Inblue's MBA story

News but not good

2007-06-28T12:15:00.000+05:30

My blog has been orphaned for long and I've been MIA. There's reason.

I've decided to suspend my MBA plan for a while now for personal reasons beyond the scope of this blog. While, I'd communicated this to a couple of blogger friends personally, I want to share this with the rest of all of you.

The journey on and through the blogoshpere has been very exciting indeed and I am glad of having known so many wonderful people. Folks, thank you all for being so cheerful and hope to see me back on this when I have resumed the B-School journey. I wont have a lot of B-School things and happenings to post about so this blog would be dormat for a some while. Do drop me a line here so that we can be in touch.

For everyone who's starting school this fall, here are best wishes for a rocking and exciting couple of years ahead and for everyone going through the application process, here's a wishing you all the best of luck for the application. If there's anything I could help with, do send me a note.

Told'em !!

2007-04-25T18:39:00.000+05:30

Yes, finally I told my manager that the recommendations he wrote and the interview he helped me prep resulted into an admit. I had anticipated some mixed feelings, but I was glad to see him happy for me. WOW ! He's been one of the better people I've worked with and though I have not put in my papers officially, I felt morally compelled to tell him 2 months in advance so that he, my team and the customer all have time enough plan for projects.

Ok, so the tougher part is done, but list of to-do doesn't seem scary at the moment , I've decided on my housing, almost decided on my room-mate, have been talking to an interesting mentor and will send in my FRS and documents tomorrow so all that remains is sit back and plan one more Heritage tour. I know I am sounding like a freak but that's the whole thing about diversity !

What's up with Inblue ?

2007-04-23T08:34:00.000+05:30

Don't ask !

She was working crazy on a project she working on. She's so scared to talk to her manager and tell him that she's gonna leave soon. She got her Chicago Enrollment packet but still to open it and read it ! She took time off to go to one of World Heritage Sites ( Ajanta Ellora caves) she always wanted to go to.

Work has been crazy to the extent that I am in office until the very last hour before I catch by bus for my vacation, hardly any time to pack. That does not mean everything is bad at work. Rather this has been a good professional year for me and the results and rewards have been great as well. Alas ! This only complicates things when I'll go to my manager( who has been very supportive of my MBA application process) and tell him I am going to quit. :(

After almost a week of time off, and a great time off, I'm still to put in efforts to see what's happening in my Chicago world. But for now, its very thing non MBA. Ajanta and Ellora was one of the best holidays I've ever had in life till date. Never learnt, never lamented and never excited at once in a single moment ever in my life. The paintings and carvings( some of them are intact from 2nd century B. C) will leave you dumbfounded at the skill of the monks who created them.

On another note, what happened in Virginia Tech was so gruesome and scary. Makes me think, does Education always enlighten and mature people?

On the MBA front, I still need to check the Enrollement Packet Chicago sent and fillout the FRS to get that I-20.

BoB !!

2007-04-07T14:03:00.000+05:30

So there this blog was nominated for the Clear Admit Best of Blogging.. I mean WOW ! I just thought I was ranting away all my B-School application thoughts and all that. I mean really ! Never knew I'd be here.

Thank you folks at Clear Admit, its been a good feeling. I've known so many more things and wonderful people through this network!

Whoa ! For Forrest !

2007-03-28T11:34:00.000+05:30

Forrest navigated the WL at Chicago to be admitted.

Hey, pardon me for breaking this news before you could do it yourself ( if i am doing it early enough ) . You deserve this for your perseverance and patience ! Welcome to the class of 2009.

Enrolled

2007-03-22T10:26:00.000+05:30

Yes, I finally sent my deposit and other documents to Chicago last week.

I also pondered upon the housing and logistics in chicago.I enjoy city life and am leaning more towards downtown but the decison is far from being made.

I've have been MIA but really there has been nothing interesting happening unless you want to the absolutely trifle.I am suffering from a seasonal afflition with Economics,enjoying my leisure otherwise and scribbling things on the other side of the MBA world. Check out the other me.

Another thing I need to act upon soon ( sometime next month) is breaking ice with my manager on my departure.Unfortunately my team is not in good health right now, which only means I'll need to give my off-shore team enough notice and plan for transition.

An incredible journey

2007-02-19T13:09:00.000+05:30

At the end of 9 months, irrespective of the destination I have to confess that what I have enjoyed most is the journey.

How 3 years ago with a close friend and I began to think of an MBA in down town mumbai - the banking district of India, how I slogged through the GMAT. ( I am seriously not a good test taker, 6 years ago I screwed my GRE in a similar manner), the relentless soul searching, school choosing, debating with friends and my reviewers on what a good essay is, whats bad about me,chasing my recommenders though we sit across the cube, freaking out on people close to me when I couldn't keep up the schedule, kicking myself when I wrote bad, cribbing about mind-blocks but ultimately completing applications and then panicking about interview calls, fretting infinitely an hour before submission and interview and then niggling about missing admit calls. I hope the years to come we'll see a book "The ultimate roller-coaster ride-An MBA applicant's confessions ".

Anyway, in all, it has been a wonderful experience. At different stages in life, I have drowned myself into a lot of things , Mainframes ( that's where the inblue comes from - translated to awed by the 'big blue'), into Nicholas Sparks books or into making that perfect cup of mint tea but MBA has been a different saga altogether. Probably, because, planning an MBA during these months ( which have been the most challenging for reasons beyond the scope of this blog), I have come closer to the meaning of 'I'.

Looking back at the year that was there was so much good, so much not so good and so much I really didn't want to happen, but then everything passed making me biased or lets say overwhelmingly objective at times and yet supremely dejected and pessimistic at other times.

Its been equally wonderful reading everyone's anxieties, fears, progress and ultimately celebrating their admits and coping with dings ( which continues).

Folks, Thank you all for watching the race and being there to cheer and support while you yoursleves were racing.

No luck at Wharton

2007-02-16T12:59:00.000+05:30

Denied without Interview.

Without pondering on the reasons, I must say I enjoyed the challenge.

...

2007-02-13T20:02:00.000+05:30

Don't know what to name this post :)

Anyway, from S2S I hear that the Indian Interview hubs are full and with only 3 more days to go, I am losing hope on a Wharton Interview Invite. Not matter how much I want to be positive and hang in, its difficult.

Tuck result

2007-02-05T17:01:00.000+05:30

As anticipated, I didn't make it. Received an email from the admissions committee.

What amazed me is the fact that my status in applyyourself was unchanged. Guess Tuck only uses applyyourself to receive applications and turn them complete.

Long time.. no see..

2007-01-30T16:54:00.000+05:30

Folks, first of everything , Thank you for the wonderful b'day wishes !

I know, its been long I wrote something . Believe me , I have just been idling around. Anyway here's a quick snapshot of what's happening.

MBA related

I met a fellow Chicago GSB Admit in Mumbai this weekend and we basically went over things like- housing, are we waiting on other schools, when to enroll, resign and so on.

Thought real hard on what all fellowships I can and want to apply for at the Chicago GSB. Believe me , I found the writing admission essays easier than this fellowship one. Its not so easy to write on economics and how one can help change the dynamics. I am going to work this one though before Feb 9 and fax it.

Wharton interview invites have started to go out for R2 and needless to say I am hoping.

To get any enrollment packet ready, I need my official transcripts and unfortunately my college has told me they wont issue another set of transcripts.Huh ! more following up there.

Non- MBA related

Office is a little laid back these days. This means I have a lot of time to read random things, Check out The world in 2007. I borrowed a paper copy from a friend.Some articles are really good. The TIME edition too has some good articles on the Global economy in 2007 and possibilities of economic slow down in US and its implications.

I have not got my laptop in operational state ( deliberately ) and I am kinda liking this wire-less-ness. Lot of time to chit- chat, reading and SLEEP of course. Nearly 8 months later I have began to cook again and get back to some art work as well.

