Drill 2024

I call 2024 “The Drill Year” because I literally drilled from day one to the end 😂. I worked on different tasks until I submitted my MBA applications (by the deadline). This feeling hit me again—it can be so tiring when sprinting toward the destination, but when all of it is over, you get some rest and become thankful to yourself for countless morning tests and lunch non-breaks.

I came back to Hong Kong on the first day of Lunar New Year 2024 to make time for GMAT prep, looking forward to getting a score by March. Well, the extra days didn’t prepare me for the exam. I felt guilty for being absent from family gatherings, and noticed that nothing is more important to me than being present once a year with the relatives. Since I didn’t get the ideal result from mock tests, I postponed the real one to April, May… By June, I realized that I had to take a real exam with no more delays. I got 645 on GMAT Focus. I have to admit that this score is a big jump from 6 months before, but it’s still not good enough. Since I improved by doing a ton of Official Guide (OG) questions, I spent another 1 month doing the same and retook the exam, only to encounter a technical issue which the center said had never ever happened before 🥲. To others, this was an excuse for not getting a better score. But I knew the result wouldn’t be ideal even though the issue didn’t happen. I relied on the old way of success—doing a lot of OG questions. However, I knew that I remembered the answers already so I could get the most of the correct answers. I didn’t change my approach and tried my luck by lying to myself what worked in the past would work in the future. Now I only have a subpar GMAT.

I woke up, and found that I had only 5 months now. I need 1) a higher GMAT 2) an English test 3) essays for at least 6 schools. OMG.

According to experts’ suggestion, I’d better work on my essays first before retaking GMAT because GMAT can suck up all the time. So I made a plan:

This sequence arrangement turned out to be great! I completed all my essays in 2.5 months (including school selection, coffee chats with alumni/current students, and rewrites 🥹) and went back to exams, which took another 2.5 months.

When choosing schools, the strategy was to speak to 2 people from each of the S16 and see if I got along with them. This worked and didn’t work. Two students or alumni aren’t
representative enough. I was sure if both of them gives me a positive impression, then I fit this school. But if one is negative, or even both are negative / neutral… I don’t think it’s wise to rule out a school because of coffee chat experiences. The conversation could be affected by too many factors: how do I introduce myself, whether we have similar background, whether the students are in the hustle of preparing for interviews etc. I spent some time considering other aspects, figuring out which schools to apply… then started my essays.

Essays were supposed to have the same weight as standard tests. Some alumni suggested to spend a lot of time developing one essay. I agree with that and if I could do it again, I would write down all memorable stories in life before going into the real essay. This way, I could understand myself better and back my personality up with thicker evidence. That being said, I’m not very confident about my work. One problem is that when I sent them to my friend, he said he wasn’t moved. This echos with my personal sense yet I am still not sure what idea I should express in my essays. Convincing the Adcoms that I’m a good candidate for the school? Showing who I really am regardless of who they are looking for? Unintentionally showing off what I’m capable of? It’s hard to know what to write without a clear picture of what to achieve. I’m more confident writing this article than those essays because I know I just want to jot down my real chain of thoughts (oh god AI jargon), decisions, and stories… to slow down a bit, think things through, and let them guide me to the future. Maybe when I’m old enough, I will have something to savor.

I hesitated whether to take the English test first or GMAT. Since I already had a GMAT score, I prioritized the English test although everybody said to put it after GMAT. Out of curiosity, I decided to take Toefl instead of Ielts. This decision was a dumb one considering the goal was to get a decent score as quickly as possible. I should have take Ielts because I’ve taken it once before. However, I chose Toefl as I was intrigued to know (dang eager to prove myself) what I could do with years of intentional practice and limited test-taking technique. Mixing two goals wasn’t a good idea, but I’m glad that I listened to my heart, not my brain.

Going back to GMAT again in November, I decided to solve my true weakness—Reading. LSAT’s reading section is more difficult than GMAT’s and has an even tighter time limit. I downloaded real LSAT tests and started drill. I made optimistic progress. I started to capture the main idea of any LSAT or GMAT passages and the accuracy goes from 1/4 to 3/4 consistently. My verbal section used to stay at 50% percentile, and it hit 84% in the final attempt.

My score for both tests turned out to be a proof of hours spent—decent yet still room for improvement. No bonus or waste.

I experienced huge proud when all blank boxes were filled in the application form. Finally, I hit the submission button.

When everything was settled…. It felt like a best friend that you hung out with day and night for 1.5 years suddenly left the city. I didn’t know what to do with all the spare time. Well, let’s pause it here… more stories in the Review 2025.

Key takeaways from 2024

• Nothing is difficult
  • Face your weakness and solve it directly. It gives the best results
  • You can squeeze a ton of time (4 hours a day) developing yourself after work
• You shine when you emphasize on self-development
• Shutting down social inputs makes you a boring person
• Persuasion is important to make a big impact

For this coming year

• Get rid of back pain, then develop beautiful arms and glutes
• Find a hobby that has social aspects
• Understand the big picture of business and economy, position myself in the AI landscape, and move in that direction
• Skills:
  • Swimming: Learn freestyle and water treading
  • Data analysis: Write better SQL and use Excel better
  • English: Enhance listening and keep learning new words
• Travel: 3 new places

Lastly…. some classic pictures from this year!