Gmat Journey

What´s up?

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:13:00 +0000

Well, I know it´s been ages since the last time I made a post on this blog... But I´ve been waiting for something interesting worth writting...

So here is a small recap of what is been going on...

1. I finished my math summary for the GMAT, I hope that in a few weeks I can scan it since it is all hand written, but it will take a long while, since is a long summary, aproximately, 70 pages or more...

2. In January, I decided not to take the GMAT again, since I had not much time between studying time and preparation for applications, so I decided to apply to 3 universities that seemed very good and didn´t asked for this test.

3. I decided to apply to 3 universities: 1 in Switzerland, with a master in finance, 1 in England with a master in financial economics and 1 in Belgium with a master in financial economics as well.

4. I managed to complete and translate all the papers that the universities asked for... I don´t know why exactly it is so horrible the amount of papers that we need to get together in Colombia in order to study outside our country.

5. I took the IELTS (this test is not as nice as the TOEFL, I liked the TOEFL better). I took this test, because one of the universities that I wanted to apply asked for it. I got a good grade.

6. I sent all the documentation to the 3 universities. It was tons of work, and very expensive, and I have to tell, that I really admire all the people who have the guts to fill and complete an application request and all the essays and stuff.

7. I am waiting for the feedback from this universities... I hope one of them can accept me. One of them, the one in Switzerland, already said no to my application, and they were extremely rude.

8. I am trying to keep a positive mind, but I am also considering B plans... As soon as I have more news, I will keep you guys updated!

Thanks for all the support and nice words... I try to keep a nice attitude, since it is so important.

Application Tasks before applying

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 03:03:00 +0000

Well, again a long time without posts, but again, I’ve been really busy, but I am glad to say that this time I got busy because my whole application process.

There isn’t much to say about GMAT, but there is a lot to say about the application process, and in this past month, I finally decided to which universities I am going to apply, taking into account several factors: Country of teaching, University, Curriculum, Price, Living, Average age of the students, Amount of latins in the program (I don’t want to be the only latin there). I have 4 universities that I want to apply on the first round, and 2 more for backup in march.

Maybe I don’t have much to say about GMAT, but I have a list of activities that has occupied my time lately, maybe this list can help you guys, since if you are interested in GMAT, application process is also on the way :)

Write to all universities asking them all the related questions about applications and scholarships
Make a list of all teachers that I am going to contact for references
Make a list of all friends and colleagues that I am going to contact for references
Contact all teachers that I am going to ask for references
Contact all friends and colleagues that I am going to ask for references
Find out how to make the apostillaje (legalization of documents) process and the costs of this process
Contact translation companies for prices on translation
Contact Fedex and other major messaging companies for prices
Review all required documentation needed in order to apply
Review all costs - dates to process the documentation needed
Start looking for possible Gmat dates and the costs of the test
Find out with the British Council and with the Toefl organization to see which test I will take, the difficulty and costs
Update Curriculum Vitae in Spanish and in English and make each version
Make a budget of costs of the whole application process
Make a board for follow up of the application process
Review possible scholarships for each institution
Review housing and every day expenses

Math Summary

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:40:00 +0000

It’s been two months without any posts... Well, first of all I am pretty embarrassed, since I love this blog, but to be perfectly honest, I never found anything really interesting to write, so I didn’t.

Here is a small review of the two last months: I started to work hard on my math summary, I had a lot of things to fix at home, I started my painting lessons again, I had dengue and the big project that I was working on, got approved. Most of this time passed between the dengue stuff and the project, the cool thing is that this project will represent something really nice to show at my curriculum and also at the application process.

The only big thing that I was working on related to gmat is my math summary, in this summary, I am making a compilation of all the math books that I have, since I got tired of looking at some subject and no book had it totally well explained, so I went to the OG, and I made a list of all the math subjects tested on the GMAT, so later on, my summary can be my main math reference.

I know this sounds like a lot of work... the truth, yes it has, but the cool thing is that I reviewed a lot of math concepts, and since math is my main concern, for me it was important to make this summary, I expect to have this summary done by next week...

Well, anyway, here I am back again into posting!

Miracles...

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 03:43:00 +0000

Well, miracles do happen... I just found it out this past weekend...

The thing is that no matter how much I know that I have to study, that the GMAT is important, and all that, I wasn’t able to study for more than 30 straight minutes...

And there came my new hobby, listening history... I’ve always been a great fan of history and I love reading about history, well, the thing is that I have heard from a woman called Diana Uribe, who is a philosopher, who has a radio show where she talks for an hour about history, and she starts to tell you the story of all sort of things, just as a friend was telling you a nice story of something that happened to him over the weekend... so she is really fun to hear and you are learning at the same time.. Cool, isn’t it?

