MBA on the Horizon

Somewhere around Thursday night, it dawned on me that my first MBA application was due in a week. ONE week. Yes, I was aware of the date and the fact that it was approaching, but it hit me that night that it was time to drop GMAT studying for a week and get serious about my essays and application.

It's amazing how much I got done in a weekend when I knew that I was on a tight deadline. I had to get my drafts done and up to par so I could go over them with my most important editor - my best friend.

When I was initially preparing apps and writing essays (back when I was planning to apply in R1), I had a variety of people reading my essays. This time around, I was on a tight schedule so I had to pick and choose. My best friend knows nothing about business...she couldn't navigate her way around a balance sheet if her life depended on it. What she does have are writing skills (she was a history major in college and wrote a LOT of essays) and most importantly, she tells me exactly what she thinks.

Most (all?) of the other people who read my essays said some form of "good, you could change this or that little thing, but overall good." My friend, on the other hand, has absolutely no problem telling me outright if something is unclear, boring, or just overall not good enough. At one point after reviewing a paragraph, she actually said "good for you, but why do I care?". She proceeded to delete the entire paragraph. I then had to explain and defense my thought and why it was included. It turned out (in that case) that the concept was necessary but I had done a shoddy job of indicating the relevance of the story in my essay. Someone else probably would have said "that might be a little unclear," which probably wouldn't have generated much change. Her honest comments caused me to rethink what I was saying and make absolutely sure that I was explaining it fully.

All of that to say, consider your editors carefully. Make sure you have someone who will give truly honest feedback and not let you get away with "just ok. "

Posted in: essays on Monday, November 09, 2009 at at 11:02 PM 0 comments Links to this post    

It's been a little while...but a big thank you to the blogging community for all of the feedback on Quant resources. The MGMAT guides got a resounding endorsement, so I have ordered one and plan to order more as I move along.

It feels different this time (if you're new to my blog, I'm taking the GMAT for the second time; the first time was March 2009). One interesting thing that I have discovered is that last time, I didn't spend enough time on the fundamentals. I had a Kaplan and PR book, as well as the OG, and I did go through the Quant review portions of those books. However, there were small things that held me up because I didn't remember every little rule from high school math.

This time, one of my resources is the PR 1,012 Practice Questions book. It's broken down into sections (Arithmetic, Algebra, Stats, Geometry) and further broken down into smaller topics (Exponents, Probability, Roots etc). Each section has a summary of the topic, as well as practice problems for that topic.

Last time, I did a LOT of practice problems, but they were random and never focused on one skill at once. I am finding that practicing a chunk on the same topic moves me along in a tangible way.

Furthermore, I have a tutor who helps me break past many of those little barriers that are tough to do on my own. Now when I don't understand a concept, he explains it to me instead of me spending countless hours reading message boards online, trying to figure it out.

I haven't taken a CAT yet, so I can't yet tell how quickly I'm progressing from a score perspective. I know that I need to work on harder and harder problems so I get my overall level of competency up, but for now I'm encouraged that I don't feel like this is going to be a repeat of last time.

Some days, I (gasp) enjoy studying. When I'm moving along, understanding things, and I feel like I'm making progress, I actually like what I'm doing. Other days, like today, are more of a struggle. Getting through this GMAT process is a lesson in itself. It's tough to balance work and studying...I'm so used to putting work first, and it's difficult to allow any of it to slip in order to study. I keep looking for a way to put my whole self into work and studying simultaneously, and I continue to be frustrated...and maybe that's because it's not possible, there aren't enough hours in a day or enough of me to go around. Throw in trying to work out, see my friends, family and boyfriend, and some days it truly seems like I'm not doing anything well.

The first solution that comes to mind is to throw my best self - time, focus and intentions - into studying, realizing that work will always be there, this is a relatively short time period, and that what is truly important is my future, dreams and goals. It kills me not to put 110% into work in order to work on something that may or may not help me accomplish my goals. One of the toughest parts of all of this is the lack of a sure thing. If I find myself staring at 5 rejections after all of this, it will be painful. I just need to remember that even staring at 5 rejections will be easier if I'm not thinking "what if"...what if I'd worked harder, studied longer, and put that first for just a little while.

Alright, pep talk over. Time to get back to studying. I feel like I've been preparing for school forever since I first took the GMAT in March of this year...although in the scheme of things, it's not that long. In a month I'll take the test, in a little over 2 months I'll apply, and in another 2-3 months after that I'll finally have an outcome! What a dream.

Posted in: GMAT on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at at 8:59 PM 4 comments Links to this post