Submitted Wharton

2007-01-05T10:56:00.000+05:30

I do feel free now. A lot of last minute mishaps crashed laptop, work in office, recommender missing later I did put the application in.

On the other end, I did not submit LBS.I just wasn't motivated enough to put it in.

So begins 2007 for me now !

Phew ! Tuck, Wharton LBS..

2006-12-29T20:48:00.000+05:30

Yep, finally I have managed to complete my Wharton Story ! Essays and Application questions and other details. Wharton has been way tougher than what I imagined.Nevertheless, I have a complete application in hand but will still wait to revise my esssays one more time before I hit the submit.

Not hearing from Tuck has been motivating rather than debilitating. It has given me opportunity to revisit the application and find out what went wrong. I guess, it was the discrepancy in my goals and the recos and my story.I found a loose end and probably that's what killed my tuck app. Anyway, it rests there.

Right now I am in a to-be-or-not-to-be about LBS. I like the school, its international nature but I am not so keen on living in London. With the Chiacgo admit in hand, the confusion is growing stronger. Though I have my story ready, I am kinda stuck in the in-between.

Happy New Year.

Thinking about Tuck

2006-12-22T10:24:00.000+05:30

The Chicago admit has sunk in - possibly completely for me- and between preparing hard for Wharton and LBS, I just stumbled upon some Tuck thoughts.

Umm ! So what's been happening there ? I have known a couple of Tuck interview invites (ad-com initiated) extended to international students. I am wondering what is happening with mine. If the process is totally random and if they still have interviews left to be sent, then I have some hope. If the quota is already exhausted, I am already thinking what went wrong there - Essays, Recos, Fit ?

Nevertheless, I will hop on to BW forums today and find out what is happening or possibly find some other leads. Since holiday season begins in US tomorrow, I dont hope to hear from Tuck in the next 1 week or so.

Until then, its Wharton and LBS - the prep, the deconstruction, discussion and rebuilding.

Latest Update : 2.20 PM IST

Read on BW of a Tuck adcom saying all the interivew invites for the Novermber round have been sent already. So as much as I am hoping , (in the absence of an official word) reality is the that i am probably dinged without interivew at Tuck.

And I have news...

2006-12-20T12:50:00.000+05:30

Inblue is admitted to the Red School ( in the most yellow, green way )

19th dec 8.42 am while I was at work I missed a call from a +1733-* number

19th dec 9.00 am when I was going for breakfast I picked up my cell and realised what I had missed

After some tracing ( thank you Internet ), I found out that the number resolved to Chicago Ad-com. Kicked myself all day for missing that call and freaked out on the Chicago forum and that's when things got clearer. Another applicant had been delivered the good news and 8.30 am IST.

The night passed, and this morning and when I checked my Hotmail I got this email from the Ad com member saying that they could not reach me and that I have been admitted.

Finally, at the end of the drama, I've known that I have been admitted to the GSB, Chicago class of 2009. Congratulations to all you guys who made it . Mr Anonymous- thanks for the early wishes.

I can't describe

2006-12-19T08:56:00.000+05:30

what i have been going through since yesterday evening and now and every moment. The feeling of logging into my Hotmail, refreshing the pages.. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!Every moment my heart seems to skip a beat. The anxiety does not reduce if I switch to the Messenger.

Yea Yea.. that happens when you are eagerly waiting to hear from a school and you know that the Chicago Adcom has started to send out Admit calls.

Neverthelesss, my Wharton essays are done and sent - just in time before any good/bad news pours in. I am pretty much happy with the way they have come out and I am hoping that in the next few days, I will replenish my creative juices and shade the essays well.

For all who are waiting, I know I know its difficult.. I hope there is somewhere to for every one to go and freak out.

In the middle of nowhere

2006-12-14T09:42:00.000+05:30

I thought I'd re-do my Wharton essays but I just couldn't get myself to do anything productive at all, though I had all the office hours and the day thereafter to my disposal. All I did was ponder over my Chicago and Tuck applications. I hear that Tuck R1 interviews( post- application review) going out for international students and I couldn't help but think and then think and then think about what was happening with my Tuck application. On BW, I read some days ago that Tuck doesn't user the 'apply yourself' for Status update notifications, so ended up refreshing my mail twice every hour until 11 to see if Tuck sent anything. ( I really don't know how true this is)

I wanted to go home and read something different but to my sheer disappointment ,I just could neither watch TV nor chat with my roomie. Just to kill this dis-orientation,I opened my box of origami papers and made some things out of it, fixed my blog feed( that was screwed after I switched to Beta.The template still needs to be fixed) and went to sleep. It wasn't a good day yesterday :( (Call it a waste of 8 hours). Occasionally, I guess, the system of applying itself forces an impasse on you.

On Tuesday, critically analyzed my Wharton essays and I found out so many things that I could add. My Candidature has changed a lot in the last 2 months with significant happenings at work place and in my responsibilities, which have brought a lot of ethics substance , dilemmas and failures. A large part of my essays need to change and I am hoping I would do some of it today. The idea is to get this done before I go back home for a day on Sunday.

Now I am going to tune the chords again and not waste today.

Disclaimer:

This is not meant to be a rant post, rather a one that reflects the emptiness and mind block of an applicant during a long application process.

Brooding over Wharton

2006-12-12T08:48:00.000+05:30

I am officially into R2 now, which keeps me away from the R1 anxiety and which brings me back to breaking my own essasys.Between the R's I did pull some fun, books and home making but am back to gazing outside of my windows thiking about E-S-S-A-Y-S. It feels riding the 'Tour de France' - climb, break and ride again. Slow- steady-long. But sometimes , a part of me is eagerly awaitng the end of R2 without bothering about the decisions.

As I sat to review the whole Wharton application, I noticed that there is a lot different in wharton from a standard B-School application -a. no resume ,b. a seperate section to list hobbies, activites and why you love them?Given this and the essays, wharton demands a very well crafted application. I am done with version 1 of the essays and the app, took a days break and started reworking them last night and I found all my essays look lifeless( Or do they look so after writing a lot ?)I also feel some redundany and loose ends and so am going to work them over this week.

Amongst other things, I completed my Tuck Financial aid application and sent it over to Hanover and work has been peaceful discounting the bureaucracy and competition for Projects.

Miracle..

2006-12-08T17:06:00.000+05:30

Last afternoon like every other bored B School applicant, I took to surfing the BW boards.
I panicked twice - seeing people talk out there and realizing that I had absolutely forgotten to turn in my financial aid application for Tuck which was due with the application. I decided to never return to the BW boards and also to call Tuck and inquire if I can still turn in a application .But look what I get..

Today morning I had official communication from Tuck that the deadline for the Financial is extended until 18th of this month. Now that's grace for people like me who forget !

Hmm !! Everyday life Miracles !

PS:

All of you thinking Tuck in R2 , please note that financial aid application from Tuck is not a part of the admission application. It has to be separately turned in via post. Plan for this. Probably Tuck is the only school that has a separate process for this. All other schools I am applying to include financial aid in the their online application.

Submitted Tuck

2006-12-01T12:14:00.000+05:30

Some 4-5 hour before the deadline I put in that app.

Tuck had not specified any strict word limits on the essay . 500 words were a guideline and though I tried best to stick to 500-600, my goals essay did not fall anywhere there. It went quite long but I did ensure that I wasn't ranting using more words, rather was conveying substantial reasons and matter.

Tuck is coming to India but doesn't look like they have space in the Mumbai Information session ( am on the waitlist though), where I could have caught up with a admissions representative - a thing Tuck encourages so much- Interviewing every candidate.

December is in and so will be good/bad news !

Chicago Interview Experience

2006-11-19T00:45:00.000+05:30

I had my interview today with an alumnus at a coffee shop in Mumbai. We had fixed a time but eventually ended up meeting half an hour earlier. The internet is a fascinating place. I had found out about him as soon as I was matched with him by the system. That made the interview easier. I know who I was meeting and was at ease. He is a techie turned investment banker and has returned to India less than a year ago to be a part of this exponential growth. He was friendly and the interviewer was very business like, crisp and sharp. It was not a Q-A session but rather conversational.

