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Another Cost of Studying: "Coffee Money"

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When I was preparing for the GMAT, I’d frequently go to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Starbucks, or Borders to study.

Often I would be too distracted to study at home. The libraries around my apartment would close at in the early evenings… that’s way too early considering I usually got my studying in between 9PM and 11PM.

At $3-$6 a sitting (I’d usually get a drink, sometimes I’d splurge for a sandwich), these study sessions aren’t cheap. I went out to study at least once or twice a week. Assuming an average expenditure of $10-$20 a week, I was spending $50-$80 a month on coffee drinks alone!

I don’t know how I got into studying at coffee shops - it’s a habit that started in high school when I first started cramming for statistics at a Starbucks.

Mentally tallying up all the coffee money I’ve spent in the name of studying…. must have been in the hundreds.

image source: reallynatural.com

Cash goes fast when it comes to standardized tests

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Or, all the money that went to College Board / ETS and GMAC over the years.

As a veteran standardized-test-taker who have recently (and happily) said goodbye to standardized tests, I’ve decided to take reader S’s suggestion and tally up all the money that went into this little 1-person enterprise of standardized test-taking.

The numbers will be an approximation (to the best of my memory + googling) for the tests I took in high school.

  • 10th grade: PSAT:
    Cost to take: $10-$14 (?)
  • 10th-12th grade: Advanced Placement Tests (5 total)
    Cost to take: $135 each = $675 total
  • 11th grade: SAT I (taken twice – I might be showing my age, but when I took it the full score was 1600, not 2400)
    Cost to take: $25 each = $50 total
    Cost to send top score to colleges (12 colleges) = $8 each = $96 total
    Test-Prep: $0 – my high-school counselor somehow got me into a class that a prep organization was doing as a pro-bono project.
  • 11th grade: SAT II (3 tests, each taken twice)
    Cost to take: $25 each = $150 total
    Cost to send 3 top scores to schools: $8 each = $18 total
    Test Prep: $500-$1,000? I was sent to tutoring every day after school for a couple of months.
  • Post-college: GMAT (taken twice)
    Cost to take: $250 each = $500 total
    Test Prep: ~$1,800 – this includes a formal 9 week prep class and a couple of additional workshops.

Adding up all the numbers… comes to out to around $4,000. Just on testing and test-prep alone.

There are some people who are innately good at standardized tests. They study for two weeks and get a 99.999th percentile on the first try. They are the ones who get 780s on GMATs and 176s on LSATs. (Yes, I know people like them. I try not to hate too much. icon wink Cash goes fast when it comes to standardized tests ).

Then there are people who really struggle with standardized testing in general – they may be very smart individuals who are just not good at these types of tests.

I think I fall somewhere in the middle – I usually score better than median on the diagnostic just as a benefit of the education I have received to date (and as an avid reader my verbal skills tends to rank fairly high off the bat), but I definitely need to study over a consistent period of time to get a good score.

That’s where test preparation (and the financial resources it required) has helped me a great deal.

Saying Goodbye to Standardized Tests

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Parting is such sweet sorrow – except in this case.

Finally took the GMAT today.

Before the test and during breaks, I kept repeating to myself – just do what you know how to do. I knew that if I just did the questions that I know how to do – if I just performed at my ability, I’ll get a score I’m happy with.

And I did. 95th percentile! Not the 98th or 99th percentile that I know people gun for, and frankly I could’ve gotten a few percentiles higher in the Verbal section (although I did much better in Quant than I thought I would) – but you know what, it’s okay. I’m truly happy with what I got.

Hey, I won’t be lowering the average of any school. icon smile Saying Goodbye to Standardized Tests This brings me a HUGE sigh of relief. The score is good for five years, so I won’t have to worry about it again.

Speaking of standardized testing, it’s been a long road paved with study guides, prep books, and three-ring-binders full of notes and practice problems…

Here are all the standardized tests I’ve taken throughout the years (not including state-mandated testing):

  • 10th grade: PSAT, AP European History
  • 11th grade: SAT (twice), SAT II Math Level I (twice), SAT II Writing (twice), SAT II US History (twice), AP US History, AP Statistics, AP English Language
  • 12th grade: AP English Literature, AP Calculus AB
  • College: Blissful, standardized-test-free four years
  • Post-college: GMAT (twice)

Now I’m DONE. Standardized tests, we’ve had our time together, but it’s time to part ways. Truly.

To all you math whizzes, this might be easy, but for me? I'm pretty darn proud I figured it out*

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Circle O (see below) has center O, diameter AB and a radius of 6. Line CD is parallel to the diameter.

