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.

The Last Mile

Just a little over two weeks are left for my GMAT. Nerves are shaking and plans are made and remade but no solace to soul. My recent performance in GMATPREP-1(resetted) was disappointing. I again 690-ed with less score in verbal.

I performed well in quants. I could have done better because I wasted around 10 minutes in between by allowing myself a break. For some time I lost the confidence and was feeling sad. But today when I sat to review my performance, I got the rational view of my capability. I realized my mistakes were mostly due to less concentration. Since I came from work and was extremely tired, I guess some mistakes were allowed.

I also reviewed my performance in verbal and realized that I did mistakes in CR and SC. The most interesting thing is that I was just reviewing my incorrect answers. When I reviewed the correct ones too, I found that I did answer some pretty tough ones too. So I am feeling good now as my preparation is not waste and I have improved.

Therefore my advice is to review all the questions after the mock. The correct ones especially will give you solace and confidence in your abilities.

I guess I am going to do great on 7th July. With calm mind and a smile on face, I, like a smooth criminal, will slice questions into pieces.

Another new motivation to B School Applicants

Yesss... the Stacy Blackman challenge is out there for the first time... check here. Prizes are only for 2 but they are really great. Competition would be intense. But participation itself will be so rewarding in terms of having greater self awareness.

Mock-3 - Veritas

Scored 720(Q-51,V-38). Felt better. Again improvement is required in the verbal.

Tryst with the Truth

Yesterday I had an appointment with the "truth". I came from plant at 2 pm and spent some time watching southpark. Then after a quick nap, finally I started the meeting with "truth" at 6.30 pm.

I was feeling very tired and could not concentrate on what is being asked. "Truth" asked me 2 questions for which I had 60 minutes to answer. I did it more quickly and did not bother about looking back at my answers. Then started the rapid fire round related to numbers. By the time I was finished with it, I was told that I would have to face another rapid fire round of questions related to words.

Too tired, I decided to utilize the 10 minutes break option given by him. I took it and decided to use it for a short nap. But I got lost in time and woke up after 2 hours. But "truth" was still there waiting for me. But I decided to postpone it and did let the "truth" wait for me.

So my plan of appearing for Veritas free mock GMAT was not as I expected. But today I will go and finish the verbal portion of the test. I am eager for the outcome of the result.

32 days to go

Preparation is getting more serious and intense as the time is approaching soon. I was not getting time even for blogging. 31st May and 1st June were specially very busy days. I managed to celebrate my birthday amidst blackout as well as carry out my night shifts. If thats not enough, I also submitted my entries for the BTG Scholarship and the Reliance Stanford Scholarship. Although done hurriedly, I guess I learned a lot and did a decent job.

Mocks is the theme of this month with as many as 15 mocks to be slashed by 30th june. I appeared for GMATPREP-2 on 2nd June and it was discouraging in the sense that I managed to get only 650. Verbal was especially low. But the the good news is that the majority of errors were in SC and little bit in RC.

So I am happy that I can overcome my weakness because I am already on to Manhattan's SC guide and it will be done by 10th june. As for RC, I think it was only because my concentration was wavering and I was restless. Perhaps it was because of night shifts.

Anyways, today also I will appear for a mock and see what happens. Mocks give me discipline and a sense of urgency in my preparation. Bye till then :)