close to the prof; not in the back – that’s too far of a walk to turn that sucker in; not in the middle of a row – you don’t want to be climbing over those slow test-takers to get the hell out of there when you’re done). You unpack all your stuff and flip open your notebook to run through the information one final time. Only you’re sick of studying. You know everything you’re gonna know and you just want the test to start already. Where is everyone? Where’s the professor? Why can’t this all be over with already so you can grab your dirty laundry and head home for winter break!? Read More »

Whether you’re buying yourself a post-exam present or looking to put something on your list for Santa (with exact color, size and style….you don’t want him to get it wrong, do you?) boots should be high on your list. Temperatures are dropping, the snow is starting to fall and your toes are starting to get cold. Really, boots are a present for your feet, and after a semester of torturing them in communal showers and dancing the night away in high heels, it’s really the least you can do.

If you don’t already have a pair of boots – or yours are long overdue for a replacement – you should look at investing in a pair this season. And yes, I said investing. These babies aren’t always cheap, but can you really put a price on having 10 fully functional toes? Well, as functional as toes really are….

There are boots for all purposes and whether you’re trekking through snow to get to class, looking for something a little warmer than flats for a night out, or some combination of the two, there’s a pair out there for you. They’re great to slip on with a pair of jeans for class (duh), they’re great with a pair of leg warmers for a little extra toastiness on a busy day, and they look HOT with everything from the skinniest jeans to the miniest of skirts (yes, even rain boots!).

Here are 15 pairs I’m totally digging right now to get you started on your shopping. Read More »

[Hey everybody! Sarabeth here with a new feature that, quite frankly, I'm stoked about. Each week I'll be bringing you an album that I feel is particularly awesome in the hopes of building iTunes libraries everywhere! It could be something new, old, hugely popular or fairly unknown, so keep checking back for our suggestions to awesome-ify your music collection.]

This semester is FINALLY starting to wrap up. Exciting? Yes, I can’t wait to finish this round of classes. Stressful? Hell yeah, mofo. The end of the semester means that every. single. thing. I’ve been working on is going to be due at the same time. And on top of that, I have to start studying for finals. Barf.

For those of you in the same situation, you need some music to get you through.

So where do I turn to in my moment (or 3 weeks) of need? My trusted pick-me-up album, Carnavas, of course.

About the Band
Silversun Pickups is an indie/alternative band from LA that has been around since 2002. It is made up of lead vocalist and guitarist Brian Aubert, vocalist and bassist Nikki Monninger, drummer Christopher Guanlao and keyboardist Joe Lester. If they sound familiar it’s probably because they’ve been featured in video games like Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, Rock Band 1&2, and Guitar Hero World Tour.

Yeah, these guys are major. Read More »

[Meet Margaret, a freshman at Yale. We've been checking in with her every week to see what she's doing, who she's meeting and what new college surprises she's tackling (or freaking out about) as she embarks on the journey we call college. Or as I like to call it, the best thing since Trader Joe's Honey Greek Yogurt. That is, until midterms season hits, of course.]

So I’m new at this whole midterms thing. The idea that I’ve been more or less lounging around for the past 6 weeks and then – wham! – I’m hit with a test that’s worth 40% of my grade…that’s kind of crazy.

Needless to say, this past week has been an acne-inducing, sleep-lacking, chocolate-eating cram week. But, terrible as it was for my complexion and caloric intake, I have to say that this week has definitely taught me some things about studying.

First, it’s much easier to not stress about midterms if you actually know what’s going on in class. I’ve been going to class, but this was definitely problematic for a lot of my classmates. In a lecture of 400 people about something as non-stimulating as econ, it’s easy to doze off. But unfortunately, while you are dreaming about your next Halloween costume, your professor is actually saying important things. Even though my professor puts his notes online, so many of his notes are things where you have to fill in graphs and equations that you learn about in class. Bottom line, try your best not to fall asleep in class and then have to teach yourself everything the week before the exam. Read More »

Fall is in full swing. The pumpkin spice lattes are a part of your daily ritual. You’ve broken in your new fall boots. You’ve given up that whole turning over a new leaf idea – you know, the one that involved getting your homework done on time. And hey, just in time for midterms too.

