GMAT - 7XX

I'm done with GMAT and got a 7XX score. As I wrote at some other place, I'm not going to retake until and unless an adcom wants me to

I had taken the GMAT on 15 Sep2009. What was I doing for 1 month? I had serious thought about cutting off life support of this blog. But, I talked my mind out of it as I realised the immense benefits that writing a blog showers on you while you are in the midst of writing essays

I'll be back with an update on the essays

Until next time, I remain......
Unplugged

GMAT Prep2 - 680 Q47 V36

It was a crazy exam indeed. It was ridiculously hard

Q - 47 - 12 incorrect - 1, 6, 9, 12, 14, 21, 26, 29, 31, 34, 35, 37. As you can see, I got 5 incorrect in the last 9 questions. Math was ridiculously hard as I encountered around 4 probability questions. I'm usually good at these but they were a step above. Since 47 is close to my target of 48, I have no complaints.

V - 36 - 11 incorrect - 6, 13, 17, 23, 29, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40. I was right on track till question 29. But I ended up with 7 incorrect in the last 12. Reason - Ran out of time. I don't know whether my mind was exhausted from the MGMAT CAT I had given or for some other reason.

One more thing, the scoring algorithm has definitely changed and the GMAT is getting tougher at least in terms of scoring if not in terms of level of difficulty of questions. The reason I say this is because, last time for the same number of mistakes in Verbal I was getting 38 or 39. That is, if the incorrect answers are randomly distributed, the score you get in the end and the number of incorrect used to add up to 52. I can prove it from the sample scores on few blogs. Now, the mistakes and the score do not add up to 52, but to 47 or 48 or 49. I think these represent 3 levels. The result of this reduction is that the number of mistakes you can make to score more or less the same score that you got an year ago, is reduced by 4

Frankly, I'm getting used to seeing such low scores. Now, I don't feel anything. No emotions. You know what, I plotted a mental graph of the scores I got on the CATs and the graph, with every exam, has been headed down south. My mission of 600 seems right on track

I think God doesn't want me to do my MBA. He has something else in store for me

Ciao,

Unplugged

GMAT Prep 1

I did the GMAT Prep1 today and scored - 720 Q50 V37

I'm a bit happy and a bit unhappy with the score. Before the test, I wanted to score at least a 45 in verbal( that is why I'm unhappy). After the test, I wanted a score, which would take my total score above 700( So, I'm happy)

To say the least, the test was polarizing. I ended up spending way too much of my brain power in AWA and was left gasping for oxygen while doing Verbal. I did not yet do the post mortem of the test. Will do it tomorrow. But going by the number of errors in Quant and Verbal, I think I got lucky in Quant and a bit unlucky in Verbal

Q50 - 9 errors( crazy!)
V37 - 10 errors( a handful of them in the initial 15. I think this is the reason).

After the autopsy tomorrow, I'll post again about the learnings

I have not yet scheduled for the exam. I think the situation this time around is goin to be something like this - I decide on day X that I'm ready and I'll schedule for an appointment on X+7th day.

I'm freaking out!

Adios,

Unplugged

Again devastated - MGMAT CAT3 - 670 Q46 V35

I had time to look back on my earlier posts to understand my thought process and the way my preps have progressed. This post today reveals 2 things

1) Looking at the dates between the last post and the present one, it is easy to make out that something stopped me from posting on Sunday( the day after my CAT). If it were a good day, I would have posted on the day I took the test. I did not post because I scored very low on MGMAT3 – 670( Q46 V35). If practice scores are anything to go by, I might end up getting around 600 in my real GMAT because I have at least 6 more tests to take and the scores seem to reduce by 10 points with every test. The analysis revealed that 50% of my errors in verbal, the differentiating factor between a stellar 7XX score and a mediocre 6XX score, were in SC strangely. And in 90% of those SCs I ended up picking the wrong one after eliminating 3 of the 4 incorrect choices

2) The diversity of the posts( look at the number of posts with labels as ‘GMAT’ and those with something ‘other than GMAT’) reveals that there is nothing going on in my life except work, workout, GMAT. My social life is on hold and the number of unread messages in my gmail inbox reads 927( excluding ‘cheap Viagra’ and ‘help’ emails)


Everything I planned is going in for a toss. This despite being regular with the studies. I guess the results are what causing the disruption. I’ve taken a drastic step in my preps. I’ve decided that I won’t continue with MGAMT anymore and will move on to GMAT Preps. I’m losing momentum and getting disheartened with my low scores. So, this weekend will be GMAT Prep1 – a reality check

The applications are already out. Since I’m applying only to 2 schools in R1 – Chicago Booth and Kellogg, I’m still not freaking out.