So, the thing is that I started to hear one of the History of England cd´s this past Sunday, and then by art of magic, I started to be productive... I know that it sounds weird that you study math and hear a woman narrating history at the same time, but I don’t really care, all I care about is that I’ve found study fun, and this past Monday, I didn’t turned on the TV, but I went straight to study... =)

I also think that it has helped me that the TV in the bedroom is broken so to watch TV, I have to go to the kitchen or to the studio.

And also other thing that I found to be a good help is the fact that whenever I study I get very very cold, maybe is the fact that all the blood goes to my brain? (I’m just kidding, but I really don’t know why I always get so cold when I study) so to avoid that much cold, I am now wearing two sweaters, and voila!

Anyway, it is really cool to feel finally motivated to study... It doesn’t really matter what gives you that extra something, the important thing is to find it.

Chichi

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 03:41:00 +0000

I’ve been away for quite a long time, since on the 13th of this month; I received terrible news, my great-aunt died. Usually, it wouldn’t a big motive of sadness, but she was an amazing woman, who happened to be my mentor.

I worked with her for a year in New York, thanks to her, and I had the chance to learn and experience wonderful things because of her, that otherwise, I would never be able to see or experiment.

She also shaped me to be the workaholic that I am today, and she thought me about discipline and how to be gentle at the same time with other, and how important family is. She was the best boss ever, because she always took you to your limits, but she also rewarded the efforts to achieve it.

As you can see, she was extremely cool and nice! And we will always miss her, since she was a very important family member for all of us.

After receiving this news, I traveled to Barranquilla, to be with my grandma, who was very affected, since she was her little sister, I stayed with them for almost a week, and it helped us all to feel better.

Anyway, I wanted to make this post, just to write, a few lines about Chichi, the incredible woman that I pointed on this post.

Nice Advice

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:32:00 +0000

Checking the Manhattan Gmat site, I found at the Gmatters series a good piece of advice about preparation, I found this extract the most important or meaningfull to me, but if you want to check the complete information, go to the attached link.

Okay, I know my strengths and weaknesses. Now what?

Once you've gone through the above exercises, you should have a pretty good idea whether you want to take a class, hire a private tutor or prep on your own. In addition, you should be able to determine a couple of other things:

The total amount of time you're going to need for primary studying (that is, the first time you learn the material). If you take a structured class, the schedule will already be pre-determined.

The amount of time to set aside for review, after you finish your primary studying and before you take the test for the first time. Most people take the test between 2 and 6 weeks after instruction ends.

The amount of buffer time you need to ensure that you can take the test a second time, if necessary. You are only allowed to take the GMAT once in a 31-day period (and 5 times a year).

The application deadlines of your preferred schools. You will, of course, have to work backward from these drop-dead dates. If you have the time, it's preferable to get the test out of the way before you have to start filling out the applications themselves. Keep in mind that your GMAT score is valid for 5 years! If you know you will apply to b-school within 5 years, get the GMAT out of the way as soon as possible.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Studying

Okay, now let’s talk about what to do during an individual study session. At the beginning of each study session, take a few minutes to decide what you’re going to accomplish; prioritize these items so that, if you can’t get through it all, you’ll have done the most important items first. You can choose to focus on one of three main areas in a given study session:
(1) learning content/concepts
(2) developing strategy
(3) preparing yourself for the CAT experience.
(4) doing exercises (this is an addition of mine)

For sessions focused on learning content (facts and rules), structure your study so that you learn a related set of concepts. Then, put those concepts into practice via actual problems from you’re the 3 Official GMAT guides. When you can successfully apply concepts to actual GMAT problems, it’s time to graduate to a new set of concepts. As you complete problems, check the answers. If you get a problem wrong, try to figure out why. When you get it right, you’re still going to examine the explanation! First, make sure you got it right for the right reason (i.e., you didn’t just get lucky).

Second, examine the explanation to see if you could have done it more quickly or cleanly. For every problem, whether you got it right or wrong, ask yourself whether you’ll do a similar problem the same way or a different way the next time.

For sessions focused on improving strategy, first review the lesson or lab that covers a particular strategic technique and decide how best to assess yourself on that technique. To gauge your progress on particular problem types, such as critical reasoning, do a set of problems all of that type using a particular strategy; check the answer explanations after each one, make sure you understand why you got it wrong or right, and assess whether you successfully implemented the strategy you were studying.

Finally, for sessions focused on your CAT preparedness, try the following exercises:

*The 30/30. Choose 30 problems of one type. Allow yourself 30 seconds per problem to eliminate as many incorrect answer choices as possible. Give yourself one point for every correctly eliminated incorrect answer choice. A score of 60+ indicates you are learning how to make effective educated guesses.

*Time log. Keep a log of your practice problems; list the book and problem number, problem type, time spent, result (right or wrong) and, if applicable, content / knowledge being tested. Review the log once a week to spot good and bad patterns; talk to your teacher about how to remedy the weaknesses.

