Day 1, Ball games, Consulting, True Blood

There was absolutely no parking next to the Subway and I wound up being late to class. Next Sunday, I'll know to just walk from home. I have no idea where everyone was going at 9 am on a Sunday morning, but that's neither here nor there.

Much like the train parking lot, class was packed. I wound up having to sit on the floor for the first half. By the second half, the visitors had dispersed and I was able to get a seat. We spent a little bit of time going over Data Sufficiency techniques, and the strategies we discussed have already helped me. Before I was attacking DS problems without a clear methodology for eliminating answers. Now I know that I NEED to figure out what the prompt is really asking for and do some manipulation of the equations given in the two statements. I can tell that this methodology is going to save me a lot of time.

I also have a better idea of how the test is scored and why I should feel like the test kicked my ass when it's all over and done with.

The sentence correction strategy seems a bit involved. It does help to know that the GMAT does not consider the passive voice grammatically incorrect and that it will test you on the concept of "like" vs "such as." Those two GMAT idiosyncracies will be important to know.

They gave us a crap load of materials and just thinking about the abundance of online materials has my head kind of dizzy. Luckily they provide us with study maps to guide our study. I had to lug all nine books to the ball stadium on the bus, but it was worth it. For some reason I wasn't in the mood for a cold beer today and I really didn't focus too much on the game. My boyfriend and I left early and I don't even know who won. Sitting in club level is always nice though and I enjoyed my Ball Park hot dog.

So this evening I chatted with an old friend about management consulting. She graduated for two years before I did and she was actually my supervisor at a kids program I worked at one summer. She's worked in consulting since she graduated and recently finished her MBA At Kellogg. I talked with her about my reasons for wanting to go into management consulting and wanted to make sure that my expectations of what it entails are realistic. After speaking with her, it is a good fit, and she encouraged me to stop being lazy and go for top 10 schools. I had my sights set on UCLA, but if I need to aim higher to get into consulting and to get the salary I want, then I will bite the bullet.

I have the house to myself tonight. My boyfriend has gone out to celebrate a friend's birthday, and though I do like to cuddle on Sunday nights, him being gone will allow me to watch True Blood and do an hour of data sufficiency in peace. I'm waiting for Sookie and Eric to get together. Now that will be a hot scene.

My plan for tomorrow is to do 15 minutes of jump rope at 6, get in some reading on the BART, continue my reading at Starbucks at lunch, do 30 min on the treadmill afterwork, and go see Inception. Let's hope I can wake up.