Mid semester exams are inevitable. And annoying. Just when you’ve started to think you could get away with not doing any of the reading for your classes and getting all of your notes online (from the comfort of your futon), midterms rear their ugly heads.

Essays?
Quotation identifications?

You are not prepared for this. Time for some serious studying, right? Not just yet, there are a few things you really need to do first…. Read More »

It’s that time of year again.  Yep, the time when suddenly it’s the end of August and you are stuck on your bed staring at all of shiz you need to pack into boxes for another successful (and sometimes difficult) year in college.  You get slightly excited for another year to pummel you in the face with good times and countless hours in the lib.  Can you feel it? Your insides tighten, your liver shrivels and shivers and your eyes twinkle. It’s a beautiful thing. Are those goosebumps?

Yes, it’s time to be ready for the school year. It’s time to start packing and gaining ultimate pre-college essentials to give you a chance for an easy ride through the first semester.  Alright CollegeCandy chickas, nurse those excited pangs of pain desire in your liver – we (with a little help from our college blogging friends) are going to get you ready for school!

* Before you even pack up the car, make sure that you don’t forget those necessary items that everyone always forgets to pack.

* Ok, I’m going to be the one to put it out there – I wasn’t much of a ‘laundry-pro’ going into college. I’m not kidding, can I say on here that I Googled ‘how to separate colors’ before doing my very first load? Yeah, embarrassing. Allow me to protect your Google history: here are some things you can think about in regards to doin’ the dirty laundry pile.

* Before I went off to college, shoved in between a thick pile of clothes and a dresser in my dad’s truck, I would have paid a fortune to have a 100+ list full of things to know in regards to college. Here’s the dream realized, free of charge.

* Come finals week, this list will be pasted to your forehead. Read More »

So you’re going to be a freshman. Thanks to your advisor/mom/campus tour/Bed Bath and Beyond advertisements, you think you’re ready. You learned how to do laundry, you’ve purchased the Twin XL sheets, you measured your future dorm room (and cried when you realized you could touch all 4 walls from the middle of the room) and all those A.P. classes have prepared you for the workload that comes in college.

Congrats. You now know about 10% of what you need to know to survive freshman year.

The truth is, there is a lot that happens your first year of college that no advisor (and especially not your parental units) is going to know about. And that’s why we’re here – to get you from Welcome Week through final exams in one glorious piece. And to try and stop you from making the same mistakes we did. Again and again.

You wanna survive your first year of college? Avoid any and all of these freshman year faux pas: Read More »

Look back to the person you were when you walked onto campus your Freshman year. Whether that was 4 years ago, 3 years ago or just 8 months ago, you’ve come a long way, baby.

College time is like dog years; the things you accomplish/see/learn/sleep through in one year would take seven in the real world. And by the time you graduate, you’ll have a whole lot to look back on. Between your academic accomplishments, your social accomplishments and just those little things you’ve learned about life (like doing your own laundry – HUGE milestone!), there’s a lot to be proud of. I know I’ll always look back on my four and a half years (yes, getting my parents to pay for one extra semester was a HUGE accomplishment) and feel proud about that time I didn’t die when Jell-o wrestling my roommate in my backyard.

Having done so much, it’s hard to pick out our greatest college accomplishments, but this week I asked the CollegeCandy writers (and all our Twitter/Facebook friends) to come up with theirs:

Kari – Florida State: My greatest accomplishment is an even tie between raising $300 for charity playing quarters and getting invited to a party thrown by a secret society. Equally awesome.

Hannah – University of Northern Colorado, Greeley: Never sleeping through my 9 am class that I HATED even though it would have been so much easier! [Submitted by a fabulous reader via Facebook.]

Rachael – University of Miami: Managing to earn myself a position in nearly every student organization I’m involved in, as well as placing in nationals with my debate teams two years in a row, all while maintaining a good enough GPA for Deans’ List or higher four out of six semesters. Balancing all of that is definitely my biggest achievement! Read More »