Prep Updates

There are some days when you are afresh and feel that your mind can absorb any amount of information. It feels like a sponge, waiting to suck in the loose fluid lying around. And on the other days, it sucks( not in the literal sense, of course!).

After a hectic day at work, I get to spend only about 1 to 1 and 1/2hrs of quality time with GMAT. I'm pretty clear this time around; I don't want to cover ground, instead, I focus on what will I learn in the study sessions( even if it means doing only 10 questions each of SC/ CR). This approach has got possitives and negatives. The positive is that you tend to be razor sharp, your accuracy goes up and so does your confidence. As a consequence, you get into a sort of flow. This flow is enough to annhilate any question. The negative is that you won't be training yourself for the so called 'GMAT showdown'.

GMAT is all about pressure. It is about not being in the zone or being without the flow and for one to score well, one has to keep solving questions under such conditions. Not only solve, but get them right too! It is only when you are pushed to the limit mentally, only when you are exhausted and only when you are under incredible pressure that you begin to go blank. It is only under such circumstances that you keep staring at screen, that nothing goes in your head, that you tend to miss even the easisest of questions and that you end up SCREWING THE TEST

One way, I'm preparing to avoid buckling under the load is to solve the questions under test conditions/timed. 1 min per question is enough to induce turbulence in your chest/stomach and send your brain in a tizzy. Only when I solve questions on a continual and consistent basis under such conditions will I be able to do well on GMAT. Perhaps, I need to also increase the duration for which my mind is under stress. This means, I need to do 2 sessions at a time. A session is 15 questions of SC in 15 min and 15 questions of CR in 20min. Will try this approach and see how my body responds.

One more thought - Every one can crack GMAT when in the best of his/her mental state. It is only when you are getting correct answers even when performing at 60% of your efficiency that you can be assured of a good score( I'm talking about lesser mortals like me, of course)
Cheers,
Unplugged

It fucking hurts

I know what happened from the time I stopped blogging to the present moment

I have taken the GMAT and ended up putting up a miserable show. I seriously didn't know what happened. My mind was going numb when I was seeing the CR questions. Even the most simplest of the SC questions seemed unusually hard. While the math seemed fairly simple and I could easily eliminate 3 wrong answer choices and in many cases as many as 4, the verb was way too tough. Answer to not even a single question in verbal seemed to jump out as correct. I think there were hardly 3 to 4 questions for which I was confident enough

Anyway, life has been a roller coaster ride from the day I gave the test. My thinking changed completely as a result of the failure, took up a different job in a different part of the country, cried so many times, spent innumerable sleepless nights and introspected to maximum possible extent. IT FUCKING HURTS WHEN YOU PUSH YOURSELF TO THE LIMIT AND END UP HAVING TO LIVE WITH A MEDIOCRE RESULT. More than any one else, I know what I went through and how much effort I put in. As a matter of fact, even the most superb of efforts will have some short comings. Nothing in this world will withstand the test of scrutiny; cracks will appear in almost any of the perfectly blended metal when looked under a microscope. Especially after the false hope you get after giving the practice tests. My GMAT Prep scores were 700+ for that matter.

No sweat now, I have restarted my preps and will try to death not to let my dream be just that - "a dream".

Trying to be in top physical/mental shape and preparing for a long road ahead. I have no regrets though, I am the one who chose this path and I'm not the one to back off

Whew.......long overdue post

First, I wanna wish you all folks a very happy new year( better late than never.... ain't it?)

Today, I have become the proud owner of a compaq laptop. It is so sleek yet so robust, looks very soft but is damn powerful. I really like it.

Most important question: How r the preps going?

Well, ahem...before I begin my talk,I wanna share with you a strange thought that hit me the other day......

"Does it really matter what I feel about Kaplan, Princeton or OG? Does it have any kind of effect on any of the souls who are reading this blog or will read some time in near future, if I don't get a 750". If I end up with some 6XX score, I would be the joke of the decade. If I cut it right here and put it bluntly across, "the value of this blog or atleast the GMAT portion of it will hugely depend on what score I end up with.".. right?

But, my job is to just capture, in bits and pieces, the stages I went through en route to a b-school. I really shouldn't care about what people think of me, what I am being viewed as. I should feel like an "ordinary guy with nothing to lose"(this is what I've been doing for the past few days and it's working wonders!).This mode takes me to the next level in terms of dedication, pushes me hard, it really makes me wanna give this G-thing my best shot.

The "blue print" that I was referring to in my earlier mail is working well. I am goin' at a good pace. Having finished CR, have started out on SC. Math is something, that I have been very confident of since the start of the preps. I plan to finish all the supplements/additional material before I set out on the 3OGs and the Kap-800.

Anyway does it really matter what materials I am referring to.........yes, only if you score above 750.........sshhhhh........have to sleep before the thing above my shoulders explodes. Need to get up early to Pump Iron......

Bye....zzzzzzz

Unplugged

Hard time....

Damn, cannot believe that a 7-day holiday would end in a flash.....it's over!

Dad and Mom were here for a week, had no other option but to take leave. Initial plan was to study at least for 2 or 3 hours and complete some chapters in Math. Everything went down the drain as we suddenly decided on a short tour to a few places.

A sense of guilt has crept in, the much needed "flow" is lost, the energy levels are at a low ebb. When I sit in front of the study table and open the G-books, I feel every living cell in me protesting, revolting, cursing and wanting me to thwart those books and rest on the cozy bed which is surprisingly at a negligible distance from the study table.

With great difficulty, started working on Kaplan today. My views on Kaplan Verbal:- (CR is what I started off with........these views are for the CR part only)

1)The questions are unusually tough vis-a-vis the ones in OG(I once did around 10-15 questions from OG-10 and had 100% hit rate, a ratio which compares to 75% in Kaplan)

2)The "unusually tough" questions are not because of the nature of the argument/reasoning but because of the insanely crazy language that Kaplan uses to make the questions difficult to comprehend

3) The book is not "human" by any definition whatsoever. It is so damn bland. You must be equally cold/bland to stay with it. (Am comparing this with Princeton that I read sometime back - this book is so lively, full of life, so engrossing that you begin to love the big G)

OK, enough donning the "critic's role".

I will have to work and take the motivation levels up by a few notches. Need something to stir me up..........

Have drafted something, a blue print of sorts which, I think,would help take me through the next few months to follow:-)

Ciao

Unplugged

Quite busy........

It's been a long time since I wrote my first post. Needless to say,I have been very busy these days. The thought of blogging from my office has been doing rounds for quite sometime now. Have a relatively free hour now...so, thought I would update the blog.

So, here's what has been going around for the past 15 days...

6:00AM - Get up - Hit the gym
7:30AM - Come back have a shower
8:30AM - Have breakfast
9:00AM - Office
Work your ass off managing the customers till 7:00PM
7:00PM - Attend the French Class
9:30PM - Have dinner
10:00PM - Start studying......

Yes, the last activity says something about what I intend to do this year - MBA. Not that the other activities do not interest me, they are the things that I do for my survival and I have to.

Have started studying for the GMAT since last week and to say the least, this G-thing definitely requires DEDICATION & COMMITMENT to the fullest of one's ability.

I hope to keep this tempo up for 3months at least, to be in a respectable shape to score well.

Hi!!!

Hi!!

Yup, this is my first post and I'm quite excited about it........

More about me later........right now its Pinkfloyd and few shots of Vodka

Hope to catch up with you all later...bye.....