Only another week to go
11/15 - Painfully back to studying - it took me 2 hourss to complete 30 SC's, I didn't feel like studying at all, but I forced myself to. Slept at 1:30AM
11/16 - Woke up at 8AM, but I acted like a lazy baby, instead of waking up and sitting myself down to study, I again snoozed on the bed, doing an SC on and off all the while sleeping on the bed, I dozed so much that, I got to work an hour late :"( Urgh why am I not panicking?!?!, After getting home, I hope to get on with the DS OG and get a couple of questions done there, I don't want to continue with this lame attitude anymore.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Week 6 (11/08 - 11/14) - Review - DEAD WEEK :(
I will not be grubbing this time. I am not panicking, even though I haven't completed OG so far, even though I'm not on my own schedule, even though I have tons and tons to read and do, I am not panicking. I have been in this weird zen mode since past week, which is unlike me, I mean I always panic and not study, but this time around the fear is missing and so is the study. This entire week, the 6th week is probably the worst, I haven't studied a single thing, I haven't even revised my notes or go through a few questions that I marked for revision. There I have laid it, my productivity is like a sin cos graph. This is one thing I hate about myself. The more I'm noticing this, the more I find myself practicing it.
Despite my determination during last week to not waste time again, I yet again wasted 10 whole days.
There was the piled up work, the husbands birthday, the get together to celebrate nothing, the chronic laziness, the omnipresent procrastination. I gave up. - I know, I can't afford to do that but I did give up and literally avoided study for an entire week.
Enough brooding. To summarize, this is what's happening with me over the past week -
1) The guilt is killing me, all the time I was focusing on my work I had a low humming of GMAT in the back of my mind wearing me out. I couldn't get any work done and I wasn't getting anything done on GMAT side either
2) I wasted a lot of time - Simply put, I have lost the motivation to study, I have to literally drag my ass around to study, why am I behaving this way lately, I used to like studying for GMAT early on, I think the steam is wearing off. Or may be that my study is not improving my score, well I can't say that, I have only made one GMAT prep attempt so far. I will take one this week, may be that will put me on track.
3) I feel sleepy and lethargic all the time, eating double than I used to, I catch myself going to kitchen all the more frequently whenever I sit myself to study
4) I have been slacking at work and it is taking a toll on me. I can work from anywhere I want at anytime I want, this should be a boon to a hard worker but its a bane for a procrastinator like me. I post pone my work thinking that I will do it later and the later never comes.
5) I miss the feeling of being on top of things very much, its been a year since I have had a nice sup of tea without worrying about my things to do which I never get around to doing.
Urgh, why am I acting like such a lame loser when I know that all I need to do to turn the situation around is to just start working! its as simple as that, instead I'm always introspecting and looking to other blogs for motivation, I couldn't be more stupid.
Like a pattern that repeats itself, here I go. Again. With the hopes of not loosing it. Again.
Take 3 - trying to make every minute count. For now, because I am at work, please give me the strength to see through this project God.
Despite my determination during last week to not waste time again, I yet again wasted 10 whole days.
There was the piled up work, the husbands birthday, the get together to celebrate nothing, the chronic laziness, the omnipresent procrastination. I gave up. - I know, I can't afford to do that but I did give up and literally avoided study for an entire week.
Enough brooding. To summarize, this is what's happening with me over the past week -
1) The guilt is killing me, all the time I was focusing on my work I had a low humming of GMAT in the back of my mind wearing me out. I couldn't get any work done and I wasn't getting anything done on GMAT side either
2) I wasted a lot of time - Simply put, I have lost the motivation to study, I have to literally drag my ass around to study, why am I behaving this way lately, I used to like studying for GMAT early on, I think the steam is wearing off. Or may be that my study is not improving my score, well I can't say that, I have only made one GMAT prep attempt so far. I will take one this week, may be that will put me on track.
3) I feel sleepy and lethargic all the time, eating double than I used to, I catch myself going to kitchen all the more frequently whenever I sit myself to study
4) I have been slacking at work and it is taking a toll on me. I can work from anywhere I want at anytime I want, this should be a boon to a hard worker but its a bane for a procrastinator like me. I post pone my work thinking that I will do it later and the later never comes.
5) I miss the feeling of being on top of things very much, its been a year since I have had a nice sup of tea without worrying about my things to do which I never get around to doing.
Urgh, why am I acting like such a lame loser when I know that all I need to do to turn the situation around is to just start working! its as simple as that, instead I'm always introspecting and looking to other blogs for motivation, I couldn't be more stupid.
Like a pattern that repeats itself, here I go. Again. With the hopes of not loosing it. Again.
Take 3 - trying to make every minute count. For now, because I am at work, please give me the strength to see through this project God.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Week 5 (11/01 - 11/07) - Review
I need to urgently get done with the OG and with the revision too. I find myself over PS all the time, I'm aware of myself prancing around RC's but never getting around to doing them. Must put a stop to it.