*Appraise the scrap paper you’ve been using for practice problems. Is your work legible? Clean? Concise? Pretend that you have limited scrap paper whenever you do homework. Never erase anything. This will train you for the laminated scrap paper you’ll have to use on the actual test. (Take it a step further: have Kinko’s laminate some legal-sized graph paper, buy some dry erase markers and use these to do your homework!).

*Ask your instructor for other “tests” to address any of your particular weaknesses.
One last point: when you hit a wall, stop. If you’re so tired that you can’t keep your eyes open, or so stressed you can’t concentrate, take a 15-minute break. After that, if you still can’t pull it together, reschedule your study session for later that day or the next day.

Second test:

People do often see improvement on a second exam simply because they know what to expect the second time around, but this improvement, by itself, usually isn’t enough to justify taking the test again. Now that you have the experience of one test behind you, though, you can use your knowledge to focus your prep for next time – you just have to ask yourself the right questions:

Did you think you had scored higher or lower or were you about right?
Was your pacing good or did you feel pressed for time?
Did the test seem harder or easier than your practice tests?
Do you remember any particular concepts or problems that really threw you off track?

GMAT ROADMAP

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:53:00 +0000

Strategy to tackle the GMAT

What I should do to tackle this test? Well, this weekend and part of this week I had the time to sit and think about it for a while, the first thing that I did is trying to figure out in which sections I feel stronger, and in which I don’t.

The sections that I feel that I am fine are: AWA and Reading Comprehension.

I have problems in the quantitative part, both Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency, and in the verbal part I have to work on Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning; I don’t feel that bad in the verbal part, but I have a lot to improve on.

But for each section I came up with a roadmap:

Math

This has to be my main section for me to tackle since, I always had problems with math, and since I need to show a good math score, since the master that I am pursuing is a master in finance, which requires a lot of numerical skills. Here are some of the actions that I plan to take for the math section:

Summary of the most important concepts.
Study and come up with my own strategy for DS
Practice with OG and Test Magic.

For math the most important thing is practice, and for that what you need is time, since I know that after a while of putting my brain the math mood, I will be o.k.

There is a really good chance that I will include a math tutor in the preparation, since the math tutor that I once hired is really good and cheap, so for the hard questions, I think he can be tons of help!

Verbal

I know that verbal can be the “it” factor, since a lot of people have really good math scores, so a good score in the verbal part can really help my score to get boosted. I have to take advantage of the fact, that even though English is not my native language, I am good with grammar rules (thanks to French also) so I have to work hard on this area, but since I love doing verbal things, I know that verbal won’t be so hard for me. Tons of work, of course, but not that hard at last.

Here are the actions that I plan to take on the verbal section:

Summary of the most important concepts.
Study Manhattan SC.
Practice with OG and Test Magic.
Take time every day and read some articles of different areas after lunch or in the morning bus.

AWA

I know this is not a very crucial section on the GMAT, and since I think that I am a good writer, my strategy for this section is fairly easy, just follow the instructions that I wrote on how to tackle this section some time ago and write one essay every two weeks on my blog to hear other people’s opinion about it, that would mean that at the end of the GMAT preparation (almost 3 months) I will have 3 essays of each type done, so I think that is more than a good preparation for that section. Anyway, if there is something that I learned about the GMAT is that in this section a lot of it comes into the subject that you get, if you are lucky to get a good subject, it’s easy, but if it is a horrible one, no matter how good you write, it will be harder to write something nice.

Here is the link to my AWA complete strategy: http://gmatjourney.blogspot.com/2006/05/awa.html

Mistakes that I don’t want to repeat

If people are not able to learn from their old mistakes, there would be no point of making them... So what I don’t want to repeat from my old experience? Well, it’s easy, it would be not to expend too much time searching for information and making flashcards, I spend tooooo much time making that stupid mistake, and I don’t want to repeat it, so this time I am just going to focus on the OG, and Manhattan SC, and the other books I will take them as a backup, or as a strategy source, but the most important thing with this test as most tests is practice.

What I am planning to do different

Just yesterday, I read this phrase: “for a 7XX GMAT is a bit like training to go into space; one must strive for optimum mental and physical condition levels to best complete the mission. A key component to getting that extra 5-10% on T-day is to minimize stress by staying healthy and alert.” (I have a good amount of nice GMAT related phrases that I found; I will post them later on).

I think this phrase is totally right, so it is important to take it easy, not get too stressed with the test, and work with a good mindset. I paid for my Yoga and Meditation lessons, but I haven’t been able to take them yet, so I plan on taking them really soon, since I already paid for a whole quarter. Right now my painting lessons are helping me in a huge deal to relax and lay back.