All depends on GMAT

Oh, if you read my earlier posts, you would know that I hurt my shoulder trying to impress a girl at the gym. I ignored the problem thinking it will heal automatically. But I was wrong. I had to visit a orthopaedic on Saturday. The X-ray revealed an inflammation on the shoulder and the doc has advised 3 weeks of abstinence from gymming/sports( no over head movements). In addition that, I’m on ‘ultrasound physiotherapy’( I heard this for the first time) and medicines for 2 weeks.

Adios
Unplugged

Manhattan GMAT CAT2 - 680 Q47 V36

Needless to say, I’m devastated by the score. I had this strange feeling that I was not doing well in Math, but I scored better than last test. When I reviewed, I found that too many blind guesses went right( around 5). But, I ran short of time for the last 5 questions and I had to guess all and all of them were incorrect. I think I’m still at around 47 in math. Considering my last time score of Q48 and assuming the fact that the level of questions will not change dramatically in 1year, I think Q47 seems on target. Anything above Q48 is a bonus. The reason I’m giving up on not trying for Q50 is that Q48 to Q50 requires exponential effort and will fetch me just 20 points. I always believe the effort should be worth the squeeze. I’m better off investing that time in verbal and mental conditioning

Verbal was what killed me in CAT2. I thought I was in control of the test throughout. I finished with almost 20mins to spare. It would have been 25 mins, if had not purposefully slowed down for the last 5 questions. The post mortem revealed that I marked a full RC wrong. Even though this passage had 85 lines, I found it easy but simple mistake of not paying attention to a few words cost me dear. The number of mistakes in CAT2 verbal is not very different from that in CAT1. In fact, they are pretty much comparable. I think I made 5 more errors in CAT2 than in CAT1. I don’t know why the score has fallen by 10 points

One more new found development is that I have a hard time concentrating on Mondays. This is because the pace of preps falls considerably on Saturdays and Sundays. Keeping this in mind, I have to prepare a strategy for my D day

Confidence is very low and I’m finding it tough to keep going. God, please help me

Manhattan CAT1 - Analysis + After effects

There was too much booze over the weekend, so I couldn't concentrate on my studies yesterday( monday). The last thing I want is to lose whatever I've learnt over the past couple of months. So, no booze till I write the GMAT

I managed to analyze my mistakes of Manhattan CAT1 yesterday after I came back from the office. There were atleast 8 questions that I could solve without even looking at the correct answer. I really don't know why I missed them during the test. I think because of 2 reasons 1) I was a bit careless 2)The questions were way too wordy and long. I have to cut out the mistakes caused by carelessness if I ever dream of getting close to 50 in real GMAT

Verbal was good. No issues here. I have to stick to my plan of solving around 3 RCs and 10 quesions in SC and as many in CR

Ciao,

Unplugged

First practice test, weekend plans...etc

The scores from my MGMAT 1 are in

730 Q45 V45

I took the test at 9:00AM today. I took the test in full, including AWA. I thought I did well in math but Q45 is definitely very bad. I need to buckle up and revise a few concepts that are giving me problems. Sets, Venn diagrams and mixtures are a few. I'll try to review the math part of the test and solve all the questions once again untimed.

Now, I still don't believe I scored 45 on the verbal(WTF??) This is my highest score in verbal till date and I still can't make anything out of it. I have my reservations against MGMAT verbal though. This is because they are not representative of the actual GMAT test questions. But, one strange thing that happened today is that I destroyed SC and RC completely. I made, I think, 2 errors in each of these parts. I finished verbal with 10mins remaining.CR was problematic because I am not used to the MGMAT's logic( and I don't want to be)

730 feels damn good. It raises the expectations, which is a bit bad. This is because the higher your expectations, the higher are the anxiety levels and your fall( god forbid) will be quite painful. This is what I learnt from my first attempt.

The future course of action is to take GMAT club math tests on alternate days and revise the mistakes of MGMAT and GMAT club on the 'off days', while solving around 3 RC passages, 10 SCs from my error log and around 10 CR from OG. As I have been saying previously, this time I'm not taking a GMAT date 1 month in advance. I plan to book the test date on a 1 week's notice. Of course, it depends on how I score on my practice tests and the all important GMAT preps

Oh! I took leave today because all the people in my office went on a team building exercise for 3 days. I didn't want to waste 3 fucking days, so I told my boss that I was not interested. Initially, he told yes then when my whole department opted out, he got pissed. He made a huge issue out of this and the HR guys were involved. It took a lot of persuasion and talk to still convince him. But, the relationship got a bit strained and I have to repair that incase I want him to write my recommendation. He, being from a different country, will have to be dealt differently.

No longer did I finalize some plans on how to spend my a bit longish weekend that my long time freind called and told he is dropping in. Since he lives in a different city, I couldn't say no. My whole weekend will go in for a toss. I'll try to squeeze in a bit of time but it is goin to look a bit odd. He'll say lets go out for a beer and check out a few girls; I'll say I have to study a bit. His response will be WTF? From when did you start studying....et al? But, I think it'll provide much needed relaxation to my fried brain. It'll help me get back to my preps on Monday with renewed vigour. No study this weekend :-(

Will post again if I get pissed or if something worth writing comes up

Ciao,

Unplugged

(unknown subject)

Today, I feel like shit. This is one of the days on which you feel like your dreams are fading away. Despite trying so hard, you feel as if your efforts to hang on to ‘your dream’, to the thing you most care about seem to be just not enough. Then there are days when, for no good reason, you seem to be so full of energy and enthusiasm that the whole world seems to be at your feet.

The reason for this is that my poor scores on GMAT club tests and continuing poor show in RC. I’ve taken 3 tests in GMAT club and the scores are all over the place. They range from 20% to 90%. The mistakes are pretty silly, and while reviewing, I get correct 50% of the mistakes I made without even looking at the answer. This shows that I get a bit tensed during the test.

RC is killing me. Although I manage to read even an LSAT passage in less 5 minutes, I score at least 1 wrong in every passage. Maybe, it is because of the vague questions and the water tight answer choices. I’ll have to sort the problems out in RC as quickly as possible because it can turn into a show stopper. One peculiar thing I’ve found is that, the passages on which I’m focussed, I never miss even a single question. On the passages where I’m not interested, I end up making too many errors. Focus, I think is the key to doing well. I really don’t know how to stay focussed for 10mins (the duration of a typical RC passage), let alone 4 hrs for the actual GMAT

God be with me

I’ve laid out a broad plan for my D-day. According to this plan I’ll need to give a MGMAT test this week end at 9:00AM, which by the way is the time I plan to write the GMAT. I’ll post my scores this week end. This time around, until and unless I get 3 continuous 700s in the practise tests (including at least one 700 in GMAT prep), I won’t schedule for the exam

Burn out.....?

I think I'm losing it - whatever Verbal fundamentals I've learned over this period of time are beginning to evade me. This has happened before and there is a possibility that it will happen again. I'll try to describe what exactly is happening with me

As per plan, I needed to write a GMAT paper test( only verbal) over this weekend but I was unable to. Why? On Friday, I tried to solve a few CRs in the night and did not get even a single one correct. My mind was going numb whenever I looked a CR. Even the simplest of the problems was looking damn tough.

The reason, is that my brain cells are probably fried having solved some 500CRs( I'm midway through the 1000CR document). I decided to take a conscious decision of taking a break for a couple of days. So, I took the weekend off(from Verbal) to rest my mind. I'll try to solve about 10CRs and 10SCs today and see how things go. I'm sure I'll get back what I learnt. I think I'll solve about 10 questions apiece from the 3 sections of verbal on alternate days or every third day rather than on a everyday basis, until I completely review Math

The reason for my verbal debacle, the first time around, can be attributed to the burn out factor. This time around, I think, I did not the pace the preparation properly. I left Math completely untouched for a long period of time and this is partly causing the burn-out with verbal. I have to step up the Math prep, while keeping the verbal afresh and also ensuring that my verbal performance is not affected

I was so upset on Saturday and Sunday that I partially broke down a few times and began to doubt my reasons/convictions to do an MBA. But, I managed to recover and finish some chapters in Math.

Passing through a very rough patch - God, I need you to help me

Ciao,
Unplugged

Random musings

Many times, I am amazed at myself when I find myself thinking about 100 differnt issues. These thoughts vary from 'how would moon feel like' to 'the latest ad that appeared in todays newspaper' to 'what could be the best strategy for General motors to make a comeback'. Then, I conclude that it's best not to dwell too much on the issues the world is faced with because there are able people at the right positions to take care of such stuff and that I'm better off thinking about stuff I'd have to live with.

