The MBA Dream

Happy Ending

2008-05-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

Just to mark a logical end to the blog I held so close to my heart once. Though the GMAT journey didn't go well for me, my CAT journey did get me to my dream school in India. I am joining IIM Calcutta this year.

Dinged is what Darden says

2008-02-01T01:38:00.000-08:00

Self Explanatory... So this kinda ends the season for me...

All the best to all the applicants

Darden Interview

2008-01-21T23:38:00.000-08:00

Happy new year (the wish was long overdue)

Here goes my Darden Interview process experience.

13th December
I got a mail about status change of my Darden Application. It was an Alum Interview call.

22nd December
I was contacted by Office manager at Darden Admission Office about the busy state of Alum and possibility of Telephonic interview. Disappointment it was as I wanted to have a face to face interview. When I asked a current student, he also told me that I should try my best for Alum interview.

9th January
Another mail from office manager stating alum shud be contacting me anyday and if he doesn't contact by friday, we'll have the telephonic interview scheduled.

12th January
Alumnus called me. He told me how busy he was and didn't have any plans to come down to bangalore. I said I was open to travel to mumbai. He said we could have it on saturday the 19th and he'll confirm by monday/tuesday.

Tuesday
I called him up and he said yes lets have it on saturday but he'll confirm me time by thursday.

Thursday
I called and we fixed the interview for saturday at his place in mumbai.

I have posted these details as I found lots of people cribbing on the internet questioning Darden's responsiveness. I would say I was kept pretty much informed about all that was going to happen. Alums are usually very busy and we must understand it.

Anyways, I had this interview on Saturday 19th Jan at Alum's apartment in mumbai. I booked my tickets on thursday for friday evening flight and returned to bangalore on monday morning (My brother stays in Navi Mumbai).

So here's how the interview went:

I reached at 2:50pm (3:00pm was the time). I roamed around the corridor for 5 minutes looking at the sea from the 12th floor just to calm myself down and pressed the doorbell at 2:55pm

After greetings, where-have-you-put-up and when-are-you-flying-back talks he asked me if I was familiar with the process. He asked me what other schools I have applied to and have I been interviewed somewhere else [:(].

Then he talked about himself, his native place, undergrad, job, darden and job after mba. Then started questions.

"Tell me about your job"
I answered which took form of a discussion and he gave his inputs and kept on acknowledging what I said.

"Why do you want to do mba now"
<>

"Why Darden"
<>

"What was the different thing you found in your undergraduate college"
discussions. he listened to me presented his views, i elaborated on my views and we agreed.

"How would your friends describe you"
<>

"Career Goals"
<>

Then it was my turn to ask questions. His answers also took shape of discussions and lasted till he had explained me everything.

After 45 mins we wrapped up.

Few words on face2face interview vis-a-vis telephonic interviews while I was preparing to leave. And I left by 3:50pm.

Next interview for me is IIM Lucknow. Yes I wrote CAT again this time and finally got calls from IIMs. More in next post.

Where've you been??

2007-12-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

If someone follows my blog then this might be a question in his mind about me. Well, I've been very much here just that life has taken a topsy turvy road in last one month or rather last 3 months. Anyways, I do have updates from my side. A ding from Kellogg, a ding from ISB finally, no interview call from Tuck. Now I guess I have given enough reasons for my staying off the blog. But there's more to it. Checked my gmail at 8 am on thursday only to find no mails as usual. And then while at office, at 11:30 noticed that there was a mail in my mailbox about status change...

One more ding... This was the first thing that came into my mind. Logged into my profile reluctantly But hang on... its something else.

This was an interview call from Darden. Finally something for me.

any tips?

more in next post.

-Neeraj

Tuck Done!!

2007-11-15T05:37:00.000-08:00

So with Tuck down, my next target is Emory which has rolling admissions. I won't delay much and will try to submit it by mid december after the Emory reception in India.

Tuck application was easier though I wasted 5-6 days in the begining of November doing nothing. Thanks to Chaos who brought back my focus and I could complete the application in time.

Next Target, MBA Tour in bangalore on 1st december. BTW Emory was allowing to schedule interview for this meet initially but now they changed it to invitation only. Goodness!!! there indeed are lots of applicants from India :(

Darden Submitted

2007-11-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

I clicked a submit of darden app yesterday. Both my recommenders also submitted their recos yesterday itself. So it was again a last day affair if not the last minute one. Next in line is Tuck which happens to be my darling school.

