March Madness hits B-School Applications!

Mood:  Truly Happy.  My March Madness bracket may be shot as a result of my undying dedication and a blind faith in my alma mater (a 2-seed), but I'm standing by my choices.  I had my team going to the championships against our arch-rivals, and to my embarrassment and dismay, we fell to a 15-seed in the very first game.  Though I will always love my team, I cursed the $10 that I had thrown in our office pool, wished I could build a flux capacitor to go back to the 2010 National Championships, and prayed that the plucky 15-seed would just win this whole silly thing  (thanks to my NCAA iPhone app, they lost shortly after).  Of course Monday comes around...and my luck changes in other ways.  More on that later :) Despite my poor picks, I've somehow risen to the top of our 10 person pool...go figure!

What was my dream match-up for the National Championships

Oh my.  A great deal of time has passed since I last updated this blog.  There are many excuses that I will attempt to offer, amongst which include being caught up in work (just got assigned to help out a new region and have been traveling to New England recently), un-pausing my social life, and the inevitable writer's block on new blog posts since I was now playing the waiting game.  But the biggest deterrent?  The fear that I wouldn't get into any program and conceding that this whole blog was just an experiment to see how much introspection and neurosis I could record - apparently 16 entries worth!

Let me back up.  After I hit submit on my final application (Haas) in mid-January, I was feeling pretty great.  I had just finished the most time-consuming, potentially life-changing post-college process and applied to 4 FT 2-year MBA programs that I knew well and felt very passionate about.

In some ways, oh so very true.

But then I made the mistake of re-reading my applications after submitting (we all do that, right?).  I discovered small bits I could have said better, inconsistencies in formatting, and lurked periodically on the forums, boards and blogs, scrutinizing over stats of admitted applicants.  I had to face it: with the caliber of the programs I had selected, as with much of B-school applications, there was no guarantee that I'd get into any of the programs.  I was filled with a fear that I had made some minor mistake, or worse, said something awful that I didn't realize.  In my quest to be truly "authentic" and by not having an admissions consultant or MBA student/grad read through my application, I could have blindly submitted something that would be a red flag.

Was I too humorous in my essays?  Did I spend too long on long-term goals without tying in my short-term goals, even though that's not what the question asked?  While I felt my applications gave a full and vibrant picture of who I am, what if who I am is not what they are looking for?  These questions plagued me and made playing the waiting game even more excruciating.  Ironically, I watched the Bachelor to keep my sanity in check.  There, I observed otherwise intelligent and emotionally stable women grapple with similar doubts of not knowing what the other was thinking and being cautious of building themselves up, just to be let down.  I felt thankful that I was not being filmed during this time or locked up in a mansion devoid of phones, the internet, and normal human contact.  I assured myself that the Adcoms held better judgement than a 28-year old man-boy with unkempt hair and a penchant for kissing the contestants when he was at a loss for words, knowing they were on the chopping block for the next rose ceremony (I'd prefer the ding letter, thanks!)

In a sense, I was like Jenna from the Bachelor: Overanalyzing? I'm not alone.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I receive my Valentines Day greeting...in the form of a ding letter from HBS letting me know that since I had not been invited to interview, I was released.  That was the only communication I had heard from a program other than confirmation of receipt of materials, and instructions to schedule an off-campus interview through Kellogg (standard procedure for all applicants).  I started to panic that I wouldn't get into a program.  What if I didn't apply to enough programs?  Frantically, I started researching Round 3 deadlines.

After visiting my best friend in NYC twice in a month and reminiscing with some of my closest college friends there, I started having second thoughts of judging Columbia too harshly. They had rolling admissions right?  And Tuck... a few friends of mine had recently applied to Tuck and raved about the program, but I couldn't imagine living so far removed from a major city.  To be realistic, these were all amazing schools and if I wasn't getting in somewhere R2, I sure as heck wasn't going to slide by in R3.

So that's when I learned to stop worrying and love the process.  I reminded myself that applying R3 for schools I felt lukewarm about was ridiculous and I already had my heart set on these four schools.  If anything, I learned so much about myself during these past months, and that in and of itself, was a good reason to go through the application process. (Or so I try to tell myself...)  Despite the sense of uncertainty I was left with - now what?,  I knew that there wasn't anything more I could do.  I certainly didn't want to contact the admission office or obsessively check my status, as much as I wished I could do something to help increase my chances.