Here goes my most ambitious plans so far (Very anxious about it as I haven't been able to keep up the needed levels of dedication earlier.)
11/01 - Complete 120 SC OG questions + Review (Only 60 Completed), Follow Rule 1? - No (Thanks to the deviation from my routine sleep pattern over the weekend, and partly due to useless thoughts)
11/02 - Complete 87 DS OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? -NOPE, did a bit of SC, wake up at 6? YES!!! (All credit goes to the wonderful hubby who literally kicked me out of the bed :) )
11/03 - Complete 87 DS OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - NOPE, did a bit of SC
11/04 - Complete 70 RC OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - NOPE
11/05 - Complete 70 RC OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - NOPE
11/06 - Complete Quant Review PS OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - NOPE
11/07 - 3rd GMAT prep test and review, cook dinner for a few friends, this should be the last of the dinner parties.
NOPE
I basically hope to get the OG done over week 5:
OG 12 SC - Eventually done by today on NOV 16th, late by 12 days
OG 12 DS
OG 12 RC
Quant Review 2nd Edition PS - Complete the remaining 120 Q
I have got to revert back to my old sleep time and start waking up early, worried that I won't be able to perform as well on the test day. 28 days to go for the test. Exactly 4 weeks.
Here goes my most ambitious plans so far (Very anxious about it as I haven't been able to keep up the needed levels of dedication earlier.)
11/01 - Complete 120 SC OG questions + Review (Only 60 Completed), Follow Rule 1? - No (Thanks to the deviation from my routine sleep pattern over the weekend, and partly due to useless thoughts)
11/02 - Complete 87 DS OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? -NOPE, did a bit of SC, wake up at 6? YES!!! (All credit goes to the wonderful hubby who literally kicked me out of the bed :) )
11/03 - Complete 87 DS OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - NOPE, did a bit of SC
11/04 - Complete 70 RC OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - NOPE
11/05 - Complete 70 RC OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - NOPE
11/06 - Complete Quant Review PS OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - NOPE
11/07 - 3rd GMAT prep test and review, cook dinner for a few friends, this should be the last of the dinner parties.
NOPE
I basically hope to get the OG done over week 5:
OG 12 SC - Eventually done by today on NOV 16th, late by 12 days
OG 12 DS
OG 12 RC
Quant Review 2nd Edition PS - Complete the remaining 120 Q
I have got to revert back to my old sleep time and start waking up early, worried that I won't be able to perform as well on the test day. 28 days to go for the test. Exactly 4 weeks.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Week 4 (10/25 - 10/31) - Review
If I had followed my earlier plan, I would have completed the OG by now - SIGH!!!!! I should have known better. Well I learnt my lesson at the expense of 10 days of valuable study time. The reason this blog has been so quite all along is because I had nothing to post. I was bored of typing - "I didn't get done what I wanted to get done" all the time. My gullible mind had to take a break from all this. I had to let my procrastination and laziness win, for my will to get stronger and defeat it at its own game. And it has. I know it, because I'm living it!. This is me, but ye be not so stupid enough to practice procrastination.
I have to double my speed to compensate for the lost time. Here I go!
10/25 - Complete 50 PS OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - Yes
10/26 - Complete 80 PS OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - Yes
10/27 - Complete 50 CR OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - No
10/28 - Complete 50 RC OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - No
10/29 - Complete 50 DS OG questions + Review, Follow Rule 1? - No
Update: Although I did not diligently complete the 50 questions each day, by the end of 3 days I did complete all the 150 Questions.
What I got DONE during week 4:
OG 12 PS - Complete, yet to review last 100 answers
OG 12 CR - Complete, review complete
OG 12 SC - 20 Complete, review complete, 120 more to go
Quant Review 2nd Edition PS - About 60 complete I think, need to recheck
It was a busy weekend yet again. My entire sleep routine was disturbed thanks to the partying sat night. I will however dedicate this entire November to GMAT.
I have to double my speed to compensate for the lost time. Here I go!
Update: Although I did not diligently complete the 50 questions each day, by the end of 3 days I did complete all the 150 Questions.
What I got DONE during week 4:
OG 12 PS - Complete, yet to review last 100 answers
OG 12 CR - Complete, review complete
OG 12 SC - 20 Complete, review complete, 120 more to go
Quant Review 2nd Edition PS - About 60 complete I think, need to recheck
It was a busy weekend yet again. My entire sleep routine was disturbed thanks to the partying sat night. I will however dedicate this entire November to GMAT.
Week 3 (10/18 - 10/24) - Review
Few PS problems here and there. Avoided GMAT all long work week. I'm one of those who can't start when they know that the task ahead of them is really long. I procrastinate and I procrastinate.
Didn't take any test on 24th as I didn't put any effort all along the week.
Week days - No GMAT at all.
