44Q tonight! Guess the first wasn't a mistake!

So today was/is a good day.

First on the agenda is a big congratulations to my friend.  She will not be taking the GMAT ever again!  She just took it for the 3rd time and did well!  Now I must follow in her footsteps!  I'll see your score and raise you _____!  ;-)   She's probably laughing right now as she reads that!

In any event, I can't wait until I'm completely done with this GMAT exam.  I seem to be getting closer and closer to that goal and it makes me smile!

Studying for the GMAT has no longer become a dreadful thing.  It's actually quite fun trying to figure out the intricacies of this exam.  I no longer study for 5/6/7 hours a day reading through material doing 1 problem here and 1 problem there.  Working with my tutor has been very beneficial, albeit expensive, but given the opportunity cost it's worth it.  Now when I study it's usually going over mistakes.  I know all of the information - for the most part - now it's a matter of putting it all together...getting faster...and refining my skills.

QUANT

Tonight I took another Veritas quant section and scored a 44!  I think I did a fist pump (I'm from Jersey so it comes naturally!) when I saw the score.  I pressed B for every verbal question so my final score was  a 460 lol, but when I found where the Quant score was I was very pleased.

Number properties is still my achilles heel, but I see that issue fading slowly but surely, although my tutor may disagree.  The next thing that I want to focus on in terms of my Quant score is getting it up to 47/48 consistently.

VERBAL

So yeah.... verbal... not a fan until I figure it out.  I know I'm on the verge of an epiphany but I'm getting anxious waiting for that EUREKA moment to arrive.  I think I've dialed in to what I need to focus on.  My problem is not that I don't understand the premises...I think that before in my prep I was so focused on figure out what the questions were asking and not so much the premises, but now I need to go back to looking into what the questions are exactly looking for.  

I had a discussion with Brandon today after I got my quant score.  He really wants me to take a full practice exam to see where I am this time.  I keep telling him "No... my tutor doesn't want me to do that yet."  I'm really putting a lot of faith into my tutor and I want to do things on my own, but hey you know what?  He just took the exam again and got a 780 when he was sick!  So who am I to override his suggestions?  My job is to simply do the work assigned, which is getting harder I might add.  

After I finish writing this post, I'm going to tackle critical reasoning again.  I'm going to try something different this time and underline the conclusions.  I know that obviously when taking the actual test, I won't be able to draw on the computer screen, but I think my problem is forgetting about the conclusion and then choosing answers that are too broad in scope.  So I'm going to see if this tactic works this go around!

Just a reminder - I will not be posting my exam date on my blog or any forums.  It will be a surprise because I don't want the added pressure of having people wishing me good luck and then thinking about them asking how I did - post exam.

I better get going because even though it's the weekend I still need to get some sleep as per my tutor!  I'm going to be posting a lot over the next couple of days because things are about to get uber hectic!

Frustrating GMAT Prep Night/Day

I write today after having just completed a Quant section of the Veritas exam.  I'm embarassed about my score after that 45Q.  Also, because in practice exams back in March... I've seen this Quant score before.  Really wonder if this is for me.  I know I should keep at it blah blah blah, but at this point it's just becoming embarrassing.

The only thing I was excited about was that the things I got wrong during this practice exam were topics I haven't covered yet with my tutor.  One would see/hear that and say - "Well it looks like you're on the right track!"  and what I say to that is... "I don't care I want to see an improvement every time I take an exam."

The last topic we went over was number properties.  I'm starting to get the very very very basics, but if something new is thrown at me, I don't know how to think around it.  We'll definitely need to spend at least two more sessions going over that.  When I look ahead to all of the topics that we need to go over still I just hear the cash register sound going off in my head.  Cha-Ching Cha-Ching because I know I have many more weeks before I'm completely ready.  Then on top of that there's one thing to be ready and there's another thing to feel confident, which I believe comes afterwards.  Well I do have a deadline in my head and a potential exam date so that's what I'm aiming towards.

On the topic of CR... well.. I'll be honest.  I emailed him earlier today if we should stop working on CR and focus on other things.  That way I can focus on it by myself with GMAT material instead of LSAT material.  I think the LSAT language is getting in the way.  But then.. when I think of that statement I say to myself "Well if other people swear by LSAT material...it should be helping right?"