So in mid-February, I decided to put off thinking about admission decisions, and filled that time with kickboxing classes, joined a Body Pump weightlifting class, and bought way too many Groupons/Living Social Deals/Tipprs/Goldstar Events to be able to use.  Glass Blowing and Trapeze Classes?  Cirque Soleil OVO for 50% off? Sign me up!  I rejoined my church small group and rejoiced in being able to spend a Wednesday night on my couch watching Modern Family, Happy Endings and Revenge without feeling obligated to work on apps or the GMAT.  

This past weekend, I went out to one of my favorite Peruvian restaurants with a friend and their friends, and started chatting to another girl in the group that I had not yet met.  She mentioned applying to Northwestern's PA Program, and I excitedly told her I had also applied to the business school - how crazy would it be if we ended up there together!  She told me she'd find out within a few days, and I let her know my decision deadline was not for another whole week.

So this Monday morning rolls around, and I go back to my desk to check my cell phone after our regularly scheduled team meeting.  I see that I had a missed call from an unrecognizable (847) number at 9:06am PST.  To confuse matters more, I had recently gotten Google Voice after a friend told me that I would only need one number the rest of my life and could easily screen and direct calls.  I saw it as the perfect number to give out to work clients, potential dates and Vegas promoters alike :) I was still getting used to it and worried a client had called and gone to a generic voicemail in cyberspace.

Out of habit, I Googled the number to see if it was on a telemarketer list.  Illinois area....hmm.  I had a voicemail too!  Bracing myself for a recording from a confused curriculum director, I was surprised to hear the voice of an admissions director and called her back right away, about an hour after she called.

After her introductions and letting me know that the admissions committee had reviewed my file, which she said they enjoyed reading...I heard the words that I've been hoping for and anticipating these last few months: "We'd like to extend an offer to our class of 2014" (or something to that effect...I was overwhelmed with emotions and couldn't think straight!) 

I got accepted into Kellogg....and I could not be more excited!!  I thanked her profusely and as she explained that I would be soon receiving admit materials and could access the site, all I could think of was, I'm in!  Despite a packed morning of scheduled calls, I managed to text my closest friends, tell a handful of my closest co-workers, and call my mom to tell her the good news. Oh, and a Facebook status might have made its way up there too :)

A glimpse into my life.  But not nearly as entertaining as Happy Place

In retrospect, it was a culmination of a few months of hard work.  I struggled with the Kellogg essay questions, more so than the other schools, though I felt I was the closest to this school personality-wise.  After a wonderful interview in late January with a local alum (was told off-the-record that I was one of his favorites that he's spoken with and that I'd be a great fit) I was giddy and could barely stand the thought of waiting another 2 months to find out.  Well it was definitely worth the wait, and I emailed my interviewer an update as well as my recommenders.

While I'm still reserving a shred of hope for Stanford (next Monday is decision date) and Berkeley Haas (April 15th), I'm also realistic in that I haven't yet received interview invites from either.  Each day, I am finding new things to get excited about for Kellogg, including hearing of friends moving to the Chicago area, Northwestern football games (to compensate for my not-so-renowned undergrad football program), my future potential classmates in the admitted students Facebook group, and of course, Days at Kellogg in late April!

Now that I know that I did something right...I'm determined to post in greater detail over the next few days of my application "strategy" (if you can call it that), including the resources and books used.  Right now, I'm still marinating in the reality that, I very well might be going to business school after all :)

Going to sleep! Tomorrow is seeing the Lorax in 3-D with my work and I need to be alert for Danny Devito's interpretation!

In Purple and White we trust,

Mango

DONE!!!!!

Lifted from my status update on Facebook:  "After months of indecision, visits, GMAT-ting, fretting, rebecca black parodies, procrastination, blogging, introspection, and of course, writing, I clicked submit for the *hopefully* last time. DONE!!!"

******

Mood: Euphoric.  I just clicked "submit" for my last application, just minutes before the midnight deadline, and was immediately filled with a flood of relief.  Well, actually to be honest I was initially filled with panic because the message that immediately appeared after read:  

 

"Thank you for submitting your application for admission to the Berkeley Full-time MBA program. Your application was received at 1/18/2012 and you will be considered for Round 3."

ROUND 3?!??! WHAT!! And then I pulled myself together when I remembered that Haas has 4 rounds, and Round 3 is actually pretty much like Round 2. WHEW.

After 1+ years of thinking, researching, not-deciding, deciding, and finally committing to apply, I'm finally DONE!! As in finished, dunzo, ultimo, EL FIN!

Well. sort of.  I have an interview with a Kellogg alum next Monday and plan on fully debriefing my essay-writing and application debacles in my next, more complete post, including reviewing the resources I used.  But I wanted to quickly squeak out this post, because I am SO SO SO GLAD to have all my apps in!!!

Today was quite the climactic end to my application-preparing journey.  Yesterday, we received our first major snowfall of the year in my dear PNW city, and today, what was remained was slush.  Wikipedia shut down last night, which in retrospect was probably a good thing as it kept me from further procrastinating.  It was also coincidentally my mother's birthday, and instead of going out to eat (raincheck for tomorrow!) I plowed through final revisions and finishing touches in our kitchen as she fed me dumplings.  I know, I'm quite lucky :)  AND to top it off, as I was going through my Haas essays one final time with a fine-toothed comb, I received a random email from a gal with the last name of Haas (no seriously) as part of a list-serve that I'm still subscribed to from my undergraduate days.  A good sign? I'll take that!

Things I will be excited to resume in my life:

5. Going to the gym.  It's about time I get started on these pesky new year's resolutions!

4. Going to concerts (seeing All American Rejects this weekend to celebrate...my inner pre-teen is dying of excitement right now!)

3. Resuming my TV watching.  Apparently, a girl from my alma mater is a contestant on The Bachelor this season....I watched a short clip of her rapping about epidemiology and all I can say is... Homegirl better represent!

2. TRAVEL!  I put off all major fun-trips during the last few months of applying, including accompanying my best friend to her sister's wedding in Israel.  I just saw this video, which renewed my excitement for travel and I kept listening to the piano music to get through my essay writing.  I cannot wait to resume planning for my next adventure (which I'll confirm once I get in to a school...provided I get into a school).  Galapagos?  Patagonia?  Suggestions?!

1. Not living every moment wondering if I should be working on my application.  That last month of applying, I lived, breathed, and dreamed b-school applications.  Just like I did with the GMAT, though this time there was a firm deadline, none of that Round 3 business for me!  If I was eating breakfast, I was reading Montauk.  If I was stair-climbing at the gym, I was going line-by-line through my essays on my iPhone, making sure they expressed what I wanted.  The times I did go out with friends, I'm pretty my applications came up at some point in our conversations, and I kept thinking I should be in front of my computer revising instead.  Wow.  I can't believe I was that person, and they're probably as relieved as I am that I'm done!

Okay, after typing, deleting, and re-typing incessantly for the last few hours/days/weeks/months, I'm ready to take a break and head to bed early (relatively).

A more detailed and coherent blog post to come this weekend!!

~ still doing my happy dance for being finished ~

~Mango

'Twas a few weeks before deadlines...and I made a song.

Mood:  Giggly.  I just created, probably one of the cheesiest, most ridiculous parodies.  In fact, this creation might signify me going off the deep end, and I haven't even finished my Christmas shopping.  I was inspired to create my own version of Rebecca Black's Friday (apparently the most watched You Tube video of 2011) after seeing this hilarious holiday greeting from Venture Capital Firm, First Round Capital.

 

What could be better than a non-Justin Timberlake / Andy Samberg white dude rapping? A couple of Venture Capitalists driving a sweet car and rapping!

Will I regret releasing this into cyberspace to presumably, be buried in viral song clips hell?  Probably.  Or perhaps I'll listen to the recording as I battle with the inevitable bouts of writers block!

Yes, I know, the production quality sucks, my auto-tuned voice is horrendous and you'll probably have nightmares...don't tell me I didn't warn you :) though I hope you will find it entertaining.

Credits to the I Am T-Pain iPhone App (which I've had for 2+ yrs but have not put to good use till now) for digitally altering my voice and making it slightly less recognizable, Round 2 Deadlines, and of course, Rebecca Black!

"Round 2" my MBA Applicant Parody of Rebecca Black's "Friday"

Lyrics:

So I decided to make my own version of Rebecca Black’s Friday titled “Round 2” to help get me through MBA applications, courtesy of the I Am T-Pain iPhone app

I’ll probably be very embarrassed…and regret this....but here goes nothing...

