[Book] GMAT for Dummies (5th edition)--Chapter 1

Hello,

There is another book that I want to introduce to you guys, GMAT for Dummies--the 5th edition!

I have started reading it a month ago since I will have to take the GMAT test very soon. The reason why I have to take the test will be presented later. So you still have to put up with me and my blogging... Hehehe.

I baught this book from a well-known retailed bookstore in Bangkok, Kinokuniya's Siam Paragon branch.

At first, I went to Asia Book's Siam Paragon branch, seeing on the store's website that it offers a lower price for this book. However, a store employee told me that they didn't carry it anymore--but somehow their website said they did... How great...

So, I walked to Kinokuniya and got the book with a reasonable price, 617 baht, but I have a member card so the discount price is a bit cheaper.

I just finished the first part of the book--Putting the GMAT into Perspective--which is consisted of 2 chapters--Chapter 1: Getting the Lowdown on the GMAT; and Chapter 2: Maximizing Your Score on the GMAT, and I found the book very user-friendly.

That is, the authors--Scott and Lisa Hatch--don't use big words to explain the ideas of the test. Their writings is very simple and there are tips and jokes (some of the jokes are lame--I have to admit) to make sure that we don't just simply get lost in the book like we usually do when reading this kind of prep-test materials.

In chapter 1, the authors point why the GMAT is important and give us knowledge on GMAT, such as how the Graduate Management Admission Council scores the GMAT. (Please note that the organization who is in charge of GMAT is not ETS--the Educational Testing Service--who is responsible for the TOEFL, TOEIC, GRE, SAT and etc).

They also show us that there are 3 parts in GMAT test, which are verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing parts.

For the writing part, our essays will be scored based on the overall quality of our ideasand our abilities to organize, develop, express, and support the ideas.

There are 41 questions in he verbal part which is comprised of reading comprehension, sentence correction (spot and correct writing errors), and critrical reasoning (analyze arguments and see how to strengthen and/or weaken those).

Last, there are 37 questions in the quantitative part, having statistics and probability, arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data interpretation, standard problem-solving questions, as its core content.

That's the main concepts you should get out of the chapter one! I will get back to you guys later in this week. Honestly, I recommend this book for those who are not good at math in general, like me. That is because I have read many test-prep materials and I found them very "dry" and tormenting. This book is very much easier to read and make sense out of. I hope you will find it useful as I do. I mean, come on, this is the freaking 5th edition of the book!!!!!! The authors mus have done smething right...., right???

Okay. I will leave you guys for now. Gotta go bak to my reading.

See you,

Surada

[Book] Politics: an Introduction--First sight?

Folks,

I am now working on a class that I will need to brush up my knowledge on a very fundamental class of my field, Principles of Political Science.

Just thinking about the similar class I took when I was an undergraduate at the faculty of political science at Chulalongkorn university, I can still feel a freakingly bad taste in my mouth... It was a very very first compulsory class that we all, the freshmen of the faculty, had to take--whether we like it or not.

The class was split into 2 big sections and we had to study with 2 different professors. (If you graduated from this faculty before 2010, you will know why I chose the word "different" in this article... lol) We were required to read a book that is written in Thai (by one of the professors) for the first section and we had a kind-of course reader for the second section, which is written in English--but interpreted in Thai when the prof was teaching. I was very curious if the prof was spontaneously translating it just at the moment he was teaching us, or he had a written scripts hidden under his lecture table... I had not tried to prove what he was doing anyway. Rather, I decided to translate the whole d*m* reader and give it to all my classmates, plus one hard copy and one electronic copy to my professor, which I didn't go after and find what he did with those.

I didn't get a very impressive grade out of that class, mostly because I didn't understand most of the first section of the class. I found that--and I still believe so today--Thai academics have found a very confusing way to translate, and/or write textbooks/class materials. I am not sure whether it is because they want to sound smart, or they simply think that their students will be able to approach the "true knowledge" of the subjects, not just a "model" or "make-believe stuffs."

To be a student in Thailand, you need to bare with that.

Therefore, I can really say, as a lecturer, that I have no idea what I should do if I have to teach this fundamental class! Since it is a basis of the field, I might end up making my students' lives very miserable if my teaching sucks...

Consequently, I spent a whole day to find a very student-friendly book for my class at the Chulalongkorn University's central library, and, lucky enough, I found this book--Politics: an Introduction, written by Barrie Axford and his collegues at Oxford Brookes university. I was very happy then I remembered that both my professors who taught me this class graduated from England...

Uh..oh.. "Should I get a class material written by a Brit then?" I talked to myself.

Anyway, I decided to open the book and read it and, more importantly, I found it very interesting and very user-friendly as well. I will tell you more about this book next time.

Thank you for reading,

Surada

Me

Hi folks,

My name is Surada Chundasuta and this is my personal blog where I will share my thoughts, or reviews on current and contemparary issues.

Before I get to that, I think I should tell you more about myself.

I am a lecturer in Politics at a university in Bangkok, the heart of Thailand--AKA Land of Smile, which I don't know who put it as that first. I am also working for my family business and a co-founder of a bakery business, in which I will give you a link to that later.

I decieded to blog not just because I think it will be a good excercise for my brain and my English skill, but it also helps me to broadcast my written work and some ideas that I might not come up during classes. So, This is for a greater good to me, my collegues, and my readers--esp my students.

Since this is the very first post of this blog, I won't give you a headache with my work just yet. Stop by next time and see what I will lead you to.

Thanks,
Surada