MBA on the Horizon

I took my GMAT this morning. I am very relieved that it's over, but also a little torn about where to go from here.

Let me back up. I took the advice given to me to relax the day and night before the test, and not to study too much. I reviewed my notes and things that I had already seen, and avoided new material completely the day before. I watched a movie (Sex and the City!) last night, tried to keep my mind off the test, and had everything ready to go so I could wake up and go.

My appointment was at 8am so I got up at 6am so I could shower and wake myself up, have some coffee and breakfast, and get to the test center nice and early. I did arrive at about 7:20a, which was only 10 minutes before they say to arrive, so I sat in my car for a few minutes. I arrived, went through the check-in and security process, and got settled at my station. The earplugs that they provided were SO helpful!!

I felt good through the AWA section. The Analysis of an Issue prompt threw me slightly, but I was able to take a side and come up with some points and examples to put together.

I took my break, had a bit of my Coke and granola bar, and went back for the Quant section. It went pretty well, and there weren't any questions that I was clueless on. I did feel a little rushed at the end because the questions got tough and required a few steps to answer. I took my other break, had the rest of my snack, and headed back to finish up with the Verbal. Then it was time to see my score...boy, those seconds while the computer calculates are stressful!

I got a 710. 44V/44Q, which ended up as 97th% verbal / 70th% quant. I'm happy, but I was really hoping to break that 80th% quant barrier. I just did a quick review of the stats of the schools that I'm hoping for (Chicago/Wharton/Kellogg/MIT/Cornell) and 710 is more or less the mean for all of them (except Cornell).

I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to give studying quant a second go to see if I can get above that 80th% percentile. My undergrad degree is business, so not super quant-heavy but also not completely lacking, and I also took a business calc class post-undergrad and got an A. My other glimmer of hope is that my job function inherently has some math to it (I'm an underwriter), so I have that background as well.

At this point, I think I'm going to go with what I've got. I'm going to visit a few of the schools next week, so if I get a chance to ask questions, I may ask what they think about the importance of the 80/80 split. Who knows, I may change my mind and decide to go for it again later after I haven't just studied like crazy for a few months, but for now, I think I'm good with my 710.

Posted in: GMAT on Thursday, March 12, 2009 at at 3:21 PM 9 comments Links to this post    

Well, it's t-minus 5 days until test day...and in some ways, it can't come fast enough. In other, more obvious ways, I wish I had more time.

I'm so ready to rejoin the rest of the world in doing fun things on the weekends, not answering all requests to go out with "no, I have to study"...just can't wait.

Also, I currently can think of nothing but my current nemeses: distance formulas, mixture problems, work rate equations, and those horribly complicated exponent equations that like to pop up occasionally.

The positive thing is that I studied, quite literally, all day today. I broke to eat twice and once to go to the gym (helps the mental state). I will study all day tomorrow with the exception of my grandpa's bday (family commitments are one of the few things that remain on my schedule). Then two days of work (with studying at night), a full study day on Wednesday, and up bright and early to test on Thursday at 8am. I plan to review the problems that I got wrong previously on the GMATPreps, take one more of those, and practice the aforementioned topics where my skills aren't as sharp as I'd like.

Ok...break over...time for bed so I can be up early to study (damn Daylight Savings robbing me of an hour!).

Posted in: GMAT, studying on Saturday, March 07, 2009 at at 10:05 PM 2 comments Links to this post