dramafest summer 2010

My Beginning Algebra UCLA extension class got canceled due to low enrollment. I had to scramble to Santa Monica College, which started at the same time to try to get into a beginning algebra class. The teacher said he would add me even though I had missed three days of class and we had a quiz that day. Luckily all that I missed was a review of the math refresher class I just finished and I was able to complete the quiz.

It got worse. I have four days of homework due Monday and a test on Chapters 1 and 2. The bookstore was already closed because its an evening class and it would be closed for inventory on Friday. The bookstore is not open on the weekends.
My search for the book adventure began!

There was someone on campus selling the book through a flyer they left, but they wanted $140 for it used. It cost $155 new at the bookstore. I tried emailing a few people I knew that had attended SMC to see if they or someone they knew had the book, no dice. One person told me there was a bookstore across the street form the school that had it but they were only a few dollars cheaper than the SMC bookstore. This would be my backup. Ordering on amazon would not get me the book until Monday afternoon at the earliest so that wouldn't help either.
I looked at the Los Angeles Public library and other surrounding libraries online. They only had earlier editions of the book. The SMC library has that book but they too are closed on the weekends.
Craigslist listings for the book were old, so the people had already sold it. One person sent my info to his classmate beacuse he wanted to sell his book, but he never contacted me.

I started emailing people on half.com and amazon.com where it said ships from California. In my email I said, I live in Los Angeles, I added this class late. I have homework due and a test on Monday. I will meet you in person to buy this book and pay you cash."
Two people responded from Northern California so this did not work (California is a HUGE state. It takes something like 10 hours to drive from top to bottom).

One girl in Los Angeles was willing to do this! She emailed me back around 11pm Friday night. She called me and she sent her friend to meet me with the book. We met at the 7-11 at Venice and Sepulveda after midnight. It was so sketchy like we were doing a drug deal, but for a textbook! I got the book safely and today I am catching up.

This class is GMAT GOLD! We did a bunch of word problems at Thursday's class and I am still having problems figuring out the wording to set up an algebraic problem. I think this is going to help me a lot. Plus its way cheaper than UCLA extension. Now I can use that money toward the GMAT Prep class that starts in August and I will have the basic skill set for quant that I didn't have before.

All this prep may push my application back for another year, which ideally I do not want to do. If I start in fall 2011 I will be 28; 30 when I graduate. if I start in fall 2012 I will be 29, 31 when I graduate. I want to have myself on a career path earlier rather than later because my biological clock is ticking in the back of my head.

A little something to celebrate

I got an A- in my Math Refresher Class!
90% of the grade was the final exam. Super pressure. But I didn't crack!
My beginning college algebra class starts tomorrow. That means I open on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the coffee shop. I have to be at work at 4:30a. I do not miss that hour AT ALL.
Positive: I will be done with work by 12:30p and my class doesn't start until 6:30p. That leaves plenty of time to work out, take a nap, and study.

My friend is a tutor and offered to help me in verbal. Sentence Correction, here we come!

I take my GMAT in a month!!

I hope everything is going well for those studying.

let's catch up

I've been gone from my blog for a while. I hit burn out last week. The combination of two jobs and homework and studying my brain was fried. I was not absorbing anything. I took a break. I watched some Kaplan videos on Beat the GMAT so I wasn't on a complete and total break.

Saturday I had a day off. I thought I was going to work at my TV job so I took off from the coffee house. Turns out the person I was going to cover for did not take that day off. I drove down to orange country and met up with my cousin. We went to Laguna beach. It was so much prettier than Santa Monica, Venice, or Marina del Rey beaches. It was almost like the ocean was bluer.
I brought my sentence correction book with me, but since it was a holiday weekend there were so many people around. It was hard to concentrate. Usually if I go to the beach to study its on a Tuesday and there's maybe four other people on the sand.

THEN I GOT SICK!

I got a stupid cold because one of my coworkers came to work with a cold and didn't try to get his shift covered. Then I had to do the same thing because I am a shift and we are short one and our manager is on vacation, there was no one to cover me. If I call in sick I get fired. I can't afford to do that. I washed my hands a lot in front of customers to show I was not trying to spread any germs in case they suspected I was sick.

Being sick made it impossible to concentrate on any studying. My head was just filled with snot; so gross. I finished my homework for my math class last night and ad the final exam today. I feel I did really well considering I didn't study at all. I forgot how to figure out a rate of percent increase and I was asked to graph the plane of y=-3/4x. I spent 30 minutes on that last question. I think I made up a solution. We shall see how I did over all.

Before I got sick, on Monday, I took a practice test AND I WENT DOWN. I scored a 450. So I bit the bullet and rescheduled my test. The original date was 6/18, I will now be taking the exam 7/20. It gives me enough time to take it again before application due dates.

Also I am contemplating at this rate I am going now, if I still can't get into the 600s by August, I will have to apply for the Fall 2012 school year. I want to go to UCLA or USC and if I'm not even in the mid 600s it's not worth wasting my time and money to put in an application that will result in a ding.

Math class is over and I am signed up to take Beginning College Algebra in 3 weeks. I think I am going to withdraw from that class and sign up for UCLA Extension's GMAT Prep Course . It's way cheaper than any of the top prep companies, almost half the price.

Now I am off to work. Saturdays are our busiest bean days. Time to grind!