Weekend - Attacked GMAT with fervor thanks to the increasing dose of nervousness. Completed about 100 PS over 2 days, didn't get to study a lot in the first place.
Didn't take any test on 24th as I didn't put any effort all along the week.
Week days - No GMAT at all.
Weekend - Attacked GMAT with fervor thanks to the increasing dose of nervousness. Completed about 100 PS over 2 days, didn't get to study a lot in the first place.
Week 2 (10/11 - 10/17) - Review
Passed a whole lot of time during the week, didn't get a whole lot of gmat done, skimped on Rule 1 all along the week.
Completed Diagnostic verbal + Review.
Completed Kaplan SC + 1/2 Review.
Doses of PS probability and speeds here and there, thanks to the hubby, I delegated the task of searching for specific areas in PS to him, and the plan is has worked out well so far.
No test taken on 17th, I felt I hadn't learned anything new in SC's, need more work in Verbal.
Completed Diagnostic verbal + Review.
Completed Kaplan SC + 1/2 Review.
Doses of PS probability and speeds here and there, thanks to the hubby, I delegated the task of searching for specific areas in PS to him, and the plan is has worked out well so far.
No test taken on 17th, I felt I hadn't learned anything new in SC's, need more work in Verbal.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Week 1 - Review
I hate reviews when I'm aware that I haven't put as much practice as I would like to. Quick update on the weekend:
Day 6 Sat - Follow RULE1, - begin with diagnostic verbal, I will be doozy but I will have to try. Complete as much of it as I can. ~~ Nope, woke up at 8am, stayed up until 1:30am on friday night at a friends place, sat down to review Math, with beatthegmat.com error log.
Keep myself in the bedroom or come to office to avoid the football mania in living room. ~~ Yes! but I was so passive in my review that it took me a good 4 hours!! to review the 48 questions of diagnostic math. I discovered that of the 20 questions I went wrong, I could have easily gotten 10 right if only I was more alert :(.
Begin prep for a dinner party of 6, by 3PM, finish up by 7 or 8pm, wind up the party by 1 or 2 at max, but must wake up at 7 atleast the next day. ~~ began the prep at 4pm, it was 8 when friends arrived and they left at 1am. Was dog tired and woke up at 10:30 the next day :(
Future Day 7 Sun - [ONE CHALLENGING DAY!] RULE1 exempted due to party on previous night. But get to library by 8am, Take GMATprep test. ~~ Got to the library at 12:30PM!
[Right from AWA and attempt all sections. No excuses allowed. I know I will be feeling lethargic,sleepy, wanting to treat myself to the warmth of the bed but NO, I got to take the test at 8AM, as it will be the same on Nov 29th. ] ~~ No amount of self talk seems to motivate me, feels like I just waste time trying to correct myself.
[Get back home (IGNORE THE HUBBY and THE FOOTBALL on TV), eat, gym and sit back for test result analysis, record results on the grid and revise notes. Work on OG and get diagnostic test and reult analysis done by night. If the plan is accomplished successfully then steal a late night dessert with the hubby (Sigh!)] ~~ This one totally went haywire, got back from the library at 4:30pm, had to get ready for a dinner at 7 and it was late by the time we got back home :( Its getting tougher and tougher to cut myself out of these get together's I worry about coming under someones judgment by declaring myself committed to GMAT and still scoring dismally on the test despite all the drama I put up.
How did I do on the test? BAD! same score as last time 570 - the only teeny tiny plus point is, I got 20/29 questions right, when I ran out of time and had to just mark answers for the remaining questions to complete math section on time. All of those 8 were wrong. On review, I realized that the 9 questions I went wrong in the earlier part of the test were the my time killers, I remember trying to solve those questions so hard during the test that I must have easily wasted a good 3 minutes on it and I still got it wrong. And of the 9 questions, I wasted my time and was wrong, 7 of them are DS, and of the 8 that I marked hastily, 7 of them were DS as well. So yes, my status on DS still remains as 'I suck at DS'. Scaled score on math was 45/60. I got to pace myself properly to push the score up and also practice more of inequalities in the form of DS to overcome spending too much time in evaluation.
As for Verbal - Terribly Bad! worse than first time! - Most of my RC's went wrong, in spite of using kaplan strategies. My attempts at trying to find the gist of the passage seem to go wrong most of the time, I get lost in all the mumble jumble that goes on in the passage and get carried away by the transitional words and end up deriving an explanation all on my own logic which finally ends up being wrong. My sentence correction is equally dismal. Of the 17 questions I went wrong in verbal, 7 are SC's, 6 are RC's, 4 are CR's. Man, SC's are so damn confusing! I should get around to that SC chapter of Kaplan and revise some of the strategies there. The 5 answer choices for SC's exist only to confuse me more. Given that I'm a non native english speaker, I have to iterate a sentence multiple times to accurately asses the correctness of the each and every answer choice present. My scaled score in verbal was 23/60. Boohoo.
