Nepali dreams

I've bought tickets to Nepal today. I'll move from Kyiv 28 of February, arrive to Kathmandu 1 of March and fly away 30 of May. I'll meet a lot of people from different cultures there and I like this very much. Communication with interesting people is the best enjoyment for me.

I began my career not as journalist but as programmer. But in 2006 I went to journalism because I wanted more communications and adventures. So i started rubric about which I wrote in this post. (there you can see pictures of me in different occupations) in 2007-2008 I dreamed to be international journalist for explained reason. But crisis crushed my dreams. So before middle of 2010 my external passport was fully blank. First time I go abroad in June of 2010 when I flayed to Congress of Vine and Wine that occurred in Georgia. The second time I go abroad when I visited Moldova in the Fall, and the third my international trip was to Moscow. But unlike all these journeys that were brief, I'll live in Nepal for a 3 month! So it will be the biggest adventure of my life.

During this voyage I'll speak English almost all the time, because I'll work among volunteers majority of whom are native speakers. So I'll improve my English strongly. And after that will not have problem with listening and speaking parts of TOEFL.

In addition I am waiting for meeting with my students from Nepal because i understand their lifes very well. When I studied in school, in Ukraine was strong economic crisis and average wages were about $30-100 ($30 when I started school and $100 when I graduated it), and I know how to enjoy live spending $2 per day =). I'll be useful to Nepali students not only because I will teach to them math but also because I share with them knowledge about applying to US universities and explain them as it important to have good education. It will be so interesting to meet one of my students after 10 years, when I'll have gotten MBA and started my own high tech company and he or she will study in good university and dream to return to his or her native land and contribute to modernization it.

I have only one sad thought now. It is about my failing third attempt in GMAT. My results in first and second attempts were fully adequate, but third.... If i did math as in previous attempts i would have 650, but i did it awfully... and it is possible that this absent-mindness will cost me place in MIT, my dream BS. But after journey to Nepal I'll obviously do better! and I have not doubts that I'll get MBA and achieve my goals.

One shot one kill

Today I decided that in this year I'll apply to MIT only. I hope that I'll be admitted very much. But if not it is not problem because i'll definitely enroll to INSEAD or to one of top Spanish BS in which there is program that continue 1,5 yeas and classes will begin in the March of 2012.

In spring of 2011 I plan to participate in volunteer mission in one of poor country and live several month in English speaking environment. After that my English will be really fluent so I will do verbal part of GMAT  better and i'll have better chances for admission.

Nevertheless I wrote all essays for Stanford I hope that admission committee will never read them. (i'll apply to Stanford next year only if i'll not enroll to MIT and after that to European BS) And when i'll be admitted to MIT I publish in this blog my main Stanford essay “What matters most to you and why?”

English proficiency

Yesterday i had an interview in Toefl courses, in which i had a mini test. In reading part i did only 9 out of 13 answers correctly and in Listening i did 8 out of 11 correctly. ..

Consultant said that it is impossible with such result to get 100+ in TOEFL prior to New Year? but will reach this result without problem after February. And may be it is true.

So I decide to apply to majority of business school in third deadline. I will apply in second one only to MIT that do not require TOEFL. In essay i'll write true, that my English is still not fluent, but prior to September of 2011 i'll definitely will not have problem with language.

GOOD NEWS

several days ago i've gotten letter from one of the best Korea BS, with suggestion to study there free, and with scholarship for leaving. In letter were written that this program is available only for Ukrainian who've gotten at least 650 in GMAT. So i've wrote that my result is only 610. Admission comity asked me to send them CV, and maybe they invite me even with my current result.. I did this but have not gotten answer yet.

But am glad that i received this letter because it lift up my firmness that all'll the best! Nevertheless my last posts are not optimistic i feel myself excellent!

and today i have 25!

Current

At the weekends I:

1. wrote 3 essays for Stanford and wrote plan of 4-th one.

2. decided to enroll to TOEFL cources. Tell the true I decided to do so not only for studying but also for meeting people who are going to study abroad. If in lust spring, i guessed that these meetings are stupid because i had a lot of friends but did not have time for seeing them. But now i change this notion, because almost all of my current acquaintance know nothing about MBA and GMAT and I can not speak with them about this.

3. I first time degustated grappa. It is excellent spirit. But i should reduce amount of alcohol that i drink, because my mind should be clear. It'll be better to cease to drink spirits at all but drink only wines. Nevertheless now i wrote not only about marketing in alcohol industry now, but also about market of vodka, brandy, cognac and another spirits. And wines is not my topic.

My decision after failing GMAT

Only today i understood as awful my result is nevertheless I did test better then 67% of all test takers. But unfortunately this result is adequate because in test i was really very concentrated! I thought that i did first half of verbal part very well. In that part i properly understood 2 RC texts and did not have problems with SC and CR. But in the middle of exam I bumped into very sophisticated text that i did not understand after reading at all. So i reriad it several times, but level of understanding was bаd. In sum i spent on this a lot of time and probably did almost all questions incorrectly. After that I had lack of time so i could not understand CR properly. So i did verbal part so bad because did strategic mistake. I hadn't to answer to questions for this text at all. my main problem now is that for understanding difficult text i have to read it several times although i familiar with all words in it. I am sure that this drawback will pass off, but it is exist now. And for working for this drawback i have to not do gmat questions but read difficult English texts.

