Hello all,
I hoping to get some advice and hopefully some much needed motivation. I am a 25 year old male who started to study for my GMAT in the begging October 2012. I have an engineering degree from the University of Texas in Austin but recently moved to Southern California. GMAT goal is 700 with hopes of getting into UCLA part time (while also applying to USC). Also, I just got married last year and I have a full time job that can be pretty demanding. My plan was study Oct-Dec, take my exam by the end of Dec 2012, and apply to UCLA's FEMBA program in R2. Needless to say I did not apply....and I actually have not even taken the GMAT yet.
My "excuses": I had done a lot of research and had a good 3 month study plan but some personal things that got in the way of my studying. I had in-laws come and stay with us both in October and again in December. My wife received a promotion at work in November and was transfered to a new office on the other side of town. This required us to find a new apartment and move into it all within 3 weeks. I tried to study as much as possible and on weekends when I could, but there just wasn't enough time some days. Work was getting pretty demanding as well late in Nov and into December.
After all of that, I really started to study hard again in January after we were settled into the new place and we no longer had visitors (~2 hrs/day mon-thurs & 4-5 hrs on weekends). I have been using the Manhattan 5th edition guides (all) and the
OG 13. At this point I was determined to take the exam in Feb 2013 and work on my application in March and submit my application for UCLA round 4. After going through all the Manhattan study guides, I took a CAT early in Feb and scored a disappointing 550. I reviewed all my mistakes and worked a lot of
OG questions throughout February. Took another Manhattan CAT at the end of Feb and scored a 530 this time. Quat scores ~38 and Verbal ~28. Verbal has always been a weakness, but I have always been a straight A math student and my low scores have really been bothering me.
Since my last CAT I have had little motivation to study at all. I have tired multiple times, but I just cant seem to get through many problems. I think I am also just getting burned out.
I had a coworker tell me to just sign up and take the exam and see how it goes, although I think that is probably just a waste of money.
My thoughts now are to put my MBA off a year and apply in one of the earlier rounds for next year. I would take some time off for now to work on other aspects of my application (resume, essays, etc) and resume studying after a few weeks. This time I plan on supplementing with some online videos or other prep material to try a new approach. I want to get more involved on this forum and really work on my fundamentals again.
Would taking some time off hurt me (requiring me to rehash things I may have forgotten)? Should I take my coworkers advice and take the exam now to see how it goes? What are the chances of getting into UCLA or USC part time if I apply really late or in the final round? I am pretty confused right now and dont really know how I should proceed.