ITS OVER

I beat the GMAT. :) Details later. I'll leave you with this Kanye West lyric:

I just thought you should know
We hit the liquor store
Got some Cris and some Mo
And we about to let it floooooow
Had some problems before but see we let em go
Got an ounce of that dro
And we about to let it bloooooow

Yeah, you know what this is
It's a celebration, bitches!
Grab a drink, grab a glass
After that, I grab yo ass

Whatever doesn't kill me....

The flea situation seems to be in control, though I have a feeling that the war is far from over. There is no lower life form on earth than the flea. Yet they seem to be rather advanced little parasites. Did you know they could detect CO2, vibrations on the ground, and body heat so that they know when to emerge from their little disgusting cocoons? I think I can now write a fucking book on fleas and pesticides.

On the GMAT front, I took a GMATPrep test and scored a 710. Hooray! All is not lost, after all. Snot-filled and flea-ridden, I will conquer this test, so help me god.

Now while I can't exactly dispense any advice given that I haven't taken the real test yet, I do want to mention that while I started early (April), I realize now that I didn't make the best of my study time. I was intent on getting through all my prep books, so I just charged through problems everyday and read the solutions for my incorrect answers. While this exposed me to hundreds and hundreds of gmat questions, I never really sat down and really reviewed/memorized math formulas, idioms, methods to tackle specific types of problems. I figured I would save this for the last month, which I did. Now that I've reviewed thoroughly, I find myself successfully solving quant problems more efficiently (duh). And I'm kicking myself for not doing it earlier. So in other words: Sounds obvious, but don't just do the problems--study them and their solutions in depth. Slow and steady!

Less than 7 days to go.

GMAT + flu + fleas = HELL

What better to complement my single-digit number of days left till D-day than a stuffy nose, phelgm-y throat, and 30+ flea bites on my right leg??? How exactly does one catch the flu in July in Southern California when it is 110 degrees outside? And can someone explain why, after my cat's three flea-free years of life, does she decide to host an army of them NOW?

And here I was worrying about breaking 700. Hell, will I even manage to make it to the test center without passing out from the pesticide fumes in my lungs or wigging out from my flu medications???

bitch, bitch, whine, whine

Why is it that all the things that have been bothering me over the course of 2006 are now back in my head, fighting for me to spend all my brain power agonizing over them? Why now, when the GMAT is a few days away? Is it that I’d rather be thinking about my aging parents’ health, my unyielding crush on an impractical someone, my financial woes, my uptight new trainee at work, my lack of general direction in life, my overall unhappiness—than be perusing through another prep book? Perhaps, but whatever the cause, it is not putting me in a studying mood.

I know, I know--I will get a grip. My troubles will always be there waiting for me, but the GMAT is at hand. I just needed to blog about it, I guess. It’s lunchtime. My math flashcards and iced americano await me at Starbucks.

chi-town travels

Okay, enough test stuff, before I shoot myself. Here are some photos from my recent trip to Chicago. I didn't get a chance to visit Kellogg, but I'm hesistant to apply anyhow. I know when I'm beat. But the city is great.

panic!

I decided on a whim to take a Kaplan CAT test yesterday (my second), and did poorly. Much worse than my diagnostic test. I pray this is not reflective of how I will do on my actual test day (which is approaching rapidly!!). The room temperature (freezing--but I didn't want to sacrifice time to turn the a/c off), time of day (late afternoon, after work), my nerves, and my inexperience with doing problems on a screen all help to account for the low score. Or, maybe I'm just a mediocre working stiff loser who doesn't deserve to go to B school. Ha...ha...joking. I think. But I do feel discouraged. Especially since I've been doing so well on the problems in my prep books.

Oh well, at least I learned first-hand a few things about test day (that i should have already known): dress warmly/comfortably, get a good night's sleep/a few hours of relaxing, and calm the fuck down.

Hardcore (and I mean HARRRRD) studying/reviewing begins 07.17.06. Uh, after a short stint in Las Vegas, that is. :)

the other CAT in my life.

Kylie wonders if B-school would open more doors for her, as well.

the gmat really is the easy part

So I admit to not exactly sticking to my studying schedule. My GMAT is in late July and I've been studying about 7-9 hours a week. I do feel like I'm learning a lot and I never feel completely overwhelmed by a question--however I do worry that I spend too much time on them, particularly on math questions. While I rarely get questions in the book wrong, I probably need to learn to do them faster...

June is such a busy month, with constant birthday celebrations, out-of-state weddings, pre-planned vacations...it is hard to study more than 10 hours a week. Although I'm technically slacking from my schedule, I am almost finished with my GMAT 800 book. I can't believe I've blown through over 1000 problems! I will be stepping up the studying, beginning today with the Official Guide.

Lately I've been panicking about business school on a daily basis. I unfortunately have a lot of self doubt and I worry that this will be reflected in my essays and interviews. While I have the same basic reasons that everyone else has for going to business school (fundamental business/management knowledge, network of peers, greater flexibility and opportunity, status, money, etc.), I worry that my current lack of a specific post-mba plan will be detrimental to my applications.

While I know I am very interested in Entrepreneurship and Marketing, I can't say for certain exactly what it is I want to do. I also wonder exactly how specific my goals need to be. A friend of mine who recently went to the USC Marshall admit weekend was told by the second-year and alumni panel that it really isn't that important to one's b-school success to have a clearly defined path prior to attending. I want to believe this, as I can't imagine knowing what I'll want to do with my degree until I've had a taste of other possibilities I might not have previously considered.

I'm doing as much research as I can. But I still feel uneasy that the answer to my "Why" question isn't solid. Then I wonder if anyone's is really solid. Or if the very detailed, specific answer on their application isn't actually the reason they're going. Should I be able to explain why I want to go to business school in a single sentence? Or a few sentences?

Ugh, now I'm panicking again!

LOST

As if all the speculation and mystery in the episodes don't already infuse themselves into my brain, now websites like the http://www.thehansofoundation.org and http://www.oceanic-air.com are stealing more of my work/study time thoughts (as well as occasionally scaring the shit out of me)! I'm tempted to add The Bad Twin to my Amazon cart, but for now it's just sitting in my wishlist. Plus with random actors posing as characters in real life (i.e. Jimmy Kimmel), and the countless other (most likely official) LOST spinoff sites/advertisements...I feel like I'm being swallowed by a giant marketing monster...and enjoying it all the while.

mondays RULE

Today I was approved for the raise I requested. I came home, tackled the Kaplan GMAT 800 questions (good book!), went to the gym, and enjoyed some laughs, smokes, and pinot grigio with friends. Now I'm relaxing in my room with my mp3s at full blast. I can't remember ever having such a good Monday!

wait, so i'm NOT a perfect 10?

It's funny how being in a long-term relationship had made me forget that I ever had any insecurities whatsoever. I guess when I had someone by my side, telling me how amazing and perfect I was and how lucky he was to have me, I became a bit disillusioned...

But now that I'm living the single life again, I feel as though I've been hit with a tidal wave of reality: so... i'm NOT absolutely perfect? What do you mean... my jokes aren't really that funny? Why isn't every handsome available man tripping over himself to ask me out? What's this rejection word and what does it mean???

I'm not trying to be obnoxious. This singledom thing just takes some getting used to!

studying > moping

I've been having a bad week (and a bad year for that matter) and everyone seemed to assume it was because I've spent so much time studying. If anything, having the GMAT to focus on is a relief, since I don't have time to sit around over-analyzing everything that's been bothering me.

I admit I'm still halfway stuck in my rut of misery but I am climbing out slowly. I ditched my study session today for leftover cake and wine, but it was neccessary to regain my sanity. I think it paid off. During lunch, a friend randomly mentioned being really happy with the people he has in his life. It made me think about the people in mine, and I concluded that I don't have anything I can justifiably be unhappy about (although, I'm sure I'll find something).