So i decided:

1. i will retake test in December. (before the second deadlines that will occur before 10 of January)
2. i will not study in this month at all.
3. I will scheduled toefl after business trip that will occur in 15-16 of October on the end of November.
4. I will apply to Stanford even with GMAT 610, and write in essay my true story.
5. apart from Stanford i'll apply to MIT, UCLA and several not top BS.

in sum, never give up...but where to find energy for essays, two works, preparation of another parts of admission packages, gmat and toefl.... i do not know but definitely find.

PS. i see that this blog transforms from blog to blog about my life )))

today's studying

Bad news:
1. my performance in RC fell from 75% yesterday to 51%, and speed of reading fell from 10 min for passage to 13-14. May be it occurred because lust questions in the book are more difficult.
2. After GMAT i will not fly to Lev Golitsin Sparkling Wine Competition that will occur from 13-17 of October, but go to business trip to small winery that situated in village with very bad service. So i will not relax properly after exam.

good news:

I solved problem with practice of speaking English and money for flights to USA to interviews. (As i wrote earlier i have lack listening and speaking skills because i studied language reading books and magazines.) So I enrolled to the second job in which i'll be participate in advertising campaign of one of the biggest France producer of cognac and during 3 weeks i will visit a lot of invents in which i will speak with English speaking person and after that write articles for glossy magazines and Facebook community.

I do not know is it good or bad news...

Director just called me and told that in weekend i have to flight to business trip to Kishinev (Moldova). I rely like international business trips because I like to meet new people, degustate new wines or another alcohol drinks and see new places. Such business trips make me very energetic. But in weekends i planned to do 2 official CATs... So this CATs i will have to do in the mornings in hotel before invents, end will review them in the night. I am sure than all'll be Ok.

So today will accomplish lust 70 (148 as i just seen :)) math questions from BTG, and review all ones in which i will do mistake. And in this week i'll resolve and after that review all ~340 SC questions in which i did mistakes. today i'll be study drinking Georgian wine. I do not know why, but after wine my math performance does not fell! Sometimes it even increases.

Current

Today i did RC. In sum i read 15 passages from OG, and answered to 84 questions making 21 mistakes. It is very good result for me. I can say that i do RC more confidently now that early. And if before my first attempt i liked physic or astronomic passages but hated historic ones, especially about women that fought for their right or why their wages were lower than men's ones, today i understood all texts without problem and spent for each (including answering to questions) exactly 10 minutes. Now i hate only biological passages, in which written about inquisitive scholars that goof on rats injecting them different chemicals and looking what will occur, or doing another experiments. This is quote from passage:

"Some experimental evidence tends to show that alcohol reduces fear in the approach-avoidance situation. Conger trained one group of rats to approach a food goal and, using aversion conditioning, trained another group to avoid electric shock. After an injection of alcohol the pull away from the shock was measurable weaker, while the pull toward the food was unchanged."

in addition to RC i did math question with which i have problem, and retook SC is which i did mistakes earlier today. Maybe i will begin to prepare to AWA tomorrow.

Corrected study plan

Unfortunately my former study plan occurs not clear enough. I do not have time to do as much as I planed. Solving one LSAT test takes me 3 hours. Learning explanation from Kaplan takes 2,5 hours. In sum one LSAT test takes me 5,5 hours. in addition according my current plan i have to spend 40 min on listening to the bbc broadcast. and one hour on reading. So according this plan I should spend on studying every week 39.16 h.

Every day I can learn 2.5 hours in the morning (from 5-00 AM till 7-30) and after work may be 2.5-3 hours. But after work I less concentrated. In average in one day every week i delay at work on 3-4 h so i can not study in this day. In average in 1-2 days I delay on 1 hour. And in one day i meet with friends. In Saturday and Sunday in average i can study during 4 h. In another time i will relax. Every day except Sunday and Saturday I can read in subway during 40 min.

In sum every week i can study 28-31 hours. So every week i will solve only 4 LSAT test and Kaplan’s explanations for them. Remaining time will be spend on listening bbc podcast. And i will read only in subway.

upd.

In my opinion critical reasoning (logical reasoning in LSAT) is the interestest part in test. Sometimes I really enjoy solving this question. Main drawback of CR is difficult language. But texts in RC became interestingvery reraly. Especially texts about women's rights, etc.

Plan for improving my verbal skills

gmat_perfect from Beat the GMAT recommended me to practice LSAT questions and I think is really effective way for preparation.

Firstly, from 22.05 to 7.07 I will solve all 40 LSAT tests and read answers from Kaplan. Every week I will take 5 LSAT tests and read explanations for them.

Secondary, I will spend every day 40 minutes on listening to the radio broadcast from BBC, because I will take not only GMAT, but also TOEFL. And listening section is my weak side.

Thirdly, I will read English fiction every day during a hour. I always read books in subway, while going to work. (now I read Oscar Wild’s novel Picture of Dorian Gray. It is wonderful book. Before it I read Ernest Hemingway’s novel a Farewell to Arms. Tell the true I can not understand why this book is such well-known. This novel could be named as a Farewell to Boose. If woman drinks every day during pregnancy, she will definitely have problem during childbearing. In my opinion the best Hemingway’s novella is The Old Man and the Sea that i read in Russian. )

Fourthly I will write two essays every week. After 7.07 I will check my verbal skills and write new plan of preparation.