New Beginnings.

Its been two months since I quit my last job. Since I am a massive workaholic, I was very afraid that I might not be able to cope with the free time suddenly available to me! I did make a conscious decision not to take up a new job or even any freelance work till I finished my GMAT, but right when you decide to stop looking, life decides to slap you straight in the face with a new career opportunity. And I jumped at it, because I am always of the opinion that my work defines me. The new job is something that I have never done and its a massive step in the business direction for me. The only problem though- TRAVEL. Living in Mumbai, its a given that traffic shall be a major part of your life and most of the times we have made our peace with that fact. So my major concern, how do i study for the GMAT while working full time? 

Never fear. Its not an easy task. But its not impossible. If you are in the same situation like me, think of the bigger picture. I found a couple of good articles online on tips on how to study while working like a crazy person! 

http://www.classycareergirl.com/2012/04/ccg-04-how-to-prepare-for-a-mba-while-working-full-time/

http://www.knewton.com/blog/gmat/2011/04/06/6-tips-for-studying-for-the-gmat-while-working/

Dont lose hope, coz you are going to lose a lot of sleep now. But, always ALWAYS keep the bigger picture in mind. Think of your GMAT prep time as a date, wouldn't you be pissed if the other person didnt show up?

- Make a  realistic study timetable

- Stick to it

- Give yourself time to panic and then breathe it out

- Keep the bigger picture in mind

- Use the internet to your advantage

Keep it real.

Sabbatical = Prep Time + 2(Boredom) + Regret.

I thought a sabbatical was the best thing for me right now. It'll give me enough time to study ( more than i used to), think about what i REALLY wanted to do in life( sounds full hipsterish...i know. Let it pass.) do the regular experimenting with cooking, catch up with some old friends and plan my future. Thats the ideal sabbatical, or Nigella Lawson's Summer Kitchen- neither of them are close to the real world version of my sabbatical. The first week was awesome. I loved the extra hours of sleep, the binge eating and simple things like reading the newspaper without catching the online version.

And then week 2 and 3 hit me. The boredom was excruciating at times. I would literally have nothing to do other than blankly browse through some stupid " Scrubs dance" videos on YouTube. Whoever said that there is no time to waste....clearly was never on a study sabbatical ! Ha ha. And then stage 3 hit me. REGRET. Reading status updates on Facebook and Twitter about people who were doing great things in their time and here I was wasting my life away in a closed room whilst secretly planning a full blown surgical strike mission against all those very people in my head.  Everyone will say that its nice to take this time off,  one should know how to survive without being a workaholic. But the truth is, only you know how every minute of your sabbatical is sometimes painstakingly slow moving. So today, I decided to stop being a baby( if you are reading this and feeling sorry for yourself..then you are a giant cry baby) and make use of the time to do things that I normally would never ever do if i had a job. Jobs will come and go, but those Salsa moves...take some time to perfect!

So do not fret. Its ok. Breathe and make a list. And then aim to do one new thing every day. It can be as small as wearing a new perfume! But do SOMETHING new. And be happy with the fact that while you are finding ways to make buttercream cupcakes, there are some who are locked in a cubicle...and they don't even like the job! The grass does seem greener on the other side because we love being workaholic and think that the job is our only identity. So take charge of the situation, before the boredom starts to affect your prep. And remember, its not possible to study the entire day irrespective of a sabbatical or not. Stick to your schedule and the grass will start getting greener soon.

Here's my list.
1) Bake the ultimate Banana Cinnamon cupcake
2) Run for 5 kilometres a day
3) Learn how to cuban salsa
4) Take up Kickboxing
5) Experiment with low fat food
6) Take up a sport
7) Get into shape- must get into actual skinny jeans. Not the fat version of skinny jeans
8) Be a rally driver
9) Find a cute guy!
10) Re read the Foundation Series.

Just to start with. Time's not a wasting!

Hiatus.