Finally, I wasn't able to complete verbal diagnostic test and Kaplan sentence correction. I'm eager to get the OG done but I don't find myself going anywhere with it. Honestly - it is driving me insane... Must balance work, life and gmat better.
Day 6 Sat - Follow RULE1, - begin with diagnostic verbal, I will be doozy but I will have to try. Complete as much of it as I can. ~~ Nope, woke up at 8am, stayed up until 1:30am on friday night at a friends place, sat down to review Math, with beatthegmat.com error log.
Keep myself in the bedroom or come to office to avoid the football mania in living room. ~~ Yes! but I was so passive in my review that it took me a good 4 hours!! to review the 48 questions of diagnostic math. I discovered that of the 20 questions I went wrong, I could have easily gotten 10 right if only I was more alert :(.
Begin prep for a dinner party of 6, by 3PM, finish up by 7 or 8pm, wind up the party by 1 or 2 at max, but must wake up at 7 atleast the next day. ~~ began the prep at 4pm, it was 8 when friends arrived and they left at 1am. Was dog tired and woke up at 10:30 the next day :(
Future Day 7 Sun - [ONE CHALLENGING DAY!] RULE1 exempted due to party on previous night. But get to library by 8am, Take GMATprep test. ~~ Got to the library at 12:30PM!
[Right from AWA and attempt all sections. No excuses allowed. I know I will be feeling lethargic,sleepy, wanting to treat myself to the warmth of the bed but NO, I got to take the test at 8AM, as it will be the same on Nov 29th. ] ~~ No amount of self talk seems to motivate me, feels like I just waste time trying to correct myself.
[Get back home (IGNORE THE HUBBY and THE FOOTBALL on TV), eat, gym and sit back for test result analysis, record results on the grid and revise notes. Work on OG and get diagnostic test and reult analysis done by night. If the plan is accomplished successfully then steal a late night dessert with the hubby (Sigh!)] ~~ This one totally went haywire, got back from the library at 4:30pm, had to get ready for a dinner at 7 and it was late by the time we got back home :( Its getting tougher and tougher to cut myself out of these get together's I worry about coming under someones judgment by declaring myself committed to GMAT and still scoring dismally on the test despite all the drama I put up.
How did I do on the test? BAD! same score as last time 570 - the only teeny tiny plus point is, I got 20/29 questions right, when I ran out of time and had to just mark answers for the remaining questions to complete math section on time. All of those 8 were wrong. On review, I realized that the 9 questions I went wrong in the earlier part of the test were the my time killers, I remember trying to solve those questions so hard during the test that I must have easily wasted a good 3 minutes on it and I still got it wrong. And of the 9 questions, I wasted my time and was wrong, 7 of them are DS, and of the 8 that I marked hastily, 7 of them were DS as well. So yes, my status on DS still remains as 'I suck at DS'. Scaled score on math was 45/60. I got to pace myself properly to push the score up and also practice more of inequalities in the form of DS to overcome spending too much time in evaluation.
As for Verbal - Terribly Bad! worse than first time! - Most of my RC's went wrong, in spite of using kaplan strategies. My attempts at trying to find the gist of the passage seem to go wrong most of the time, I get lost in all the mumble jumble that goes on in the passage and get carried away by the transitional words and end up deriving an explanation all on my own logic which finally ends up being wrong. My sentence correction is equally dismal. Of the 17 questions I went wrong in verbal, 7 are SC's, 6 are RC's, 4 are CR's. Man, SC's are so damn confusing! I should get around to that SC chapter of Kaplan and revise some of the strategies there. The 5 answer choices for SC's exist only to confuse me more. Given that I'm a non native english speaker, I have to iterate a sentence multiple times to accurately asses the correctness of the each and every answer choice present. My scaled score in verbal was 23/60. Boohoo.
Finally, I wasn't able to complete verbal diagnostic test and Kaplan sentence correction. I'm eager to get the OG done but I don't find myself going anywhere with it. Honestly - it is driving me insane... Must balance work, life and gmat better.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Week 1 - Resetting the counter
Time for some reality check again - I'm clearly unable to keep up with daily posts with my schedule so tied up. Decided I'll do one update for a week. There is simply no point cribbing to write a post when you don't have anything done that day.
Weekly posts will serve as a check point to see if I acheived what I'm supposed to acheive in 7 days or not, in my case its 210 pages of OG. And also a check on the rules.
So this week's check:
Day 1 Mon - Busy with work, but I still booked my gmat exam, my deadline for MBA application is approaching so I had to book it early so I could reserve a slot. Down side - very less time to prepare, exam is early in the morning and I'm not a morning person, anddd its right after thanksgiving, will I ever be able to stop myself thinking about turkey or sweet potatoes? don't think so. That is the reason why I'm assuming my exam is on 23rd - 26th area and not on 29th which is when my exam actually is.
Day 2 Tue - Another busy day at work, no studying done.
