Archive for GMAT
June 6, 2005 at 2:42 am · Filed under Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT
I arrived very early at the test center in Alameda which was still closed. Being in Alameda on a sunny Satuday enjoying a Starbucks “Grande Latte Extra Wet, Extra Shot, Low Fat To go” in the blazingly hot morning sun is certainly no punishment.
Entering the center I felt confident and very comfortable because I already scored a 690 in the previous GMAT bombing run, but the tension and heartbeat quickly rose when I entered the test room.
The essays went OK but then the Quantative hit me hard. The questions were hard from the beginning and I had to guess quite a few. The Verbal went OK but I was very sure I scored lower than ever on the test. I walked up to the sentinel lady, a bit depressed I might add, and received my score…. I glanced at the paper and suddenly saw a 7 as the first figure. WOW: a 710: fiucking great: I scored above 700….Now I am proud of myself! Shawn, Thanx, we made it happen!
Lets relax and hang out in San Francisico…. “Sitting on the dock of the bay” suddenly sounds very attractive
May 31, 2005 at 1:22 pm · Filed under Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT
After 4 hours of hard labor intensive brain crushing and massaging, I finally came out of the sweat shop they call the Prometric Test Center. I knew it went better than the last time, since I could answer most questions with confidence. But then I got my preliminary score: 690 (91st percitile with a 81st percentile on the math) WOW: I did it, I f*cking did it!
Then of you go, to San francisco. Finally a moment to enjoy this great city instead of enduring it. After walking around for 8 hours and 150 pictures later, I am sure that this is the most beautiful city in the world… or is it the suspence that makes it feel this way? I even found myself a present: a 90-300 Canon AF lens for a mere 238$! I will try to upload some pics tomorrow.
Saturday I am going to try to beat myself, maybe a 700? You’ll never know how the cow catches the hazel (= silly Dutch expression… sounds better in Dutch though)
May 29, 2005 at 6:36 pm · Filed under Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT
This week I worked as a madman. I did so many GMAT problems and I seemed to progress moderately. But when I look at the enormous workload I went through and the progress I made, I dont think it has made a big difference, unfortunately. But the proof is the pudding, like the English say, so we will see in a few days…. the 31st of May I will do my first GMAT. Then just 4 days later June 4th I will do the second. The things that worry me are the probablity questions and my sloppy mistakes. To give an example: the last few tests I solved problems and 2 times I pick the wrong answer…. How sloppy can you get?
But I did some fun things as well…..
Last Friday I worked out with my GMAT tutor, SB, and boy, I still feel it! We did some specific calves exercises and some exercises for the lower arm and abs. Actually I was amazed by the amount of weight I still could do taken in account that I didn’t do sport for a while. But OK, I need it and I will continue in Holland to work out… Gueno made me member of fitness first So I guess she thought I need it as well.
Later in the afternoon, after I had my frustration math class, I went to Alex Min, a great guy I met at IMD, in Lausanne, Swiss. I drove to his house in San Jose and played with his kid, Arno, the Golden Retrievers Carmen and Tango, and talked to Alex and his wife untill past midnight. If the MBA class I attend is only half as intelligent and nice as the guys I meet at interviewdays, I won’t complain!
Well, Just another day to go for my first test.. wish me luck… I really need luck since my skills won’t improve in 1 day!
Cheers, Peter
May 20, 2005 at 10:36 pm · Filed under Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT
WOW, big fun, I was doing great on my GMAT problems and I was happy doing it because finally I had the GMAT vibe. Question after Question I could answer or narrow the options down so that I saw the answer. Then suddenly a terrible noise penetrated the room. It felt like my ears were blown off and I tried to go on, but my head just could’t handle the pain.
I guessed it was the firealarm. What other thing makes a 160 db noice? [Except from the fat lady next doors who gets orgasms which seem to hurt]
I walked out with my laptop under my arm because it seemed to be the asset which had the greatest value in my room. So I walked down to the reception and asked when this terrible noise was going to stop…
The girl said: “Well it set off in the managers room…” “Well that explains it” I said ironnically. I guessed my gay manager was having a pot-party…. or was I-Potting ( 
.
The search for new words , which could be strung in a new “I-have-a-gay-hotel-manager-joke”, was suddenly interrupted by the raging bells and horns of the firetrucks homing in on the hotel. This answered my question how long it was going to take…not very.
But now I knew I made a mistake: off course Bozo: BYOC…. Bring Your Own Camera! Not your laptop: it doesnt take pictures! And these American firetrucks are a symbol of “The American Way”: too Big, too Fat, too noisy; I love them! Next time, remember: BYOC
….. After 5 minutes I walked in again…isn’t it a dangerous life I’m living here….
May 19, 2005 at 5:43 pm · Filed under Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT
After 10 days of “frontloading” grammar I am finally diving into math problems. Not a few, no sir, SB wants me to cover a few hundred in the next 10 study hours. Happy joy! Actually I really like to do this because I feel I need it the most. The sentence correction, a part of the GMAT Verbal section, is not really perfect yet, but I am improving. Shocking to see how much you actually guessed because you didn’t know the gammar at all.