A sign of interest/through professionalism - He’d asked for my resume to be emailed and had studied it before hand .Being an erstwhile techie, he could understand my work profile very well. The conversation was easy. He knew about my home town and little things about it and also about my non-descript university - the culture of the university etc.

The questions were simple (Non gassy, succinct). In introspect (6 hrs later), I feel they were what was needed. In chronological order

1. Tell me about yourself everything - school, college job. (He listened patiently)
Here he asked about my international experience, how was it with the people etc - any way he knew everything. He probably knows the whole history

2. Why MBA? What will it do for you?
3. Why Chicago?
He went into a lot of details about this. Who all did I talk to (he could identify with the alumnus I mentioned with whom I talked earlier), did I visit GSB? Did I attend a reception? Have I met with the professors or emailed them - the courses /research (we discussed those briefly)

4. What other school are you applying to?
5. Given everything what will be your top choice school and Why?
6. What do you want to do immediately after your MBA?

Then he shared his background and career with me and told me to ask questions.
I put across some questions I had in mind and he talked at great length about GSB and his experience at the clubs, coming back to India and career-switching - I must say his passion for GSB was visible .
A lot of things went in here Indian economy, hindering factors, investment banking, etc..

From this I picked up a thread for my long term goals and talked a little on it.
From his career switching, I picked up another thread and talked about dilemmas and experiences at my present job. That led to a few more questions

7. So what was the exact difficulty you faced? How did you deal with it?

Then the cracker
8. "You are hardly 3 years experienced and as compared to people who apply to GSB, you would be among the youngest. GSB gets so many students with similar profiles and achievements, why do you think GSB should admit you?"

[I was ready for this - My colleague and but of course Scarecrow --- Yeah guys, you prepared me for it]

From the answer to this, came
9. What do you do for fun?

That was about it. He listened to the last answer and commented on my hobbies and explained me that this is a blind interview and he would send the feedback. He also extended further support by encouraging me to write to him for any further queries. We briefly touched upon the gujju festivals and a little about Mumbai. He did not offer a feedback and I did not ask for one.

All in all it was neither an overwhelming experience nor a disappointing one. I had finished my coffee and he his lime soda and we left. I am going to email him tomorrow morning to thank him.

In all the process he just listened, he took no notes and allowed me to talk. Immediately after we parted, I realized that he had thought about the interview well in advance - what he wanted to know about me, what he wanted to observe, etc. That thought made me happy. I felt as if he had done full justice to the 50- 60 min conversation. Though there were no tough /easy /interesting/ perplexing questions asked, I felt that I had conveyed all I wanted to and that leaves me satisfied and a little nervous. (What if he did not believe in me? What If he thought that I were just another girl wanting an MBA? What if he thought that I were not well grounded and rounded?)

Nevertheless, I am happy with the association. When I had first mailed the interviewer, he immediately gave me a call and shared his contact details and we talked of a mutually comfortable time frame. Again on Friday he called me back to decide the venue and time. The way in with the interview was conducted I felt ‘Yes he wants to know me’.

In sum, a very professional association and it strengthens the preference for my only R1 School.

So now I wait till December 20, 2006.

PS :

Two days ago I had emailed the current students and the other alumus thanking them for sharing their experiences and that I had received my interview invite. The alumus replied back wishing me luck. It is turning out to be a nice association.

Updates

2006-11-14T12:26:00.000+05:30

Chicago

First things - I called up all my reviewers and recommenders and thanked them.

My interviewer is busy and I am going to call him again tomorrow and fix up an appointment. I must say, he's been nice for he proposed to meet in the weekend. I am going to try and schedule it some time next week or next weekend.

Tuck

I am done with two essays.

I am working on the remaining two - the goals and personal history.

Tuck is more objective as compared to Chicago and the application more terse. Given this, I have to alter my strategy significantly. One thing I must admit that having thrashed the Chicago essays so many times, I am finding it easier to write for Tuck. There is new companion I have now - my book and pen where I write out everything I can/must/should say to Tuck per essay. This pencil approach is helping for I am not lost anymore.

AoB (All other Business)

My manager ( who is also my recommender) is proving to be nice help in my Tuck and Chicago journey - giving me tips on what I must potray and why ?

I have had a nice past 10 days. Dinners, coffees, movies, talks, shopping..etc. Go see The Departed, if you have not yet. It's one of the better movies.

I thought office would be relaxed once US Holiday season begins. Unlike last year, we've had so many troubles and I so very much hate to talk on crisis calls now !

Chicago news

2006-11-08T09:55:00.000+05:30

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssss !
I got my Chicago Interview Invite today.
Looks like they liked what I said in my Essays.
For now this small post expresses all my relief, joy, excitement and anxitey - everything !

???

2006-11-02T20:44:00.000+05:30

Chicago interviews are out and I am waiting :(
After Juggler, its my time to feel low checked the forums today and seems that some people who submitted 2 or 3 days before the deadline have gotten their invites.

Anyway, all I am thinking right now about Chicago is that - "I have given it my best and now I need to hope with all I have". ( But yes, I do have fingers crossed hard rite now)

Also, Tuck has began. I have filled the online application and am consciously thinking of my essays. Back to the Essays now. I hope to get them ready this weekend, unless the US servers want to freak out like they did today.

Certified

2006-10-31T19:28:00.000+05:30

ITIL Professional now !
I had been planning this for a while now but never got to the point of writing an exam. Work, work and more work and then Chicago was approaching fast.
Finally did it today morning in the most dramatic , non OCOD way.
(Am I getting unorganised these days?)

Started late from home.
Reached the exam centre 20 min late.
Withdrew money to pay the exam fees from the ATM in the building.
20 mins into the exam, I needed a scratch pad I never bothered to take before.
Was done in the next 10 mins and stormed straight to my office.
Ultimately, I have some updates for Chicago Adcomm now.

The weekend seemed to be like never before. Movies and yes, some thing refreshing. After a long hiatus I found time to sit with colours and calligraphy. It feels so good doing something else other than hitting keys on my laptop. Alas ! This fun ends for am starting the Tuck journey tomorrow. I finished reading on TUCK yesterday,so tomorrow on , it is going to be reaching out to the Tuck community and working on my essays.

Free that I am

2006-10-27T12:51:00.000+05:30

and because I am almost done preparing for all my changes next week, I spent some time grooming my blog.

So there you guys see a new template :)
Can't wait for the weekend to come by.

I am alive

2006-10-26T08:38:00.000+05:30

That means that I am no more sick and that also means that I am no more writing an MBA application essay.

The past 6 months were a kind of race. I remember being bed-ridden in late April and most May and then toiling through the GMAT ,the schools , the hectic work , house hunting,etc. Whatever I did - slept or went out watching movies or read something else or went out for a picnic - the application always seemed to be on my head. But yesterday was different. Yesterday was the kind of college day week ends. All I did was idle around and read Glimpses of World History - a book I so very much love ( and rest on for its as fat as my pillow is )

So long had it been when I woke up at ease, not lost, not tense, no plans, no deadlines, no office.
So long had it been when I had soaked myself in a good book most day and chilled alone in the evening and back to the book at night.
Not long ago had it been yesterday.
Now its morning again with the MQ world around me in office.
Not long will it be before I drown into the IT service management texts.
A week will it be when I will be ruminating over my Tuck application.

But yes ! I feel I am alive.
The grey cells got a good change to think about so many other things except the MBA apps.

How not to

2006-10-24T13:26:00.000+05:30

think and think and think about your APPS?

Simple. Fall Sick !

Yeah, I did that and have been down sick for the past 4 days. It helps. It really does. You stop thinking about the little app things and start dreaming of times when you will be able to eat

and jump and enjoy.

