Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Tough to Medium-Tough PS, DS

So you want to touch 49+ in math's... What are things you need to do? well here are a few of my own conclusions, please note that they are applicable for me, so there is a possibility that they might apply to you as well.
1) DS Traps are where we usually fall, they are subtle traps, like duplicate statements, or the statement hiding a particular number property, or likewise.
2) Probability, and sums involving permutations and combinations: These are where most of the people will panic and commit silly mistakes, when you see such a question, pat yourself on the back, coz in all likelyhood you have already done well on the exam, so take your time, practise probability, permutations and combinations, don't fret over if you can't solve it move on... Likelyhood of seeing such questions is really low on the GMAT. But nonetheless, be prepared.
3) Sums involving complex geometry, which may be sometimes unheard of, algebra, arithmetic, or plugin types of sums come naturally to us, these don't unless you have practised them well, do practise all the OG geometry questions thoroughly well. Understanding the "Trick" in each one rather than going the longer way.
4) Do Solve at least 15 different sums everyday, you don't want to relax and bask in the glory of your quant prowess, it might prove dangerous, remember, QUANT is where you can be sure to score, verbal can throw some real bad surprises at you, if you do really well in both, well... you're the man then!

ATB,
Abhinandan.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Blogroll

Spending a few minutes on your blog a day will not hurt you much. More so, if you have very suggestive and helpful information on it. I have decided to add blogroll to my layout, here you will find a list of blogs that I frequently read. For instance the first one on right is where you will find lots of GMAT Grammar tips, a few casual glances a day would be very very helpful. Especially for working people like me...
Keep GMATTING... Keep Blogging...
Peace,
Abhin.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Practise GMAT 1 : GMAT PREP


In my revised GMAT Study schedule, I gave my first GMAT Practise CAT today. 10 points less than I had predicted I landed up with a score of 640. Q44 V35.
Following was my analysis of the result.
(1) In Math's I did at least 5 wrong in my first 15, it was patchy, 2 were correct then 1 was incorrect then 3 were correct then 1 was incorrect that way... Mostly I messed up with properties of numbers DS Questions. PS wasn't that bad. However, If i increase my accuracy in the first 15 questions, I think ill surely land up with a good score in Maths at least 46+

(2) Verbal was sheer bad luck. U know why? Because In first 22 questions I got only 1 wrong, and that was the first one!! :( It was a tricky question, i'll try to post its screen print over here when I go home. Imagine even after getting 21 right on the trot, I was presented with 35 verbal score, thanks to a first wrong!... the wrong question was based on "structure of the argument". Well' you'll all know when i'll post it here.

(3) I had to rush in Verbal section after 33'rd question i.e. in about 5 mins I had to attempt 8 questions. It was unreal, I ended up making 7 mistakes.
Anyway... Surprisingly RC, and CR, SC were as good, the mistakes were equally distributed, and I did mess up tricky SC's and CR's. If I do those correctly it would not be unreal to expect score of 680 / 690 next time I take it. And then from there on... Only mantra... work on your weaknesses, move on...
I have about 1.5 months in my hands, and I am feeling that I am going to do it...
All the best with your preps...
Cheers,
Abhinandan.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Comment Reward offer...

PLEASE COMMENT

I'll double my posts if any one you who read my blog comment on it.. otherwise it is more like my personal diary u know! hehe... Just kidding.. I blog for myself, and amusement and information of others who like to read...
Anyway... Let's come to the core of the thoughts on my mind right now. Verbal ? Maths ? yep you got it... Tomorrow is my Practise test... Here are improvements.
1) Verbal - Much better accuracy for SC, Already good in CR, a little better in RC.
2) Maths - Much better with PS, a little better wish DS, PS strategies improved.

Say V36 Q45 or about 650+? My bets on it... Let's see how it goes...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Golden wait for iphone enthusiasts..



