Needless to say, I liked the movie and so should you. There is at least one subject matter in the film, which touches on everything from family values, government, and work place issues, that everyone can relate to. I’m too tired to construct anymore sentences  so I embedded a clip of the movie below. Looks like youtube has 13 more clips which could very well be the entire movie. Enjoy please!

For the rest of the month, I’m going to be out in beautfiul Yuma Arizona where the sun always shines and the desert sand is smoking hot. I’m not sure what I’m doing out here other than if I didn’t come out here, I might not have a job for the rest of the year. That doesn’t sound good but it’s the reality of an economy that has supposedly hit rock bottom. The days are going to be long but at least the work seems easy from what I’ve gathered. Crossing my fingers that things stay this way, especially the weather which has been surprisingly cool.

School

I finished the first and third essays for Smith over the weekend and sent it off to Tiff for review. The first essay is the goals essay and is applicable to all the schools. The third essay is the optional essay and again, it is applicable to all the schools. Thumbs up to me for getting that first draft done. Hopefully Tiff doesn’t rip the essays to shreds. I’m also having my resume reviewed by TL who has already redlined the hell out of it.

Some of the better guides that I have used to help me with my essays include: Montauk’s Big Book, Mba Game Plan, and The Techie’s MBA Guide. If you only want to buy one book, get the big book. It is the encyclopedia britanica of the mba guides.  MBA Gameplan is good too. It’s got a really good guide for the Top 30 schools that’s worth a look if you need todo a prelim run down on schools. The techie’s guide for mba is written by the people from www.accepted.com. It’s OK. It walks through a fictional engagement between an Indian technologist who is working with an accepted.com admission consutant. I found most of the material applicable to my case, but since I can’t relate to the fictional character, some of the value is not lost.

On the GMAT side of things, I spent an hour with a MGmat tutor on Saturday going over strategies, assessing my practice test results, and doing some problems to illustrate some review concepts. One thing that I thought was interesting was what the tutor said after he asked me why I was taking the test again. I gave him my reasons and he said “fair enough, but realize that the GMAT is just one data point. if you can, focus on essays because those are just as important if not more so”. he talked to me about his experience and how even though he got a 770, he got rejected by the schools that he applied to last year. Food for thought. I’m certainly regurgitating and chewing it again.

On a work related note… minus McCombs, I got all my recommendation provider forms sent out. I’ll be putting together a briefing that I’ve put off for a while for my recommenders to help them out with the forms. My manager also told us that he highly recommends taking vacation before the year ends because of the reason I sort of alluded to above, but also because we’re supposed to be crazy busy starting next year. I’m going to take his recommendation and plan some school visits as well as taking the last couple of weeks of the year off. Owen and Broad have “preview weekends” in November that I’m planning on going to. Similarly, Smith has a couple of class visits/info sessions that I’m thinking about as well, though they’re in the middle of the week so TBD. I looked over the itinerary for the preview weekends @ Owen and Broad and it looks packed, especially Owen’s plan. For Owen, we can also schedule an evaluative interview, though I’m not sure I’m ready for one yet. It seems like there’s a lot of value that can be extracted from these school visits and @ the very least, I’ll be able to notch East Lansing, Nashville, and College Park/DC on my travel belt.

OK time for bed. Even though it’s PST here, we’re working EST hours so i’m way past my bedtime. Booo. At least we get two free beers from the hotel everyday to comfort us after a long day in the sandbox.

Work

I have to get out of the office. One of the most frustrating parts of being a software engineer is inheriting a module and having to make enhancements to it. The problem is that, like the dungeons from the Prince of Persia, there are numerous trap doors and dead ends waiting to get you. You think you got it right, but it comes back from testing as FAILED. And it’s always FAILED in capital letters. The testers like to make sure that you know you FAILED by screaming at you in the SPR. Worse yet is when the feature FAILS during a demo and you look through the code to find out that it FAILED because it went through a code path you didn’t even know it could go through. And then the boss gives you a disapproving look to top it off.

On the bright side, I’ll be traveling next week and will be gone till the end of the month. This will be short but needed respite from sitting in front of the monitor and hacking away at code. Of course, in the back of my head, I know that I have a bunch of crap to do once I get back, plus who knows what else is going to be broken while I’m gone. Hopefully I won’t find my replacement sitting in my cube when I get back.

School

I started with my Smith essays. There are three essays, two required, one optional. The first essay is the standard goals essay. The second is a choice between writing about what I would do if I didn’t have to work or what company I would want to lead. The optional third essay gives me the chance to explain why I’m worthy and that the school doesn’t need to worry about me dragging the rest of the class down.

I’ve gone through about twenty different iterations of the first paragraph for the first essay. The difficult part is finding the write structure. I know the story I want to tell, but I haven’t found a good way of telling it. I’ve tried outlining, brainstorming, writing different parts of the essay. Nothing has worked yet, but at least I know that once I have the structure figured out, it can be applied to the other four goals essay, modified of course. I’m looking forward to writing the second and third essay. I really appreciate the schools that have essays that allow us to be a little more creative. The third essay hopefully will be applicable to all five schools.

On the GMAT end, I’m hooking up with a MGmat tutor on Saturday to go over a game plan for the next test. That’s right, I bit the bullet and I’m getting a tutor. I really didn’t want to but Tiff highly suggested that I do because I need to see the test in a new way. The first meeting is going to be an hour and we’ll see where we go from there. Usually the third movie of a movie series is the best, unless you’re talking about Godfather. Here’s to a better performance than Sofia Coppalla in Godfather 3.

I arrived at Pearsons around 2:45 and went over some quant stuff in the parking lot. Strike two. Going over the review somehow made me even more uneasy. Instead of stopping, I continued through to the end, closed the book, and called TL to take my mind off of the test. We ended up talking about mochi and her behavior problems and how we need to hire Cesar Milan to heal us. Strike three. I’m not as caught up over mochi’s problem as TL is, but as Cesar would say, there’s a lot of negative energy in the situation and it’s very distracting.

I went up to the test center @ 3:30 to get processed. After taking care of the administrative stuff, I took a quick pit stop, ate a nutri grain bar, and headed into the testing area. Since I’m out of strikes, I’ll just list out the highlights of the actual test.

• Perhaps this was a sign of things to come, but I ran out of time while selecting which schools to send my test score to. I somehow lost track of time and didn’t even notice! At least I got the five schools in (Foster, McCombs, Kelley, Merage, Marshall) before time ran out.
• I did much better on the essays this time. The extra practice  that I put in paid off, although I did run short on time. For both essays, I spent the last two minutes shoring up some of my weaker paragraphs and arguments so I didn’t get time to fully proof read the essays in their entirety.
• Quant. Talk about laying an egg. It felt like someone took an ice cream scoop and scooped out my frontal lobe. I drew a blank on the very first question and that pretty much put me into a talespin till the very end. I must have guessed on at least ten problems, mostly because I was running out of time. With about ten minutes to go, I still had ten problems left. Right there, I knew that it was over. Hell, I should have known that it was over when I forgot what an isosceles triangle is.

  Much like the first test, there were a lot of problems dealing with number properties, percentages and averages. There was one section of the test where I got what felt like 5-6 DS problems in a row. One of the DS problems was so horribly worded that I couldn’t believe that it was even a test question!

• After the disaster that was quant, I felt like I could redeem myself in verbal. The only problem was that the thoughts of quant kept popping back into my mind every couple of problems and I didn’t get into a groove until halfway through the verbal section. In the end, I didn’t think verbal was that bad. I finished with more than two minutes remaining on the clock.

I was expecting something in the low 600′s. Boy was I suprised. Shock and awe. Anger and confusion. Deflation and defeat.

So what went wrong?  I can’t point to a lack of effort being the cause because I felt like I was putting in a lot of work already. Perhaps it was the quality of the studying, and not the quantity of the studying that got me into trouble. I could have focused more energy on the weaknesses in my quant, or I could have done more timed drills. But the most probable cause of my pwnage was probably my negative state of mind. I hate to use that as an excuse, but at the very least it was a contributor to this fail. The more I think about it, the more coulda-woulda-shouldas keep popping into my head, none of which helps me in moving forward right now.

So what now? Sigh. Well, first I need to figure out what this bomb means. Will this raise a red flag? My first test score is technically within the range of my target schools but its not on the right side of the average. I’ll probably call up the admissions office and see what they say. I hate to have to retake this damn test again, but if I have to I will. I’m almost tempted to retake it just to prove to myself that Tuesday was just one of those days…. Most importantly, I need to refocus. Depending on what happens with this first step, I might have to reevaluate my application strategy. More on this later.

It’s been a long day and I need to get some sleep but before I sign off, thanks to those that gave me words of encouragement before the test and those that asked me how it went afterwards.

That being said, I still managed to get some studying done. I took two more practice tests, one PowerPrep and one GMATPrep. The PowerPrep score, as others from the GMAT forums have pointed out, was highly inflated. The GMATPrep score was definitely more in line with what I was expecting, albeit more disappointing when compared to the PowerPrep score If I score somewhere in between the two scores tomorrow, then I’ll consider it a victory.

I also went over the problems from the OG books that I had trouble with. During this last take of studying, I diligently recorded my answer choices from all the problems that I did and marked the ones that I found difficult. For anyone starting out, I highly recommend this tedious but extremely worthwhile task of record keeping. It’s very helpful in collecting good data and assessing what your weak areas are.

Tonight, I’ll be reviewing some of the highlighted quant/verbal materials as looking over the AWA stuff again. I’m definitely going to to sleep on time and get my 8 hours of sleep. Despite TL’s suggestion, I’m still going to go into work but will be leaving around 2pm. The test center is only a couple of miles away from the office so I’ll probably go hang out at SBUX or Marukai for an hour and a half. Maybe I’ll buy some brain power boosting fish snacks at Marukai. I’m sure my brain and stomach will appreciate that, especially around ~6:00.

Whatever happens tomorrow, I’m glad that this chapter of the bschool app process will be over and done with! I was going to use “Eye of the Tiger” as my motivational theme, but then I came across this gem.

Remember, ALWAYS LOOK EYE!

But like I said, it’s not over yet. These next few days will be crucial. I’m planning on taking at least two more practice tests, polishing the weak areas, and doing time drills.

Although it’s too late for me to use now, the practice tests from GMAT Club seem like a really good resource for anyone still studying. The questions are pretty close to the OG in style and the accompanying xls that goes with the test provides good data for post-test analysis. I also found one of the best templates I’ve seen for tackling the AWAs here.

Another MBA resource that I’ve recently discovered is MBA Podcaster. They have a quite an extensive library of MBA related podcasts, ranging from application to post-MBA advice. I’ve listened to a couple of the podcasts and must say that they’re really well produced. The guest speakers include some heavy weight MBA admission counselors as well as current bschool students who talk about a “day in the life” type of the stuff.

Anyways, time to go bury my head in the books. After a crummy start to this weekend, hopefully things turn around.

Quant on the other hand was a complete disaster. I ran out of time and had to guess the last two answers. My timing was a little slow and I kept getting tripped up on fundamental number properties and algebra problems. One bright side is that my guessing technique has improved as I managed to get a couple of questions right that I guessed on.

In the end, I got the same score as my real test. In reality, I probably did worse because of the repeats in verbal. The plan for this final week is to drill hard in quant, especially in the algebra, # properties, and percent/fraction sections. I’ll continue to throw in sentence correction and critical reasoning problems. I’ll also need to start practicing the analysis of an issue essay section.

On the app front, I managed to really get started on the Foster essays. I have half draft for the goals essay and a paragraph for essay question number 3. I’ve forgotten how painful it is to write essays. You would think that this would be easy, especially when the essays are about yourself and not about some book you didn’t read for class. The bright side is that all this introspection has allowed me to really examine what I’ve been doing these past couple of years. Despite certain sore spots in my record that I still languish over, I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot that I can be proud of. As the cliche goes, there’s room for improvement, and the good thing is, there’s plenty of time to do so.

A lot of focus has been on the Foster apps these past couple of weeks, mostly because Foster has risen to the top of the list. I’ll need to start looking into the much neglected McCombs app and figure out what is going on with USC.PM. I’m still in search of that fourth school. There are a couple of names floating around like Kelley and Smith, but there definitely isn’t a front runner for that fourth spot. TBD

Friday

I finally started on my essay for Foster. After doing even more in depth research, I was able to jot down ONE whole sentence. Talk about getting a major writer’s block. At least I was able to brainstorm and put together a sketchy outline for the three required essays.

Foster’s essays are pretty standard. The first essay is the standard goals essay. The only difference is that Foster asks for a lot of detail, especially in the area of how Foster fits into our ultimate career goals. See

• “What steps have you taken to assess the viability of your post-MBA goals given your experience to date combined with your intended MBA study plans?”
• “What do you anticipate will be the primary challenges to achieving your career goals”.
• “What unique aspects of the University of Washington MBA Program would contribute the most to achieving your short term and long term goals?”

The other two essays are not as bad. Hopefully I can write another sentence or two in the next couple of days. I want to hammer out the first essay by next Sunday.

Given how long its taken me to put together what I’ve got right now, I’ve decided that in order to put together the best app for Foster, I’ll have to submit in R2 (Oct. 15).

Turning to the GMAT, I worked on some CR questions. I felt pretty good about how I did on the practice questions. Hopefully it’ll translate to the practice tests. I also worked on AWA, something that I didn’t focus on enough from the first time around. If there’s a time to not have writer’s block, then the AWA section is it. Practice, practice, practice.

Saturday

I headed back to my mom’s place to do some errands. JJ Bakery opened up a new store on Gale. The new store is part bakery, part restaurant. The food was pretty good. I’d go back for the chow me fun and roo row fan (fatty pork stew on rice). Mmmmmm.