Darden essays didn't take me long to finish. Either I have learnt the art of essay writing or my reviewers have got bored of asking me to change things in my essays. Whatever it be, after darden I think I won't take much time in writing for Tuck. More so because I have put the maximum number of my research hours on Tuck.

Life has been going topsy-turvy these days so I am not in a mood to write too much. Would sure attend the darden reception on Saturday though. After reading Dave for MBA's blog, I did get more inquisitive about darden MBA. It indeed makes a huge difference if you get to visit school. I ain't no lucky in that but atleast good people keep on blogging so that people like me get to know of things.

Plans for next few days, darden reception on saturday and then Tuck it is... Th elast school in R1 for me.

Good luck dreamer...!!!

Kellogg Interview Waiver and Application Submitted

2007-10-19T05:51:00.000-07:00

Got an interview waiver mail from Kellogg. I assume that means a greater reliance on essays. I hope my essays are strong enough to back me.

Submitted the Part II of Kellogg Application and thus registered an entry in US MBA applications league.

By the way, I registered for the Darden Info session on 3rd Nov at Bangalore. I don't know whats the implication of getting to attend a session after submitting the application... Should I be ready for interview???

Any expert comments?

ISB Interview Waitlist

2007-10-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

A bad start indeed. Got a mail today that I got waitlisted. Don't want to dig into it right now. I've had a very bad day today. Messed up with my lead. Have a tough weekend again with one approaching application deadline and one verdict (personal life) pending.

On top of that I am expecting some work in office in near future.

I've already had a bad experience with waitlist (IIMI call). Now what should I do. Or rather is there something I can do about it?

Any expert advice.

Death Sentence for Kellogg Essays

2007-10-03T03:04:00.000-07:00

Two of my reviewers gave a plain death sentence to the first draft of my Kellogg essays. I wasn't happy with the first draft when I wrote it but its always painful to see a brutal murder of eight pages of life story.

Actually I wrote them few days back in very disturbed state of mind. And because I knew that the disturbance was there to stay, I chose to write the essays in the situation of writer's block I had. Now today I got unhappy replies from two of my favorite reviewers. Both tore my first essay and suggested loads of improvements in other essays.

And I went into the mode of introspection for my essays. Following are some ideas I could gather as a checklist for consideration while proofreading essay before giving out for reviews.

1) Follow SAR wherever applicable... SAR is Situation > Action > Result flow for putting an idea in essay.
2) Locate a what/how in every sentence you read and answer it in the next sentence or the same sentence.
3) Condense ideas wherever possible.

I'll keep updating this space as I find more on this. Till then let me get back and work on the kellogg essays draft 2

Long Term Goals

2007-09-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

How much of clarity is needed about the long term goals? I was discussiong this with Chaos the other day and we though we need to be as clear as it can be. So I have to think what it has to be. I am not completely confused about it and my short term goals are pretty clear in my mind. Long term goals have not taken a definite shape maybe because I am still working to realize my short term goals.

So I sat down to explore what should a long term goal be like. When I am confused, the first thing I do is to type it in google and hit search (sometimes I am feeling lucky). And good gracious there are so many guys out there to help me on this. Well let me go through some of these texts and then I'll sit down thinking what next to do. I am targeting to write the first Kellogg essays draft over the weekend. I am thinking of taking a leave today for the same. Over the weekend if all goes well, I am planning to go and visit my cousin. The school where I go to teach is celebrating its annual foundation day so we don't have the computer classes this week.

For the sake of publicity (PR cell would become happy with me on this), I work for Pankhudi, which works specifically for upliftment of unpreviledged kids. Would write a post on pankhudi sometime (in my other blog).

Ah!! By the way. I clicked a submit on ISB application last night. They made me download a pdf of my whole application and I was done.

Next target: Kellogg Part 1

Exploring Kellogg

2007-09-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

This MBA application is becoming fun. Whenever I delve deeper into a school, I tend to think that I want to be at that school. It started with Tuck. I loved Tuck when I went through the blogs and their website. Then it was MIT, and now Kellogg.

