Stupid Test Errors

Friday evening, after my math test, Robert and I used Maple to find the answer to two problems I knew I had screwed up somewhere. On the graph of y=e^t*sin t, I somehow managed to screw up my substitution of -t such that I thought the function was symmetric around the y axis; um, not really. On an integral problem that I called "finding the volume of the infinite sombrero," I couldn't figure out how I got the answer -2pi, but apparently, at the very end, I thought ln 0 = 1 (when it's ln 1 = 0 and ln 0 = -infinity). Who knows what other elementary math errors I managed to make on the exam?

On my marketing test this morning (50 questions, multiple choice), I really agonized over one question, finally answered one of the two possibilities I had narrowed it down to, and left the room, upon which I almost immediately realized that I should have been able to figure out that the right answer was the one that I rejected. I should have gone with the logic, "If he is going to ask one question about an anticompetition act in American history, it will be the Sherman Antitrust Act, even if this doesn't seem to be quite right to you. Do not let the fact that you feel sort of familiar with the Sherman Act fool you into thinking, 'If this were the Sherman Act, I would know it.' He obviously is not going to ask you about the Clayton Act instead of the Sherman Act."

The problem was that I did not know that the Sherman Act was passed in response to farmers complaining about railroad price fixing; I had associated it with the desire to break up trusts in the oil industry - Standard Oil and all of that. Aha, and I am not the only one who thought that; the Wikipedia entry for the Sherman Act states, "Despite its name, the Act was not aimed at trusts in particular, but at any form which would create a "restraint of trade". The word "antitrust" was used because the Act was initially proposed to break up the Standard Oil trust." Indeed, this site claims, "The Sherman Act was strengthened in 1914 with amendments known as the Clayton Act that added further prohibitions against price-fixing conspiracies. " However, this more thorough description of the history of the Sherman Act does attribute it to farmers' displeasure with railroad pricing.

Robert pointed out that only agonizing over one question is a good sign, and that's true, but we'll see how many other questions I answered incorrectly with confidence. There were at least 3 others that were somewhat iffy.

To apply to business school, I will be taking the GMAT, a test with which I have heretofore been unfamiliar. But upon looking at the description of the GMAT in a guide to business schools I got from the library, I am now thinking I might like it better than the GRE. The main sections are:

Analytical Writing - Two 30 minute essays on "Analysis of an Issue" and "Analysis of an Argument" - measures ability to think critically and communicate complex ideas

Quantitative Section - "Data sufficiency" (reasoning ability) and "Problem solving" (work with numbers) questions

Verbal Section - "Reading comprehension" (analyze written information), "Critical reasoning" (evaluate an assumption, argument, or inference), and "Sentence completion" (understanding of basic rules of English grammar) questions

Notice the lack of analogy and advanced vocabulary questions. So no "Raven is to writing desk as apotheosis is to a) chicanery, b) bombast, c) encomium, d) panegyric, or e) effluent" type questions.

But one source says that the GMAT's data sufficiency questions are considered "more difficult to master" than the GRE's quantitative comparison questions and suggests that the GMAT is overall easier for those with strong math skills. I'm working on it.

And one kind of nice thing is that not having taken the GMAT before, I am not trying to meet or exceed some previous score, the way I feel that I "should" be able to get at least a 1530 on the GRE. Scoring above 700 (out of 800) is where I need to be.