Here's hoping this week will be better than the last!

ERRR

Ok, can the Kaplan software be more asinine?! I don't need sound effects or little cartoons giving me guided tours of some virtual Kaplatopia. These aren't the PSATs...

So...I did OK on my first adaptive diagnostic test (6xx) but I've got to plan a little better for my saturday morning exam time. It would probably do me well not to drink so much the night before. ...Probably. And the downstairs bathroom was being remodeled, so the hammering and drilling noises weren't helping. Nor were the visits from housemates. I'll be sure to have a "testing in progress" sign up next week.

I've been doing really well on the math in-book practice questions, but I hadn't realized how much time I'd been using per question. I've got to step that up. I was guessing with 3 seconds left on the last question for each quant section. :( And I haven't yet decided if seeing the time makes me more or less nervous...

Ok, I'll stop making excuses. I should go review my wrong answers now.

Verbal Shmerbal

Today was my first day of my new study schedule and it went relatively well. I studied during my lunch break at Starbucks, but was intermittently distracted by an obnoxious couple yielding a disposable camera. But I managed to chug through the sentence correction despite the smooching and photo snapping. At home I finished up the reading comprehension. On my bed. Which wasn't the best idea, because my bed is practically a giant white goose and pretty damn comfortable. But besides falling asleep for 20 minutes, I think I studied well. Tomorrow I'll try Borders.

I realized I probably need to stop glossing over words whose definition I'm not 100% certain of. I need to actually write them down and look them up later and stop guessing from the context. So today I've confirmed the meanings of four words I've previously just made assumptions about, and that feels good. But I'm embarassed to reveal them here. I swear that they're like, big words, with a bunch of syllables and stuff. :)

I've now gotten through the verbal section, scoring at about 80-85% correct on the sample questions in the book. I haven't taken any adaptive computer tests yet, but I plan to do that this Saturday (and every Saturday morning from now on). I imagine I'll do much better on the math since math is relatively fresh in my mind from college and from the scattered SAT tutoring I've done in the past few years.

That's all that's new on the studying front.

P.S. I'm currently using the general Kaplan GMAT book, and I've got the GMAT 800 and the Official Guide books in queue.

GMAT, I shall own your ass!

I finally set a date for my GMAT--late July. I did manage to get some verbal studying done during an unexpected (emergency) trip to Salt Lake City two weeks ago. Unfortunately after getting back to Los Angeles I was a little disoriented, and the trip to Vegas a few days after didn't help (but I did finally get over my fear of in-person poker). Now, I'm ready and motivated, and my study-buddy and I have officially forked out the $250, so it's time for me to get into gear!

I decided to go as early as possible with my date because I needed an additional month to re-take the exam (if neccessary) and then a good two months or so before first round deadlines. Although I haven't been hardcore studying just yet, the added pressure of it being nearby will only be good for me, I think. I'm probably overestimating my motivation with the following schedule I've set, but better I aim high while it's still early:

Monday-Wednesday: 2-3 hours in the pm
Saturday: 4 hours in the am
Sunday: 4 hours in the am

I'm sure this will require some major tweaking within my first week. As for where to study, I will attempt to try borders, where tea and coffee flow endlessly and there are fewer things to distract me. Borders was my roommate's study zone of choice and he scored a 730, so I figure it's worth a try...

800, here I come!

There is no point.

The subject of this entry reflects how I began to feel in my post-college pre-adulthood mid-twenties. After I’d moved past the afterglow of the landmarks of turning 21, graduating school, and settling in to my first real job, I wondered what else there was to look foward to, besides the grim world of marriage, babies, and death.

For the past two years I’ve (somewhat passively) pursued different career paths in my spare time, from fashion designer to ebay millionaire to web developer, in hopes of finding that one thing that is supposed to make life worthwhile.

I’ve decided (for now, anyway) to pursue an MBA, and to use this blog to document my journey. Enjoy…