Maybe I need to just do a CR set from the OG Guide again to see where I stand (Just emailed him to ask him that question.)  I've realized that I'm a very needy "tutee."  I email him constantly.  Ratio of my emails to his responses is.. well today... 4:0, but that's because I email all day everyday.  To me it's simply an ongoing conversation, so if I think of something before he responds I just re-forward my last email and add in my new comments.  But when he respond it's to all of them usually late at night since he does have a life! As I typed this sentence he emailed me back! I kid you not....  No screenshots this time, just take my word for it.

In any event we have just added the Veritas Number Properties guide to my homework sheet and I get to do a CR set from the Official Guide.  Let's see how this goes!  ::sigh::  you should hear me cursing at this exam!

Well part of my homework is to get proper amounts of sleep.  So... since it's almost 12pm that means I need to start getting ready for bed.

I am the weakest link... goodbye!

45Q Score! Must be a mistake

So as prescribed by my tutor I took a practice exam today - only the Quant section though.  One good thing for me being able to have access to all of these exams is that my tutor can just tell me to do x,y, and z and just assumes I have the books/resources.  It's funny actually...kinda sad... but more comical!

So anyway I took the exam today and look:

I died when I saw that score.  Literally DIED ahah...  I'm still dead actually.  Once I got the score, I posted on BTG to see how that relates to the real exam.  Then I texted Brandon to see what his highest Veritas score was. I emailed Eric and David from BTG to see what they thought.  Then I emailed Brian at Veritas to see if he thought that was a good score.  Then I emailed my tutor to see what he thought.  Hahaha I'm a hot mess I know.

Needless to say.. I told you guys I was feeling good!  So now after I come down from my high I'm going to forget about this score and focus on what I did incorrectly.  (I was going to say - "did incorrect" but did was a verb and needed an adverb to modify it!  I think...)  Yeah SC is going to be a hiccup in my life again, but that's ok I'm ready for it.

On another note - I get this text message from my friend today:

He has no idea what he's in for!  I'll try to take it easy on him!  Now it's time to watch Hulu and get back to House Hunters International!  Tomorrow is another day of CR...  ::taking deep breaths::

THURSDAY IS THE TUCK RECEPTION @ THE YALE CLUB... note to self.. pick up dry cleaning tomorrow!

Guest Blogger (Osirus) - His Story!

Hello Hello... by the time you guys read this I will have reached another milestone with my blog = My 10,000th Visitor since February!  10,000th Visitor Post


For my 5,000th visitor I had a guest blogger so I figured I would do the same this time around.  

This guest is my dear friend Brandon aka Osirus!  You guys have heard me mention him on many occasions starting with the BeatTheGMAT contest back in February, when in all honesty, I wasn't too fond of him because he was outposting me!  Needless to say he has become the backbone of my studies.  We joke that he is the SVP of Team Richard... my mother is the President!  

In any event, I wanted to open up the floor for Brandon to comment because he's in what I think an awkward position.    For many of us, we want to beat the gmat (up) so we can forget about it and move on with our lives.  Even though Brandon has conquered the GMAT he's graciously helping those around him attempt to do the same.  So for those Admissions Officers out there, just know that Brandon WILL be one of the people helping his classmates at 1/2am in the morning.  I can speak from experience because I've sent him numerous picture messages with math problems at 1am, only to have him respond with an explanation ending with "...does that make sense?"

I don't want to hog the floor/blogpage but thought I would give people that background info.  I asked Brandon to give us some words of wisdom and he has done just that!  

So as I've used previously - Get a snack...get some soda... and enjoy!  This will be a 2 parter!

Brandon's Story...

My name is Brandon, but for those that have been following the blog since the beginning may know me better as Osirus.   I am honored that Richard asked me to share with the blog my GMAT experience and just my own MBA journey.  I will begin by discussing the history of my battle with the GMAT.  I applied to the Management Leaders for Tomorrow program in October.  If you get accepted into the program, then you have to have an official GMAT score by February 1st.  While I had studied some before, I would say that my serious GMAT prep began at the end of November.  My studying consisted of going through the Manhattan GMAT guides and the Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible.  My prep consisted of spending the first month learning the material and the second month drilling the material.  