7 days ago I sent Kellogg’s Part 1

Got it in online, got it in on time

Gotta do part 2, gotta send it in too

Seein’ everything, time is going

Tickin’ on and on, every day I’m rushin’

Gotta get down to the deadlines, gotta write these apps, I see the end...

Visiting the East Coast

Hittin' up the West Coast

Gotta make my mind up

To which schools do I apply?

For Round 2, Round 2

Gotta get it in for Round 2

Everybody’s lookin’ forward to interviews, interviews

Round 2 Round 2, Getting in on Round 2

Everybody’s lookin' forward to the interview

Essayin’ Essayin (Yeah!)

Rewritin’ Rewritin’ (Yeah!)

Done Done Done Done

Lookin' forward to the interview! :)

PS - I'm acutely aware that "essayin'" is not a word, but hey, it was the best I could do :D

PPS - I am already envisioning a longer version of the song which includes the bridge:

Last round was the first round, first round
This round is the second, second (essayin')
We-We-We so excited
We so excited
We gonna turn it in on time!

Next round is the third
And First Round next year comes after...wards
I don’t want my chances to end...

PPS -Please click the "thumbs up" icon if you felt like your ears survived the entire recording.  It would be awesome to see those around the globe who are following!

In other news...

I attended a coffee chat in my city with a current Berkeley Haas student this evening, and a dinner hosted by a current Stanford GSB student last week.  Both interactions were helpful in that I learned more about each school from a more personal perspective, got me excited again for applying to these schools and being in the Bay Area, and I got to meet other potential applicants in my dear PNW city (they do exist!).  But because I had already done my research on the schools, it didn't add too much additional value on learning about the strengths and programs at the school, and confirmed what I had already gathered.  It was nice, however, to get application advice from those who had already been through the process, and I took away from these interactions 3 main pieces of advice:

1. Write clearly and concisely in your essays as you have a limited amount of space - 250 words for Haas!  That's barely enough for me to describe what I ate for lunch!
2. Stress less  - easier said than done of course :) 
3. Make the job of the recommenders as easy as possible my providing them resources and anecdotes to write about. 

I submitted Part 1 of the Kellogg application (true to my "Round 2" song) last Wednesday, albeit at the very last minute.  Yes, just like Tebow (I too am falling victim to Tebow-mania), I pulled a miracle in the 4th quarter, aka final hour, though I did receive a confirmation that it did go through.  Whoo!

I'm now getting into the trenches of essay writing, and I eat, breathe and sleep questions such as, "What Matters Most to you and Why?" and "People may be surprised to learn that I…." (make really awful song parodies?)  In any case, its forced me to tap into some introspective part of my being and conduct some serious soul-searching, which is probably fitting since it is the holidays and all.

I'll be balancing this out with moving out of our beloved funky old house.  For the past year, it's been a wonderful refuge in a hip, up-and-coming part of my city and I've really bonded with my room mate, who I'm going to miss.  In a way, we are both taking risks by leaving (and me, potentially leaving) our city that we've spent all of our post-college years in to pursue things that we are very excited about, even if the trade-offs are uncertain.  Last Saturday, we hosted what can be only described as an epic party to celebrate a fantastic year together, and I'm lucky to have such great friends here!

Photo from our living room, turned into a winter wonderland!

Finally, I feel really good going into the final stretch of the application process.  My recommenders are supportive, and yesterday our company president stopped by my desk to wish me luck with the application process though they would be sad to see me go, and offered to do what he could to help - even writing a LOR.  WOW!! So much of my nervousness, hesitation and fears are assuaged knowing that I have their support.   Everything from our holiday party this year, to our own silly holiday video (not as crazy as the First Round Capital but our take on a popular Christmas song) made me feel warm and fuzzy inside knowing I work for a great company.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!  For those R2 applicants out there, I hope you get some much-deserved time off with family and friends and a break from these apps.  Of course you could always make your own version of "Round 2" to get you through the awkwardness of the holidays. Hah. I'm kidding. Sort of :)

~ With joyous wishes and good cheer for the holiday season ! ~ 

~Mango

If at First You Don’t Succeed...Skydiving Is Probably Not for You…

Mood: Exasperated. More on this later.

Musing: This post is going to be relatively short.  I know now that I'm pretty terrible at writing short posts, but there is a list of things I need to do this afternoon, which most importantly include:

1. Pack - I fly out to work in Pittsburgh at 5:30am tomorrow for work the rest of the week.  I have invested in this Sharper Image 21-inch upright convertible backpack: 

Cute, but not very functional.