I also plan to work on the concepts, because at least for me, if my concepts are clear things are easier for me, and I proved that theory during college where I always got very good grades.

Another important thing is that this time I am going to breath, sleep and dream with the OG, which is the key of success and the best way to get into the test mindset.

So in summary, my whole strategy will be focused in two main points: Strong Concepts & Practice OG.

Now, here is my GMAT Preparation schedule:

Being realistic, I know that I can’t start my preparation until this coming Sunday (June 10th), before that it would be really hard since I have to finish two paintings that I am working on and which have to be done by this coming Saturday, so I think that on Sunday, I will be able to study.

So the starting preparation date would be on June 10th, now, the final day, or the G-Day would be September 3rd, I think this would be a good date, and If I happen to have a bad result, (I hope not) I still have time to take it again. I tried to take the test maybe at the middle of august, but I know that between august 13 and august 27 I can’t take days away from work, because at that time we have the annual inventory, which is very important for us, and take it on august 10 is not good for me since I want to study more, and I don’t want to kill myself while doing so. Another reason to take the test at that moment is the fact that I will work on the application process at the same time.

Doing the math the total amount of days that I would have to study the GMAT would be 84.

So here is how I plan to split my preparation days.

SUBJECT # Days # Weeks
Math Concepts: 9 1,29
Verbal Concepts: 5 0,71
Manhattan Gmat: 7 1,00
Strategies from other books: 6 0,86
OG 10th and 11th edition: 50 7,14
Days I can’t because of work: 4 0,57
Free / Vacation days: 3 0,43
TOTAL 84 12

So by the second week of July I should be on the OG train already. I don’t want to set so strict dates, because I know that if you miss one, it is really easy to get discouraged, that is why I included 4 days that I can’t work because of my office and 3 vacation or free days! In those 3 vacation day, I have to take away that Sunday before the G-Day, since I don’t want to study before this test.

Cab Incident

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Mon, 14 May 2007 02:38:00 +0000

I wanted to wait some time before making this post, since it was kind of hard what happened to me last weekend.

I was going to my painting lessons, which are every Saturday morning from 9 to 1 p.m. Well, since I have to carry so many things and since the academy is really close to home I always take a cab.

Well, last Saturday, I was going to my painting lesson, and I was in a really good mood, and very happy, since I love painting, when I took the first cab that passed without passengers, when I was going to enter into this cab, the driver told me, to close the door slowly, and I tried to, but since it was really soft, it sounded kind of hard, and then the guy got really angry and started to yell at me… when that happened I told the guy to let me get down, since we only passed one house, since I wanted to start my day in a good way…

That is where the nightmare begun, the guy started to yell in a hysterical way to me, and then he called me all the in the most horrible ways ever, and then he slapped me in the face… Yes, as you guys are reading, he slapped me in the face!

What happened next? Well, maybe because of all the power points that I received about personal defense, or maybe because I was so afraid, but I kicked him in his shoulder… how my leg got that far from the ground, I don’t know, adrenaline makes wonders! And then I started to yell like crazy so this guy would let me down. At first he stopped, so I could go down (in all this time he never stooped yelling at me and telling me horrible stuff) and then when I had one foot out, he started the cab again, and I had my foot dragged all over the street (he even kind of ruin one of my new converse) and until he stopped.

How did I make him stop? Well, since I live close to the military hospital, and there are always militaries on the front door, he had to stop. The militaries came to see if I was o.k. and then came the police… The worst part is that there is nothing that an honest person can do against this horrible people, since there were no “major” injuries.

I had a terrible weekend, and now that things are over and I am fine again, thanks to the support of Andres, my family and a group of good friends, I wanted to make this post, for several reasons, first, as a warning, when taking cabs, try to get one on the phone, second of all, try to get as close to the door as possible and always be alert, third, try to get a bus before a cab, at least in a bus you have the help and support from more people, in a cab you are all alone against the other person, and you don’t know that they have in there to harm you.

My mom and a lot of friends told me that I was very lucky, things would be a lot worse, and now my dad calls me karate kid, after the movie that I love so much (thank you Mr. Miyagi) so I guess that I have to grateful.

Big Project is Over

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 04:06:00 +0000

Today I took a look at my blog and I realized that my last entry was a month ago… Well, the good news, is that I am finally ready to start my Gmat and of course my application process again.

Last week, I finished a big project that I worked for the last 2 years and who consumed a lot of my time, this project was so hard that I had to call a doctor in order to help me out, since I had a neck problem because of all the stress that I had to go through.

This week, all my efforts were focused on two things: resting and getting a normal work and life schedule.

So right now I am feeling a lot better, and this weekend I will start my prep again, I hope to have a lot of cool things to write this coming Monday.

Beat the GMAT scholarship

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 02:45:00 +0000

Hi Guys,

Well, check it out,. Eric just posted this year's Beat the Gmat Scholarship and the awards are really cool...

