Reciprocal Directories

I will like to admit the fact that I have never before tried reciprocal directories with any of my sites(if my memory is with me). But, now I am submitting a site of mine to reciprocal directories to see how they behave so that I can share the results here with you.

Some question that I now feel like asking about these reciprocal directories are:

Are they really worth it?

Are they really beneficial for your SEO?

Is it a good SEO practice to submit to the reciprocal directories?

Will google and other good search engines consider it as a quality back link?

Is there a chance that instead of my site ranking high in SERPS, it will go down?

I hope I will be able to answer these questions once I am done with submitting my site to them and analyzing the results I achieve. Again I am telling you to wait, but can't really help it.