I know a lot of people have been suffering anxiety attacks in the past week.
Chill ! Take it easy !

PS: I am luckly the wearieness and fatigue is manifesting itself before I set into the next round of apps. Call it refuelling !

Lost

2006-10-20T11:23:00.000+05:30

Chicago is done.

The status says 'Received'. Now what on earth does it mean ?

I know it will be complete only after the adcom has verified the matter. Unitl 18th it said submitted and after recommender submitted his letter, it says received.

Alternatively,Am I feeling empty ? Or kind of lost ? R2 is when most of my apps will go in so logically I should be gearing up for the next phase but I dont even feel like reading a Danielle Steel now, let alone something serious. Its a void. Anyone joining me here ?

May be I am suffering from some post submission 'if disorder'. What if my GMAT looks less to them ? What if I made a foolish gramatical error out there in the essay ? What if I missed something little ?

'If' is a bad disease and I hope a weenend should cure it.

Head on-

2006-10-19T17:19:00.000+05:30

With my boss's boss !

This is not a cribbing post but just wondering how the IT world works, how strong middle -managament vision is and how modern their strategy is. When it comes to pitch for new business, develop expertise - some how they have a frog-in-the-well thought process

And that's when we clash head on with 'my boss's boss.'
After an application cycle, What an adventure it is to listen to funda and theory :)

How does it feel ?

2006-10-18T14:08:00.000+05:30

Well, dont know but it feels nothing right now. Its just one application. But yes if there is one word for this - 'satisfaction'.

Trashing my goals essays 5 times needed some real courage becuase it was me who had to write it again. What did i get for it ? Well.. humm.. my reviewrs comments and belive me they were awesome. Their comments made the essays complete ! Some how every other day when I looked at the essay I grew more critical until October 7 when I finally knew the essay was a picture of 'me'.

The team picnic was a good stress buster and so were the little parties and lunches. With the work pressure and new tasks, I needed so many de tours ( including a Danielle Steel book ) and today I realise that it also pays to be 'unorganized'. 'Dont rush, take your time. Quality !'. Yes i must admit that its the largest contributor to satisfaction. I must admit that the solitude of the picnic helped.My goals came out cogent, cohesive and clean.

When it strikes , it does hard. So much new at the job and some bad experiences- all came in at once, but finally yesterday all started to get right.

I know I have been out of the blogosphere and of the app circle for a while.. Time to catch up !

Finally

2006-10-18T00:38:00.000+05:30

Submitted !

Ah ! finally

2006-09-20T08:27:00.000+05:30

Essays !

Oh I hated to hate myself when I looked at what I'd written and I wrote to hate myself again. write-hate-write -- That was the state of Goals essay. Every other day when I saw it I knew I could do better. The first review of the essays helped a lot . I incorporated the suggestions and now my essays are out for a second review.

While everything else seems to be in place,my recommenders are getting a little lazier. Can't blame them, they too are having a hard time at work.. But the better part is that once in awhile we have a little chat !

What else do I say ? From the world of crashing servers I'll be back soon.

Amazing Read

2006-09-13T14:58:00.000+05:30

Snapshots from hell ! Nah
Its a lengthy way to make you laugh

Folks, do read this and Enjoy

So, you know that not everyone in B-School is just studying. That MBA is not the most important thing you do at B School, that money is not all you get !

A little delay

2006-09-07T18:06:00.000+05:30

I thought yesterday would be a nice day for my essays since it was a holiday. Well not entirely !

I have been busy with work ( including a little yesterday ) and down with a little fever ( fatigued) so most of the evenings have been less productive. I could not get my Recommender's kit ready by Tuesday evening. I rescheduled meeting my recommenders to the next week and that allows me to create kits for both my recommenders. Since I was not in the right spirit, I took to filling out some Online forms and got my transcript ready.

I am done with the Chicago essays 1, 2 ,3 a, b. The 3a is a real reilef and I am finally happy that I have it on paper now. I just have 3c to be penned now ( which should be done today because I have my matter ready ).

As planned I also reviewed the Goals essays and could polish it to an extent. I am still working on this until I get it right. I also started with doing my resume and I hope that should be done fairly fast.

This weekend I planning a trip home and before it I should have my reco kits,essays v1.0,resume v1.0 ready so that I have a complete Chicago package ready. My most important task for now is getting the reco kits ready and reviewing my essays.

I hope that's everything for a school

So much covered so long to go

2006-09-04T16:10:00.000+05:30

My last post seems to have spurred a Debate. Well ! I'd say all's well that ends well. Whatever approach one takes, one has to come out with a crisp and well founded personality.

I did quite something this weekend.

I broke the ice with one of my recommenders over a cup of coffee I agreed to write my recommendations. Guess what , he too plans to go back to school but to get a Phd in Physics. Since both of us have a good rapport and similar interests, I am hoping for him to pen good letters. I am planning to meet him again on Wednesday ( its a holiday) to talk over other applciation aspects.

I had been writing my Goals since Wednesday and by Thursday evening the "description of the path" was over 1100 words ! I knew I was not getting anywhere with it. I felt like I was writing a chronologically elaborated resume. I stopped- took to some serious thinking and pondered on what was going wrong. I talked to a friend about it. He categorically distinguished all my why's frm the What's. I realised that all I thought was cause was in fact just an event. Substantial reasons were missing. I knew where I lacked. My whole stub seemed like only a lot of what's , without significatnt why's , how's and what change it brought.

I scrapped the whole thing and began afresh. I sorted out a few 'what's' that where important to me and wrote out all the why's and how's. I didnt start writing until I had the right balance. Next I set out to write it and I now am ready with a fair draft of it . I still need to imporve the 'why school x ' part. There are a couple of lose links and holes. I still am not satisfied with what I have produced so Iam going to sit with it today again ( now that i am in a different frame of mind )

I also worked around the 2 smaller essays for Chicago and the second essay is roughly done. The one thing I have been thiking quite seriously is " What is one thing that most people do not know about you?" Ah ! I have thought of a lot of options but none seem convincing enough. I know iIwill get there soon so just hanging in for the moment.

Among other tit bits, I figured out who would do my final reviews, broke ice with them and gave them a tentative schedule of when I could get drafts on their desk, created a check-list of all I need to give and convey to my recommender on Wednesday.

Having done it all, I spent the sunday completing the final exit formalities of my old apparment, shopping for music and watching Forrest Gump and Derailed ( you'd want to see Clive Owen !)

Like Forrest I have ample time for detours.

The Essay way

2006-08-29T15:47:00.000+05:30

I know my essays are coming up very slow and I Hobbes, Juggler, Iday are already in lap 3 -4. Nevertheless,here is the humble start of the apping act.

I don't want to sound too gyani but this is what I have come to understand about Essays and I am going to stick to this approach for my apping this season.

Mega stubs

The Person Stub : Who are you ?
The Resume Stub:How have you progressed in your career?
The Goal/ future stub:What do you want to be,why , how and when ?

Listing all the happenings and the reasons under these would give me an exhaustive set of experiences that I can use in my essays. It is indeed a long and pain staking project.

I am already done with my Resume Stub, lisitng all my projects from the days of a Trainee till date and categorically noting down every experience. I will use this stub to create my skeleton of related professional essays.

The goals stub is shaping up slowly as it needs deep introspections as well as research into the nuances of my future career goals and personal aspirations. At times, one tends to digress. But yes I hope for this to be complete this week and i will have a draft and generic goals essay.

The personal stub is very haphazard and most of it is inspired of the essays questions past present and my own experiences. I feel this doesn't need to be very exhaustive either because at times its futile ruminating and jotting things which would seem not to fit anywhere.

Themes

There are mostly two or three virtu we all vaule most and are distinct in our personality and are roots of our hobbies. Identify them and paint all applications with those 2- 3 colours or themes. They could be any thing curiosity, compassion ( leading to non- profit), patience, etc etc ( gassy ).