Kellogg offers a great deal of flexibility in terms of courses and a lot of activities to keep one busy through a wide variety of student clubs. I was taken aback when I saw the long list on their website.

Want to know what is it like to be at Kellogg? Just go through the pages on student life.

The information on the website is pretty connected and written from the point of view of applicants. Would defininitely leave you thinking that you are missing something.

ISB Done Kellogg Next

2007-09-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

ISB Over!!! After so many drafts I finally finalized my ISB essays and now have a much better idea of what to write in essays.

Kellogg essays are much better in terms of word limit. Writing an influential Prizes would have been much easier for Eric Segal than an influential Love Story. The more we get to talk of, the better we paint ourselves. And Kellogg essays give doubly spaced 2 pages. Almost double of ISB. Sigh!! That indeed is a relief. Today I was in mood of writing a draft but am feeling very sleepy now. Read a nice article on Kellogg website about the induction of fresher batch.

Meanwhile I also have to write TOEFL. Any pointers on TOEFL preparation? I bought a book which has 6 practice sets and I guess it should be sufficient.After TOEFL I plan to take up the prized MIT essays.

A lot of action is in pipeline and slowly slowly surfacing. An introduction in form of ISB was a good warm up (well actually more than just warm up).

As I step into the US b-school process, I hope to gain more seriousness. Thankfull workload is super mild.

Need to scan a couple of douments and get one photo done and ISB application would be complete :)

Essays started

2007-09-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

Bad that I was out of blogging for so long but it was for a cause. I was drowned into first set of my essays. Did first, second and third drafts and got them reviewed iteratively by some friends. A mix of closest friends to aquiantance one of whom had converted ISB call last year.

And you know what... its important to understand the suggestions but impossible to implement them all... cause they can be poles apart.

Anyways I read somewhere that the essays for first school take the longest and by the time we are into third school, it becomes a lot easier to do the essays. But the first essays take real long time. At times when I got frustrated, I just stepped outside and thought why didn't I join IIM Indore, only to regain the confidence back and get back to applications.

Few days back a friend asked me that in my school selection criteria, I have not selected Kellogg but in my page my R1 schools have Kellogg too. Actually a month back when I talked to my recommender, he asked me why am I not applying to top five. He told me that I must try atleast one or two of them. Well given a choice between HBS/Stanford GSB/ Wharton/ Kellogg/ Chicago, I chose Kellogg as Wharton/Stanford ask for exceptional acads, HBS kinda looks out of reach for a general profile like mine, Kellogg's emphasis on teamwork attracted me. A bit of more research, a glance at essays and I knew that I like Kelloggs. Not so huge class size, emphasis on teamwork, good placement percentage for consulting etc attracted me. Though Kellogg is more known for Marketing, I loved the number of electives they have to offer. I can customize the course in whatever way I want. So I knew that Kellogg was going to be the addition.

Few days back I got an anonymous comment by Holden on one of my previous posts. The reply in itself would be a post. Will write on it when I get to it. As of now I have Kellogg lined up. Will officially start on Kellogg essays tomorrow.

Will be a lot more frequent in next one to two weeks as I have a lot to discuss.

Million dollars or Knighthood

2007-08-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

Lemme tell you one thing, no matter how early you start, you'll always face a time crunch for essays and applications. I have been writing essays for ISB these days and boy, its one hell of a task. For the first essay about diverse ISB culture, I wrote some 4-5 drafts before arriving at first rough draft. The word limit of 300 words is too crippling. Anyways I found the third essay about manager's feedback easy. The second essay is still my concern. I wrote one draft for it which was rejected by my friends (I am sending essays to friends for review). I sat yesterday to write it again and wrote a modified draft. I don't think I myself am convinced by it. So let me put my thoughts in here.

A million dollars mean independence from constraints. Its about freeing myself from the biggest need of life. So what would I do if I have million dollars. Now ISB won't have any interest in my dream about spending my life on hawaii beaches. The decision should be reflective of my character. Well, the character which I have shown in my other essays. It can be related to a passion of life. For example, I am from Bihar, a state in India. Whenever I go outside for lunch or dinner, I see restaurants on rajasthani theme, punjabi theme, bengali theme, gujrati theme etc. I have never ever seen any restaurant on bihari theme. There are lots of food preparations specific to Bihar which are very tasty but unknown to people outside. Maybe I would like to open a chain of restaurants which showcase the food of Bihar, the festivals we celebrate and the food specific to those festivals. It would also show the positive side of the state which is already infamous for a lot other wrong things.