                   Awesome and practical

Granted, I only paid $29.99 from Marshalls, but I love this thing.  Before, I had used a Diane Von Furstenburg suitcase set which was visually pretty and stood out from all the other drab business luggage, but after 2 years of constant use, the handle got stuck and I haven't bothered to fix it since.

2.  Plan - We're throwing a housewarming/bday party (yes housewarming, though I've lived here for 9+ months...) this Saturday and have some major cleaning and decorating to do.  We have a boa theme (feather boas) but my room mate and I are considering getting an actual boa, à la Britney at the 2001 VMAs. Clever, right? :) 

I am relieved to say - I am finally moving on from the GMAT aka Give Money And Time to the GMAC

My GMAT retake was this morning and I resolved it would be my last.  My preparation up until this retake was a little lopsided - I put off studying entirely for the 2 weeks immediately after my first attempt, and studied pretty consistently the next 3 weeks.  I knew that timing was my big thing, so I tried to employ a variety of strategies including pacing myself and not running out of time at the end.

Like the first time, AWA went by quickly and though I had to think and plan longer on my topics this time, I still felt pretty good when finishing.  Moving on to Quant, I started with some fairly easy questions, then moved up to medium level, and for a few that I had no clue how to solve, I gave it my best guess and moved on.  What really scared me was a few easy questions in the middle - was this a sign that I had made simple mistakes earlier?  This caused me to panick and I resolved to keep truckin' along, doing well at the end and finishing with a minute to spare.  When Quant was over, I was slightly worried - I hadn't seen any rate or permutation questions, the ones that I felt solid on, but saw two functions questions, types of questions that I did not brush up on.  I knew something was amiss, but wanted to head strong into Verbal so I only took a few minutes for the break.


The entire time on Verbal I told myself to work at a steady pace, which was my problem the last time.  Halfway through Verbal, I noticed I was short on the time I had budgeted and guessed on two questions in a very long CR passage.  I finished just on time, but thought I had bombed Verbal.  Luckily, I did not have to go through the experimental section this time around and when my results screen finally came up, I put my hands over my eyes, much like you would do watching while The Ring: 


The result? 710 (92%) with 44Q (66%) and 44V (97%).  I had made my goal of hopping over the 700-barrier, but it was more of a stumble and dash at the end, rather then a true leap.

Go figure.  While I'm happy with my Verbal score, the Quant leaves much to be desired.   +20 points is not much, but it puts me closer to the average of the schools I hope to attend.  My only concern now is in the unbalance of the scores - would a school look unfavorably upon such a low quant score? 

Regardless, I really wanted to move on.  Realistically, the most my score could go up is maybe 30 pts, and the 3 practice tests I took over the past week I scored 710, 720, and 730, so I knew it was within my range.  At home, I googled a 44v 44q split and got some interesting feedback - most people said the 710 was a good score, but the split may be concerning to some as the 80/80 percentile is preferred. Gah!

I even wondered for a minute whether I should submit the 690 score because of the more even distribution, but realized how silly that was.  710 is a great score and I really did not want to keep taking this test again and keep forking over the $250.  I have no plans of doing anything finance related, though I'm fairly comfortable with numbers and data as I use them in my job with relation academic performance across schools.  After beating myself up for the split, I realized that I did okay considering I did not sign up for a class and used the Manhattan GMAT guides, OG books and a tiny bit of Kaplan and Princeton review here and there along with the Manhattan GMAT, GMAC and Knewton practice tests.  What did help the last couple of weeks was googling types of questions that I was still unclear on - there's a lot you can learn from random websites on basic math!

Set of GMAT guides, looking for a good home!

I am pretty much convinced that my GMAT tribulations are ending today.  I even re-read through this thread on whether or not to retake, and can't really point out a good reason other than increasing the Quant.  On the drive home, I reflected on the irony of the situation, which should be taken as a sign to move on.  I thought back to My Biking Incident of Last Summer - in an attempt to fit in better in my city (I was not about to get a tattoo and could only take PBR in small amounts), I bought a vintage Schwinn off Craigslist and convinced myself to bike to work. The bike was not really my thing, it was more of a practical move with a 15 minute commute downhill to work.  Riding home in a hurry one afternoon to get to kickball practice, I fell off and busted up my knee, landing in urgent care.  (I still have the scar to prove it, and now have to pose strategically in photographs - ha!)  A few weeks later, my bike got stolen as it was locked outside of my office; granted I had left it there for two weeks while I worked in Asia, but that's besides the point.  Maybe, somewhere the universe was saying that I need to stay off that bike, and maybe, this is an indication today that I need to focus on other parts of my app. This time around, I'm listening.  :)

Pretty much the mentality of my city - less cars on the road and less pollution, I'm all for it!

