Feras's Blog

Taking The GRE

// August 29th, 2006 // 4 Comments » // education, me

I took the GRE test a few days ago, and if you are planning on taking the GRE any time soon, these are a few pointers you might benefit from:

1- Practice at least 5 full length tests.
2- The book I used to prepare for the test was GRE Exam Cram. I found many books, but I liked this one in particular, because it covers almost everything you need to know for the GRE exam. It also has 2 full length exams, and a cheat sheet the summarizes the basics you might need to revise the day of the test. The only problem is that you might find a few errors in quantitative section, If you need help email me and i’ll give you the errors I found. I’m not sure if you will find this book here in saudi but you can get it from amazon.
3- I also used the practice question I found on MyGRETutor.com, and I found them to be really helpful. The questions cover about most of the topics that you might face on the test.
4- Focus on the quantitative if you are planning on a math related college.
5- If the test center is not in your city, then I suggest that you travel to that city a day before your test.
6- Get alot of sleep, the GRE test is very easy!! anyone can get 800/800, but the only problem you will face is the time given for each section. Will be given only 45 minutes to solve 28 math problems.
7- The GRE quantitative section is not about what you know and what you don’t know, but it’s about how fast you can do the math!!
8- You will find the time given for the essays to be more than enough, but you will also find the time given for the verbal and quantitative sections to be a bit tight. If you manage to finish the quantitative section with more than 5 minutes left, then I think that you are either really smart or really dumb.
9-Use the ten minute break given after the second section really wisely. Leave the testing area and go get a drink and rest, because you might need that rest.

If you have any questions just email me at cre@tivity.info

PS There will be significant changes to the GRE test by Fall ’07. One of the best things that they have done, is that the quantitative test is made of two 40-minute sections rather than one 45-minute section.

Meade LX90GPS Telescope

// August 20th, 2006 // Comments Off // tech

The NEW LX90GPS can do more than track satellites. It talks to them as well. Turn it on and the built-in Sony GPS sensor immediately determines your precise date, time and location. AutoAlign then uses this info to align your scope for a tour of the most spectacular sights in the universe.With all the features of the legendary LX90 Schmidt-Cassegrain plus the ability to communicate to satellites, the new LX90GPS now has it all. The Meade LX90GPS Telescope costs $2,734.
via [amazon.com]

Born on a Blue Day

// August 16th, 2006 // 1 Comment » // Information, me, Trips

While I was on my “trip” I stopped at a bookstore to get something to read. My eye fell on this book right away. I liked the way it looked and the title also attracted me. I read the back of the book and a few pages, then I went to the starbucks inside the shop to get a cup of coffee while choosing which book to get. When I started to read this book I couldn’t let go, because of how this genious named Daniel Tammet describes his abilities, his childhood, and above all the way he thinks.

This is what he said when describing the day he was born: “I was born on 31 January 1979 – a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because it was blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number nine or the sound of loud people arguing”

Daniel sees numbers as shapes, colours and textures and can perform extraordinary maths in his head. He can also learn to speak a language fluently from scratch in a week. He has Savant Syndrome, an extremely rare form of Asperger’s that gives him almost unimaginable mental powers, much like the Rain Man portrayed by Dustin Hoffman.

Daniel has a compulsive need for order and routine – he eats exactly 45 grams of porridge for breakfast and cannot leave the house without counting the number of items of clothing he’s wearing. If he gets stressed or unhappy he closes his eyes and counts. But in some ways Daniel is not at all like the Rain Man. He is virtually unique amongst people who have severe autistic disorders in being capable of living a fully independent life. It is his incredible self-awareness and ability to communicate what it feels like to live in a unique way that makes his story so powerful.

Touching as well as fascinating, Born On A Blue Day, explores what it’s like to be special and in so doing gives us an insight into what makes us all human – our minds.

via The official website of Daniel Tammet

In March 2004, Daniel set a European record when he recited the famous mathematical constant Pi from memory to 22,514 decimal places in a time of 5 hours. He has been extensively studied by scientists at California’s Center for Brain Studies and at the Cambridge Autism Research Centre UK and has been described as autism’s ‘Rosetta Stone’.

It’s a great book, and I really enjoyed reading it. I definitely recommend it…

Click here to see a video of him calculating huge numbers in seconds…
Click here to see a video of him when he went to salt lake city to meet Kim Peek (the real Rain Man)…

Who knows maybe one day Daniel will be as smart as Kim…

There’s No Place Like Home

// August 14th, 2006 // Comments Off // Information

Alhamdulillah I got back yesterday night from my trip. A friend of mine called me many times, and I didn’t answer his phone calls cause I was a bit busy. I called him back and he was concerned about the comment spam in my website and the terrible language used in some of them. I told him that it was just spam, but i’m really sorry if this spam has offended anyone in anyway cause I know some of them are kind of sick.

There is a way to solve this problem, and that’s by using the Akismet plug-in. The only problem is that I must upgrade my wordpress to 2.0 to use this plug-in.

There are a few thing I plan to do to this blog whenever I have free time.
- Upgrade to wordpress 2.0 so that I can use the Akismet plug-in (I like 1.5 more, even though I’ve used both)
- move this website to a new sub domain crea.tivity.info because many people find tivity.info hard to remember, plus crea.tivity makes more sense.
- try to write on a daily basis.

Thanks for stopping by, and I would also like to thank the friend that called to tell me about the spam…

On Vacation

// August 1st, 2006 // Comments Off // me, Trips

Thanks for stopping by, i’m on vacation now. If I get free time i’ll try to update. If you need anything email me on cre at tivity dot info