Knighthood. Knighthood is also about a passion. But this passion is about a much larger impact. Its about impact on society. Maybe its about setting an example for the world. All of us dream of some ways we can improve the world. Recieving a national honor for the same would mean setting a path for the next generations. Its about bringing that passion out and showing it to the world.

I am not sure if I am right about the interpretations. Please comment if you think it should be something else. Now when it comes to writing about this, it is difficult to take things out of heart into the mind, translate in english and write. I felt the need for a structural approach for the same. To avoid bias, I am not posting any sample structure.

Now the way I look at it is, its about discovering ourselves. Lets do it.

Updated on 18th August 2007

Thanks a lot guys for your inputs. finally i could successfully write the first draft for the essay. Bihar restaurant was just a time pass example I had taken to understand things, perhaps anon2 took it by words. But in the course I have learnt that the essay demands for things about me and my character. The million dollar approach or Knighthood approach what would I prefer to take in a situation. Any example in this essay dilutes the context and limits it to the example which is highly undesirable.

I got my first draft reviewed by few friends who gave some valuable inputs. Things look better now as far as this essay is concerned.

Thanks to all for their inputs. If someone still has some inputs please comment. It might just be useful for those hitting this page.

ISB's Million Dollar Baby

2007-08-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

So I started my essay journey with ISB. And I must say this 300 words limit is the biggest problem one will face in ISB essays. I mean when I wrote the first draft of first essay, it was 650 words long with half of the content. I did it 5 times either by trimming off or by writing fresh to arrive at an exact 300 words essay.

I mailed my first essay to three of my close friends (including my brother) for review. And one wrote back suggesting one more instance to add. Boy I still have to understand where to fit that extra sentence.

The 3rd one was smoother. I just had to become my own manager, readout my appraisal form and form it into a paragraph.

The problem is with second essay. Here's what it reads:

A million dollars or knighthood: what would you choose and why? (300 words max)

I want to write about million dollars although all my friends chose Knighthood. I feel more truthful when I think about million dollars. But what to write is my concern. I asked my friends they say what the essay analysts say. Hey btw I found the analysis to this and other essays at these places:
Vibranture
EssayLever
Pulyanithinks

But I am still not able to start off. Chaos gave me lots of suggestions regarding the same. And I understand them all, but its like writing a love letter, you've always known what to write the problem which remains is.... where to start from??? (and this love letter has a word limit too )

Any suggestions...

MBA... Fine... But what in MBA!!!

2007-07-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

In the initial days, I always questioned myself, "Why not Investment Banking (IB)? Everyone else is thinking of IB! There's huge money in it."

Couldn't convince myself. Because of IB domain, talks of credit derivatives, securities, CFA, FRM are kinda common in my company. And people talk of IB more than they talk of dot NET or java.

But I wanted to do something else. Something which was more inclined towards business. Consulting and General Management came into my mind. Marketing was out of question since childhood. I am not carved out for marketing. With time, I have developed a special inclination for Consulting. One reason was that I had seen it in action. 2 of 3 years of my work ex have gone while working for a Consulting firm's IT shop. I have had a very close feel of the consulting paradigm of work.

By the time I was done with choosing schools, I was pretty much decided that I want to get into Consulting. Next was to decide between IT Consulting and Management Consulting.

Being in a firm which is the right mix of IT consulting, Management Consulting and Investment Banking, I got a chance to observe these fields very closely. IT consulting goes pretty technical. Even I do it besides writing the code. Management Consulting sounds much closer to business.

In Management consulting the options are Strategy and Operations. I did some reading on Wikipedia, Vault's guide and even bought a book on Strategic Consulting. I think its been the career I've been looking for. Very core to business, case driven, and very challenging.

So now I do have an answer to what I want to do (Strategy Consulting) and not what I don't want to do (IB). This is the time I should start writing first draft of my essays.

Few days back I wrote the first draft of Why MBA essay. Thanks to clear admit for an excellent article on the same. Will share my take on the same.