Good writing

The economist Style Guide and my favourite The McKinsey MECE Principle.

Finally good Essays posts Vatsa's cents for IT Guys/Gals ,Axechick Goals rumination, UniQpath's Essay musings

The only rational is to write down all that has happened and then integrating the experiences to create a whole some picture. This will prevent me from being too overwhelming or too sublime. Secondy, it reduces the chance that I would miss something.

Was that too pontifical ? Eh !

Time to wrap. All suggesstions on essay thinking, writing and refurbishing are welcome.

Moving..

2006-08-28T14:44:00.001+05:30

Its been a weekend to remember- moving my appartment ( through the week), chasing the broker and owner to return the deposit I payed on the previous apparment, settling the new place. Ah !!! I am content its all over now.

The new place is good to go now and I am hoping it would do me good. I spent the sunday hanging out with old friends from college ( not to mention the encounter with pune mamu's over my towed two wheeler)

The moving and other errands including some laziness. The progress on the essays is slow but i do feel like a daily diva having completed this moving project ( imagine a smug look here).

Chicago

2006-08-23T08:58:00.000+05:30

Just began to pen my chicago essays and I realize that space is premium. Zipping is an art !

Something about chicago:

No question that asks you to describe a leadership experience or a failure.
No question that asks you about team work,ethics,

Interesting, isn't it ?. The whole packet boils down to a single question " Tell me who you are ( the 3 short questions ) and why you want an MBA and Why from Chicago ?" With such a simple question, its a science to reveal all aspects of youself to the admission officer.

Writing for Chicago is like riding the roller coaster in yourself over and over again thorough the 20 + x years.

Detour - Cars, Maximum City

2006-08-21T17:02:00.000+05:30

The Cars !

Its an amazing movie for animation lovers. If you found Finding NEMO great, you ought to see this one. The whole concept is just incredible.

The last week and the week end and the whole week wasn't too exciting.While almost drowned in Maximum City ,I managed to write down some work and project history and interospect. (call is the start of apps),sorted out who would write my recommendations and now need to get heads up with the apps, talk to my recommendors and put together the drafts.

(Occaissionally, I do feel like a Indian with less than 7xx)

Such a long road !( At times I really am skeptical of seeing myself through the whole process).

Schools - and they are

2006-08-16T16:22:00.000+05:30

I had a few schools in mind. After my GMAT, I got a bit demotivated and went back to my schools. After speaking to a couple of current students and getting into the details of each schools, I am down to

Chicago October 18
Tuck November 30

When I started off, I even had Darden in mind but now [ after a closer examination ],I am beginning to have second thoughts about it.

I am still investigating the teaching methods at Tuck. If any one has insights on it please pour in your thoughts !They do not have any student ambassadors listed on their site as yet. Guess I will have to wait a little for the concerns to be addressed.

Hass/Columbia.

Yeah that is what I am into at the moment! Comparing, contrasting and weighing.I am beginning to have this feeling that Haas is too selective ( being only one of top schools on the West Coast). I guess I wont be too competitive there with lots of techies running for it.

Why MBA ?

2006-08-14T18:16:00.000+05:30

A long time ago I wrote on this PG thread about why people want MBA, It was basically frustration of aspirants over the highly comptetive CAT. Makes a light read though !

While returing from Bombay I found myself lost in that thread again. Most of us, young and ambitious want an MBA for a varitey of reasons :

Bored with my IT job , hitting keys and moving mouses.
More money, fast money.
switch career and get a better job [wait a min What is a better job? Its relative ]
Start my own venture [makes sense ]
Skip a few steps of the coporate ladder in my industry.

Might sound cynical, but aren't all these ephemeral ?

Isn't an MBA is more like IT , an enabler rather than an end. Just a catalyst ? If MBA is the 'end', its the worng end. The end is 'I'

Of GMAT, GPA and brands

2006-08-08T13:08:00.000+05:30

Through out the last weekend I was pondering on my to-be /not-to-be case.Surfed the forums to know how different ad comms treat a 690-Indian-IT- female and even wrote to a couple of ad coms.

While Wartonites tell me the score is good enough, GSB Chicago was of the opinion that I should increase my score if possible. I had also asked them " When does GMAT surface as a differentiator between two applicants ?". The answer to this questions was vague. I also asked them what the GMAT meant to recruiter ?( Yeah ! IB and consulting firms looks for GMAT while recruiting) and I could not get any further insight into it either. The Hass ad comm as pretty vauge in addressing the 690 dilemma.

I had this notion that the schools also take into consideration the 'brand' of you undergraduate university ( college ). This proved wrong. Both Wharton and Chicago did not belive in brands, they are actually concerned with "what one did with his/her education" instead of the brand on your transcript. The adcoms say that since they are in constant touch with alumni and current students , they are aware of competition at the universities in non-US countries and hence can fairly judge a person's GPA irrespective of the brand.

Hass differs !.It does consider the comparative quality of your undergraduate education. In his podcast the addmissions officer says that they do consider the competitive nature and rigor of your undergraduate study . That means a 3.8/4.0 from a not-so-known college is not very outstanding. A 3.5/4.0 from IIT would be good though !

All in all, things moved a bit in the past week but not as much as they should have.

So, should I put the BSchool dreams on the shelf for now and start all over again for 2010 or should I try my favourites this year ( Hass, Stern, Darden ). I am still thinking !!!

And Yeah ! I am going to devote some time this week for non-MBA activities which include appartment hunting, catching up on my long left Glimpses of world history ( in parallel with Maximum City ) and paying off the bills.

My GMAT Day !!

2006-08-04T11:00:00.000+05:30

I reached Pearson Centre at 8.25. There were few test takers at the centre already and a couple of them were ostensibly tense. After We checked in, came a very elderly person at the centre. I initially thought, he worked at the centre. It was later that I realized, he is test taker too!! Boy at 51, uncle had thought of writing a GMAT and going to B School. Truly enlightened soul he must be !

The AWA was interesting. The first thing that showed up was the argument . It was one of those easy things were a I was required to present a critique on a work-from-home policy adopted by a company. I finished it with 5 min to spare and revise. The second essay required me to present my opinion on globalization. That was interesting too. I finished that one with 5 mins to spare.

10 minutes break !!!! - I told myself Don't repeat your Quant disaster from GMAT Prep2.

The Quant section( my bad ) was a roller coaster ride. I was dumbfounded on the second question itself. But worked through it some how and moved to the next. ( I guess I got that one correct),the questions grew harder progressively and I found myself running short of time. At the fag end, I had 10 min to spare and 10 questions to go. I guessed the last 5 questions. By the time it ended, I knew, I had messed it up everywhere. I was dreading the 40-41 score again !

Again 10 - mins break !!! - I told myself to forget the Math and hit the verbal head -on.

The Verbal started with Sentence corrections. Though I was doing good, a part of me was succumbing to the Quant disaster. I kept telling myself to hang in there for a while. It worked for a the first 25 questions. I sailed through the RC's and CR's well but a the SC's were a pain at times. By the 30 the Question I was exhausted of the ruminations and hanging in. I had subconsciously surrendered to a 660- 650 score but managed to finish the verbal with 40 seconds to spare.

Then came those things where one fills all personal information. And the final score dawned at the click of the next button. 690 ( 46, 39 ). I was amazed at my quant score and aghast at the verbal. The only relief was that I had a balanced score. With both percentiles > 80, I felt just relieved ( Its over, though it didn't end as well as I wanted it to)

There is this distinct thing one feels when one looses to the winner by a fraction of a second or by a millionth of an inch. The last I felt that was when I wrote my Securities Markets certification exam. I passed by .03 marks. I knew how good it feels to cross a dreaded barrier. This time around, I was on the other side of the barrier.

I was neither elated nor worried. I was just blank. I understood it was just a matter of 3-4 questions as I had been suffering from this 'just-missed' syndrome for the last whole week.

