GMAT: A TOTAL NIGHTMARE =(

October 25, 2006

Yesterday I presented my GMAT and it turned out to be the worst nightmare ever!!!

My final result: 450, math 25 and verbal 27 = (

I know that this result doesn’t really show what I can do, so of course I am really sad and heart broken, but on the other hand, I am relieved that I went trough with it, and that I now will go for another chance.

Here is the story of what went wrong:

Yesterday, I woke up very early, around 6:20 a.m, my stomach wasn’t feeling really good, and I was feeling kind of sick.

I had the “wonderful” idea of studying yesterday morning, just to refresh some concepts, and it turned out to be a total freak out moment since I realized that I forgot some geometry and probability formulas and from that moment everything went down the hill...

I had phone calls that took all of my concentration again, and also I had an unexpected visit...

When I got to the test center the girl turned out to be very nice and very friendly, I signed out the confidentiality papers and all that stuff and I started my test.

Now, there is a description of my test center... Small cubicles and only two people were allowed to take the test at the same time.

I got two horrible essays, and then I knew that I was in trouble, then I had my first break, I had a small chocolate, which was actually very hard, since I was all shaky and my hands could barely open the chocolate.

Then, I enter for the math section... I thought I was doing o.k. but obviously I didn’t I think that I was so nervous that I forgot everything I knew... Then break again and then back to the verbal section, and this time my next cubicle neighbor made my life impossible, he started to cough, and to play with the pen against the table making a terrible amount of noise, it made me lose all of my concentration and after a while I had to go out in the middle of the verbal section and ask the girl from the test center to tell the guy to quit the noise, she told him to do so, but the guy kept doing other kind of noises, not so terrible, but noises after all, and it really affected my whole concentration, at the end I had to guess the last three questions and giving quick and terrible responses to some others, because I runned out of time...

Then, It was the part of the results, and when I saw the 450, some tears came out... of course, I never expected such a terrible result, thank god, I was feeling insecure, and I didn’t send my results to any university.

Later, I got to Andres´ office, and then to the movies, it really helped me to feel better, and when we got home, I changed the whole layout of my studio, I also changed the way I arranged my books, and I started to think how am I going to change my strategy... Right now I am in a meditation kind of state, thinking about what I am going to do now... Today is my birthday, so I am going to enjoy the day, relax, and wait for the weekend to start studying... I have a good idea of what I am going to do, and my strategy will be to focus on OG, and also to make my own abstracts of the most important subjects.

I am more calm that I expected. I think that by taking things slowly and not getting crazy I will get to my goal. I know that I have to study harder and in a more consistent way that I used to do. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

On the other hand here are some comments about the test:

Have everything ready days before, and try to relax before the test day, I was making a lot of last minute arrangements and it really broke me.

The erasable board is not such a horrible thing as everybody says it is... I found it to be very useful, and I really like the fact that the marker passed really smoothly, saving me time, since I always had problems with pencils, they broke all the time...

Try to practice the ear plugs on to avoid noises, since they were too big for me, I found them very annoying, but is good to try to get used to them, can help you a lot, if you have a noisy neighbor...

 
posted by Catalina at 10/25/2006, | 9 comments

G-Day this coming monday!!!

October 18, 2006
Years without writing... so here is a small recap...

My test date: Next Monday, October 23rd.

Level of studies: not as good as I would like it to be.

What I am going to do: I only have 4 whole days to study, and the morning of the G-Day (I always study the same morning of the test, so that morning I will use it to review important concepts) I took Thursday and Friday off. In these last few days, I will go through Manhattan SC book, do one essay of each kind, finish with Kaplan’s math book and go trough OG to practice exercises of each kind.

How am I feeling? Being realistic? Scared as hell!!! I don’t know if I will get a good grade, but I have to give it a try, what is the worst scenario? That I don’t get a good grade, that I have to repeat the test and apply on December or January, not my favorite scenario... but on the other hand there is always a chance that I will get a good score, I am trying to be as positive as I can be, but is only natural that I feel scared, I am trying to keep it cool, by remembering me, that the wooorst thing is that I have to take it again. This is just a test, not the end of the world...
 
posted by Catalina at 10/18/2006, | 3 comments