What is the perimeter of the shaded region?circle1 To all you math whizzes, this might be easy, but for me? I'm pretty darn proud I figured it out*

The perimeter will be the length of the arc CAE and the line segments CB and EB.

Calculate arc CAE

Step 1: Angle X = 30 degrees, because they are alternate interior angles

Step 2: Angle CBE = 2X = 2*30 degrees = 60 degrees

Step 3: Angle COE = 120 degrees because COE is a corresponding angle of the inscribed angle CBE. Corresponding angles = 2x inscribed angle’s measure

Step 4: arc = (120 degrees / 360 degrees) * circumference = 1/3 * 2(radius)pi = 1/3 * (2)(6)pi = 4pi

Calculate lines CB and EB

Step 1: Triangle ACB is a 30-60-90 triangle because one it’s in a semicircle. Angle C = 90 degrees.

Step 2: 30-60-90 triangle = x – rad3(x) – 2x

Step 3: line segment CB is opposite 60 degrees, so the length is radical3(x) = radical3(6)

Step 4: line segment EB is the same as CB, so EB = radical3(6)

Add them together:

perimeter of shaded region = 4pi + radical3(6) + radical3(6)

perimeter of shaded region = 4pi + 12 radical3

*after the timed practice test & looked at my notes, but still. I RULE (for one, brief, shining moment).

Business Insurance Experts Premierline Direct

Can I say blah?

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That’s how I’ve been feeling lately.

I feel tired and frustrated. Most days I battle the twin evils of wanting to go to bed at 8PM and the guilt of not-studying. You’d think it’d all be easier if I’d just STUDY, right?

Right.

It was so easy in college. ALL I had to do was to study and do fun extracurricular activities. Sigh. This is another reason why I don’t consider a part-time program – working and studying for the GMAT is unpleasant enough, I can’t imagine what it’d be like working 8+ hours a day and then going to a class on Modeling Consumer Behavior for 3 more hours.

Okay. I’m going to quit complaining and hit the books.

My mind on my money, and my books on my mind

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I’ve been spending a lot of money at Starbucks, where I study. (<– see how the “where I study” is correctly modifying “Starbucks”?)

I’ve been interested to see all the changes that Starbucks has been going through: the closing of hundreds of stores, the introduction of a membership card and the same-day coupon, and the offering of new summer drinks. (<– again, can we just note the parallelism of the sentence and the correct use of the colon?)

Anyhow, I LOVE the new Pinkberry Sorbetto. If I’m going to study, I might as well have something yummy to drink! But I miss the availability of a free study place. Oh to be a college student again.

P.S. Lately, I’ve felt that I don’t have much to write about… because nothing different is happening in my financial life. So if you have any suggestions for blog posts, please let me know. Maybe I’ll be inspired. icon smile My mind on my money, and my books on my mind

Weird but true

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Could it be… that I actually LIKE studying for the GMAT?

Well, “like” is a strong word, but it’s interesting to learn (and apply -correctly, I hope!-) all the rules that exist in GMAT-land.

I’m starting to see the tricks and trap answers that GMAT writers build in to the questions, and why I have to re-adjust my thinking from “normal-everyday-life” to “only-in-GMAT-world”.

I really should be spending more time studying every day (right now I top out at 2 hours a day), but at least I’m seeing some progress. Even though it’s slower than I would’ve liked, I just have to keep going.

It’s weird, because now studying has become a measure of how good my day goes… usually I figure I had a good day if I got off work by 6:30 or 7, CB and I had a nice conversation, I had some yummy food, AND I did well on my problem sets. If I got a lot of problems wrong or I didn’t have enough time to study, I would just feel blah the whole day.

Who here is studying for the GMAT (or LSAT, or MCAT, or GRE)? Stand up and be counted, because I want to recognize my compatriots in the standarized testing battle grounds!

Watching TV instead of studying

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Is bad. Very BAD. B-A-D.

Vow:

I WILL:

-Wake up tomorrow, at 5:30 AM, and study

-Really, really study

I will NOT:

-Hit the snooze button until it’s time to get out of bed at 7:45 AM

-Say to myself “just 10 more minutes…”

-Succumb to the urge to watch youtube

Who’s with me?!

Real life vs. financial life

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I am $800 away from maxing out the Roth IRA for 2008.

This is what I realized – the pay-yourself-first mentality (rightly) extolled in the personal finance community can be applied to so many other aspects of life.

I have been consistently studying for my test, but I don’t think I have been studying as long or as hard as I can (or should). Yes, I am tired when I get home from work. No, I don’t want to sit down with another set of math problems. But it’s what I have to do to get to where I want to go. Along the personal finance vein, it’d be much more FUN to spend $100 on a nice dress than it is to save that money, but the dress decision probably won’t be as good for my long-term financial well-being.