School Selection

2007-07-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

Ok this post has been long overdue. When I started thinking on these lines, I had two things with me, a deep confusion rather voidness in my head, and another huge confusion or maybe voidness in Chaos's head. And by our headless talks, we used to create more chaos in our minds.

Then, because we were not very sure what we wanted to do post MBA, we took financial Aid as first parameter of screening the schools from our initial list of top 20 schools. But when we digged into it, we got to know lots of relevant parameters. We compiled the data on schools in an excel document. The parameters we listed were:

class size
financial Aid (for international students)
Location (or nearest big cit)
Cost of attendance
School Focus (finance, general mgmt etc.)
Engineer percentage in current batch
Expectations from Applicants

With this data in hand, I knew that I couldn't apply to NYU, UC Berkeley, UCLA and Cornell as they don't have good loan programs.

I am not targeting top notch schools because of an Avg GMAT score and common profile(Indian IT with less work ex).

I was really interested in schools with small class size because of healthy peer to peer and peer to faculty interaction. That gave me options of Tuck, Emory and Darden.

Tuck's closely knit community, single MBA program focus and small class size made me choose it as one school in my list. Darden's case study approach and emphasis on leadership interested me. Emory's location (Atlanta), class size, and feedback from a friend who is joining Emory this fall made me choose it as one of the schools in my list.

I seriously considered Michigan Ross too. But only thing that scared me off is their emphasis on community involvement. I don't have strong community involvment (with no visible strong prospects in near future).

I wanted to apply to one school with rank in 15-20 range as a backup school. I also wanted to keep ISB as one of my 5 schools.

In every band I had these schools to consider.

Band 1: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton
Band 2: Chicago, Tuck, MIT
Band 3: Darden, Ross, Duke
Band 4: Emory, Purdue, UT Austin
Wildcard: ISB

Band 1:
With no big score, no unique profile, and less than avg work ex I had to drop this band. Later when I saw the essays, I was happy that I dropped.

Band 2:
The first thing I was sure of when I thought of applying was that I don't want to do finance. I was sure I have seen finance pretty closely. My brother is in Equity Research, and I work for an Investment Banking Consultancy. So Chicago had to go out of my list.

MIT states it very clearly that no of yrs of work ex takes the back stands when it comes to selection criteria. On top of that a whopping 34% of engineers population forced me to consider it. Boston as a location is also good for consulting (I was dwindling between general mgmt and consulting).

Tuck I've already stated. And I read one blog by Tagad_Tale and got to know a lot more about Tuck. So if you are applying for Tuck, you can refer to this blog for information.

Band 3:
This was the toughest one, so here I had to select one instead of eliminating others. I selected Darden because I could visualize the life at Darden when I went through their website. Their case study method of study sounded very aligned to my interest (consulting). I just went ahead and picked up Darden.

Band 4:
Emory is in Atlanta so the industry exposure is really good. Class size is small which makes it even more lucrative. On Emory's website they have a very good section where they have mentioned how things progress when you are in the school. Here's the link for that. Purdue is I heard good for operations. They have an emphasis on quantitative approach which suits operation profile. UT Austin I heard that isn't such a good experience when you are there. Please correct me if I am wrong but this was a feedback of a friend's senior who happened to be at UT Austin. Emory was the obvious choice.

Wildcard:
ISB is in India. And I anyways want to come back to India when I am done with my loans. ISB is on my list more because of personal reasons than any comparisons.

So here I am, done with selection of my 5 schools (well... not yet my).

Tagad_Tale was in a confusion of IB/Consulting/Trading till he actually got his internship. I think its easy for someone to understand this confusion if he/she is from India. I'll discuss my journey through this confusion in my next post.

Back to Apping

2007-07-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

My last one month has been very busy. One thing I must tell you is that working at client location is real fun. There was learning, as I worked very closely with my manager, and there were surprises; for instance, one fine morning on my third day at client office, when my manager was gone on a week's vacation, I was called and asked to explain the things we were going to do for them and how such things justified the time we had asked for.

The first thought which ran through my mind was...

Interesting

Anyways, now I am back to my peaceful world of MBA application. Today Chaos told me that our blogs are featured on Clear Admit as the members of class of 2010 bloggers. So I came here to show the persisting seriousness at my end.