I knew I didn't do as good as I should have or as good as I could. There could have been a lot of reasons to it, but what mattered then was the result. I knew, I had given it my best and hence didn't attempt to find any reasons.

In minutes I was calling people to report my score and Sid calls me saying, "Hey what's up with the Canada MQ ?I don't find a head and tail of it." He he.. Back to work. I spend the next 20-mins 'on-call'

The take on retake

2006-08-04T08:46:00.000+05:30

I'll blabber a little later, first its time to thank everyone for their wishes and encouragement. With work and the GMAT, the blogs and mint tea's kept the sane in me alive.

So I ended up scoring less than 700. Disappointing Indeed !!!!!
And as I have felt after every major test, I feel "I can do a lot better than I did yesterday ".

The take on retake

With R1 deadlines in early October and November, a retake means, I need to cut out a lot of application effort and paste it into a better GMAT score. However, I don't think I have the bandwidth to retake it in a month. With work piling up at office and no possibility to take time-off from work, a retake within a month ( with the same work schedule and same level of preps ) would not add anything more to the score. Additionally,I checked up the dates and there are no dates available until September 28 now. Isn't that's way too late ?

Now,What does the GMAT score mean in the entire application ?

I know, GMAT is just a part of the whole application and the ad-com uses it to assess the applicants academic potential in conjunction with the undergraduate GPA ( which > 3.7 in my case ) So, how strong is my academic profile and what are the implications of the GMAT score ?
My quantative and Verbal percentiles both exceed 80, so they are acceptable at schools, but I belong to the challenged Indian IT pool. Is 690 competitive ? Do schools look at 690 applicants in the same way as they look at 700, 720 applicants. Will they look at the fact that the score is balanced ? Will they see that the total percentile is still 91.
Doesn't the score go against me ; an average Indian GMAT score is about 720-740. However strong I put up my essays, will they offset my GMAT score ?
Most schools have an average score of 700. But isn't the average misleading ? (The schools never publish the standard deviation). Now, Even if 80% of the scores fall in the 650 -740 range ( Tuck, Stern,Chicago) , Does that provide enough information to access the competitiveness of a Indian-IT-690 applicant ? I guess, no.

Though my score won't send my application to the bin at Stern, Tuck, Columbia, Chicago, Hass, Darden, will it boost my application? I am growing skeptical about my candidature All in all ,Hamlet's dilemma dawns -To be or not to be.

What does the 'voice of bloggers' say ?

What ideas do fellow applicants have ?

Done with the GMAT

2006-08-03T19:34:00.000+05:30

Its done. The unofficial score report says 690 ( V 39 Q 46)
I know its not a competitve score. I know i could have done better than this.
The only better part is that i am over 80 percentile in both the sections.

At present i am just blank with the score. The problem is it is not too bad and at the same time it is no where near where i wanted to be.
More thoughts later.

The final blow of GMATprep 2

2006-08-01T15:40:00.000+05:30

This one rocked me !

680 V41 Q42 was what turned up.

Goes without saying, I am more than skeptical and demotivated rite now.

The Quant was challenging. All through the section, I just kept the focus high but the DS some how got tougher and tougher. I timed the quant section real bad. I had to guess the last 5 questions blindly without reading the questions. I was my worst Quant perofrmance till date.

I am absolutely clueless on the cause of this debacle. May be I spent just too much time on the first couple of questions.

Verbal was good. I got a total of 10 incorrect and that took me to 41. I hit the wrong circle on a couple of SC and RC's out there. The CR performance was great. I didnt not falter on a single CR.

Now with less than 48 hours to go for the test,I am full of doubts and ???. I know I can't turn the world upside down in less than 48 hours and the only thing I can do is to put all my energy and will int0 those three hours at the test centre.

No further thoughts. Period.

PS :

Now why do I always get a stupid 680 or a 710 .Dont other GMAT scores suit me ?

Last week and the GMAT

2006-07-31T15:05:00.000+05:30

Yeah I know I have been a lot more irregular both at the tests and blogging.

I booked the date.. G-Day is August 3 2006. Since I would not be able to take any prep leaves with office work, it didnt matter what weekday i wrote the test on.

I'd taken the GMATprep last to last sunday and ended up 680.( Q 46, V 38) It goes without saying, ithat was a big-big-big setback. I thought I was doing well but somehow couldn't hold my nerve on the test and went in to a couple of silly errors on the Quant as well. The test was a good learning though. I understood that its most important to be at peace with one's self when cracking the GMAT.

Sure, it took me a day or two ( and a whole lot of phone calls from friends) to get out of the shock and hit the books again. Through out the last week,I stuck to the OG and saw it to the end. Took my learnings from the Kaplan 800 and the practice questions where I erred. Most important of all, I gave myself time and peace to understand the little nuances . It was a difficut week indeed to battle with fears and still push on with the preps.

That has passed and after the last whole week of prep, took the Princeton 4 on Sunday. That gave me hope of a some good score. The test was good and I found myslef keeping the concentration levels throughout the test . 710 ( Q 46 V 41) was what the score read.

Now that I am done with most of the prep material, I am just planning to keep my cool. Believe ! and go hit it on Thursday. After today's break, i am planning the GMAT prep2 Tomorrow and that should be it.

With the OG behind me and 710 in my bag, it feels a lot better today but GMAT always creates apprenhensions and If's. Guess that It how it is in the last week.

What's up with my GMAT ?

2006-07-21T08:27:00.000+05:30

Long time no blog !

The last two weeks have been gruelling at office and that has slowed down the GMAT a bit. However, I've manged to keep some pace. Took the Kaplan 2 test last week but did not do well on it so just opted to forget it as one of those test that didnt matter.

Its been long that I posted something comprehensive on the preps. Sofar, I have just been analysing the tests and optimizing on them.

So where am I with the preps ?

I am done with the OG Math Review and the OG Verbal Review. I was good at Quant, On the verbal, I was relatively better at RC and CR. SC is my strength any day. I should be reviewing all the questions where I erred on the Verbal.

Besides, I spent some quality time with the Kaplan 800 last week end and found it useful. I still have the SC section to complete there.I enjoyed working with that book.Its just amazing.

I also completed the Sectional Tests on the Kaplan CD. They where helpful as well. I would recommed that to everyone. Its convinent ( shot times ) and helps you pace yourself. The beneift is - you relaise how much time you take for a specific question type and helps you time your sections on the tests effectively. I realised that i was able to hit the SC's in less than 1 mins but it took me 1.5 mins to tacke a RC . Helped me a lot to time my verbal section.

Got a head start with AWA while sitting idle in office in the wee hours of the day( read 7.30 am ). Analysing arguments is fun but certain issues are too abstract to comment on. I am not bothering too much on the AWA for now. Will brush up a little towards the end.

I have come to know this about myself -

There are times when I do exceptionally well on my practice sets and the tests. Those sessions are satisfying, but there are times when I perform poorly. The only reason I can think of is, over working, anxiety and the pressure of performance. This is when i give way to silly mistakes. So since the last week I have tried to chill my preps and work with the books when my mind is fresh and active.

At the fag ends of each section on the test, i seem to get nervous with the clock ticking away, On both my Kaplan tests i could not concentrate on well on my last 5 questions on each section becuause I was left with 'a question per min'. I dont not recollect well, but i think i did not face this on the PowerPrep tests, so I am not too worried of it. I know i'll overcome this pressure.

Analysis of my 4 full length tests,

(Princeton 1 - 630,PowerPrep1 -690,PowerPrep2 -710,Kaplan 1 -620)

I was really bad at Math on test1, now I have a considrable improvement in the Hit ratio 42, 44, 46, 50 . What i need is consistent 50's on the Quant ( not 50's - the aim is < 6 questions incorrect ). I hope i will be able to nail 32+ correct questions. The comming Kaplan and GMAT preps will tell me.