Last few days have been damn good physically and emtionally( both being interrelated in many ways than one). Physically, because I've added the long ignored cardio to my weight regimen. I'm running close to 3kms every day after doing weights. It is kind of a nice feeling to have when that average pulse rate on the treadmill reads 160, when every muscle in the body screams because of the lactic acid built up, when you can't take your eyes of the digital clock on the air bike, when you feel as if your viens are pumping battery acid. while, one part of my mind wants me to throw away the dumbells to the farthest corner possible, the other part wants me to continue pumping and push through the reps. This part wants me to punish my muscles; it also wants me not to quit even if loud screams out of intense pain come out from my mouth. The sense of tranquility that comes about after these episodes of intense pain/fight is worth experiencing and it is something that cannot be explained in words but has to be experienced. In the crux of such serenity, you will feel that the issues that you face on a everyday basis, the problems that forced your mind to contemplate quitting, are very small.These things teach more about yourself than any other course ever can.

As promised with myself, I did write a GMAT paper test( only verbal) and scored only 40. The key take aways are

1) I was able to sit for the entire 75 mins without getting disillusioned. Although there were moments where there was a lapse of concentration I think I managed to sit through
2) Because of the over confidence, I was rushing through the questions and as a result I was unable to reduce my 'unforced errors'
3) I had 1min for 1 problem. So the problem of pacing through the test was not a issue
4) Among the 20 odd SC and CR questions, I got 3 wrong in SC and as many in CR. But, when I went through the questions once again, I was able to spot the correct answer without any difficulty. RC was a killer though - I got 7 wrong. The errors are partially due to the format of the pdf version of the test paper - For every passage, I had to scroll 3 pages and look for the answer. This continued back and forth and I lost time

RC shouldn't be a problem because I'm solving 2-3 passages from LSAT papers and scoring at a fairly good rate. GMAT passages are relatively easier compared to the LSAT ones. I'm solving around 10SCs from my error log, 10 - 15 CRS from 1000CR every day in addition to the RC passages. I just hope that I don't lose touch with these 3 sections

Math is underway in full swing. I've made a mental road map of how I want my prep to progress. I'll keep pumping 50 questions from math every day and I hope to get better by 2 weeks. After I'm fairly comfortable with the concepts, I'll have to solve the 25 GMAT club tests, which should see me through in the actual GMAT. As with the workout at the gym, I'll keep solving/pumping questions every day until I feel comfortable to give the full length tests

Oh yeah! If you haven't read about how Gerald Butler trained for 300, look out for the videos on youtube now. You'll be amazed at the dedication and commitement with which these guys put in work to get that look they got. No wonder, Mark Twight is a real bad ass when it comes to workout, dedication et al....

Will be back with the scores from another GMAT verbal paper test

Ciao,
Unplugged

And the prep continues........

As I already told, I've shifted( sort of) the focus to RC and Math.
Below, in short, is a short overview of my preps

SCs - I'm solving around 10 questions every day so that I do not become completely unfamiliar with them. I think I'm becoming fairly proficient in these as I'm able to solve any SC I look at in under a minute. But, of late, I've been reading in the debriefs that SC is getting tough in the actual GMAT and that 1000SC is no longer representative of the questions one would encounter in the actual GMAT. I'm getting a bit concerned with this but have finally decided not to bother too much. The only reliable sources now are OG and the GMAT prep. I'll also lay my hands on the retired ETS papers this week end and see how things turnout

CR- A point of concern because out of the 20 questions I solve every day, I'm still getting around 3 wrongs. These wrongs are pretty silly. I get them right as soon as I have a second look at the question. I guess this has to do with the concentration levels. If I cannot fix this problem, I'll never be able to sit through the gruelling 4 hrs. The best thing is to treat every question as a bullet directed towards the GMAT beast. The better you concentrate, the greater the damage you can inflict upon it. In short, I have to think as if my whole life depends on the question shown on the screen

RC - I'm currently solving RCs from LSAT, usually 2 passages with 15 questions. I'm getting around 2 to 3 wrongs, which I think is a fairly bad hit rate considering the fact that I'm spending around 2 mins/question.I'm not too much concerned because GMAT passages are a lot easier than the LSAT ones and because since this is the only second day with the RC, my mind is still getting in the groove. I'll solve around 2 to 3 passages every day until this weekend

