# The final day o

Today, I had the last class of the GMAT school which had been held for 2 month from February. My teacher said that although we will not have classes from today, our relationship will continue at least until getting into a MBA program. Of course, I think it will remain forever. In fact, I feel a little nerves because end of the course means that I must manage my study myself although my teacher said that he will give advices when I strike any walls. To ease this apprehension, my classmates and I decided to start group study on Saturday or Sunday. I heard that student of previous years also had group study to manage their study. Some of the problems are so difficult that we cannot understand the answer keys ourselves, so helping each other will be very important. Because one of my classmates was a student of NYU undergraduate, he will help the others to study English while we will help him to study the math section. This 2 month course re-realized me that the process of application is very tough for me; I must get good score on the GMAT, write good essays as well as prepare for interviews. Each of them is very high wall for me. If there were no comrades to fight together, I would lose my motivation to study hard. I am confident that my decision to attend this classes is the best one overall the application process. If I get accepted by a top MBA school, it will owe to this school and my classmates.

GMAT school's started today!

Today, the class for prepare for the GMAT started. My teacher said that a long and hard road for getting over 700 on the GMAT will start today, which is not a joke. It was proved by persons who now applying for MBA programs. Most of the applicants say that they never want to study for the GMAT. Anyway, without good GMAT score, a success will never come to me in the application for MBA programs, so I study it very hard. In fact, this diary in English is one of the practices to improve my basic English skills to prepare for the GMAT and following application processes such as writing essays and interviews. Of course, reading Penguin Readers series is also a practice for the same purpose. In the first class of the GMAT school, I learned about Math section of the GMAT. In Math section, there are not very difficult problems, but we have very short time to complete all of the questions. In other words, we can not use enough time to solve each problem, which requires us to use efficient way to solve them. In the class, we focused on problems related to probability and basic statistics such as how to get standard deviations of given data sets. I already know about the basic theory of these spheres because I was in the science major when I was an university student. However, I could not remember them easily until today’s class. In addition, because mathematical technical terms in English is not familiar to me, this class is necessary to get good score in Math section. Because most of Japanese are not good at English, we must get 49 or 50 in Math section out of 51, which means that we can not make easy mistakes. For these reasons, attending math class is very important even for me as a bachelor of science.

How to prepare for the GMAT

Today, I talked with my GMAT teacher about what I should practice until the GMAT course will start on the first weekend of February. He ordered me to read books as much as possible, so I decide to continue to read Penguin readers series. And he also said that I should improve my vocabulary because the GMAT contains very difficult words related to academic subjects. I think the TOEFL also contains a lot of difficult words at first; however, the words used in the GMAT is mush more difficult. Fortunately, I have already got over 100 in the TOEFL, so I have relatively more time than most of the applicants who are now struggling to get over 100 in the TOEFL. I should use this advantage effectively, he said. Both reading a lot of books and improving vocabulary need huge amount of time to accomplish, so majority of the applicants cannot accomplish due to lack of time. Although, of course, getting good score on the GMAT is very important, most of the applicants who aim at top schools will also get good score, so high TOEFL score and high GMAT score do not assure my success. I was warned I must improve my communication skills and inter-personal skills to appeal what I can contribute the community of the university. This is the most difficult task for me as a Japanese. He recommended me to go to British Council, which is the official British English school to learn how to discuss and express my opinion in the way used in English speaking country after I will get over 700 on the GMAT. I’m looking forward to attending this discussion class although getting over 700 itself is very difficult for me. Anyway, I should study more to get over 700 as soon as possible to improve above skills.

Studying the English at the top of Roppongi Hills

Today, I studied English for the GMAT all day. Although usually I study English in my room, I do it in the library at the top of Roppongi Hills today. Using that library costs 9,000 Yen per month, so it provides very good environment to study; very quiet rooms with separated desks, a free internet service with wireless network, a lot of books, and very beautiful scenery of the Tokyo from 49th floor. Because studying for the TOEFL requires practicing speech and pronunciation, I could not study in that library; however, because I ended to study for the TOEFL, I restart to use it. In addition to the good environment provided by the library, there are a lot of people who are studying something for their purpose, which motivets me to study English a lot. Because there are some people who are studying for the GMAT, I can share the information about the test. Although some of my friends say that it is too expensive to use it, I’m confident that it deserves the cost considering this perfect environment for the MBA applicants. Anyway, because I do not want to lose a man next to me who are studying English for the GMAT, I continue to study it until at least he will leave the library.