Hopefully if I can show the admissions committee my strengths in numbers and data in other ways, such as in my job and on my transcript (took a few quant courses, minored in econ), the 44Q will not keep me out of a school.   I also read that if a certain component of your application is low but the rest is stellar, the admissions committee may wave you in but recommend taking additional courses. 

What I am looking forward to now are the school visits!  I have decided not to let living out in the PNW and physically far away from these schools prevent me from visiting, as I know now the importance of the on-site visit. Due to some clever scheduling with working out east heavily in a few weeks and red-eye flights, I will be able to visit Kellogg when I'm working in Chi-Town and Columbia while helping my BFF settle into NYC.  I'm stoked that I'll be able to spend time with friends in both cities, but also thankful for the opportunity to get a better reading of how I will fit in at these schools.  I want to get the most out of my school visits, so that will mean reading up on the programs ahead of time (the two programs that I am least familiar with on my list of prospective schools), compiling a list of questions to ask, and researching which classes I want to sit in on.  

All that Jazz in Chicago?

Or concrete jungle where dreams are made of in NYC?

So what do you think - should I quit now while I'm *slightly* ahead, or take the GMAT once more to see if I can get that Q up?  At the risk of my verbal going down... I truly think my time could be spent in better ways. 

Time to make the most of my "vacation" day from work and to go scrounging for a birthday dress,

Mango

law and order marathons ----> actual half marathon...it can be done!

Bucket list #27:  Run a half marathon, or at the very least, a 10k.   Ran a 5k this past summer dressed as Curious George (to my credit, I convinced my two friends to dress up as the [wo]man in the yellow hat and a banana) and I have been wanting to train for a longer run.   Now that the GMAT is over, this might be good balance with the app-writing process.  Bonus points if the half marathon offers pasta or beer afterwards, or is fairly flat.  :)



****addendum to my last posting: I realized last night that I may have miscalculated my chances of getting into a b-school in my last post, as I had multiplied the possibility of getting in instead of possibility of getting denied.  The actual percentage?  (1-.85*.8*.6*.5*.75*.6*.6*.5) or 97% chance .... I'll take THAT figure with a Morton's factory worth of salt :)

I am seriously doing a happy dance right now.

This is going to be a really [relatively] short entry, because I am dancing around my living room at the moment.

The title of my posting says it all.  After a long day at work, I decided to head over to visit home.  My sweet mom offered to cook dinner for me during the final countdown week to G-Day - she refused to let me subsist on microwave dinners and take-out, and I have a hard time turning down a home cooked meal or food of any kind :) .  

After my CAT exam performance this weekend, I resolved to keep practicing and to not be disappointed.  So I went home, took a nap for an hour, reviewed the problems I missed on the last CAT exam, ate dinner, and sat down on my computer to take yet another timed practice test.  Working through the test, I felt the same familar panicky feeling setting on as once again, I was running out of time on quant.  I took some deep breaths and grudgingly moved on to take my best guess at some questions when I realized I wasn't going to be able to solve the answer in less than 3 minutes.  When it came to Verbal, I decided to take my time and went through each question slowly.  Before, I usually had 5-7 minutes left, but this time, I resolved to stare at the screen until I was absoutely confident in my answer.  After what seemed like forever for the exam, down to the last second in Quant and with a minute left in Verbal, I finally finished, feeling dread at seeing my Quant scores.


The result?

750 with 48q and 45v! Oh yeahhh!!!

Emotions: shock, happiness, hope, relief.  Can this be replicated on G-Day with the addition of the experimental section and AWA?  Was it because I was well-fed and rested and wearing pajama pants?  Or because on the bus ride to work this morning and home, I poured through the MGMAT Sentence Correction book instead of playing Angry Birds?  Whatever the reason, I'm intent on keeping it up in my next practice exams and hopefully that will transfer over to the real thing.


Going to catch some sleep...but I feel like I have a renewed energy for the next four days leading into G-Day!

Still dancing,

Mango