On the Verbal section, my confidence is still shaky. The score ladder reads 34 ,32,41,31. I am not able to realise whether i improved or degraded.

The Silliest mistakes I committed on Math- Mis-reading the questions, reading half the question, forgetting to convert to appropriate measurements.

The Silliest mistakes on Verbal - not reading the answer choices back into the question (for the SC ). Interpreting too far on RC and CR, failing to understand the scope.

What are the plans ahead ?
I am planning to spend some time with the OG 11 and review my mistakes from Kaplan 800,OG 11 Quant and Verbal Guides. Take a couple of more tests and finally hit the AWA for a day or two and look out for a decent date to write the GMAT when I am relatively less burdened at office.

Interesting Essay Questions

2006-07-13T12:42:00.000+05:30

A lot of schools have released their deadlines by now. Some interesting questions the schools have asked:

Hass
What is your favorite quote, and why is it meaningful to you?

Darden
What would you do if you did not have to work for a living?
Describe a significant maturing experience.

Chicago GSB
You have been asked to write an editorial about the most pressing issue facing humanity. Please identify the issue and justify why you have selected it

What book, play, or movie would you recommend to the admissions committee? Why

Why MBA ? Why now and why this school ? , Describe a leadership moment, Describe a failure moment - are fundamental questions that all schools will ask The above are just to highlight the creativity attempts of the ad-com to get to know the 'person' more than the 'professional' in you.

It will be an interesting experience to answer these in relation to the other subject matter that we present to the ad-com.

Kaplan Test 1

2006-07-11T14:16:00.000+05:30

BOY!!!! That was my first expresssion when the test ended. Call it the GMAT roller coaster ride.

Before I bore everyone with the ubiquotus scores, I want to confess that the test was the most interesting and most enjoyable i have written till now ( PP kept throwing silly OG questions at me. this one was way too far.

For the honours, the score says 620 ( Q50,V31 )
for both the scores I want to say - Hello ! was that me ?

In the disection of the the test

Verbal ( # incorrect 17 ).. That number itself is too great to demand a listing of the questions.

It was out of this world. I thought I was excellent at SC, nah ! i flunked 4 of them of this test. RC - better not say anything about them. What do you do when people discuss impressionism and theories of justice etc etc. Needeless to say I got a big chunk of the RC's wrong. All in all a though one there. I was not able to time it well either. I was in dying by the 30 question. Guessed the last 7 questions. Again needless to say I got 6 of them worng and 3 of them were RC

i could feel that the questios were getting tougher as i advanced. I saw the first RC at 10.

I found all the verbal questions too abstruse and the passages to long and to boring and the the CRs too complex as well. Somehow Kaplan has a weird writing style. Things will be non negative rather than positive.Most CR's were worded in a hopelessley complex manner.

Humm SC - got to catch up the kaplan 800. There were little nuance and sutble difference in the answers i chose and the correct ones.

Quant ( #incorrect 9) .
(9,11,13,14,16,19,32,33,36)
Yeah i never expected this on Kaplan ! Come on now, I have never been good at Math.
There I go and all through the Quant I though I was having my worst quant ever. 4 silly mistakes again. ( or i guess its silly because when you are writing the damn test you are so pressed for time, you rush and then in leisure you sit with that question and you know the right things). As iday said its concentration i guess.

Now I am beinnning to wonder, how good is good enough and how complex is complex ?

I guess by Kaplan standards, i did ok-ish. Not too happy though
There is a lot to be worked on with the Kaplan 800 and the Big Fat OG11 now.

PowerPrep 2

2006-07-10T12:34:00.000+05:30

710 ( Not after the score now !)

46 Quant 41 Verbal
4 incorrect on quant 2,7,9,19
6 incorrect on verbal 2,8,10,x,y,z (dont even remember them)

The long and short of it all :
I timed the test well, ( finished both sections with 2 mins to spare for the last questions)
2 out of 4 on the Quant were silly mistake.Again 2 consecutive RC's. Needeless to say the second was a little weird.

Time to kaplan now.

PowerPrep 1

2006-07-01T16:14:00.000+05:30

Powerprep #1
690 : Quant 44, verbal 40 ( Is that me ??)
Raw scores (Q 25/37 , V 32/41)

My bad
Boy ! on a saturday morning , the atmosphere is awesome in pune, and inblue's got the write a test.I did plan on rewieng my previous practice test before i wrote the test today, but when the FIFA QC gets interesting, bye bye GMAT. The long and short of it is, its too difficult to maintain never on the 3 hour trial.
Quant.
4 silly mistakes on quant.[Ok ! Ok i know its criminal.]. Was not able to time the quant section well. was going well until 23, then started to feel the pressure of the ticks. On the 25th question, I really found that i was too short of time. A part of me wanted to hurry.
didnt concentrate well on #25, and ended up guessing,a silly error on 26,less time on 27 : All of them incorrect. 30,31 again incorrect and then 33,34 and 36,37 met the same fate.
All in all improper timing increased a lot of pressure in the later part of quant.
Verbal
Started with SC's, did well on them, got 0-3 white washed on a RC in the 20's and a couple of CR's. Again didnt time it well. The clock was on my head by the 30th question.

What to do now ?

Cure the 'bunch incorrect' syndrome. on the quant [(25,26,27),(30,31), (33,34), (36,37)] and getting knocked out by an obnoxious RC on Verbal.
Time the Quant properly.Keep time for diffucut questions that might pop up on the Later part of Quant. Increase the Speed on quant. All questions count to the the score as much as the first 15-20.
If I have guessed on a given question, pay close attention to the 2-3 questions that follow ( double check).

GMAT Vetrans pls pour in your suggestions.

Princeton Test #3

2006-06-26T12:10:00.000+05:30

If there was a exaspareated expression it would be less to express my state.

Can you belive it ?
Quant #incorrect - 9 ( 9,21,24,25,26, 34,35,36,37)
Verbal #incorrect -13 ( dont remeber the numbers bu yeah 2,3,11 )
and the scaled scores were 35 and 28 giving me a560 on Princeton #3.
Didnt feel like writing any other test.

I was all confident on the Quant , though bored on the Verbal ( it was tougher than expected). But Man ! 38 rocked me off..

Tell me it is the princeton's screwed up scoring algorithm or Adaptive nature !!

Priceton Test # 1 and 2

2006-06-21T15:51:00.000+05:30

Princeton Test 1:
Total score 620 V 32 Q 42
Pros :
Did not get a single incorrect on the first 9 questions on each section ( a must )

Cons :
Poor pacing , left 2 unapptempted on Quant and 4 on verbal
Silly calculation mistakes on Quant and adopted longer methods to reach answers ( time waste)
Poor concentration

Raw statisctics
# incorrect on Quant 10, # unattempted 2
# incorrect on Verbal 12, # unattempted 4

Princeton Test 2: ( appeared in parts )
Total score ~cant guess but should be in the range of 660-670 V 34 Q 40

Pros :
Improved pace : could attempt all questions on both sections
Better focus ( didnt get bored while i wrote the tests)

Cons :
One silly mistake on #2 on quant ( clicked the wrong answer) and a goof up on #3
Poor performance on RC in Verbal ( #2, # 5) affected the score badly
still suffering from focus on RC and CR. ( Get bored reading it at times)

Raw statisctics
# incorrect on Quant 6
# incorrect on Verbal 10

What's changed in between the 2 tests

Tried to pace myself better and maintain the interest, which also resulted in messing up some key question in the 1-15 slot.
Accuracy hasn't improved a lot, but the number of silly errors on Quant reduced

@MBABlogger and Forrest

Thanks for the coments. I am going to be careful on the test # 3 and # 4 with the 1-20 slot. No messing up the initial questions

Before i take the next tests

The progress so far :Princeton 2006 : done ,Kaplan 2006 : Verbal completed ,1000 SC : 150 down Strike rate ,0% ( still learning the rules) ,1000CR : 100 down Strike rate 55% ( Bad)

Review all errors on the 150 SC and 100 CRs before proceeding to new practice questions. Make notes on these
Take more CR practice tests from 1000 CR and OG11.
Start Kaplan 800 on SC and CR.
Take more RC practice Questions

Take 2 practice tests on the coming weekend ( Princeton test # 3 and Kaplan Test #1 )

All the best to me

Verbal sectional test

2006-06-21T15:18:00.000+05:30

Now its time for verbal.
Completed Verbal section for Princeton test from yesterday.
The score 34 :(

Time to reflect
Number of incorrect questions : 10
all questions attempted
4 incorrect in the first 15 (Bad ! Bad!)
The 3 question was an RC ( Boring eh !) follwed by amother RC.