First of all, let me thank all of you who supported me through my indecisive phase just after GMAT. I've gottenn over now and all set for R1 applications.

In next post, I'll discuss my schools (no I dn't own them but it feels good when I say my schools:) ) and why I chose them.

I'll also discuss about the Why MBA essay I've started working on.

GMAT and Beyond

2007-06-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

I wrote my GMAT on tuesday 5th June. And what I got was a 710 (51,34). I was very disappointed by my VA score. I knew that I could have done much better. But it was time to think about the next phase.

I shot out mails to the AdComs of the schools I am applying to asking will the low english percentile(71) affect my application. I have recieved 2 replies till now.

ISB sent a long generic mail:

Dear Neeraj,

Thank you for your Interest in ISB.

GMAT is one of the criterions we look for while evaluating applications. There are no cut-off scores - a good score strengthens your application but does not guarantee admission while a low score does not necessarily mean exclusion.You may note that the average GMAT score this year has been 710 in the range of 600 - 780.

Admissions to the ISB are based on:

· leadership potential.

· diversity among students.

· strong academic background.

The ISB aims to develop future leaders and we will give preference to students who have demonstrated leadership abilities in their past working or academic life. Initiatives at the work place and in your personal life will help us assess your leadership potential.

The assessment is done primarily through the essays and recommendations in the application form. We insist that the recommendations are from people from your work place, specifically, your direct supervisor. The second element we look for when we consider your application is diversity. We are looking for why you are different and what you would bring to the ISB community. Diversity may be in the form of educational background, ethnic origin, nature of work ex

perience, kind of organisation worked for, nationality or personal experiences and goals.

The PGP programme at the ISB is rigorous and is accentuated by the short duration of the programme. Students who join the ISB must possess an academic record that can convince the ISB Admissions Committee of their ability to cope with the rigorous curriculum.

We appreciate your interest in the school. You may write to us at: admissions@isb.edu for any further enquiries.

Regards,

***********************

and Tuck sent a short generic mail:

Dear Neeraj,

Thank you for your interest in the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Please note that if you feel you're able to improve on your GMAT scores then we would encourage you to do so. The average GMAT score for the Clas of 2008 is 710 and the admitted-student range is 560-790. With the test score you received along with the other information you provided we would encourage you to apply to Tuck.

Thank You
Tuck Admissions

**********************

My friend vineet (who is going to Emory this fall) suggested to go ahead and concentrate on my essays instead of worrying about all this.

I only had concerns that I have an avg GPA, less than avg work ex and no international exposure. And very next day I was told of an onsite opportunity in US. It came at the time when I needed it the most. But now I am a bit concerned about the community service part. Which I won't be able to do from there. I need to do something about it after I come back to bangalore in 3 weeks or 3 months because I haven't yet started on it.

I know that I am going to have loads and loads of work. But I'll have to make out time for my essays. The day I got to know of this I looked into the map of US. I am going to california which is on west coast, and all my schools are on east coast. So I won't be able to plan any visit to any school. I wanted to apply to UC Berkeley but because of unfavorable loan program I can't. Otherwise I would sure have visited UCB.

In next post I would write on the criteria of selection of schools I am going to apply to.
Oh yes, the schools are... MIT, Tuck, Darden, Emory and ofcourse ISB.

I have to do lotsa shopping before I fly to US on sunday.

Countdown Ends

2007-06-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

I wrote my last mock GMAT today. In last 2 days I have written 3 mocks. Two yesterday and one today. And this has really been tiring. In two of these I have written essays also. And I must say AWA guide by ScoreTop has really been helpful. Here's my performance tally in these three mocks

Princeton 3 - 700
Princeton 4 - 720
Powerprep 2 - 770 (qa 50, va 45)

So it ended on a happy note. But would be more pleased if it repeats in actual GMAT on tuesday.
I have managed to get a leave on monday somehow. I had to slog a bit on friday by staying in office till 11pm.

Doesn't matter. Lets see how it goes. My next post will come on tuesday after the GMAT.

Wish me luck...

10 days to go

2007-05-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

Oh God! Only 10 days. I was taken aback when I saw calendar yesterday. I counted the tests I am left with (4 Kaps, 3 Prins, 1PowerPrep) 8 tests and just 10 days.