Status of GMAT prep: messy, but back on track.
In the last couple of weeks a lot changed. My set plan for the next year got pretty much off track courtesy some really bad problems at work. So while I am currently unemployed now, the upside? More time for prep! But i must admit, as happy i was the get the extra time, its very difficult to sit down and study the entire day! The extra hours spent lurking the interwebz for jobs, Facebook prayer and just pretty much doing stuff that won't ever help me, life is passing me by and i don't know what to do!

So if you are going through something similar, then sit back and chill. I thought about this yesterday and realised, its best to make use of the time and know how to bump up your MBA resume. So starting this week, am gonna analyse my courses, colleges and pump up my resume! Stick to your schedule, its the one thing that will keep you disciplined through your GMAT prep. Its very easy to just let go of a couple of hours and adjust your sked, but trust me...do not do so. Discipline. Discipline. Discipline.

The English Slap!

Yup. That's exactly what it was. Last week, it was finally time for our first English session. We were supposed to finish one exercise of sentence correction. I was thinking, I write and anchor in English for a living and I read a fair amount, so it shouldn't be all that bad. Atleast better than Math, scope for feeling like a total retard was a tad lesser today. And then slap! Forget remembering parts of speech or clauses or anything else, I realised that extent of my bad english. The way we speak, may not necessarily be grammatically correct. As long you get the idea, I think ...am good.

While the obvious sentence mistakes were obviously easy to figure out, I had absolutely no idea on how to go about the complicated ones...which actually are as easy, if we correct and speak correct English on a regular basis. On top of that, my English Professor is an old uncle who has been teaching school students for about 40 years now and assumed that we were complete "unpad gaawars" and proceeded to lecture on and on and on and on and on......times infinity. While he was droning on about how we should start meeting people who speak english, I realised...shit. English is gonna be worse than math. I thought it would be easier, so i was taking it lightly too. But now the sad reality is that,  this is gonna be harder than I thought. Boo hoo.

After contemplating for a week, here's my Get-Back-With-English Program: Phase 1.

1) Start with simple sentence correction. Do at least 10 in a day.

2) Some people just have a good SENSE of English, they say. Add a few basic rules to that, and you should be good to go.

3) Start speaking grammatically correct even when you are conversing at work.

That's all I could come up with for now. Will add more later.

And here I thought, I was a good writer. So crushed!

Discipline.

    (Image Courtesy: memewow.com)

So I am about a week and a half into GMAT prep and the math is getting just a tad better every day. Baby steps. Ha ha. But more than remembering the cubes and squares and remainder theorems, am facing a major problem- STICKING TO A SCHEDULE. While I manage to get in atleast 3 hours of studying in the day ( 1.5 hours each before and after work), the timing is erratic. The very odd working hours courtesy my job in a news channel - if a story calls for it, I must be there in the office.  Also, training my mind and body to wake up early so as to make maximum and productive use of daylight hours, its proving to be a big..no wait...HUGE barrier for me! Also I am so used to working and writing in the night, which means I go to sleep around 6 am, so getting up before 12:30 pm is a no show for moi. As my GMAT test is at 9 am, this nocturnal behavior WILL HAVE TO CHANGE.

If you are facing the same problem as me, then try my method, it might just work. Am still getting used to it, and it is a major pain in the ass....TRUST ME. But no pain, no gain right?

1) You are not expected to change yourself overnight. So try waking up just half an hour earlier every single day. Small steps.

2) Exercise. Not just the mind, actual PHYSICAL exercise. Hit the gym or go for a walk for atleast an hour during the day. Your body needs the workout so that you can be tired and just plonk to bed by latest 11:30 pm.

3) Don't eat a heavy dinner and preferably don't do extremely complex problems just before you hit the sack. Revise theorems or remember formulae or even read a passage or two, but dont do a problem that will keep you thinking about it. Concentrate on getting rest.

4) If you are the kinds that have the time and the liberty to nap during the day( Haven't done that in the last 8 years now! Hate my job already. Damn it!), try avoiding the nap. Instead read a book. Zone out.

5) Maintain a journal of your sleep, break and study timings. Record everything. This also helps in knowing your maximum productivity hours in the day.

