Monday, December 18, 2006

Lessons from the land of MBA

So it appears that I am a terrible business writer. The irony in this is that I spent the first half of my college career as an English major and have always done quite well in the technical aspect of writing. But from both the feedback on my app essays and the feedback from Manhattan GMAT on my test essays, I am clueless as to how business people write. (Perhaps for the better.) The consensus seems to be that I am too informal, not sufficiently one-sided (well, they say "convincing") and wander off course. Sigh. I will be glad when this is all over. The feedback on my app essays is useful and welcome but the feedback on my test essays was irritating, though probably useful. I scored a 3.5. But then I'm really only aiming for a 4. It's my understanding that the goal is to show schools that you can write coherent sentences and have logical thoughts (and that you most likely wrote your own essays), not that you have a particular style. It's also my understanding that a computer reads and scores these things followed by about 30 seconds from a human being. If they're not going to try too hard, I'm not going to try too hard.

I pushed my test date back to Tuesday, January 2nd, for better or worse. I have next week off from my new job - and hope to make some good progress. Today I'm having a snow day actually due to the strange weather we're having up here in the Pacific Northwest. My scores on the practice tests are fine overall, but my verbal score (already my stronger point) continues to get better while my quant score (the weaker side) continues to get worse. Sheesh. So much for study. Hopefully, Manhattan GMAT's quant test is harder than the real thing, or else I'm going to look like a quantitative imbecile. How ironic given my aspirations and background.

My essays are progressing but I still have plenty of work to do. I am terrified that I'll be in a terrible last minute rush on things even though I'm trying to avoid that. I'm also not all that keen on my new job or the 1 1/2 - 2 hrs I spend commuting each day. And my husband is getting impatient for me to have free time for the first time in our marriage. Pregnancy is still nauseating and I'm starting to outgrow my clothes but no time to shop now!

Fun things? I have been managing to fit some move watching in. Y and I saw a few good rentals Kirikou, a French animated film; Only Human, a Spanish comedy; and Scoop, just easy Woody Allen. I might have mentioned that I've completely lost my ability to watch anything but comedy. I've always been a big crier and find real dramas (Turtles Can Fly, for example, brilliant and beautiful and heart wrenching, Mystic River too, heart wrenching and depressing) emotionally exhausting. I'm not sure if pregnancy has made me more emotional (is that possible?) but I suspended my no-drama rule to go see The Fountain and spent the whole two hours or so crying. I don't know why the critics seemed to find the film so dissatisfying. I thought it was lovely. I had already read the graphic novel, so I guess that helped.

Well, well. Back to it.

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