The Glass is Half Full Cliche

Its a cliche and is often overused. But very true and life saving quote. Count your blessings. There is nothing in this world that is black or white. Everything is in shades of gray. A successful person only focuses on the white portion. A depressed person always focuses on the black portion.

We attract negative thoughts more easily than positive ones. And we know that thoughts become reality. Now what we can do to be more positive. Let me produce some tips here from my journals.

1. Mind becomes what you eat - Literally, its true. Feed on natural food. Lesser and lesser fast food or processed food.

2. Yoga - Yoga helps. A lot. Period. How and why will make this article into a book. So not going there. But just do it.

One more tip that I personally use is that you should count your challenges too. But look at them and be happy that you are still doing great inspite of them. Let me do a similar analysis of my job here.

Challenge no. 1
Shift timings - I work in shift timings. Every week shift changes. Only one day off per week. Timings are morning 6 to 2, then afternoon 2 to 10 and night is 10 to 6 morning.
Blessing no. 1
Only 8 hours - I have to devote only 8 hours here. No more no less. Commute takes only 15 minutes. So I am getting a lot of time for preparation.

Challenge no. 2
Pollution and Hazard - There is no doubt that it is there. Flue gas, dust, graphite particles and heat emitted by molten steel are just the pollution creators. Talking about hazard; everyday climbing up the cranes, risk of carbon mono-oxide at top floor, faulty structures...
Blessing no. 2
Conditioning - I love toughness. I am talking about tough, army like men. For quite a time, I was working to be more like it. God has given me this opportunity to do it more quickly. Now I am much bold and fearless, thanks to my surroundings.

Seeking Frequent Help is Surest Way to Stall

Growth requires resistance. Without resistance, there is no addition of potential. So when it comes to GMAT preparation, if you come across a difficult problem, seeking solution immediately is stopping yourself to grow out of that problem.

When you come across a problem, your mind starts to find solutions to that problem. You should gift your mind that opportunity. After brainstorming, if you seek help, then it is going to be branded in your mind forever. Also the mind has its share of exercise and practice. This is the way to learn any trade and making it the second nature.

Personally for me, Mathematics is my second nature and I do not have to exert myself or brood over math problems. But for Sentence Correction, I sometimes spend up to 30 minutes on a single problem and still ends up being unsure of the answer. It is because its various rules are still not itched into my memory and to burn them I need to bear the pain of thinking hard. So basically I try not to seek the solutions and instead try my level best to come with an answer with an explanation. After that, when I see the solution, there is an AHA moment and the learning remains with me forever :)

When you get an MBA, you never know who you will meet at the top

The business world has more variety than ever, and tomorrow’s entrepreneurs are a part of that. From new students at business colleges to the top online MBA programs, the young people aspiring for a business degree show off a wide range of experience and ability. I wonder and try to figure out what kind of achievements B-Schools look for in an aspirant. Nowadays people are distinguishing themselves in quite innovative ways. Today I came across this article about eclectic mix of people at ISB-2012 class. Just reproducing here from the article few lines that matter.

Class of Achievers

It is not just academic excellence and work experience that the ISB looks for. Many of the students who joined the class have demonstrated multi dimensional leadership abilities. They are strong achievers in their own sphere of work and also across areas that they choose to focus on. Among this talented group are -
• India's first Audio Book Author
• A doctor, who is also a State Home Secretary
• A commander in the Indian Naval Force
• Film Directors, Playwrights and Poets
• Trained Dancers and Choreographers
• Certified Sky Divers and Scuba Divers
• Several Academic Rank Holders

So next year, when you enter into your dream B-School, an army of smart people will be there. Be ready to belong there :)

Goodies along the Way

One great thing with GMAT and MBA apps for International B Schools is that you get so much encouragement in form of scholarships. Recently found a great one, thanks to A and CrackVerbal.

This is a chance to study at Stanford for free of cost under Reliance DhiruBhai Fellowship Programme. The deadline is near - 31st May 2011. So hurry up. Finish the application and give your best shot.

Bottleneck

Past week was tough since I had to manage home-shift along with my job. I am feeling its impact now and not feeling well from this morning. 20 min yoga and a light breakfast did help. Also I am happy that I solved 40 questions of CR from OG-12 and got 37 of them right. Also the incorrect ones were also just-missed.

I am performing quite well in RC and CR recently. My accuracy and speed both has increased. Now why this happened? I believe for me the catalyst was the understanding of one crucial point. And that would be that there is seldom perfect answer rather there is a best answer. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. So the trick is to eliminate the impossible ones and then choose the most appropriate ones from the remaining options. This realization has worked wonders for me.

After completing CR today, I moved to SC. And there all my high went down. I quickly realized that SC is going to be my Achilles Hill. I was taking a lot of time on each question and was also unsure of the responses.

To improve SC score there is unanimous advice given by everyone. Manhattan SC guide. I have that guide and I was planning to use it after finishing OG-12. But it seems I would have to change my strategy.

The preparation is going in the right direction so far. Once I start taking mocks, it will be on a totally different level.

Journey So Far...

With just 43 days left for my G-Day, I would like to see how far I have come.

1) Finishing OG-12... Well I have not finished OG-12 because my strategy of finishing was not giving me full benefits. Instead I am nowadays reading Manhattan's strategy guides and solving OG-12 questions along the way. This is working more beneficial as I understand the concepts in a better way. Also the study is more methodical. I am already done with more than 60 % of OG-12 and hope it would be finished by 10th June.

2) I have written one Mock GMAT so far. Thats OK and I am satisfied. There will be one more mock in the month of May and the whole June would be dedicated to mocks and reviews. Mocks are very important and I intend to appear for as many as 12 mocks.

3) So all in all, I am going to finish OG-12, Manhattan's 8 strategy guides, 12+ mocks and if possible Princeton's Verbal Workout. It feels right. I want to say here that Manhattan's material is excellent and I have simply fallen in love with it. I don't think I need any other material other than it.

Please let me know if you agree with me? Are you also studying the same way? I have feeling that this strategy is laser focussed and well rounded. I need your opinion on this.

Take care then..

Sentence Correction - Subject Verb Agreement

Yesterday's Mock taught me the importance of practicing daily and remembering the rules. Subject Verb Agreement in Sentence correction is easy to do if one has done an intensive reading through out his life. That person will be easily selecting the right answer without even knowing the grammatical rule behind it.
I too got quite success like this. But I believe its important to know the rule also. Because GMAT creators know this and they might tweak with the question. Therefore I am trying to familiarize myself with the rules. Instead of memorizing them, I am looking at them regularly so that they become my second nature. I am posting here one such revision note.

All the best for your journey fellow Bloggers.