Good Luck!

Back from vacations

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 02:17:00 +0000

It’s been quite a very long time since my last post...

Updates:

Happy new year to everybody!!! (It’s kinda of late, but is the intention what matters, isn’t it?)

I bought and moved to my new house, that is why I wasn’t able to write for quite a long time, because I had no internet and I was really busy with all the things that I had to do in order to get my house look the way I wanted.

My parents were here in Bogotá, so for vacation, we had a great time, but I spend a couple of day missing them.

But it wasn’t all just fun, I also did some GMAT – Master related activities:

I bought a new desk for my studio so I can be able to study in it, my old desk was a pain in the ass, I never liked it.

I went to an MBA talk from INCAE, which is a school in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, who is really good, they only have a graduate business school, and they are the best rated grad school in South America for MBA´s. I don’t want to go there, since I want a short master, but I like the fact that I went, since talks are really inspiring and motivating. They also left me a couple of ideas related to the application process that I have to work on.

I also had a date at Colfuturo; this is a government institution, which helps students with loans to study away. If after you finish your studies, you come back to Colombia, part of your debt is forgotten. In this date, they clarified all the questions that I had concerning their application process.

This Thursday I will go to the Luis Angel Arango library, (this is a great library, in fact Bogotá, has a great libraries network) to get my membership card, you have to pay for it, but is not too expensive.

I started to consider the idea of not only a Master in Finance, but also applying to an MBA (one year MBA´s only) so I started to a checking list.

Good debriefings Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 23:35:00 +0000

Since I am starting my GMAT preparation all over again I decided to start by going through some debriefings that I think are really useful: Twinsplitter, Ursula, Piyust / ticktacktoe and Eric from beat the gmat. I took all of this information from testmagic.com.

For my previous preparation, I just read them and said to my self, oh this is interesting, but I forgot a lot of their tips, so this time I made a list of the most important points that I found out on each of them (I am also adding some ideas that came to me while reading their tips):

Use Ursula’s practice sheet to get a feeling of what went wrong with each question (slow, unsure, correct, wrong, careless error, concept error)

Ursula usually did 40 problems in a 80 minute session and all questions where the same type (DS, CR, RC, etc)

Ursula’s time strategy: Divide the total time of a section (quant or verbal) in 3 and try to complete 1/3 of the questions on each block, but remembering to be flexible on verbal.

Get Piyu´s CR presentation (it can be obtained at Piyu´s links at this debrief at test magic or also at beat the GMAT forum) and work with it. Piyu´s Math document at the end of my math preparation.

Practice Boldface questions.

Anytime you see helpful information at test magic or other page, paste the link in a word document.

Search for static’s books for concepts.

Copy Twin’s SC Strategy.

Look for real life examples to add for AWA.

Do a lot of problems in front of a computer to get used to it.

At data sufficiency questions read the question very well and determine the kind of question, and when solving it, keep the statements separated.

Get sahil´s sentence correction notes.

While working with critical reasoning write down or at least identify the type of question.

Go through Powerprep quantitative overview.

Use the forums!

New Blog: El Mecateadero

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:55:00 +0000

Well, it happened that I really liked this whole blogging stuff. That is why I decided to open up a new blog, this is one is about a little bit of everything, I just started it... So I hope you guys can visit it sometime. The name of the blog is El mecateadero, it is a Spanish word that accounts for a place where you go with your friends to eat something small between meals and where you hang around and have a good time.

The link to it is: http://www.mecato.blogspot.com/

Don´t spend too much time looking for information

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:40:00 +0000

This weekend, I started packing since I will be moving to my new home next weekend. While packing I took the opportunity to really see which GMAT Stuff I really needed, and what was really important, Since I have a pretty good deal of books: OG 10th and 11th edition, Kaplan GMAT and Kaplan Math review, Barron’s GMAT and Barron’s GRE and Manhattan GMAT, Plus some other reference books as Grammar in Use, Algebra and Arithmetic’s by baldor and some other math and grammar books, I think that I don’t need so many downloaded resources, that is why I decided to throw away all the things that were bothering, or were taking my attention away, from 8 folders, I ended up with only one, with the MOST important things to read and to take into account.

What is the message after all? Don’t spend too much time collecting information as it happened to me, I think that it really takes your attention away from the real deal and it is a very very common mistake

Big Decision

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 16:54:00 +0000

The week that I was away in Villa de Leyva, I had a good a mount of time to think about a good deal of things, specially the whole application process.

I made a decision, which some people might consider as a step back, but for me it’s the best decision ever... I am not going to apply this year; I will apply for the 2008-2009 period.

