Kind of Progress.

This time i finished the test even faster. :-X
I had almost 30 minutes left in quant and 20 min in verbal.
I had a similar score
28 Quant 24%
26 Verbal 44%
Total Score 460 26%

I went down in Verbal but I went up in Quant.

I honestly didn't get to study as hard as I had hoped last week. It's so hard working two jobs, going to a math class and fitting studying on top of it. My brain is mush. I have less than a month til G-Day. I don;t have class next Saturday and the week after that is the final exam. My GMAT is two weeks after that.

I need to focus more and make myself dedicate two hours a day to studying. I wish I could afford to have only one job. I could do CATs on the weekend.
I can't wish. I have to work with the time I have available.
Right now dinner is cooking. After I eat I will go through the Critical Reasoning Bible.


I was reading the Critical Reasoning bible during my lunch break at my TV job and one of the people from corporate said to me, "oh are you studying to be a minister?" I told her I was going to take the GMAT and hopefully go to business school. She told me how she went to a catholic school but she didn't have to take any bible classes. I tried explaining that critical reasoning was also on the LSAT, but it was useless. Maybe I am smart? lol

Time for chicken! Yum!

I couldn't do it.

I woke up at 5:45a to eat breakfast.
About ten minutes into my first essay my mind just starts wandering.
I'm too tired. This is going to be a waste of a practice test.

Instead I went back to sleep and I am working on my homework for Saturday's math class.
I'm going to do the practice test tomorrow after work. I should be home by 4p and awake enough to focus on what I am doing.

I know its recommended to take the practice test the same time as your real test.
My real test is at 11:30a and with my work schedule it is impossible.I either work at noon at one job or 7a at the other job. Wah Wah.

I have no life anyway so what does it matter if I dedicate my Friday night to a practice test?

Progress

Two months ago I opened up the Official Guide Math book and I couldn't do any of the problems because I couldn't remember how to do them.
Last night I went through the first two pages and I got most of them right!

My boyfriend has had the book for the last two months and he has been doing all the problems so he can help me with them. He's so nerdy. He actually said he wish he could take the GMAT because tests are fun. I majored in Television. I did presentations and videos. How are we together? lol

Tomorrow will be my second practice test. I have to get up super early to take it because I work at noon. Last week I had a princess shift and didn't have to work until 3p. I will be taking another Manhattan GMAT practice test to see how I have improved. Next week I will take an official GMAT Prep test to see where I stand.

Fifty Dollars??

I looked into rescheduling my GMAT test date and there is $50 rescheduling fee. Eff that! They already have $250 of my money, they don;t need fifty more. This just means I need to amp up the studying. My original plan was to take the test twice anyway since I usually go up in score the second time (I did this on both the SAT and GRE).

Today in my math refresher class we went over rates, proportions, and linear equations.
It's amazing how I am reactivating all these brains cells that have formulas hidden in them. Remember ax + by =c ? As soon as this formula was written on the board I had a flashback to 10th grade math and Mrs. Mahoney writing the same formula on the board. I really recommend this class to anyone that needs a foundation in the basics. It's taught on Saturday mornings at UCLA Extension and it's not super expensive at $275. Or you could just use the textbook.
I'm going to be able to do more Problem Solving questions now that I relearned the formula for rate and how to figure it out from a word problem.

Since I have been so math heavy I need to focus on verbal more. Today I am bringing my Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible to work to do on my lunch break and I will take more of it when I get home this evening.

I will take another practice test on Thursday to see if learning the new concepts improves my score.

I'm coming for you GMAT!

Oh the hilarity

I took my first Practice CAT. I used Manhattan GMAT because they give you a free one. Other sites have free ones too I just picked this one today.
I scored a hilarious 460 27 Quantitative (20%) and 27 Verbal (46%).

What was great about Manhattan GMAT's practice CAT is they give you a detailed excel sheet with the level question, if you got it right or wrong, what it tested you on and how long you took on each question. Most of the questions I spent less than a minute on I got wron. The ones I spent 1:30 or more on I got right.

I finished the Quant section with over 7 minutes to spare and the Verbal section with 23 minutes to spare. I guess I need to slow down! I recall doing he same thing when I took the GRE six years ago and got abysmal scores. Yet I still got into grad school, ha ha.



I think I should buy the Manhattan GMAT Word Translations book because I had a lot of problems just interpreting what the problem solving question was asking.

There were a couple questions I had no idea how to do, like finding a standard deviation, and finding the area of a circle. I'm sure I learned how to find the area of a circle at point, but I have NEVER done a standard deviation. I wonder if I should take another math class this summer? What would standard deviation fall under?

I have been focusing primarily on relearning math basics. I have done a few questions from the OG Quant Book and whatever questions in the trial class.

I didn't familiarize myself with too much of the verbal so I was surprised when I saw bold faced and complete the conclusion Critical Reasoning questions.

This experience is a good diagnostic test and i know what I need to work on. I may reschedule my test date. We shall see.

Free Means Free

I don't have a lot of money, I work two jobs are I barely pay all of my bills. It's a combination between the economy and the industries I work in.
I have been taking advantage of as many FREE GMAT seminars and prep courses as I can.

If you go to the prep companies' website they have a search for free events.

I went to the Princeton Review's Math Boot Camp a few weeks ago. It went over decimals, fractions, FOIL method, all the basics. Unfortunately the website posted the time as 10:00a-11:30a, but the class went over that and I had to leave early because I had to work at noon.
There was a girl who sat behind me who was really irritating. Every time someone asked a question or asked the instructor to go over a concept she would mumble under her breath "are you serious?" She even said in front of the class "The questions on the GMAT aren't like this they are much harder."
She was late to the boot camp and missed the part where we were going over foundations, not strategy. She wound up leaving when I did because she was so frustrated. She said to me "I learned fractions in like 6th grade it was so pointless."

I thought the math boot camp was great because if you don't remember the basic math you can't do the questions on the GMAT.
I'm glad I'm taking my math refresher course. It's amazing how many things you forget over the years. For example, 1 is not a prime number. 2 is the lowest prime number and the only even prime number. I'm sure I learned this at one point, but it's been at least 8 years since I took a math class so I forgot it.

I've also done a few free online seminars through Kaplan and Veritas Prep.

I went to a free trial class for Veritas Prep last night. So far I liked theirs the best. The whole class focused on Arguments which better helped me understand the Critical Reasoning section a little better.

Clear Admit, an admissions consultant company is giving a free 20 minute initial consultation for your candidacy for business school. This was SO HELPFUL!
She told how to reword my resume focusing on accomplishments rather than tasks and focus on the GMAT. I have an nontraditional background (television and retail) so I need to get a really good GMAT score; 80th percentile at least in quantitative. She also recommended taking quantitative courses at UCLA Extension to build an alternative transcript. I need an A in those classes to prove I am serious and can handle business school coursework. she also recommended Harvard Extension online but the classes are waaaay more expensive than UCLA extension and like I said before I'm poor!
I told I was interested in applying to Pepperdine, UC Irvine, UCLA and USC. I asked her if the only school I get into is Pepperdine, is it worth going there or should I just trying again and apply to UCLA and USC next year? She said Pepperdine would give me the education, but I would not have the career opportunities that I would get if I went to UCLA.
So now I have to decide if Pepperdine is even worth applying to. All this information was FREE FREE FREE! I highly recommend sending Clear Admit your resume to get a admissions committee perspective.