I mentioned in previous posts about my difficulties registering\staying registered for the Graduate Record Exam. But on Thursday, I travelled down to northern Harrisburg to take the exam I was supposed to take earlier this month.

I arrived at the test center shortly before 12:30 pm, and quite frankly dredded going in if not for fear of the akward situation of running into the same people as before.

"Oh, stop being so damned paranoid," my mom said as we entered the newly repaved parking lot. "They deal with hundreds of people on a daily basis. They probably wouldn't even recognize you."

I walked into the small, tight check-in area which was barely big enough for a desk and a set of lockers let alone more than one registeree.

"I remember you," the short black woman behind the reception desk said. "I'll get Brett to check you in" Not only did they recognize me - they pegged me as some sort of security risk as well.

She returned a moment later with a white guy in this mid-late thirties with short mousy hair. He sat in her seat at the desk and asked to see my ID and proof of registration. I gave him both and after unfolding and examining the sheet the code was written on, he handed it back to me. He then entered the information from my license on his computer. He then turns back to me and instructs me to take everything out of my pocket "including your watch, lanyard and the sheet I just returned to you." I feel like I'm at an airport.

He told me to stand against the wall. I half expecting him to frisk me, but when I squeezed past his desk I saw the small web cam attached to the side of his monitor. Suddenly, I'm staring at an oddly familiar visage on his screen. He handed me a release to "fill out," it turns out that only do I have to sign the bottom but rewrite the legal stuff from the top of the page (something about cheating and confidentiality). Three people came in after I did, but I don't recall any of them having to do legal busywork.

The receptionist came back and lead me into the test room. She stopped in front of a computer with my picture on it (the highest tech part of the test). After dismissing 500 pages of useless "How to use a computer" tutorial, I was staring at a blank essay screen. Normally, I enjoy writing (otherwise I wouldn't be applying for an MFA), but I just wasn't feeling all that inspired that day. Maybe it was the tension headache that was only exasperated by my unfortunate choice of essays and that I can't type worth crap (especially under pressure).

The rest of the exam was basically what I expected it to be (though a bit heavier on some types of questions than my guide book had led me to believe). It did start thundering loudly about midway through the math section, and every once in a while I'd hear someone coming in to the lobby and say "HOLY SHIT is it RAINING outisde!!" Other than that, everything went relatively smoothly.

Curiously, I managed to get the EXACT same score on the real test that I got in all of my practice tests (I'm told that doesn't happen very often). I won't comment on whether that is good or bad, but I will say that the weather had gotten worse by the time I was ready to leave the test site.