What led me to this decision, well, first of all, the whole reason I was applying this year, is because I was very enthusiastic about the Alban scholarship, this is a scholarship that is given to Latin American students who wants to go to Europe. At first, I thought that this scholarship was very very big, and since this is the last year that this scholarship will be given I knew that I had to apply this year.

Since I had a bad GMAT score, I had an idea, and it was to apply to an university that didn’t ask for this test, and then apply to Alban. I was in the middle of this process, when I realized that this scholarship isn’t that good as I thought.... That is where ideas came into my head... If Alban isn’t so good, why apply so early, when I am not ready under any concept to pursue a master degree?

The answers to this question, lead to my final decision. Which is not to apply this year.

My reasons:

I am in the middle of buying my first house process.
I am in a kind of new position, and I still have a lot of things to do.
I need more financial experience.
I need a better GMAT score in order to get accepted in the universities that I like.
Because I don’t feel that this is the right moment to apply.

So well, this whole thing doesn’t mean that I am not going to study for the GMAT anymore, or that I am quitting, what this decision mean is that I want to do things right, in order to get better results in my future plans.

Economists´ Jokes

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 12:45:00 +0000

Yesterday, a good friend send me some jokes about economists´ and I wanted to share them for a good laugh... Have a nice weekend =)

An economist is someone who gets rich explaining others why they are poor.

An economist is someone who knows 100 ways to make love, but doesn't know any women/men.

A central banker walks into a pizzeria to order a pizza. When the pizza is done, he goes up to the counter get it. There a clerk asks him: "Should I cut it into six pieces or eight pieces?" The central banker replies: "I'm feeling rather hungry right now. You'd better cut it into eight pieces."

An economist, a philosopher, a biologist, and an architect were were arguing about what was God's real profession. The philosopher said, "Well, first and foremost, God is a philosopher because he created the principles by which man is to live." "Ridiculous!" said the biologist "Before that, God created man and woman and all living things so clearly he was a biologist." "Wrong," said the architect. "Before that, he created the heavens and the earth. Before the earth, there was only complete confusion and chaos!" "Well," said the economist, "where do you think the chaos came from?"

An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today. - Laurence J. Peter

Economic statistics are like a bikini, what they reveal is important, what they conceal is vital" - Attributed to Professor Sir Frank Holmes, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, 1967.

Phelson's Law (or so I was told) Copying an idea from an author is plagiarism. Copying many ideas from many authors is... research!!

A voice from history. “Not all Germans believe in God but they believe in the Bundesbank"

Not everything is bad news

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 23:01:00 +0000

Well, I’ve been kind of extremely busy these last few days, but as the title of this post claims... Not everything in life is bad news.

I got my official score, of course the result is the same sad thing, but the only good aspect was my AWA score... I got a 5, and taking into account how nervous I was and the horrible subjects that they gave me and the fact that I never practiced a single essay; it was a really good grade.

Other good news: I had a great birthday... Thank you all for your warm wishes... =) But the best news ever is that the bank passed the loan to buy our dream apartment, so that is the best news ever!!! I also started to study, and this time I am very enthusiastic about it.

Next week I will be out of town, in a company training... I hope I can get some time to study between classes... I think I will.

Tomorrow I will be posting my new study strategy in detail... But I wanted to use this space to say THANK YOU!!! to everybody for the good advice and lovely words.

GMAT: A TOTAL NIGHTMARE =(

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:17:00 +0000

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...

G-Day this coming monday!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:25:00 +0000

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...

GMAT Date changed again / Application Process

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:16:00 +0000

Well, it’s pretty obvious that I changed my test date. The new date? October 23, two days before my birthday. Time: 12.45 m, the same hour time that I took the TOEFL, so I take it as a good luck thing, since I got a good TOEFL score, without studying and after a moving.

Now GMAT conditions are kind of the same, but this time, I will study, in fact, I’ve been studying.

This new G-Date is really close to my favorite university deadline, which means that I have to study for the test and prepare my application at the same time. It might sound impossible to some of you, but I’ve been finding it very productive, since being in the application process motivates me a lot.

I also signed up for yoga lessons, my first lesson would be tomorrow. I already had an unblocking session, so I’ve been feeling, really good, my mom was also here, and she gave me tons of love, hugs and kisses, that I really needed, I also started to paint again (oil painting) and for the first time in almost a year of trying I managed to paint something nice.

I am very very optimistic about the future. Right now I am very focused and confident, a new feeling that I haven’t had in a long time. Attitude is everything, right? =)

Blogger entering problems

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 14:26:00 +0000

I wasn’t able to enter any new post in quite a long time because I had a lot of problems entering the blogger site. Today, almost a month after my last post I’ve been able to enter again.

O.K. What happened to my on this last month? Well I don’t even want to remember, this has been the worst month ever!!!! I had the most enormous amount of work, and I haven’t been able to study. I was only able to finish the Kaplan book, and I just started with the OG 11th edition.