So I took one Kaplan test today. I remember Anurag told me that he never scored more that 630s in Kaplan tests. And when I sat for the test today in the morning, I was determined to crack it. But the result is as follows.

620 (50 qa, 31 va)

A 31 in VA sounds horrible. The questions were so lengthy that almost all of them required a considerate amount of time to be put. No RC passage was any easy in language and all were pretty long ones.

I've been doing some research on the schools I'll be applying to. Would write a detailed post for that after my GMAT.

Plan for next few days is to take three more Kaplan tests. To exert myself before putting myself in the highest gear. Lets see how it works out.

Take 4

2007-05-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

So here's the story till now:

Princeton I : 720 (50 QA 38 VA)
Manhattan : 670-690
IMS : 630 (never gonna look at IMS again)
PowerPrep I : 750 (50 QA 41 VA)

So finally touched the 750 mark. The paper was fine. Though if I had known the definition of "Median" I could have got 51 in maths. And that could have meant a yummy 760 (i m lovin' it). But its fine... lets be slow and steady.

Best thing was that questions were unseen (except for 1-2 SC questions which anyways were easy). They have claimed that PowerPrep has all the questions different from OG 11th ed.
The best test I must say. For obvious reasons, closest to GMAT.

And now I think.... I didn't even know what a "Median" means....

disgusting...

Back in full gear

2007-05-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

After IIMI fiasco, I am back to my GMAT preparation in full gear. Took a day off justto recollect what all I needed to do. I did one IMS MaxGMAT test. IMS tests are the worst I have ever seen. 8 questions in RC passage, very first question was RC, loads of DI question, dicey options. It reminded me of IMS CAT test series. Thankfuuly it didn't have the vocabulary based questions. They are their favorite.

Anyways, I found spidey's notes for SC on esnips. Excellent compilation I must say. One must get hold of it and go through it. Besides that I am still stuck with 1000SC by ScoreTop (1000 is a bit too much). I don't think one needs an OG if he does the 1000 series by ScoreTop which is free also.

I am planning to take one PowerPrep test today. Will update about the score in my next post.

As of now, the material I am referring to is:

Scoretop 1000 series
OG 10 and 11
Princeton Tests
Kaplan Tests
Powerprep Tests

I still have some 15-16 days to go before GMAT and I must grow serious atleast now.

Take 2

2007-04-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

Manhattan test sucks bigtime. I just hated to do the stupid new form of critical reasoning they gave. And i wasted 5 mins and all the concentration with the buggy scrollbar of the reading comprehension. Result was as I hoped, I couldn't even touch 700. A projected score of 670-690... And on analysis I realized I did 7 out of 14 CRs wrong. Normally CR is my strongest area in GMAT verbal.

And my friends told me not to hurry into full length tests. I think they are right. I'll do only OG and sectional practice tests.

Last weekend I had practiced OG. I gave myself 50 mins for 30 Cr questions. And a reward scheme. A cold drink for 5-10 mistakes, a chocolate for 1-5 mistakes and a surprise gift for none. i think I had underestimated myself. I made only 3 mistakes and was happy about it. So did I deduce that I am not bad at CR.

This weekend starts today. Lets see how far do I go this weekend.

The New Beginning

2007-04-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

So here I am writing an MBA blog. I got the inspiration after I went through the blog links sent by a friend who has cracked Emory admit with a handsome schol this year.

My Background:

I am dreamer, did engineering in 2004 and am working for a software firm in bangalore. I wrote CAT last year and got a 99.73 but only one call from IIM Indore. The interview went just fine and I am waiting for the results to be declared on 12th April. I didn't prepare for the GDPI at all as I had no plans of joining IIMI. But now I might join if they send me a call. I don't regret not preparing for the GDPI.

I took the date for GMAT. Its on 5th June at 10AM. I wanted the morning slot as I do my best in the morning. Before that I had taken one Princeton test to assess where do I stand. I managed to get a 51 in Maths and 38 in Verbal. An overall score of 720. Not bad but the verbal score disappointed me. I have bought Princeton Review and managed to get OG 10th and 11th ed.

As of now my preparation is going very slow. I had planned to work on OG 10th in the weekdays and OG 11th in the weekend with one test on weekend.

But looks like I need to replan my studies.

I hope this blog helps me bring the focus I need. Will keep writing.