When I booked my second GMAT test a few weeks ago, I totally forgot to check the significant of the date that I chose. I'm such a bad Muslim... can't even properly remember when my Ramadan/Syawal starts and end... HAHA but I hope (pray to god like crazy) that the coincidence is a good sign.
I don't think I blog that much during puasa... I think it somehow related to my whole mood throughout the fasting month... dare I say it... I was way more zen (hence less stuff to complain about)... another good benefit of fasting!
Anyway, just to update on my GMAT revision progress - I think I've been taking it slowly this 2nd time around. Knowing what to expect - the test centre, the receptionist at the test centre, the warung mamak to eat lunch/lepak prior to the test, the 7eleven to go to buy supplies, the test room, the outdated computers, the GMAT itself - definitely help calm my nerves. I think mentally I was more prepared to take GMAT this time around.
But here's the thing... with this zen and calm, I'm freaking out that I'm becoming to complacent in my own deluded ways and that I will neglect revising critical concepts of GMAT. So far, my fear is kinda validated - the weeks since I registered, I've only been focusing on Verbal section of the test... and haven't done any substantial exercise on the Quant part (apart from reviewing quant flash card in the train to work every day)... panic has definitely sunk in!
So, what have I been doing in the Verbal section? Now last time I scored 38 which is 83 percentile - not too bad but it didn't get me 750+ that I was aiming for. So naturally this time, I put more time and emphasis on the Verbal Section.
As of a day before raya, I've completed the 12th OG verbal section - ALL of them and SC section of th 13th edition. I'm beginning to see the pattern to my mistakes, which is great because now I can focus on mitigating those weaknesses - I'm particularly bad at RC where the 1st sentence of the paragraph can "glaze" my eyes and brain shut... sigh, the necessary evil of GMAT.
And here's how I'm revising my Verbal sections - I treat them like a logic puzzle, in the similar way why 3 + 4 MUST EQUAL TO 7, the verbal sections of GMAT also follow a set of predetermined rules - just don't waste time arguing about the rules, you're better off learning the concept of the rules by heart and know how to apply them correctly. After this epiphany, I hope I can crack the Verbal puzzle of GMAT.
OK now on to the other part of admission process - resume, essays and LOR.
Resume - for lack of better words, I'm gonna say that I'm about done "gold-plating" my resume. It look totally different from the version that I submited to HBS last year but it retains the same essence, just dressed differently. I think in Asian companies/culture, at 3-5 years of professional experience, we tend to focus a lot more on the activities, project of our job and not so much on the impacts of our efforts - I wrote about the impacts of my initiative only during my performance appraisal whereas resume has always been a piece of paper that lists down things I can do and have done... oh, this was totally a misguided approach in BS resume writing. Gold-plating is the game, get on it.
Now what exactly is gold-plating? For the record, I'm not encouraging you to blatantly lie about your professional experience i.e. write about stuff you didn't do or have no freaking idea about but you think would impress the adcom. Gold-plating is nothing more than substituting "ordinary, boring" nouns and adjectives to the buzz words that adcom would immediately recognise. This is for your benefit as much as it is for the adcom's benefit. No point being involved in a National Level Review Committee on Energy Policy if what you do/accomplish cannot be understood by the people reading your resume. That's gold-plating aka translating your resume to the adcom language!
Letter of Recommendation - I managed to discuss with ALL of my recommenders before taking the raya break, and I'm pretty sure they will forget once they got back, with all the ketupat, lemang and rendang... but that's why I've taken the initiative to actually create a list of accomplishments that I've achieved that they can relate to and write in their recommendation. Word of caution - do not write the LOR yourself and pass it to them for them to review and put their name onto it - it's unethical. What I find as equally productive and way more ethical is to provide them guidance in the forms of evidence and activities that you have done whilst under their supervision. OK, if you're great, your boss will write that you're great but the adcom wants to know what make you great, what areas are you great at, why these areas, and they look at evidences to support this judgement. This is one letter where buzz words alone won't help the adcom understand your full story, so details matter!
I gave them deadline to submit their LOR by 18th Sept, a day before my GMAT (it also helps to know the part I don't have control over is done and submitted before taking the test).
Essays - I'm working on my HBS and Stanford essays for Round 1. HBS is by 24th Sep and Stanford is by 3rd Oct... Now, I've got some pretty clear ideas of what my stories will be, and it ties pretty well with my career path to date, my aspiration, my community involvement and it feels so much more "ME" this year than it did last year (hey, last year app was put together hastily in 2 months, give a brother some cred...)
On a side note, I had the opportunity to speak to this awesome lady who happened to be a HBS MBA alum and she's estatic about guiding/helping me with my application (well, she offered to review my essays and lend some books/resources that helped her get into HBS). More great news is that her profile is very similar to my profile, which means that I'm quite competitive for the programme, so it's all in the execution now.... and that my friends, is the HARDEST part...
OK, enough for now - more GMAT verbal question to be tackled!
To all Muslims celebrating Eid today, Eid Mubarak!
