As I was perusing the posts already on the blog, Darren’s post really spoke to me. I am also taking the Psychology GRE really soon (next weekend!) and the nerves are really kicking in. I’m also taking the General GRE the following weekend so it’s crunch time. I would highly recommend against taking these 2 tests so closely together. I’ve been focusing so much on studying for the Psychology GRE that it’s really hindered me from properly preparing for the General GRE. And another tip: start early! I began my studying at the end of the summer and feel that it put me at a disadvantage.

For anyone that wants to start preparing for these tests, I recommend the Kaplan book for psychology- it’s really comprehensive!

Just a heads up, the next test date is April 5th, 2014 so if you’re interested, start studying! 🙂

I recently had to read this article for work and I found it really interesting. I think that this article pertains to all of us, as students, we have all either dropped a class or have thought about dropping a class before. Especially now that midterms are coming up, some of us might be under a great deal of stress. This article highlights the top reasons why students tend to drop a class and hopefully will prepare you to make a more informed decision.

Remember that everyone struggles with certain subjects, you can’t be perfect at everything. However, hard work does pay off, all you have to do is hang in there and study rigorously! 🙂

Link?

This week, I finally got to run Sara’s Scenario and Puzzles study on my own, which I am really proud about! I had run it alongside Sara last week, where I got to learn firsthand what it takes to be a researcher: preparedness, following the script, directness, and, most importantly, consistency! I realized how important it is to be consistent in all sessions of a study because one small difference in the tone of the researcher’s voice or in how the lab is set up can impact the results of the study, making it less reliable.

Therefore, after Sara and I had done the first run of the study, we made several notes on all the things that we had to change in order to make sure that the future sessions would not be impacted by the hindrance of surrounding noises and objects, as well as what we had to keep consistent. For example, we have to make sure that all four participants in each of the sessions sit in the same four computers (there are six in our lab) and that all of their computers have no volume, and that our phone remains silent in all the sessions. We also had to add some notes to the script to let our other research team members know of other lines that they have to say to their participants (such as “Do not click the reset button or change the number of discs on a puzzle.”)

After improving on all of these things and updating the script with the new notes, it was time for me to run my own session. I had to come at 3:30 pm and prepare the lab with the appropriate items and websites on the computers. The participants then came in at 4 pm and I have to admit, even though I had practiced with Sara already, I was still really nervous since I was all by myself and because I didn’t want to forget anything that I supposed to say or do. However, I then told myself that everything was going to be okay as long as I followed the script word for word (even though it would make me sound like a robot!). What also encouraged me to not feel nervous was the fact that I am basically representing my team members and the purpose of this study, so I wanted to appear informative, enthusiastic, and confident about the study. In the end, everything did go fine and I was very happy for not messing up! I definitely feel more prepared for next week’s sessions.