What now? Well I am a total nervous wreck!!!! I don’t really know what to do since I haven’t been able to prepare as hard as I would like to... My test is on September 22nd, and I don’t feel ready. What should I do? Re-schedule my test? My problem so far it’s been my math strategy, which have failed me = (. In verbal I feel tons better but not totally ready...

Here is a little story of my situation, I would really like to hear your imputs about this matter:

I scheduled my test for July, but since I had tons of work I had to re-schedule it. My new test date is September 22nd.

My problem right now is that July and August turned out to be the two most horrible months ever! And until today I’ve been able to take a book again.

Verbal is my stronger area but is not like I am getting the most spectacular results ever, since English is not my first language, but I am a total disaster concerning to math.

My questions are 3:

1. What should I do? I am really thinking about re-scheduling my test for the second time, since September looks kind of better, but I think that I don’t have enough time to study in order to get a good result.

2. What can I do to improve my math? I’ve studying with an algebra book and the math summary for some books, but so far, nothing good has come from this situation.

3. How can you balance a really hard and stressful job with GMAT?

P.S. This post has been changed. First I posted a question that I made to the guy from Manhattan Gmat, but he turned out not the best advicer ever.

Algebra book is out of the way...

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:50:00 +0000

Well I finally made, I was able to finish the horrible algebra book. (Just kidding, it happened to be a really good book, just too long)

These last few days were just really hard because of all the amount of work that I had and courses and stuff, which of course threw me away.

So how are things now that I finished the math book? I did the grammar in use test to see in which subjects I need help. I also did this test last year, before taking the toefl (on October 31st, to be more accurate) and the result at that time was 20% of the questions wrong, and 80% right, that means, 28 questions wrong out of 142, not too bad, but not too good either. Yesterday’s results: a little bit worse; 22% wrong and 78% right, that means that I got 31 questions wrong out of 142. The only thing that made me feel a little bit better is that I got more than 50% of the wrong questions in the same point; it means that I have to work on the same stuff... and of course the mistakes are easier to correct.

What now? My plan is to work on my grammar in use book in the mornings on my way to the office (on the bus) and at nights I at home I started to work on the Kaplan gmat book...

Good Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 21:39:00 +0000

Finally, The first productive weekend in quite a long time... I should have studied more, but I really needed to rest, so I went to a trip and I also slept a lot.

I finished chapters 7,8 and 9 of my algebra book, I only have 3 more to go, and I really hope that by Wednesday I can be done with this book.

This weekend was very productive not only because I did some advance, but also because it helped me realize something.... there is no way you can study more than 5 hours on a weekend day, no matter how important the test might be, it’s also very important to rest and get your mind going.

Other nice thing that I did this last days, is that I attended a talk at Colfuturo, which is a part private – part government institution which gives loans and also students aids for graduate studies outside Colombia, and I also worked on some other application stuff, which is my ultimate goal.

MATH VS VERBAL

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:11:00 +0000

Checking the answers that I’ve been receiving to my last post, I received a very nice thing from Aashim, I thought that it would be nice to place it here...

While we are on the topic of Maths vs. Verbal.It's true that verbal directly impacts your score much more than quant but that's only after you get a certain minimum in quant.Here's why(Scaled score vs. percentile):Verbal Quant Percentile39 49 90Because people score so much higher in Quant anything less than a scaled score of 49 can really take your score down badly. On the flip side anything above 50 in Quant will not get you much in the way of a higher overall score.Verbal is where the GMAT can be cracked.

As you see with a 39 scaled score you can reach 90 percentile. Considering the verbal maximum scaled score of 51, means that there are still 13 scaled score pts to go to reach a perfect 51- there surely is room for improvement. In fact anything higher than 44 in verbal is the 99th percentile!!
Q-50 V-38: 720 or 730
Q-48 V-38: 690 or 700
Q-51 V-38: 730!!
Q-47 V-38: 670
Q-46 V-38: 640!
You can see the score fluctuation with a constant verbal and how a low quant pulls the score down.

My strategy/recommendation is to ratchet up the quant to 50 or at least 49(Coz then you have at least 720 in the bag, unless you screw up verbal badly). And then work totally on verbal. (Then with a quant score of 49/50 in the bag, improvements in verbal can max out your score beyond the 750 levels). It's not so easy to score above 40 in verbal and anyone who scores less than 49 in quant has surely made some very stupid mistakes. And obviously GMAC thinks that someone who scores less than 49 in Quant does not deserve to have a high score.

