MBA on the Horizon

My week was officially too long and mentally taxing to get any good studying in tonight. We tried - sat down in silence, surrounded by books and all other studying necessities...and my brain wouldn't do it. I tried to read the answers to the questions that I got wrong, and didn't understand their line of reasoning AT ALL, which I'm going to chalk up to my uncooperative brain and not the book.

That means...I need to make a study plan and stick to it. I didn't get enough studying in last week, which is due to the lack of a plan for last week.

So...plan is:

Sunday - study with D, approx 4-7
Monday - depending on mental exhaustion level from Sunday's studying and work, 7-9
Wednesday - study with J, approx 3-10 with breaks to walk around and for dinner
Saturday / Sunday - 3 hours each day

Approx 15 hours in a week. That's a little more legit, especially considering the fact that I'm sure some of that time will be interrupted which could knock it down to 12 hours...also acceptable. I'm shooting for 10+ at this point.

Probability is stumping me right now. I need to do some practice problems focusing on that.

Posted in: GMAT, studying on Friday, December 12, 2008 at at 11:02 PM 1 comments Links to this post    

GMAT studying update - I'm loving this, in a sick way. I see myself making progress each day, remembering one more characteristic of a triangle, or solving one more of those weird theoretical integer problems, and it's encouraging.

But I digress.

I'm almost done with the PR book. I went through the entire book to review the concepts, and have been going through the practice sets. I try to do them on my own, then read through the answers to figure out what I'm doing right and wrong.

I also have the advantage of a study partner. While I don't know anyone who is even considering business school or taking the GMAT (this blog community really helps with that), my best friend is in some intensive classes towards her nursing degree and we schedule study sessions together throughout the week. I don't know if I would be progressing this quickly on a regimented schedule if it wasn't for her. We go to the library to study, so there isn't much choice to do anything else!

I fully appreciated this when I was on one of the test prep websites and noted the cost of a class. I'm sure they are worth every penny, but if I can get myself to do it on my own, I'll save the money to put towards my tuition! I actually turned to my friend yesterday while we were studying and told her she was saving me a bunch of money. She just gave me a confused look and we kept studying.

One last thing - I am in love with the book I am reading right now. It's called More Than 85 Broads, and it's a bunch of little mini career/life stories of successful women. It is absolutely inspiring to read about these women's career progressions, especially because each one isn't this perfect story of everything going right from A to Z. They struggled, were scared, failed, cried, and wanted to quit just like everyone else - but they were successful. It reminds me that even if I'm scared and unsure not on my ideal path this very moment, I can be successful too.

Posted in: book, GMAT on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 at at 9:52 PM 0 comments Links to this post    

I'm going to do these periodically, both to share my process with the world, as well as to help track for my own sake. I started studying on Friday, and here is my progress thus far:

Princeton Review (Cracking the GMAT):
11/28, Friday - 1 hour, pages 1-71. Math Review, basics and part of Arithmetic.
11/30, Sunday - 3 1/2 hours, pages 71-177. Math Review, rest of Arithmetic, Algebra, Applied Arithmetic, Geomentry, and Data Sufficiency (don't like those).
12/1, Monday - 2 hours, 2o minutes. Math Warm-Up test, scored 14/20. Must read questions better and not make dumb mistakes. Pages 178-201, Sentence Correction.

That's it for now! Next up - tomorrow I'll do some math practice and get through another verbal section (or two!), and the next day hopefully finish up the book. That might be too ambition - maybe I'll finish Thursday night.

I'm actually really enjoying studying. I know it's weird, but I liked school and kind of miss it. Also, I finally feel like I'm really making progress and taking tangible steps towards my MBA goal. I've been researching and preparing and wishing and hoping since college, so four years later...it feels great to be making some progress!

Posted in: GMAT, study plan on Monday, December 01, 2008 at at 10:54 PM 0 comments Links to this post