But most important of all, 6-7 hours of sleep are a must. I would definitely like more, but I can get used to 6! He he. Its all just a matter of time management. Am into week 1 of phase shift and I haven't felt this sleepy in years! Unless of course, if you are a vampire, then well......this is all completely useless...but you would be THE coolest management consultant ever! ( Am gonna go die in a hole now for the bad joke.) Will post my journal times soon.

Happy studying! Kick some royal GMAT ass.

The Math monster strikes!

Since the day I made the decision of taking the GMAT, I had been dreading this task. But I had to do it, I had to look the Math monster in the eye and take charge! So I went all Leonidus in my first Math class ( in my head...totally in my head. The professor was not spat in the face with Sparrrtttaaaa or kicked in slow motion in reality. But it kinda looked awesome in my head. Kicking numbers and signs straight in the so-called-face. Totally bad ass.) And then it hit me. I have never felt more like a total retard, or wanted to know the reason of my sole existence. While I am trying to figure how long ago I actually used a quadratic equation to do anything, the 19 year old sitting next to me promptly solves it in like 10 seconds flat. SHOW OFF. 

So after much squinting and looking all blank at the blackboard for about an hour and thinking" I work in television! I DONT NEED TO KNOW THIS SHIT!", it actually started to make sense. Memories of sitting cramming for exams came crashing back into tiny tiny brain, I started to breathe easier and concentrate. Its not rocket science, its simple formulae and application. You'll get it, don't worry Radhika, I said to myself.

After 3 mad days, this is my plan for now. Subject to changes of course.

Step 1: Spend the first month learning the math concepts while doing about 10 problems in a day.

Step 2: Make Flashcards with the formulae and the tips associated with it.

Step 3: Atleast once a day, apply the formula at work for some problem. MAKE UP A MATH LIFE PROBLEM IF YOU HAVE TO.

Step 4: Spend at least 1.5 hours everyday on just learning and solving simple math problems from math league.com

Step 5: Apply concepts in class.

LEARN FIRST. APPLY NEXT. ACE LAST.

And if you out there are like me, and feel math is your worst enemy, just breathe. Work through it and make it your best friend. Maybe not best, lets start with a friend request. Ha ha!

Stock check and forums

After getting the Official GMAT 2012 Math & Verbal guide, I spent the last 2 days researching all the other prep material needed. Bro ( Awesome Rohit Sharma) and bhabhi ( awesomer Avital Arora ) suggest Manhattan GMAT prep as THE best prep material out there. So after 2 days of internet and justdial stalking, here's my first list.

Books:
Manhattan GMAT prep: Set of 8
- Number Properties
- Fraction, Decimals & Percents
- Word Translations
- Equations, Inequalities, VICs
- Geometry
- Critical Reasoning
- Reading Comprehension

Mumbai Bookseller:
Bookzone
172, D.N Road,
Fort Mumbai- 400001
India
02222054616
Full set cost : Rs 8,500 ( with discount)
I couldn't find a separate book for AWA, but there are enough forums and newsletters that you can get for practice. Its not graded yes, but now with Integrated Reasoning included in the Next Generation GMAT( starting June 2012), forum trolling is officially my favorite sport now.

Online prep material:
- Prep software form www.mba.com
- Study plan guides www.beatthegmat.com
- Math basics: www.mathleague.com
- Please do read the Next Generation GMAT page on mba.com. Super SUPER important.

Forum trolling:
www.mba.com
www.beatthegmat.com
www.gmatclub.com

Online scholarships:
Beatthegmat is offering an online scholarship of $12,000 worth of study material. Am applying now! Last date for application, 27th April 2012.

Am not gonna overload myself with too much prep material and stick with the Manhattan GMAT set. Only question is, wait for the beatthegmat scholarship results or buy Manhattan GMAT prep now? Pondering. Getting back to math now. Its time to solve quadratic equations. Math is fun! No seriously, it took me a while to get over my fear, but once you put your mind to it, its all about practice. LOTS AND LOTS of practice. Where's my Red Bull?