What’s with this f—ing GRE test?  What do questions that purposely obfuscate the purpose of a text’s text accomplish? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

As a writer, can’t I, like Laurie Anderson, just let x=x? (That’s rhetorical too.)

What did I learn from this extended moment of despair, except how to bring the correct identification to a test center, to empty my pockets front and back, to barely decipher a bored moderator’s recitation of the rules like a bad waitress with a bad menu, and to sit in front of an antiquated computer screen for interminable hours to only be confused by the relevance of the results? (Is that rhetorical? I no longer know.)