Lesson : 34 means you payed for mistakes on the first 15

Quant Sectional Test

2006-06-20T13:38:00.000+05:30

Humm !
Took the Princeton Test 2 today. Only the quant section.
Reflections
Aaaah !!! ( consider a damn pissed expression) I clicked the wrong answer on #2. How on earth did I do that ???? Got to be more careful and manage my restlessness.
A silly calculation mistake on a apparently easy #3

How on earth can one expect a good score now ! 40 was the scaled score though I attempted all the 37 questions and got only 6 incorrect on 37. Isn't this a adaptive. Do 2 consecutive incorrect answers in the first 5 cause such a quake !

belief me I was content with my pace and accuracy on this test. The resilience improved and so did the strategy. But the poor scaled score pissed me off.. How can one click on the wrong oval ???

any way ! Good learning.
Accucary, pace and care are the key. A 45+ on Quant is a must ( hell I am an engineer!!)

Princeton Test #1

2006-06-19T14:31:00.000+05:30

Finally wrote it !

No great Scores. 620. V 34 Q 42

The Quant experience :

Not reading the question properly, fell in a an answer trap.
Silly calculation mistake.
Pace - could not attempt the Question # 36 and 37.
Made wild guesses on #34,35 as well

The Verbal review :

Frankly, GMAT verbal is no joke. It scares life out of you to concentrate for 1hour 15 minutes on verbal content.

A dull RC dampened the sprit ( !! eh ! no matter what keep the spirit high)
A couple of confusing CRs
A couple of Confuging SCs

All in all an ok verbal score in the making. got the first 9 question correct. ( good job ! ) flunked the 10th and then by the time i passed that ultra boring RC to the 23rd question i was exhausted. Got 3 incorrect in a row ( 24,25,26 ) and then the a sinusodal curve follwed on the # 27,28,29,30,31. Got every other Question incorrect. Add to the fluctuation, i was extermely bad at timing the test. could attempt only 36 Q. The 5 questions that i could not attempt beat the already low score.

The take away :

Need to time the tests well. Cannot afford to leave questions unanswered
Need more reslinence to sit through the test and focus on all questions equally.
Need to be more attentive and avoid silly errors.

The next test is due sometime in this week.

School School

2006-06-15T09:50:00.000+05:30

When I first started to contemplate MBA as the next carrot, i was just belwildered with the information available on the www about International MBA programes. The whole MBA sphere was full of ranking, glossy brochures ( i ended up reading a whole bunch of them ) and school receptions. The ones i attended in '05 were Wharton and Stanford in Mumbai. Boy! They were just more than marketing acts ( It was an experience in itself though it did not help me get close to the schools, which is what the committe claims it does). After months of going through the rankings and the beautiful websites, i still found myself lost.

Humm ! The first thing i asked myself then is, " why MBA?" ( after all i needed to find the correct anwer to this and present the same (sell rahter) to ad-comm on a A-day). The answer didnt come instantly but finally it did come ( career-switch ) and this one answer helped me a lot in structuring my thought process about shortlisting schools.

First thing i did was ordered the bibles

How to get into the Top MBA Programs
ABC of Getting the MBA Admissions Edge

The first one helped me a lot in comprehension of the rankings and What to look for in schools and where ( I have not adopted the read first approach for Mountak, I am going to use it as refer when needed ).

After reading parts of the Mountak i was back to my investigation ( and talking to friends ) about what schools. Brand name or Program quality ? Location or Money ? Teaching or Placements?

Being an Indian with limited International experience, visiting the schools is tough and reliance on published material increases. How will i get the right fit ??

From all sources, ( exculding visits ) i have come down to

Berkley, Hass
Dartmouth, Tuck
NYU, Stern
UVA, Darden
Chicago GSB
Columbia
Wharton

Golden Crisis Fortnight

2006-06-13T11:54:00.000+05:30

After the Princeton week and a little bit of sniffing around the OG11 ( DS, PS) came a gigantic 'work canon' and a vistor called sickness.

What ? Two 65 hour a weeks( yeah! that is what happens when one is 'on-call' and the servers and applications are just not in the mood be being obedient.Every one from the servers to mainframes as well as the applications freaked out ). I was serveraly demoralised with the GMAT prep and way it was shaping up. Except for a bit of forum visits and couple of SC, nothing substantial happened. The weekends were no better. Slept like any animal could ! ( when i should have ideally written a Princeton test)

This week looks better. Have began with some RC and hope it continues.

Not to mention, work and GMAT are indeed a tough combination. And to add to that here are deadlines and a miniscule 'morale thing'. The equation is hard to balance.

The GMAT progress....

2006-06-13T11:33:00.000+05:30

Finally i did finish the Princeton review yesterday ( Verbal bin 3 was pending since 3 weeks)

Princeton has been a good book. First book any GMATter should touch ( irrespective of the CAT history). There a lot of tricks and trips ( rhymes better than tips) that are essential to the GMAT ( and not revalvent to CAT). A good one week spent with the book will get you nearer to the exam its format and the 'GMAT way of thinking'. The difficultly level is not high.

By and large GMAT verbal is going to be more challenging that GMAT Quant.I scored 98% on the Verbal at CAT 2K4 and an abbysmal 50% on Quant, yet i was more comfortable with Math Bin 4 on Princeton than Verbal Bin 3. ( these are the hardest bins on Princeton).

Some good take aways from Princeton

DS
If you understand Statement 1. Its A, D or B, C, E
If you dont understand Statement 1, Its B, D, E or A, C

Thinking in these subsets have helped a lot at improving the DS timings. Elimitated my confusion and help me move faster.

RC
Humm .. as you read the passage, make a one sentence note of what each paragraph is saying

SC.
The whole lot is of strategy is good but not enough. GMAT tests 'ETC-English' !!! Kaplan 800 is one hellva book.

PS
I havent strategised much except for sovling what looks easy to, eliminating where its tough to solve and plugging when i see lot of calculations. Some Probability is too heavy !!

CR

Ah ! yet to strategise on this front.

Long way to go yet.

The GMAT plan was...

2006-06-13T11:29:00.000+05:30

Ah ! It sounds too good to write one.Its a pain to execute. I worte a pencil plan a month ago for my GMAT. I'd write the GMAT some where in July and traget a couple of schools in R1 and a few in R2.
After reading some blogs, and GMAT experience i'd decided onBooks
Princeton Review 2006
Kalpan Premier 2006
EditionKaplan 800 2006-2007
The Official GMAT Review 11th Edition
Tests
Princeton
Kaplan
GMATPrep ( Strictly in that order)

Office prep
1000 SC, RC,miscellaneous questions from forums and other softy copy material Now, one month into the busy work schedule,i am through with the princeton review and some SC and DS. Have covered a parts of DS and PS from OG 11.

Oh ! It will be indeed wonder if i am able to stick to this one as i have written

Switching !!

2006-06-13T11:26:00.000+05:30

I used businesweek earlier.Belive me it was too cumbersome. So finally after a frustrating experience i am switching back to my dear blogger.com for ease. I guess since am relatively free today at office will organise this blog from my previous post on business week.