But anyway: I’m positive again.
Yesterday is was raining all day…. boy, even California looks shitty when it rains. As a real Dutchman I ride my bike, no matter what weather, but you get wet, very wet. So last night, after I went to the gym and sauna, I stumbled into SafeWays, soaked to the bone, and the people over there looked at me like I was a bum, a wanderer, a guy living in a trainstation. How looks deceive I am glad they didn’t had the nerve to kick me out: I was in the mood for a scene .
Another few days and I have a day off! So what shall I do…. surfing in Santa Cruz, or diving in Monterrey (kelp forests). What do you think?
May 17, 2005 at 9:36 pm · Filed under Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT
Just another depressing GMAT: I scored a 610. Tik tak, tik tak. Time is passing by, I finished the first 10 days of my course and I am not progressing at all: bummer. Depressing? Yes. Give up then? Never
So what am I doing wrong? Well, next to mistakes due sloppiness there seems to be a pattern in the questions I miss or which just take too long, and since time is very important in this test (1:50 for each question) missing questions is as important as wasting time, because you will miss easy questions later on.
Types of questions I miss:
- Questions with a lot of text which you have to convert to a formula take a long time. Sometimes I have to read it twice to understand the problem and then I have to write the formulas and solve them. I hope this will improve doing a lot of English.
- Second I miss a certain type of questions which ask me te describe behaviour of primes, factorials or integers.
- The third category of question I tend to do wrong are rate questions. Combined with the fact that these have a lot of text, these account for quite a few of my missers.
- Then the rest of the missers are percentage (interest) or geometry questions.
Detection is one thing, improving another. Go go go
May 15, 2005 at 2:52 pm · Filed under Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT
Today I did another GMAT. I improved a little: in the end I scored a 620, which is about 80 points short. So not really, actually quite bad.
At the moment we are practising a lot with English grammar. SB says we are “frontloading” the grammar. According to SB it helps to interpret the questions better and faster. Actually, he is right. I see finally progress in the speed I can read questions and this will give me more “solving”-time and believe me: I need quite a bit more. So it feels like progress, althought the results are not really showing. Ah, as long as I define it as progress….it is…
Thomas Theorema: If man define a situation as real, it’s real in its consequences
Just think about the power of this simple litttle sentense (which by the way exists of 2 independent clauses )
May 14, 2005 at 9:27 pm · Filed under Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT
Got up after a terrible nights sleep. I do not know why but I woke up at 2, 4, 5 and 6 and at 7 I decided to meditate: at least it is not so frustrating. Today I have a lot to do 2 GMAT Verbal parts, Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension.
Unfortunately, I opened my email and saw many SMS messages indicating that something was severely wrong at De Telegraaf (where I work)… I contacted them and did some “Critical Reasoning” with them… After a few hours, the guys solved it: great.
So, I continued my sentence analysis, Verbal GMAT part and I wrote 2 GMAT essays. I wrote 2 shitty ones because I got lost in my own reasoning, but hey, on the positive side: it has lots of room for improvement!
At 16.00 (I arrive 5 minutes too early because I ride on my upgraded bike) I went to SB and found out what I already knew: “Peter, you are too careless”. I really have to work on my accuracy.
SB gave me a shit load of work and above all a Economist which I should *really* read. Monday is our next meeting: Today I will work on my website and get me a good meal: I’ll pay a visit to the Indian again, I think.
May 13, 2005 at 9:24 pm · Filed under Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT
Important day today, friday the 13th, brrrrrr .
First, I fucked up a GMAT Problem Solving in a bad way: 16 question, 10 wrong, 6 correct. Wow, that is a shitty score. I went to SB but that didn’t help much: he basically said it was a shitty score.
So, me depressed: me go shoppin’.
Since I don’t need anything over here I just could get paid sex or “upgrade” my bike. Since I can’t show of paid sex, take it home of as a matter of fact, felt like doing it, I chose the bike.
Since my bike is made by little Chinese men in China and I have these Dutch legs, the bike and I had trouble being friends. So I went to a bike store and upgraded the bike with a new saddle pin, a front light and a back light. Ka-ching, 38 bucks while the whole darn bike was just $70! I increased the value by a little more then 50%…. Oh well since I have to be more exact according to SB (and myself): I increased the value of my bike by (38/70=19/35=0,542 ) ~ 54,3%!
May 12, 2005 at 9:22 pm · Filed under Climbing, Daily unimportant sh*t, GMAT, Travel
Today, next to my mathematics (which I begin to grasp but I am still to sloppy) I went to my climbing intro course. Way cool, but, why is it that every time I hang on a wall at about 5 meters grasping for a foothold which is just not made for Dutch feet, I think “So, tell me again: why did you like this?” When I am standing with my two feet on the ground, I know: because it is cool to overwin yourself. The rest of the evening I boulder: another thing I am not good at but hé, if I can learn math, why not bouldering? Then reality kicks in and the answer as well: You’re a smart guy, not a flexible guy, thats why!
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