While I can't actually divulge any information on what it was like, I'm free to tell you my impressions on the test and what it was like.
I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but that's okay. I have a few projects coming up (that I will be sharing with hubski soon) that pertain to the subject that I intend to master.
Has anyone some thoughts or feelings on what the GRE is like?
I took it many years ago, before there was a written component. I had already been accepted to the PhD program, but my academic advisor said that I should take it anyway. I didn't study. As a physics undergrad, I should have gotten a perfect score on math, and I was a bit embarrassed that I didn't. I did well enough on verbal, as well as the analytic part. Some practice would have helped.
The GRE is utter bullshit.
I have a good friend that got her PhD in literature at Brown and I beat her on the verbal. The only reality that reflects is how shitty the GRE is at discerning test-taking ability from genuine ability.
cgod and I were roommates when another one of our roommates was studying vocab for the GRE. My roommate and I got about 75% of the words. cgod got more like 95%. His brain is a fucking dictionary.
My wife almost got a perfect score on the verbal GRE section. She had yet to come to the US, and her English was quite poor at the time.
What matters in life is obvious, but we talk around it.
The GRE is not a big deal. Study, do your best, move on.