Day 3 Wed - The madness at work lessens because of beta release, eased into my comfort zen mode, where in I have a bazillion things to do but I still can't motivate myself to do due to the smugness of the fact that a HUGE load has been lifted off my chest. Read Eric Bahn's blog, very inspiring, the blog in itself shouts HARD WORK!, I noticed that he acheives the target of 30 pages per day consistently and that he is basically smart to begin with anyway, he begins with a 690 score and lands at 720.. I am right now in the range of 540 -560... my goal is to atleast reach a decent 660 - 690 number... a plus of atleast 100, I know I can pull it off as at the time I took the test, I didn't remember basic formulae, with PRACTICE I'm sure I can up the score by atleast 50% in math. Printed out the famous error tracking grid excel sheet from beatthegmat.com site. Completed 24 Q of diagnostic Problem Solving.
Day 4 Thu - RULE1 - Yes, woke up at 6AM diligently, showered and got started on diagnostic DS from OG. was able to complete only first 5, was dozing on and off on the book :(. Completed the Diagnostic math by evening none the less, scored average in PS and DS, was shocked as I felt I got most of the PS right, they were tricky but certainly not tough!, Need to follow up on answers and mark it on the grid before they vaporize. Slept at 1AM finally
Day 5 Fri - RULE1 - NO, Although I got up at 6AM, dozed off in the shower, my looser attidue constantly allured me to go back to bed for the warm cozy sheets, I gave up after resisting for half an hour and slept from 6:30 to 9AM! Unacceptable! 1 precious morning gone waste.. None the less, I will try and complete atleast half of diagnostic math analysis, make notes and revise. Got a bunch of chores to run in the evening, doubtful of how much analysis I will get done. MUST SLEEP BY 11PM, should get accustomed to postpoing any work that I do that time to next morning.
WEEKEND PLAN TARGET - Complete OG diagnostic test, complete result analysis. Complete 1 GMATprep test monday morning.
Future Day 6 Sat - Follow RULE1, - begin with diagnostic verbal, I will be doozy but I will have to try. Complete as much of it as I can. Keep myself in the bedroom or come to office to avoid the football mania in living room. Begin prep for a dinner party of 6, by 3PM, finish up by 7 or 8pm, wind up the party by 1 or 2 at max, but must wake up at 7 atleast the next day.
Future Day 7 Sun - [ONE CHALLENGING DAY!] RULE1 exempted due to party on previous night. But get to library by 8am, Take GMATprep test. Right from AWA and attempt all sections. No excuses allowed. I know I will be feeling lethargic,sleepy, wanting to treat myself to the warmth of the bed but NO, I got to take the test at 8AM, as it will be the same on Nov 29th. Get back home (IGNORE THE HUBBY and THE FOOTBALL on TV), eat, gym and sit back for test result analysis, record results on the grid and revise notes. Work on OG and get diagnostic test and reult analysis done by night. If the plan is accomplished successfully then steal a late night dessert with the hubby (Sigh!)
Weekly posts will serve as a check point to see if I acheived what I'm supposed to acheive in 7 days or not, in my case its 210 pages of OG. And also a check on the rules.
So this week's check:
Day 1 Mon - Busy with work, but I still booked my gmat exam, my deadline for MBA application is approaching so I had to book it early so I could reserve a slot. Down side - very less time to prepare, exam is early in the morning and I'm not a morning person, anddd its right after thanksgiving, will I ever be able to stop myself thinking about turkey or sweet potatoes? don't think so. That is the reason why I'm assuming my exam is on 23rd - 26th area and not on 29th which is when my exam actually is.
Day 2 Tue - Another busy day at work, no studying done.
Day 3 Wed - The madness at work lessens because of beta release, eased into my comfort zen mode, where in I have a bazillion things to do but I still can't motivate myself to do due to the smugness of the fact that a HUGE load has been lifted off my chest. Read Eric Bahn's blog, very inspiring, the blog in itself shouts HARD WORK!, I noticed that he acheives the target of 30 pages per day consistently and that he is basically smart to begin with anyway, he begins with a 690 score and lands at 720.. I am right now in the range of 540 -560... my goal is to atleast reach a decent 660 - 690 number... a plus of atleast 100, I know I can pull it off as at the time I took the test, I didn't remember basic formulae, with PRACTICE I'm sure I can up the score by atleast 50% in math. Printed out the famous error tracking grid excel sheet from beatthegmat.com site. Completed 24 Q of diagnostic Problem Solving.