It's Slimmer...
It's Zippier...
It's Smarter...
It's better...
Like everything in today's 2.0 world, welcome to iPhone 2.0, newest offering from Steve Jobs, one of my favourite personalities on the face of this planet. For those who have been waiting for this beauty this has proven to be a golden wait as apple, not really known to slash prices a lot has sliced the price to almost half at 199USD. It will not be a wonder if iPhone becomes the next generation monotony of personal gadgets.
Features... Name it and you have it, right from Location based GPS to faster connectivity and a nice enough camera makes this phone + music supreme device truly unique. Although there are many other smart phones out there with similar technology, the multitouch that apple has offered really needs to be experienced. From my personal iPod touch 8Gb I bought in US, I can tell for sure how much this technology rocks...

So ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves for iPhone 2.0, trust me it's going to shake the smartphone markets around the world!

P.S. I plan to take a diagnostic this saturday. Reason : I think I have improved a lot on SC, and that should scale my score to at least 35 on verbal. Also some Quant strategies should improve my score on the Quant to 45. The Actual score should be roughly around 78 percentile or 630-640. Let's see where I land up. I think this score is pretty realistic to expect. What say folks? :D

Cheers,
Abhinandan.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Off to Delhi... But in August...

Hey ppl..

Got a chance to work in the NCR or National Capital Region (Delhi)... A new project in which I will get a good exposure. This will be a good on my resume as I will get a good leadership experience. Due to all the anxiety, and my habit of taking things emotionally, I got nervous a week ago, was on the edge of hypertension. Somehow managed to control it and I don't think much about things these days. "Jaan hai to Jahaan hai..." U knw...
Some things are yet to work out, but I am sure they will. I will also get to work out of Hyderabad for a period of say 1 month. The total duration can be anything from 3-5 months, but it will be mostly on and off from Pune. Anyway... You all know that there is only GMAT on my mind right now. So I am going to give it my best shot. I will not take it untill I consistently score above 700 in my practise ones. Wish me luck folks.
Let the peace be upon you...
_Abhi_

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

ISB Information Session

I had a chance to attend ISB information session. A flashy, informative powerpoint presentation, with rich multimedia content is pretty much how I can describe the finesse with which it was presented from one of the members of the Admissions committee. Well for starters here is what it contained.

1. History of ISB being setup.
2. Journey so far.
3. India Story - How India racks up as the world's next upcoming destination.
4. ISB story, Life at ISB, diversity, learning, their various centres of excellence. etc.
5. Admissions - How does it stand in terms of competition. How many applications do they receive etc. How much is the Average GMAT, Why is ISB GMAT takers first choice, what do they see in an applicant, what prospects for lateral shifting people like doctors, army personnell, etc.
6. what to expect, what not to expect in terms of placement, how does years of experience matter, what do employees give weightage to.

The presenter was an extremely impressive personality and he also answered all the questions with a lot of zeal, and wit, he was pretty bold (literally) and still very animated, and he knew what he was talking about.

Here are some important highlights from his presentation which might be useful for the audience of my blog.

1. People with 3-4 years of experience are most likely to get attractive job offers during placement week at ISB
2. Suppose 1000 people apply to ISB, and out of that 400 are from IT, 200 from Arts background, then in a final class of say 100 students, 40 will be from IT, 20 from Arts. The admissions committee tries to create diversity by reaching out more.
3. ISB has been ranked 20'th B-school in Financial Times Global ranking.
4. Due to this fact, as opposed to about 5000 / 7500 applicants last year, they estimate the number of applicants will go up for the co' 2010.
5. "Indian IT junta" who comprise almost 42% of their current class size, is differentiated form one another at the time of admissions on the basis of following factors. (1) Their GMAT (2) The undergraduate institution where they come from.(3)

As of now me keeping busy with work and many decisions I have to ponder about... And most importantly, I have to take those decisions, because a hard lesson I have learnt is, the more complicated you make your own decisions, the more complicated they deal with you in return, think enough, and take simple decisions.

Let the peace be upon you all...

P.S. All logos and images are the copyright of their registered owners.

Cheers,

Abhinandan