The biggest issue I had was forgetting material after I learned it.  To combat this I developed a system where I would read through a chapter and then do a problem set dealing with that chapter.  The next time I studied, I would go through a new chapter and do a problem set dealing with that chapter, but I would also do two problems from the previous chapter I did.  So for example, if I were going through number properties, I would go through chapter one (divisibility and primes) and do the 15 problems at the end of the chapter.  The next math day, I would go through chapter 2 and do all of those problems, but I would go back and do two problems from chapter one.  I would do the same thing until I finished the book.  This helped to make sure that everything remained fresh.  This is what really helped me to see progress.  I went from my practice scores staying around 550, to shooting up to 610, and then 660.  

This strategy is really time consuming though, so I definitely understand why everyone cannot implement it.  My strategy definitely helped me improve my quant score, but I never quite got a handle on verbal.  My first attempt at the GMAT was Jan 29th of this year.  I scored a 680.  I know most people would be happy with that score, but I was pissed.  I remember going to see a good friend of mine and I was just in a funk that entire day.  She didn’t understand why I was upset.  I think the issue is that when you set a goal for yourself, and you put in the work, you expect to see the result.  

I was pretty disappointed in my score and I was planning my next move.  When I had my first coach call with my MLT coach, she was pretty excited about my score and didn't think that I needed to take the exam again.  I remember thinking what world does she live in...lol.  That brings me to an important point, regardless of what score you get and what others tell you about your score, if you think you can do better and improve your score, take the test again.  

My next step was to take a class to help me improve verbal.  I was really impressed with Brian Galvin on Beat the GMAT, so I took a course with Veritas.  The Veritas class definitely helped me improve my approach to verbal.  What I learned from that class is that you have to approach verbal in a systematic way.  You have to approach every Critical Reasoning Assumption question the same way.  You have to approach every Reading Comprehension Inference question the same way.  This will help you to gain consistentency in verbal.  To improve with quant I used my same approach but I did it with the Veritas materials.  

After studying for 3 months, I took the exam again at the end of June and improved my score by 50 points and scored a 730.  I think the main thing that I learned from my experience is that you can’t take short cuts.  You have to do a ton of problems.  I adopted the philosophy from my high school football team, practice hard so that the game is easy.  I would do 75-80 problems a day, to build stamina and to practice my approach.  Practice is more than just practicing the content, it is also about practicing your approach.  When you practice, don’t just practice to say that you did something.  Don’t just go through a book to say that you completed that book.  Practice how you will play.  Approach every problem how you would on the real exam, and approach each problems consistently.

I will post the rest of this tomorrow... it gets better and more personal!  STAY TUNED!

GMAT - Die or be Killed!

Hello everyone!!!!!

I have to give an great congratulations to my now good friend Brandon.  For those of you who are familiar with the contest on BeatTheGMAT.com back in February... Brandon's user name is Osirus.  As I've mentioned before he and fast became friends during the contest and have talked everyday since.  The first time he took the GMAT he scored a 680.  That was back in January and he just retook the GMAT last Thursday and scored a 730!  I'm very proud of him and he's being a source of inspiration for me.  CONGRATULATIONS!

Anyway since this is MY blog... and I'm an only child who is used to talking about myself... let's get back to me!

Tonight I studied for 3 hours.  I went through the Veritas Arithmetic book.  It's taking me longer than I originally planned.  I realize there are certain topics that I can do 100% of the time in under 1 minute with no fail.  Then on the other hand there are some things that I think I should know that I just give up on and flip to the end of the book to see the explanations.  I'll have to give myself some time before I go back to tackle those questions.  It's nothing alarming and that I shouldn't be able to sure up after some more practice.

I had to stop tonight at question 68 because my head was spinning and I was seeing stars.  No big deal...it was actually very therapeutic to start studying again.  Now... I just need to keep putting in this kind of time.  That way I'll forget what it's like to have a life.  That's really where I need to get again... to the point where I don't have a life, because that's when I felt I got the most appropriate studying done.  During the summer there is waaay too much distraction.  Once I fall off the bandwagon once, it's tough to get back on.  So with that being said... I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that I can put in the same amount of time tomorrow night.  Step by step right?