Day 4 Thu - RULE1 - Yes, woke up at 6AM diligently, showered and got started on diagnostic DS from OG. was able to complete only first 5, was dozing on and off on the book :(. Completed the Diagnostic math by evening none the less, scored average in PS and DS, was shocked as I felt I got most of the PS right, they were tricky but certainly not tough!, Need to follow up on answers and mark it on the grid before they vaporize. Slept at 1AM finally
Day 5 Fri - RULE1 - NO, Although I got up at 6AM, dozed off in the shower, my looser attidue constantly allured me to go back to bed for the warm cozy sheets, I gave up after resisting for half an hour and slept from 6:30 to 9AM! Unacceptable! 1 precious morning gone waste.. None the less, I will try and complete atleast half of diagnostic math analysis, make notes and revise. Got a bunch of chores to run in the evening, doubtful of how much analysis I will get done. MUST SLEEP BY 11PM, should get accustomed to postpoing any work that I do that time to next morning.
WEEKEND PLAN TARGET - Complete OG diagnostic test, complete result analysis. Complete 1 GMATprep test monday morning.
Future Day 6 Sat - Follow RULE1, - begin with diagnostic verbal, I will be doozy but I will have to try. Complete as much of it as I can. Keep myself in the bedroom or come to office to avoid the football mania in living room. Begin prep for a dinner party of 6, by 3PM, finish up by 7 or 8pm, wind up the party by 1 or 2 at max, but must wake up at 7 atleast the next day.
Future Day 7 Sun - [ONE CHALLENGING DAY!] RULE1 exempted due to party on previous night. But get to library by 8am, Take GMATprep test. Right from AWA and attempt all sections. No excuses allowed. I know I will be feeling lethargic,sleepy, wanting to treat myself to the warmth of the bed but NO, I got to take the test at 8AM, as it will be the same on Nov 29th. Get back home (IGNORE THE HUBBY and THE FOOTBALL on TV), eat, gym and sit back for test result analysis, record results on the grid and revise notes. Work on OG and get diagnostic test and reult analysis done by night. If the plan is accomplished successfully then steal a late night dessert with the hubby (Sigh!)
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Day 17 - already?
Wow, I can't beleive its Day 17 so soon! at this pace my exam isn't very far at all, and I have so much more to study. I had finally completed the Reading comprehension section (It was about time). Got started on the og, beginning with the diagnostic test, I must say that I found the few questions I attempted very tricky, trickier than kaplan. None the less, I got started on the OG atleast, that is what matters. I still need to go back to kaplan to finish the sentence correction chapter and the word problem chapter.
In my last post I did an elaborate calculation to analyze how much effort I need to put in every day to complete the official guide, and I realize now that no matter how much you plan analyze and anticipate the amount of work to be done, life throws you into such situations that you are forced to compromise on the plans. Its the way life works and I'm beginning to accept it instead of letting myself get all worked up about it.
I have been uber busy with work since my previous post and I had to spend all the past week nights in the office, coding every minute. After working my brain all day, I couldn't really motivate myself to get started on the gmat prep at all :( . I could have probably dragged myself to focus on the book but that would have been at the expense of my sleep, so I decided not to. But such a behavior will need alteration. Will have to sleep when I'm tired but I must get up at 6 consistently every day and devote a nice 1hr to the prep, esp since my exam is in the morning, I have to train my brain to start up at the same time given that I'm not a morning person.
So, to summarize - RULE 1) Wake up at 6 every morning - Doesn't matter when I sleep.
RULE 2) Understand that I won't be able to study as much as I would like to, so take it slow, one day at a time, no practice today? that's okay too, but do your best tomorrow.
Now, What about completing OG in a month? seems like a herculean task at present and I feel like I won't even be able to complete it by the nov 26th which is when my exam is. Yes, I'm scared about this realization, but I have no other option other than opening the book and studying it cover to cover.
Of the 17 days of prep, I think only 8 should be accounted as study time, the remaining 9 are useless, with no progress done. So here's hoping to a fresh start again. Need to disconnect that damn TV again, it seems to have found its way back into the power socket.
My plan for today is to complete Math diagnostic test in OG, that is it, nothing more nothing less.
In my last post I did an elaborate calculation to analyze how much effort I need to put in every day to complete the official guide, and I realize now that no matter how much you plan analyze and anticipate the amount of work to be done, life throws you into such situations that you are forced to compromise on the plans. Its the way life works and I'm beginning to accept it instead of letting myself get all worked up about it.
I have been uber busy with work since my previous post and I had to spend all the past week nights in the office, coding every minute. After working my brain all day, I couldn't really motivate myself to get started on the gmat prep at all :( . I could have probably dragged myself to focus on the book but that would have been at the expense of my sleep, so I decided not to. But such a behavior will need alteration. Will have to sleep when I'm tired but I must get up at 6 consistently every day and devote a nice 1hr to the prep, esp since my exam is in the morning, I have to train my brain to start up at the same time given that I'm not a morning person.
So, to summarize - RULE 1) Wake up at 6 every morning - Doesn't matter when I sleep.
RULE 2) Understand that I won't be able to study as much as I would like to, so take it slow, one day at a time, no practice today? that's okay too, but do your best tomorrow.
