uh swayj

I am taking the Graduate Records Exam (GRE) tomorrow.  I have contemplated the necessity of this test; I even looked for graduate programs that didn't require me to have GRE scores.  However, I realized this was a passive way to go about choosing a future career and decided to buck up and get it over with.   I have been studying for a month and realized that I have a horrible vocabulary but a large aptitude for math. 

I have brushed up on my general math skills.   The circumference of a circle is 2 Pi multiplied by the radius. The area of a triangle is half of the base mulitiplied by the height.  And the probability of me rolling a 7 in one roll with two fair dice is 1/6th.  WOO- I have math under control.

But this verbal thing.  It kicks my booty.  Never in my life, and i do mean never, have I heard someone say "The doctor was able to AMELIORATE the patient's suffering using painkillers"   I have heard "The doctor improved her suffering with a shit ton of drugs".   So yes, I have learned that Ameliorate is a verb that means "to make better; to improve". I have also learned that a Belfry is a "belltower; room in which a bell is hung" and  Licentious means "immoral; unrestrained by society".  But does knowing these words make me smarter, or more capable of succeeding in a Graduate Course?  For that matter, does knowing I have a 1 in 6 chance of rolling a 7 in one roll with two fair dice? From what i understand, it might help me in the gambling game of CRAPS, but I don't think it will help me cure cancer, suture a wound, or help a crash victim walk again.  But maybe it is just me. 

For now, I am going to be like Philip Larkin. 

"Like many people, Philip Larkin used alcohol to assuage his sense of meaninglessness and dispair"  Assuage, verb, (uh swayj): to make something upleasant less severe. 

Bottoms up Philip!