Tomorrow I think I'm going to tackle Critical Reasoning - ::biting nails::

I want to update you guys on my Digital Marketing class that I took last week.  This is the 4th class of the NYU Digital Media Marketing certificate program.  I'll save that for another time though!

VHXZ2JRG8HYK

Ugh Be Quiet!

G'evening... today I'll talk about my Statistics Class and the Accepted.com MBA Telethon I participated in today.

Statistics - I must vent a little bit. I had my 2nd Statistics class tonight. It went well despite me not having done the homework because the bookstore is closed for renovations. It'll be open on June 1st, so I'll be the first one in line. Tonight we discussed more Standard Deviation, Variance, and Coefficients. Then towards the end of class we touched on probability.

What's weird is that during my MGMAT class, when we did probabilities I would get a pit in my stomach. Not necessarily because it's THAT hard of a topic, but more because I knew how important it would be for my GMAT prep. This time around I was more calm and not antsy. It was weird. I'll just try to take everything in. She said for next week we would do more probabilities as well as permutations and combinations.

But what really irritated me was the - I must answer everything before everyone, while i sit with my laptop open - Girl...Today this event occurred maybe 14 times. I was so pissed off. In all honesty we all know how to calculate the mean, median, and mode...why doesn't she realize that she's not impressing anyone by blurting out the answer to a RHETORICAL question? The 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th time she did it, I turned my head and looked at her, so she would realize my frustration. Then she answered a question wrong and we all corrected her! Just be quiet and take notes!!!

There was a girl just like that in my Algebra class last fall and I combated her by beating her to the punch. I won't do that this time because I'm not invested. I'll just complain to you guys.

Accepted.com MBA Telethon - So I had the intention of talking about this but I just realized that I left my notes at work. I'm not sure if anyone else called in today for a 15 consulting session but I decided too. All I had to do was answer 6 questions and send my resume, and I got to speak with an Accepted.com person and ask her any questions I had. I thought she would tell me what I needed to do in order to improve my candidacy, but it was more of me asking her questions. That was fine too except I've done so much research that I could finish her sentences. I knew everything she was going to say before she said it. I didn't get one thing out of it, but that's not to say that other people didn't.
- I just know that my weakness is my GPA. I know that I should take classes to help that situation - I didn't tell her that I was taking classes already.
- I knew who I should ask to be my recommenders...
- I knew that schools are now accepting the GRE...

Veritas Prep - Oh... BTW... This weekend is very exciting. I'll be taking the Veritas Prep weekend course. It's this Saturday/Sunday and next Saturday/Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm hoping it will fill in the holes and supplement all of the other knowledge I've acquired. Then it'll be crunch time and my hiatus will be over.

Sidenote - on the editing nav bar at the top of my editing screen there seems to be some options missing - IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW I CAN ADD PICTURES AGAIN CAN YOU LEAVE A COMMENT? Thanks...

T T T T THAT'S ALL FOLKS! Tomorrow/Today I'm going to see Sex and The City... pretty pumped about that!

Chicago...Play or Motion Picture

Good 'evening' folks!

Competition Update

I have been at a loss with all of my "free" time that I now have.  Why do I have free time you ask? (although no one is probably asking because you know).. but for those who don't know a lot of my time two weeks ago was taken up from posting on BeatTheGMAT.com (will be known as BTG from here on out).  The results are official now and I was one of the winners...  I kid you not!

I was on hiatus for a short while because I needed to decompress from averaging 30 posts/day, but I'm back to posting now albeit not as frequently.  

You will all hear about the prize that I chose probably until I get into B-school... but I would like to speak about a tertiary prize.  If you've been following my blog this whole time you probably remember when I had the lead... didn't have the lead... regained the lead... lost it... gained it back...  let it go... you get the idea.  It actually didn't happen that many times, but for effect it did!  Anyway... there was one specific time when someone with the username Osirus took the lead, and held it for a while, when I said that I didn't mind him or her (at that point) being in first.  I didn't know the meaning of that post until going back and re-reading my posts, and looking at where I am now...