So instead of trying to work up the motivation to study English grammar at 8PM, I’ve decided to wake up early instead and study for 1.5 hours before work. So my new goal: 6:15-7:45 AM is solid, no interruptions, good ol’ quality study time. It’ll be difficult getting up so early, but I’m hoping to make up for it by getting to bed earlier (10 PM – which means that I can usually squeeze in another hour (or two, if I am feeling extra ambitious) of studying at night).

I’ve also resisted the urge to stop by Ross on the way to work today, and instead will be using the time that I could be shopping for a new dress (and spending $$) on some math drills.

Joy.

Bane…

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I tried to take a full-length practice exam (2.5 hours+) tonight, but my brain is so fried. Is it possible to feel it physically hurting?

So, for now I will leave 1/2 of Verbal to go… I really need to go to bed. I’ll come back and finish the last bit tomorrow, and though I know that the score won’t be a good indicator because I didn’t take it under exact, timed conditions, and I skipped the essays section for now. At least I’ll have a rough baseline from which to proceed. I don’t need to take the test this early in the process as I don’t plan on applying for several years, but the test is good for 5 years, so… why not get it out of the way?

Quant was fairly very tough, so I’m hoping the baseline won’t be TOO low. My very first diagnostic was a 620, so I’m very anxious to at least better that score.

In an exercise to avoid the GMAT, I’ve begun thinking about more, er, pleasant thoughts – such as… financing my grad school education!

By all accounts, a full 2-year program will cost in the ball park of $120,000+ for tuition, books, and living expenses. As of right now, I can take out $20,500 per year in Federal Stafford Loans. My family has also indicated that they’d be willing to help out (for which I am immensely grateful). The rest will probably be a combination of personal and private loans.

Just looking a little bit ahead, my goal for 2009 would be to contribute $20,000 to retirement ($15,000 401K and $5000 Roth IRA), then save $5,000 to fund my future educational endeavors. I expect a significant portion of my Freedom Fund would go towards application expenses and then later, living expenses. Isn’t it ironic that I am using my Freedom Fund dollars to undertake an endeavor that would require decades of debt servicing (thereby reducing my freedom, at least in the short term)?

Of course, going to grad school has long been a goal of mine, for professional and personal development reasons. I know I can do it. I can get there, all in due time.

But before I have the privilege of applying for admissions, I must take the test.

Decision 2008

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Willpower is apparently a scarce commodity, so I’ve made an executive decision on several personal and financial matters in my life.

1. I am now letting Mint.com keep track of my spending instead of manually entering in my receipts.

2. As long as I save around ~$1,400 to $1,500 a month, I’m content. No need to agonize over a $2 bagel in the morning.

3. All willpower (and brain power, so it seems) is now to be directed toward Project GMAT until August. By the way, did you know that a prime number is a number greater than 1 that is divisible by only itself and 1? I forgot… until now.

4. Non-work life will now focus on studying on weekdays, and class + CB on weekends. And sleep, of course. Can’t forget that.

Grammaton Cleric

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I’m by no means a grammar-nazi (I’ve been guilty of many a mistake, and I certainly don’t proof my posts like I should… he who is without sin, cast the first stone).

BUT – now that I’m getting knee-deep into sentence correction, there are just things that bugs me, and I feel compelled to share. Please add your own in the comments.

1. Ridiculous, not rediculous. I’ve seen the word spelled incorrectly so often that it’s getting ridiculous. (Incidentally, in Spanish the word is ridículo, not ridiculoso).

2. Hopefully – “I hope to win” or “it is hoped that I win,” not, “hopefully I’ll win.” “Hopefully” is a synonym for “prayerfully”, as in, “the Jesuits lived hopefully and prayerfully.”

3. Since vs. Because: Since refers to time, because refers to causality. Since February, he has been studying. Because he studies, he is a good student.

4. “Everyone” is singular. Singular! Everyone needs his (or her) pencil. Not, everyone needs their pencil. I am all for the equality of men and women, but I gladly accept the concept of the “universal he” when it’s too cumbersome to write out his or her in every case, IF it will save us from the “everyone… their” fiasco.

5. It’s = a contraction of it is. Its = possessive of it. Its corner is scrapped. It’s such a shame he fell.

P.S. I know I have a lot of readers who work in publishing… so… this is your chance to educate the rest of us!
P.P.S. Does anyone know where the title of this post comes from? icon smile Grammaton Cleric

Goals Update… and Taking a Language Class?

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How am I doing on those darn goals?

Save $21,000 in money market fund: Generally on-target. Year-to-date contributions total $3,200 as of the end of February. I am currently 15.2% of the way to my goal, and the year is 17% over…

Max out Roth IRA ($5,000 a year): On-target! I have $1,100 for my 2008 contributions, which means that I’ve achieved 22% of my goal.

Do not make extra payments on student loan: Er… I might have paid an extra month because I didn’t know my automatic debit has kicked in. So instead of 10 years, I’ll pay this loan off in 9 years and 11 month. Oh well. It’s not big enough of a deal for me to go through the hassle of postponing automatic debit for a month.

Keep track of spending: I am so on top of this its a little scary. I have truly gone from 0 (never knowing exactly where my $$$ went) to 180 (recording expenditures down to the penny in PearBudget). And dare I say, it’s even kind of fun. More personal data to manipulate in spreadsheets!

In other news, I do plan to take some classes for personal edification. I want to take a language class at a local college… but I’m a little hesitant because the class runs 5 hours a week for ten weeks. And cost is almost $500 (but that’s very reasonable – less than $10 an hour of class). If I do take this class, I’ll have to significantly expand my education budget and cut down somewhere else.

I want to become proficient (as in, I can put the skill on my resume, write a brief, watch movies, and hold a conversation on politics/investing/popular culture) in 3 languages – English (still working on this one… kidding!), Chinese Mandarin (ni hao ma?), and Spanish (no comprendo mucho).

I’ve taken classes in Mandarin & Spanish, but language is truly a use-it-or-lose-it skill. Unfortunately, I’ve lost my language mojo and now I’ve got to woo it back.

Amazing grace (period)

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…is ending.

Just got my first bill from good ‘ol alma mater… the due date for the first payment is January 1, 2008. Happy New Year’s! Time to pay the piper!

From now until 2017, I’ll have to commit $160 every month to pay back my college loan. NOT complaining, though, I basically lucked out with an interest-free loan. And let’s face it, <$200 a month is a very feasible repayment when I think about the many, many college grads out there who are saddled with bigger loans.

College reflection$

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I’ll be graduating soon. I can’t believe that four years have gone by, just like that. Mom can believe it, though. Especially because she can finally stop writing the giant tuition checks every month. There is a lot of debate on if parents should pay for their children’s college education, and obviously it’s an issue that depends on the family’s situation and values. So, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions.

Well, knowing what Mom paid the bulk of my college tuition for me, I want to do the same for my future kid. At the very least, I’d want to have three years of private school education expenses saved up. But that’s going to be a tall task.

According to Sallie Mae’s College Cost Calculator, the current $40,000/year tuition (or $160,000 for 4 years) will balloon to an astounding $1,031,373 in 26 years, assuming 7% annual cost increase. The cost of attending four years of private school will exceed $1 million dollars. I know that $1 million in 26 years won’t be worth as much as now, but it’s still a whole lot of money!

Good thing I won’t have to worry about paying for someone else’s college expenses for a LONG time.

Get your college diploma framed for FREE

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…But only if you live in Chicago.

Artists’ Frame Service is offering FREE college diploma framing (a $125 value) from May 14 to July 31.

Just take your diploma to one of their three locations (Lincoln, Highland Park, or Clybourn Shopping Corridor) and select your framing. This offer is good for one diploma per graduate, any year, any school.

So even if you have an old diploma from a long time ago, you can still get it framed.

I got Phi Beta Kappa!

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Today I got a letter of invitation to join the Phi Beta Kappa chapter of my college. icon smile I got Phi Beta Kappa! Almost four years of overcoming procrastination with desperate cramming fueled by extra large lattes have paid off.

In exchange for this honor, I wrote check for an one-time fee of $80. But it’s money that I am happy to spend.

I haven’t told my parents yet, but I think they’ll be happy. What Mom is most excited about, though, is that the next month will be the Last. Ever. Tuition. Check. She. Has. To. Write.

Library madness

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In fifth grade, our class had to write an essay on our favorite place. Most students wrote the about mall (little consumers we were! icon wink Library madness ), movie theaters, buffets, etc., etc. I wrote about the library. Worse yet, our teacher called everyone by name and we had to explain why we chose our place – rest assured that talking about the public library as my favorite place did not make me a BEACON OF POPULARITY among my classmates.

I think I said something along the lines of, “uhm, the library has many, er, books. I like to read.” Then I sat down to revel in my new-found coolness – NOT.

But the truth is, I really truly love the library. Even though I have a tiny bit of libertarian streak in me sometimes, I was horrified when a friend suggested we move to a paid subscription service for libraries. Hey, I think I know one of the places I am adding to my giving plan.