After lunch, I started on the CB radio install that I’ve been meaning to do since the last time I went to Pismo. I bought the Cobra 75 CB that a lot of the guys I offroad with have. Before I got started on the install though, I had to find my tools in the garage. One thing led to another, and I ended up cleaning out one section of the garage that was piled with my junk. Baseball bats, PVC pipes, batteries, tennis rackets, fishing lures, wetsuit, the list goes on. And this was just one of my shelves.

Eventually I got back to the CB. I ended up stashing the connection box inside my glove compartment. The coaxial cable and power lines sneak out through the back side of the center console lid and the microphone cable comes out the front. The microphone hangs on the clip that I had installed for my previous CB. I haven’t connected the power cables yet because I couldn’t find the antenna whip so there’s still some more loose ends with this project. Next weekend, and hopefully pics.

Sunday

What’s a summer without a beach day with the gang? We went out to Dockwieler Beach in what turned out to be a pretty uncrowded beach despite reservations about a huge Labor Day crowd. Parking at the first spot we found put us right on top of a bluff that overlooked the beach. We had to scramble down a dirt hill with all our gear and then lug everything across a 100 yard strand of beach before we found our spot.

The annual erection of the volleyball net went pretty smoothly this year despite some hard packed sand. With some well placed ice chests, the net posts were anchored down in a matter of no time. We ended up playing 4-5 games of vball. Py was limited to one good arm after he caught Drew’s one-armed-bandit disease from playing bball the day before. Vik was continuously seething with anger throughout every game. There was some football and ultimate frisbee action after vball. I think I speak for everyone but Sunil that we’re never playing ultimate frisbee ever again.

We ended up back at my place to eat because we couldn’t decide whether to risk bbq-ing at the beach. Py and Vik both got the munchies so we went to Ralph’s to buy fried chicken for Py and sushi for Vik. Sunil made veggies, chicken, and steak. We spent the rest of the night feasting and semi drunk dialing Hsu, LC, Mau and SMO. Some of us also discovered “shocking” news regarding some HS friends. Ah it was a glorious and revealing night.

Monday

TL had to work again so I was left to my own devices. I woke up a little groggy and very sore from the day before. My legs, my back, my shoulders, they’re all out of order and have been sent in for service.

I spent most of the day working on math problems that I found from GMAT Club. Some of the problems were ridiculously hard so it wasn’t that surprising that I only got 60% of them right. My weak spot, surprise surprise, turned out to be number properties. So depressing.

Actually what was truly depressing was when I picked up the mail and found my UCI transcript. After reviewing and reliving the disaster that was my undergraduate coursework, all the goodness that I felt from last Thursday was replaced with concern. There’s not much I can do about the past now but to show through the other components of the app that my undergrad experience isn’t representative of my current abilities and achievements.

So ends the final real holiday till Thanksgiving. Good thing this week is a short one.

9-22-09. 16:00. Ko VS GMAT. The Final Countdown to the Final Showdown.

I mentioned before that I wanted to take the test on a Monday, but the only available time on Monday (9/21) was @ 8am. That’s a No Go. I’m debating on whether I want to go in to work, even for a half day. I guess we’ll see how things shape up come closer to GDay.

Time to bury myself in a hole with my GMAT books and workout tunes for the next three weeks.

Last Sunday’s study session with Guy went well. Both of us were pretty lethargic because we were drinking the night before (my recap in separate post). We managed 4.5 hours of work. I found some tricky PS questions that highlighted some of my weak quant spots, ie ratios, so I’ll be working on that this week.

Guy and I also got to talking about what schools we’ll be applying to and what we want to do after school. One thing we touched on that I’ve been struggling to pin down is the “vision” as Guy calls it of why we want to go to bschool and what we want to do while we’re there and after we leave. Judging from Guy’s acknowledgments, I was able to coherently piece together my own motivations and goals for achieving an MBA and why McCombs in particular would help me get there. Then again, Guy could have just been nodding to stay awake. Regardless, it was good to spit those words out because they’ll eventually have to be polished and put on the essays.

Something else that popped into my mind over the weekend was the cost of an MBA. For a while I had wanted to only apply to part time programs, but then I changed my mind because I didn’t want to do the whole school + work thing again. Disregarding the opportunity cost of getting the degree for now, the cost of tuition plus living expenses is frighteningly high. My guess is that the average cost of a top 30 program is at least $130k. I can probably buy a village and make myself chief somewhere in the world for that! The thought of paying back a massive loan makes going to a part time program much more financially palatable. All that being said, the cost isn’t going to dissuade me at this point from applying, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to finance the cost.