Osirus and started sending private messages back and forth daily.  The posts ranged from basically introductions -> talking about future plans post MBA.  It got to the point where my cellphone on my desk was buzzing constantly from the Private Message email updates.  I remember looking at my inbox and refreshing it and there would be a message... so I would reply... then I would refresh and there would be a response... haha... so I sent a message asking if Osirus had AIM, so we could converse in even more real-time.

If you can't tell... I love to talk about this whole B-school process... I mean DUH I'm writing a blog, but Osirus loves to talk about it too!  It's great when you connect with someone who is as fanatical about the same thing that you are, as you're both going through it together.  If we were in the same city we would have undoubtedly met already.  In our case Osirus is in the Midwest... cold cold midwest!  Osirus gets to work much earlier than I but when I sign onto AIM we just pick up where we left off the day before.  I know my friends and coworkers are relieved now that I don't have to talk their ear off about everything I'm feeling/going through. 

I've even put Osirus in contact with one of my friends who is in an MBA program currently to ask my friend some questions about the program.

Sidenote - I do know Osirus' real name hahaha, but I haven't told him or her that I'm giving a shout out on my blog, so I've refraining from using the name.

Study Update

Ok so that's that... now onto studying...so I had my 5th class on Tuesday.  Let me tell you... these weeks are going by FAST!  I took last week off from studying for 2 reasons...  1.) my brain needed it 2.) I needed to post... not going to lie about that... So cut to tuesday during my class and I hadn't done the work.  I know I know I'm supposed to be dedicated and ALL THAT JAZZ (see how I weaved in a song title from the Motion Picture - Chicago - the title of the post?  cute right?) but I desperately needed a break.

So needless to say on Tuesday I was behind... the Quant topic was Word Translations.  I think I took the appropriate week off because we didn't have to read the whole Study Guide for class this time.  So basically for the next class I need to just add two more chapters to the 4 or 5 that were required for the last class.  It won't be so bad.  I need to make sure I get through them because these types of questions are unavoidable on the GMAT.  No worries though...  

School Visit Update

Last but not least - I'm preparing to plan my trip up to visit Dartmouth Tuck!  You want to talk about excitement?  Let's talk about that!  I'm going to take the Dartmouth Coach up to the school.  This is great because it departs from the Yale Club down by Grand Central Station.  The coach leaves at 1:30, so I can put in 1/2 day at work and leave my office at 1 and be down there in time!  I was planning on going up to Hanover, NH on the 24th of March and staying until the 26th.  As I was looking at the event offerings I saw that they have a class visit option on the 26th, which is a Friday.. meaning I would go up on the 25th.  I'm baffled by this because I didn't think that MBA programs had classes on Fridays.  When I get the email back from the admissions office I'll see if that's a better day for me to go up.

It seems as though the days events are very similar to that of Yale.  I would visit a class...then go to Lunch...then take a campus tour... then there's an admissions Q&A.  Now if you remember I took the train up to Yale in the morning and came home the same day and was back at my apt by 7pm.  Dartmouth on the other hand is a trek.  7 hour bus ride... shuttle to my hotel... because I cannot afford to stay in the Hanover Inn which is literally across the street from campus but is uber expensive.  I'll be staying in the Courtyard Marriott 3 miles away.  Since the bus schedule to and from is so infrequent I will be staying over for two days.  We'll see what transpires on that Friday evening if I do go up on Thursday the 25th.

I'm going to end abruptly because it's 3:07 and I have a podcast to listen to.

arrivederci!

I Got You My Pretty...and Your Little Prize Too!

Hello everyone...  so today is officially Monday February 22nd which means the contest is over!  I don't know what I'm going to do with myself now lol...  everytime I would be on my computer I would immediately go to BeatTheGMAT.com.  I'm going to feel lost now...

We'll see the final standings at some point during the day, but it's looking pretty good right now.

In terms of studying... i must say that I've been taking some time off.   It needed to be done, my head was  spinning.  I think I'm in a great position and can afford myself some time off.  This week I'll be getting back into the swing of things though.  I didn't even open a GMAT book this weekend... actually partied harder than I should have...  it was fun though ;-)