Day 1
Wow, today I started my GMAT studies by buying a few books that were recommended to me by beatthegmat.com. Wonderful resource btw - I think this is THE BEST you are going to get on the web! I will probably refer back to this site (Beat the Gmat) a lot - I’ll be taking the same approach as the author (blogs, advice, my experience, etc.) and studying to kick this GMATs ass.
I personally don’t believe in standardized test - I don’t think it is a measure of how smart you are nor do they test your creativity, people skills, or emotional stability - all factors that are important when you are dealing with business or the general public for that matter.But it is a good way to weed out people who are not dedicated or organized.
It takes a lot of perverbial “balls” to study for the gmat, especially if you’ve been out of school as long as I have (just about 5 years), but after you get a taste of the real world and being thrown under the bus enough times by your co-workers and clients, taking the gmat to go back to school seems like a walk in the park!
Beat the GMAT reviews several books and highlights which ones aided the most in scoring high (above 700). The one that I wanted to get my hands on the most was the Official Guide for GMAT Review. A few things you should know about the Official Guide for GMAT Review:
* You can’t buy it at Borders or Barnes & Nobles
(I found that out the hard way lol!)
* Second, you CAN get it at mba.com
(I wouldn’t really recommend unless you like spending
full price for a copy)
* I decided to use Amazon.com
(I think I bought my copy for about $16 plus shipping and
handling, it should arrive next week)
* Apparently we NEED this book. 
The GMAC (Graduate Management Admission Council) has
refused to let anyone license actual questions from old
tests. They are only attainable in this “Official Guide.”
Smart bastards!
Okay, so I trecked out in the 102° heat today to find these damn books so I could get started. Like I said earlier, I didn’t realize that you couldn’t get these books at Joe Blow Bookstore but did have a few other books on BTG that I thought I would buy until my other books came in.
I ended up buying The Princeton Review’s Cracking the GMAT 2008 Edition WITH the DVD. They do have a version without the DVD but I decided that being apart YouTube generation if it took watching some video to give me a jump start than I would take it (besides it was only a few dollars different).I also decided to pick up Kaplan’s GMAT 800 (2007/2008 Edition) (also recommended by BTG).
My purchase came out to about $108 dollars or so (I bought a few other misc. books) and the guy at the counter talked me into buying some discount rewards card for $25 (10% off all purchases and free shipping for online orders $25 and over). All and all I was really happy about my purchases and making a sound decision to change my life.
2 Responses to “Day 1”
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6. September 2007 at 20:43
Hey lady…this is cool! I am sooo off track with the GMAT studying. I thought about applying 5 years ago and was doing the same test prep stuff…even took a Kaplan class. It later dawned on me that I was fresh out of undergrad…had no work experience…and that maybe I should chill on the b-school route until I had more on my resume than working at a department store (i used to sell some hot accessories though!)
So I do have that coveted Official Guide…of course it’s 5 years old…but its a start. The Kaplan course had some pretty good guides too. I’ve been working out of my old books - on my study schedule I refer to them at OG, Kap, and The Prince (sound like some old school gang members, huh).
I know….I need to upgrade to ‘07 ASAP…