Now, What about completing OG in a month? seems like a herculean task at present and I feel like I won't even be able to complete it by the nov 26th which is when my exam is. Yes, I'm scared about this realization, but I have no other option other than opening the book and studying it cover to cover.
Of the 17 days of prep, I think only 8 should be accounted as study time, the remaining 9 are useless, with no progress done. So here's hoping to a fresh start again. Need to disconnect that damn TV again, it seems to have found its way back into the power socket.
My plan for today is to complete Math diagnostic test in OG, that is it, nothing more nothing less.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Day 8 *warning* A really long post!
I am just not able to crack the RC’s :( they are so tough that they get your mind spinning in a loop. I try not to let that drive me mad, because I do understand that it’s the way it is. Of course if the author just spreads the facts all over on the page then there wouldn’t be challenge to begin with. None the less, I can’t help reading the entire passage out of habit. Need to lose that. Right now I’m practically dragging myself to complete the RC test in Kaplan, there are 50 questions and I have solved only 22 questions in 3 days! I should stop working on it on and off and try to just complete it in one sitting. I wonder if I’ll be able to complete it tonight, I might not, but I’m hoping to complete atleast 3 RC’s minimum. 4 RC’s in half an hour looks like a milestone far into future, it will take time to get there.
On the plus side, I learnt these tidbits while reading ‘beat the gmat’ flash cards while sitting on the.. ehm.. loo, ya that was TMI
When you have ‘consider’ in a sentence you don’t use ‘to be’ as the former word itself is implied to incorporate ‘to be’
John was considered to be a great architect – WRONG
John was considered a great architect – RIGHT
Wonder if this applies to the word ‘Declared’ as well?
To calculate how many arrangements are possible from any word, for eg TRUST
Number of all letters factorial / number of repetitive letters
To take it up a notch, what about Mississippi?
4 s's 4 i's 2 p's 1 m.
11!
Number of arrangements = ---------- = 34650
4! 4! 2!
I stumbled upon this page while searching the net to ensure my answer is right – a good read
I haven’t begun working on the official guide yet!!!! That is getting me anxious, today, I briefly rolled over the pages to get a feel of how intensive it is and oh yes, I felt the monsters gnarling at me as soon as I opened the book. Feels sick to the core. I should tackle the diagnostic test before this week passes by.
With 3-4 RC’s today I wouldn’t be able to Kaplan today for sure, I should atleast try to complete that chapter. MUST GET ON TO OFFICAL GUIDE TOMORROW!
I was thinking what it was to live GMAT, in my opinion, it is practically to keep it running in your mind wherever you go, I mean it - literally. In the shower? Ponder on this word problem
“If Cecilia needs to do practice questions from official guide book to take up GMAT in 30 days and assuming there are about 1400 questions overall, split up as 600 quant and 800 verbal, and if each quant problem takes 2 minutes to solve and verbal in 13/4th minute. For each and every question solved, allocate an average of 3 minutes (because 3 multiplied by 2 goes very well with divisions by 60 :))for the answers to be reviewed and analyzed. Then,
- a) How long will it take her to solve the entire book.
- b) How many minutes of practice does Cecilia need to put in everyday if she needs to solve the book in 30 days
- c) Assuming she can work only for 5 hours during the week days and 6 hours equally split between the saturday and sunday, how much extra/less effort does Cecilia needs to put in during weekdays and weekends, if she prefers to spread the load between weekends and weekdays, while maintaining the ratio of Monday : Saturday as 1:2, i.e work two times harder on weekends than on weekdays?
*You are free to round up numbers for division, but keep it minimal.
ew I feel geeky, but I do need to solve it for my schedule in any case. Hm, come to look at it, it would be funny to see your name pop up in GMAT :)
Answer:
By reading the problem We know for certain that Cecilia would need to spare a minimum of 3X1400 = 4200 minutes or 70 hours for review and revision.
- a) To solve the entire book = 600*2 + 800*1.75 = 1200 + 1300.00 = 2500 minutes or 250/6 hours, because every question is followed up with a revision, add 4200 = 6700 or 70 + 250/6 hours = 70 + 41.8 = 111.8 hours
- b) If it takes a total of 111.8 hours and this needs to be spread over 30 days equally then 111.8/30, or 11.18/3 ~= 3.72 hour. Accounting my general lack of understanding RC’s, I’ll round it to 12/3 = 4 hours, so Cecilia needs to put in 4 hours each day if she wants to complete the book in 30 days
- c) But as she can work only an hour each day, and 6 hours on weekend, and assuming it is a typical month with 4 weeks, Cecilia can only study for (1+1+1+1+1 + 6) * 4 = 44 hours the entire month. So she still needs to incorporate the extra 112 – 44 = 68 hours somehow in the month!! Or 68/4 = 17 hours extra during a week 5 days of weekdays and 2 weekend days.