Thinking about this message, I remembered what I read the other day at the beatthgmat.com site, where they have a section called ask Manhattan Gmat, and here I am attaching two extracts from some considerations about obtaining 700+ and a 750+ score:

Your overall score out of 800 results from your performances in quant and verbal, each of which is first scored independently on a scale of 0-60. These subscores are then combined to yield your overall score according to formulae to which only Pearson (the organization that administers the GMAT) is privy. Each subscore (verbal and quant) receives a percentile ranking as well. This indicates the percentage of test-takers who scored below your level over the past few years. So, for example, if you receive a verbal subscore of 40, you are in the 90th percentile, which means that 90% of all test-takers did not perform as well as you in verbal. Some recent scores of 750 broke down as follows: 41V/51Q, 46V/47Q, 44V/49Q, 45V/48Q, 47V/47Q. Notice that both sections are strong. Some recent scores of 760 broke down as follows: 51V/46Q, 42V/50Q, 46V/48Q, 44V/50Q. Again, these test-takers posted excellent subscores. To break 750, you more or less need to reach at least the 84th percentile in quant (subscore 46) and the 90th in verbal (subscore 40). While a significant number of test-takers can reach one or the other of these goals, very few can reach both on the same exam. Hence the reward of 99th percentile status to those who can.

Let's take a look at what happens at the highest levels of the exam: 700+. A recent test-taker received a scaled score of 45 in verbal (98th percentile) and 40 in quant (66th percentile) and an overall score of 700 (93rd percentile). Notice how much closer the overall percentile is to the excellent verbal percentile. If the overall percentile were simply an average of the individual percentiles, this person would have received about 640. But because the combination of an outstanding verbal performance with a fair quant performance is so rare, the overall percentile and score will be much higher than the lower quant percentile. Another person, who scored 49 in verbal (99th percentile) and 37 in quant (56th percentile), received 710 (95th percentile), even though the quant performance here was a full 10 percentile points lower than that in the previous example. Again, an outstanding performance in verbal significantly offset a middling performance in quant. Does this work in reverse? That is, will an outstanding performance in quant so dramatically offset a middling performance in verbal? No. This combination is much more common, given the increasing number of international test-takers, who often have excellent math skills but relatively weak command of English. Even among native speakers of English, it is more common to see relatively high quant scores coupled with fair to middling verbal scores. Because these combinations are less rare, they are not rewarded as highly. For example, a test-taker recently received a 50 in quant (97th percentile) and a 37 in verbal (82nd percentile), but "only" a 670 overall (89th percentile). So the truly excellent quant performance was not enough to pull the overall score above 700. While an excellent verbal performance can indeed take up some of the slack from a weaker quant score, keep in mind that most business schools want to see strong skills in both sections. In fact, some of the top 20 schools apply the "80/80 rule", which requires that successful applicants reach at least the 80th percentile in both sections. So do not put all your eggs in one basket: make sure you prepare well for both sections.

O.K. What is the point of all these considerations and stuff? First of all, that you need good scores in both areas in order to get accepted. In my case where math is problem, I think that I really need to work on verbal, to compensate, but maybe with the gmat it will happen the same way as in other test, that I get better scores on my weak areas and not so good on my strong ones, that is why, I decided, that after I finish the Algebra book, I’m gonna stop focusing so much in math, and work a little more with verbal... Anyway, the final key is tons of practice on every section ;)

I would really like to hear people opinion on this subject, which I think is very important on test prep.

Date changed

noreply@blogger.com (Catalina) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:22:00 +0000

It’s been a while without posting, but my computer at home had a little attack and I couldn’t write a thing until today.

Well, as can be inferred from this post title I changed my test date. Why? Because the original test day was supposed to be this Friday, and I am soooo not ready for it... My new test date is September 22nd.

How are things going on? Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about a strategy change. I set up a new schedule, that I will post as soon as is finished. The only thing that is going to change, is that I am not going to be so focused in the math part, because a lot of people are really good at math, but not that many at verbal, so a good verbal score would really help my score.

Also, good news from the office... From next Monday on, a new person will come to work with me and help me with the amount of work that I have, this of course will help me in several aspects: stamina, stress and mental energies. I am really happy about this change.

The other reason why I couldn’t write too much this last days, is because a friend got married, and in Colombia, when you are invited to a marriage, you have a good amount of events and parties and dinners to attend... the good thing is that the party (this last Saturday) was great, but it really killed any chance to study...

So far, so good... What’s next? Well, I finished chapter 6, which was a big-terrible pain in the ass, because of all the little things that I studied, but, according to my algebra book, the worst just passed. According to my schedule, I will finish the whole book by Sunday, I know that I am only half way over, but I am studying on a better rhythm now, and I have Thursday off (national holiday) and I also asked for Friday, so I have a good amount of free time to study.

About the being-tired stuff, I’ve been feeling way tons better =) My doctor told me to wait some time to see the effect of the pills, and I started to see it, the vitamins have been great also, and the exercise part too... Everything is going really nice, and I am very optimistic about the future... I think that things are getting definitely better.