Math - Still a spoilsport because of many reasons
1) Even though I scored around 48 or 49 in my first attempt, I fear math because I'm simply not good at it. Since childhood, especially with Math, the correlation has been simple - the harder I prepare the more I score and the more confident I get. I know I'd put in insane practice in my first attempt and was confident of scoring atleast above 48 even at the mid-way of my preps. All that is forgotten now; I have to start afresh( lesser mortals you know!)
2) Math is getting the last slot in my days time table. As a result, the pace of progress has been slow

I'll try sticking to this schedule for atleast some weeks to come so that my mind gets conditioned to the GMAT mindset and I develop some stamina
Will solve an old ETS paper( only verbal) on Saturday and will post the results. I think it, to a fair extent, will show my progress

Only reliable sources

Oh man! I got hold of a document, which had some ultra tough SC questions and there were a few explanations I was unable to understand. First of all, the questions do not represent those from OG or GMAT by any strech of imagination( of course this comes from the realm of my limited exploitations with GMAT). There were many questions for which I could not get the right answer and got disillusioned as a result. After scanning through few pages from this dcoument, I happened to attempt a few simple SCs and was unable to work my way through them because the explanations provided in that document disturbed my 'way of working'. However, I learnt a lot of new things, which will eventually go in my error log.

Lesson I learnt today is 'not to get disillusioned and trust your instincts' Any new points learnt along the way can go in the error log but you have to back 'your own way' of solving the questions

This week will see the shifting of focus from SC and CR to RC and math. I'll still keep doing about 10-15 questions from SC and CR while concentrating more on RC and math

God be with me....
Unplugged

Ouch......

Yeah, the title of the post aptly describes my body condition today.

On Friday, at the gym, I was working my chest out. I was all the more pumped up because there was this drop dead gorgeous lady who had joined on Friday( What a day to join!). One of the last set of exercises was the DB flys on an inclined bench. By the time I got down to doing this, I had completely exhausted myself with 5 more sets of exercises with ultra heavy weights. So, I was sitting on the inclined bench facing the mirror with the DBs and this bomb was at my back working on her thighs. Considering the fact that she was a rookie( rookies are given fly weights to start with; they normally spend more time on the machine than an average Joe does because of this reason) and me a seasoned person and considering the fact that the time of performing reps was the only time I could get a proper view of her, I kept on pushing my self so that I could match her time on the machine. The result was fulfilling mentally and hurting physically. I am unable to sleep because of the intense pain and am barely able to lift my right hand.

I had to miss my work out yesterday because of the pain. I'm treating it with ice every 2 hrs. But that's ok. Sometimes you have to live with the the pain to be able to feel that you are alive. I'll start kicking butt again from tomorrow

I had purposefully skipped the preps the last 2 days because my mind was going numb again at the sight of a GMAT question. I needed something to keep my mind afresh. I think it also has got to do with the work I guess. I'm having a real hard time at work. The hours that I spend at work are so intense that I barely get to stop thinking about these issues even at my home. You need something to change over, some kind of switch that takes you from one field to the other. A work out at the gym comes in very handy to do just this. But then again, some things are out of your control( I think you know what I'm sayin here......the bomb at the gym of course!)

I did around 20CRs from the 1000series and got a fairly good hit rate - 2 mistakes that I could've completely avoided; they were very silly indeed

As far as SC is concerned, I think I'm getting a good grip at these. I'm able to solve most of them within a minute. I almost managed to complete the 1000SCs( there are around 30 of them still remaining). The error log in SC says the number of questions for review i.e, the number of questions I got wrong has not yet touched 100. Boy, am I happy. 1 wrong in 10 is fairly good. The goal now is to keep on revewing the ones I got wrong and keep solving some random SCs every day from the forums. This is to ensure that I consolidate what I've learnt and start shifting the focus towards RCs and math

RCs are a big pain. Indeed they are. I started solving 2 RCs every day from LSAT prep book untimed just to get into the groove. I need to take this number up by 2 more by this weekend. From next Monday onwards, I plan to solve the complete verbal section in one sitting. That is, 41 questions in 75 minutes on a regular basis to increase the stamina


Math is killer; It is a completely untouched topic. I'll have to start work immediately else whatever effort I've put in Verbal will go down the drain. Damn, too many ball to juggle and too many of them have to be kept in air

Let's see how things work out. Wait for my next post

Cheers,
Unplugged

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