Hopping Back on the Horse

Wow! I don't even remember the last time I posted something. Well as you can imagine a lot has happened since I last posted something on August 4th 2010. I believe that last time I wrote I was telling you all about how I was trying to prepare to take the GRE and how I had immediate plans to do so before soccer started. Well that did not happen and has not happened yet. But hear me out first:

Soccer started about a week an a half after I last posted and I had practice three times a day and then school started along with soccer (only once a day now) and I just ran out of time to keep all of my dedicated readers (I'm up to 3 now I see) up to date with all of my grad school preparations.

First order of business. I am no longer going to grad school next year as was the plan when I started this blog, but don't worry your pretty little heads, I am still going. I just want to take a year off before I go so I can be even more prepared. I figured that I could use a little more work preparing to take the GRE and take a course so I can score really high like grad schools like. I also wanted to be sure that I could show off all of my coursework to my potential future schools. Courses like, capstone, linear algebra, and other things because I wouldn't have these on my transcripts due to the fact that most applications are due in December and January. Plus, I know I am looking like a huge softy here but, my girlfriend is a year behind me and I didn't want to leave her behind. Add all those factors together and it equals... putting off grad school.

Now lets look at what I am currently doing to make myself more attractive, schoolwise not looks because I already have that on lockdown. As I mentioned before I am taking linear algebra this year. It is hard. I am not a math major, I am an econ major, nor is this class required for econ majors, unless, like me, they have a goal of going to grad school then the grad schools highly recommend that you take it. People think I am crazy when I tell them this and for a while I thought I was too since I was not doing well in the class. I got a D on my first test which is not usually what I receive on tests so I got a little worried. I met with my professor and it turns out that I am at an even bigger disadvantage than I had thought because I hadn't taken any of the pre-reqs for the course and I shouldn't even be in the class (the only other math class I have taken at the collegiate level is calc 2). I stuck with it though and was able to make some of the missed points back on my test (yay grade inflation! (this was offered to everyone not just me)) and now it looks like I will pass the class and earn a P since I decided it was in my best interest to pass/fail the class.

Soccer has ended and I have more time now to keep everyone who may be out there updated with my quest to get into grad school. So I will be posting more frequently now than I have been. It's good to be back.

Ever getting older,
Kit

To Do List:
1. pass my classes

Your Reward:

Slow and Steady Wins the Race?

So here I am a week later with no real work to show for it. Last week I was working in the mornings at my normal job, the fitness center, and I always feel guilty doing personal stuff when I am supposed to be working. So last week I got very little studying done. On Friday however I was able to study at work since I worked the closing shift, (the best time to do anything but work) and was able to study some more for the GRE. I got stuff done and then while I was waiting for my wonderful girlfriend to cook me dinner I did some more studying and finished off all the the Princeton Review had to teach me about how to do well on math.

That was all the progress I made last week which was not all I had wanted to accomplish. I had wanted to call where I am planning to take the test but I did not get around to it. I don't like phones and am hesitant to call. I also wanted to practice more from the book on the sample problems included. I was able to do some of that today while working (closing shift again) after I had worked on upping the computer's Freecelll win percentage(I got it back up to 49%. some one has been draggin me down). I got through the easy, medium and some of the hard practice in between spotting people and helping them get stronger.

I breezed through the easy problems and only had one hiccup while doing the medium problems from not reading closely enough. Then I got to the hard ones. I dunno if I was really that bad at them or if I was distracted and tired of doing math but I struggled more than I would have liked. I guess I know what I need to practice: factoring. It was rough.

Fortunately when I was poking around the internets looking for more practice materials I found a free program to download from the ETS which is supposed to help me practice sort of the same way the book does... I think. It will at least have more practice questions to go over. I have downloaded the program but it is yet to be installed. Now I just need to get on that. You know what they say:... Practice makes permanent.

Going strong since 1988
Kit

To Do List

1. Call the Test Center
2. Practice Math + Verbal
3. Research School
4. Write a blog post about all of that

NEW FEATURE:
I am adding a new feature to reward all of you who are reading this since I know it can be boring reading the same thing over and over again (more practice yay!). So as a reward for wading through my slow progress I am going to include a video related to econ some how that I find funny. I hope you will too. Without further ado, your reward: