Merry Christmas

December 26, 2005


I just want to wish all Gmatters a great christmas and the best on the year 2.006
I also want to wish all my family and friends a great time this holidays =)

A big hug for everybody!
Catalina.
 
posted by Catalina at 12/26/2005, | 3 comments

TOEFL: 213-273

Last week I presented the TOEFL test, the result is not the best, since I consider that my english is better than what is shown on this range. But, taking into account all the stress that I went trough the last few days I feel o.k. with the score and the best part, is that it means one thing less to worry about.

The only thing that makes me really sad is my essay, I had a wonderfull subject and I had a lot of examples and arguments, the bad thing is that I spend too much time writing the essay and I didn´t had enough time to check for spelling or grammar mistakes, I really hope that they give me a good grade in order to improve my final score.

About the test day and the test site, I found that even though it was a very nice place, the staff wasn´t so nice, it seemed like inquisition or something...

Right now I will spend holidays in Barranquilla, at my parents´house. Their computer is presenting a lot of problems and I will try to fix it. Until then I will work on a GMAT prepartion schedule, I will keep reading my sophie´s world book and I will get a great amount of rest so I can start the year 2006 with tons of energy =)
 
posted by Catalina at 12/26/2005, | 0 comments

Freaking Out

December 12, 2005
This last few days have really been a nut case, with all the packing and the preparation for the moving I haven’t been able to do any study, which is making me kind of nervous, because I know that there are a few things that I still need to polish in order to get a good score on the TOEFL, the other problem is that I also need to study for my Red Cross class, on Thursday, we are having a really big test about CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Reanimation) we need to get a really good grade in order to get a diploma for this subject and I haven’t studied a thing and there are a lot of things to study =(

I also need to move, I haven’t done it yet, and I also need to prepare my TOEFL template, anyway, I am trying to keep my cool and be confident that I will get a good score. Yesterday, I thought about rescheduling my test, but the thing is that it would cost me $40 and they don’t have any dates for January, and February is too late since I want to dedicate the whole first semester 2.006 to GMAT, so all I have left is try to keep my cool and pray for the best.
 
posted by Catalina at 12/12/2005, | 1 comments

TOEFL LISTENING

December 07, 2005
Last weekend I finished my listening exercises, it’s just that I had no time before to write about it. In total, I did 109 listening questions, from them, I had 8 questions wrong… most of my mistakes were caused because I wasn’t really concentrated, but I think that it was kind of a good rate…7% wrong and 93% right… The strategy to improve this section is just to stay focused and very concentrated, at this time of the preparation there is no way that I can improve my listening, so I think that this is the best way to go for it.
 
posted by Catalina at 12/07/2005, | 0 comments

READING COMPREHENSION / NEW HOME

December 06, 2005
In total I did 99 exercises of reading comprehension and with, for a hit rate of 10% wrong and 90% right. My main problems are focused in four areas: Problems with main idea questions, problem with meaning of words and guessing what the next paragraph will be about and the rest of the problems are concentration problems. Of the 10 questions that I got wrong, 8 I was able to answer right if I had a second chance, this means that I need to be more focused and relaxed when working on this exercises.

I know that a lot of the problem is the fact that I’ve been under a lot of stress, so I am trying to do my best to finish the whole moving and packing business as soon as possible, and in this way being able to concentrate on the test before the T-Day. The good news is that we have a new home, is in a very nice area close to my favorite mall and also with a good amount of nature, the other great thing about this new place is that now I am going to have my own studio, which will really improve my study habits.

My strategy for the reading comprehension part is to improve the main idea part and try to stay more focused, to improve my vocabulary I would need a big amount of time, which I don’t have for the Toefl, but I do for GMAT, so this part would have to wait for this other test.
 
posted by Catalina at 12/06/2005, | 0 comments

TOEFL SITE

December 04, 2005
Yesterday, I took a trip to see where my TOEFL is going to take place, I am really happy that I did it, because the site is far from where I live, is around 45 minutes to get there, maybe less if the traffic is not so heavy, and the problem was to find the place since the location is at Chia, which is at Bogotá’s rural area, the good thing is that a guy from the town helped with the address and draw us a map. The location looks nice and I am really happy that I took the advice from everybody at testmagic to find the place ahead of time, because it took us some time to find the place.
 
posted by Catalina at 12/04/2005, | 0 comments

MOVING AWAY

Last Thursday, I got terrible news, the owner of the apartment where we live is coming back to Bogota and he is asking for the apartment and he gave us one month to do all the new apartment search and the moving, but the big problem is that we are going to Barranquilla for Christmas so we only have 19 days left to do all this stuff. Of course, this is becoming a major issue for any study plan that I had this last month, so I am really hoping to find a place to live soon. =(
 
posted by Catalina at 12/04/2005, | 0 comments