Destination and a new beginning

Ok, I admit that I should have posted this a long time back. I was hoping for a better result. Finally after so many twists and turns, there is only one word for my score - DECENT

710(Q-50,V-37,AWA-5.5) wrote on 7th July

There are mixed feelings. Inspiration, elation, sadness, confusion all blending in. Now What? Is this score good enough? Should I write again? The answer depends on my school selection and profile strength both of which are unclear to me. Therefore I have decided to close this issue by end of July by taking the help of a consultant.

So what happened to the overconfident guy who was claiming to ace in GMAT? Well he is still there, little shaken but still going strong. I have been through so many diverse and difficult situations in my life that I have learned the importance of calmness. After GMAT, the main thing that was bothering me was my self image. To counter this, I was repeatedly thinking - I AM MORE THAN MY GMAT SCORE. But still I was not convinced. I was in agitated state. So I just waited to get myself into calm mode again. I watched my favorite movies and had great food. Once I relaxed, the whole GMAT preparation journey went through my mind.

I started my preparation for GMAT in mid-April. I used to study on alternate days because of professional commitment, my own lack of self-discipline and extraneous factors like power-cut, social commitments. So basically I studied for around 35-40 days. +1 for getting a decent score in so less time.

On looking back, I feel I should have devoted more time for verbal especially sentence correction. On GMAT day, I performed well in AWA thanks to myohmy. Then Quants was a breeze as well. But in verbal I started slow. I still remember I spent around 5 mins for the first verbal question. Then I realized my poor beginning and brought about a sense of urgency while keeping my accuracy. I was going alright but my speed was a little bit slow. In the last I had around 8 questions with 8 mins left. I had to finish it anyhow and so there was guesses. It brought down the score in VA to 37 :(

But I am happy and proud. Feels good about the whole process and all in all it was fun. It has taught me to think in an analytic and structured manner. Now its the time for new beginning which involves school-shortlisting, essays and recommendations. Let another yatra begins.

P.S. - Since this blog was created to capture my GMAT journey, I am going to change its outlook and expand its scope to serve as my B-School journey. Keep visiting :)

The last week

Just 7 days more for my GMAT. I am super confident in problem solving and data sufficiency. As long as I am frequently using pen and paper, there should be no problem in these two sections. I commit most mistakes in these sections because of miscalculation and misunderstanding and that happens when I try to solve all questions in my head.

Reading comprehension can be aced as well. But sometimes I screw up a whole passage by reading it fast and not getting the meaning. I just need to consciously tell myself that there is no hurry and comprehension is of utmost importance. I also need to understand that all lines in a passage are not same. It is ok to read some lines twice or even thrice. But all in all after reading a passage, I should grasp its meaning fully. After that, I have observed that I was able to answer questions very fast and accurately.

Critical Reasoning has been my strong point till now. I have able to manage a good accuracy in this section. I guess this is because paras are small and I naturally read them slowly. Also while reading itself, I evaluate the passage and find any shortcomings in logic. So many times without even reading options, I have an answer. And when my though-out answer matches an option, I just know that has to be the answer.

And last is my biggest weakness - The Sentence Correction. I have been performing poorly in this section. And I think today only I discovered how I can perform well in this section. I used the elimination technique. Basically again it is important to use pen and paper in this section. After reading the question, I write ABCDE in the paper. Then I just cross out the options that I know were incorrect. That always leave me with two or rarely with three options. Reading them second time and comparing them gives me an answer which I found was correct more than 90 percent of the time :). It might sound obvious but earlier I was wasting focus and energy by predicting the right answer without even properly reading the options. That was a very bad strategy. I ended up scoring low and loosing my confidence. Instead of finding right, finding wrong works better for me in SC.

Last days, I am just focusing on OG-12. I am writing in a diary all the small lessons that I get while solving OG-12. On the G-Day, I will just read those lessons in the morning before going for exam. That way, the gist of my whole preparation will be absorbed by me in a small time.

A Sine Curve that is my Inspiration

Success depends on continued efforts. Make more efforts. Main cause of failure is fading of inspiration. I am having these moments in my life when I have to put effort to meet my goals. The motivation and the resolution just slips away. How skillful you maintain your motivation is indeed an art.

That rage of fire is missing. I need that fire every minute in my life. Otherwise the game is over. I today went for walk as the weather was pleasant. Following things came to my mind as the reason for my sluggish progress.

1. Believing I can do everything - When I started my GMAT journey in April, I had only 4 goals for the next 6 months. First is 8 hours of sleep. Second is 2 hours of yoga, meditation and exercise. Third is 8 hours of duty in the plant. And fourth is devoting my remaining time for the preparation of GMAT and MBA apps. But over the time I started to get involved in other things. Like playing guitar, attending functions, watching a movie. People say taking occasional breaks is good but this is not working for me. I always think that today I will relax and from tomorrow I will be super disciplined. And it never happens. So the message is clear. Be BRUTALLY clear to your initial commitment and stick to it like fevicol. You have to SACRIFICE. There is no other option.

2. Forgetting my Failures - I was highly motivated to crack GMAT because of my previous failure in 2-3 affairs. Simply remembering my failing moments make me strong and more determined. I instantly forget all my pains and start putting more efforts.

So I am going to try these two actions items and watch the outcome. I have to study and finish one chapter from Manhattan SC guide everyday. Also on Monday I will be writing my first ever mock GMAT. So I will update the score that day. Now I should leave and study. Bye.