Because Cecilia wants to maintain a ratio of 1:2 between week day and week end, lets split the original number into weekly quota’s = 112/4 = 28. Now lets say, Cecilia works in ratio of 1:2 already, then she would be working 1*5 + 2*2 = 9 hours per week, but the given number of hours to work is 28 => 28/9 = 3.1 => Cecilia need to improve her daily practice by 3 times or she needs to work 1*3.1 = 3.1 hours each day and 6.2 hours each on Saturday and Sunday for 4 weeks. Phew! Took me 2 takes to get that right gahhh.
Yeah, I shouldn’t have solved the problem right away, gives me the creeps, I unnecessarily wasted almost 2 weeks drooling on Kaplan. Again, I will try to keep my calm, just keeping myself disciplined can help me get the strength to complete the official guide, and I can not waste one single day! I should get used to the lifestyle of practicing at least 3 hours daily, beginning in small increments from today.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Day 7
I can't believe the weekend is already over! and I say this every monday, I'm never able to make peace with the fact that the last 2 days of the week are actually shorter than the first day.
Quick notes about what I got done over the weekend –
Day 5
Sept 24th – tried my hand at critical reasoning again, but just couldn’t get myself to focus on the strategies set by Kaplan, I’m just not able to figure them out. Took a small practice test, the quant standard was very low in this exam and so was the verbal, infact the questions were so lame that, I dismissed the test in between to get some quality time with CR in Kaplan. Also completed my first RC test, ended up with the worst possible experience. Took me 2 takes to complete 1 test and I still got a lot of answers wrong.
Day 6
Sept 25th - Woke up with a very relaxed mind set, procrastinated my practice to the extent that I couldn’t incorporate any tests that day.
Day 7
Sept 26th – Completed CR section from Kaplan, learning RC strategies – Main idea? Scope? Having a hard time understanding RC’s, I felt almost all the questions are designed in such a way that, the options don’t help and definitely not the passage, a whole lot more practice needed in this area.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Day 4
Afternoon (11:00 - 11:30) - Practiced a bunch of additions and 14th table
Night (11:00 - 12:00) - 20 CR's 40 min, 20 min to analyze what went wrong. Was exhausted by end of it, hit the bed at 12:30 only to wake up 9 again :( Just hate that I keep repeating the same mistake over and over.
Excited about weekly test.
Study Schedule
Weekdays -
Morning (6:30-8:30) - A chapter of kaplan/og.
Afternoon (11:00 - 11:30) - Memorize basic math formulae or atleast 1 multiplication table.
Evening (after getting home and having a snack, before getting dinner ready) - Solve atleast 3 - 4 RC's in half an hour.
Night (9:00-11:00)- Finish up morning's chapter if not completed or start a new chapter or pick a verbal or math test at random.
Must always keep track of time while practicing!!!
Weekend -
One Gmat test, analyze weak spots and practice them again.
Saturday - Work on weak section in addition to Laundry + Ironing + Planing what to eat over the week + get groceries + cooking + cleaning ( A good 8 hours! at the end of which I am totally exhausted)
Sunday - Work on a weak section + One more practice test in that area, analyze if you could improve or not, if speed is what needs to be improved then practice on that area during weekday night slots.
Morning (6:30-8:30) - A chapter of kaplan/og.
Afternoon (11:00 - 11:30) - Memorize basic math formulae or atleast 1 multiplication table.
Evening (after getting home and having a snack, before getting dinner ready) - Solve atleast 3 - 4 RC's in half an hour.
Night (9:00-11:00)- Finish up morning's chapter if not completed or start a new chapter or pick a verbal or math test at random.
Must always keep track of time while practicing!!!
Weekend -
One Gmat test, analyze weak spots and practice them again.
Saturday - Work on weak section in addition to Laundry + Ironing + Planing what to eat over the week + get groceries + cooking + cleaning ( A good 8 hours! at the end of which I am totally exhausted)
Sunday - Work on a weak section + One more practice test in that area, analyze if you could improve or not, if speed is what needs to be improved then practice on that area during weekday night slots.
Class GMAT { Print "Hello World"; }
Inspired by gmat gal I've decided to post my daily prep updates to a blog as well :) This is going to be my first attempt at gmat (hopefully my last *fingers crossed*) and I am pretty psyched about it. A little about me - I am a full time app developer at a software firm and its been 5 years since I said bye to grad school. From where I stand right now, I don't see my career going anywhere, so I'm hoping that a good gmat score leads to a good mba program which might in turn lead to better career prospects?.
Well, all in all, GMAT will be my first step toward a different career and I need to give it a good start so I am really working for a good score and I need to stay focused if I want to crack it successfully. Here is to hoping that I shed the fat from procastination and laziness and work my GMAT muscle. Cheers.
Well, all in all, GMAT will be my first step toward a different career and I need to give it a good start so I am really working for a good score and I need to stay focused if I want to crack it successfully. Here is to hoping that I shed the fat from procastination and laziness and work my GMAT muscle. Cheers.
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