Oh San Francisco!

There was a much publicized war protest around the city today. Initially, I was reluctant to go even watch since there was a company wide email sent out warning against shootings.

I usually get off at New Montgomery and Market and walk to my office, and saw protesters in white flowing garbs and black masks on their head at around 10 AM. By 12 NOON, I was ready to grab some lunch and a colleague and I decided to check out the protest as well.

The protesters had worn orange suits and had black masks on their head. There were LOTS of cops all over - like battalions of them. I did see a couple of people get arrested (not sure for what). There were a lot of people who showed up, like me, just curious.

This is not the first time I've seen this (I mean... this IS SF), but most other times, I've been in a rush to catch the bus or in a car, and thus never really up close.

Here are some photos that I took with my (not so nice) camera phone:


Protesters on Market St. dressed in orange.

Another shot. See the amount of cops.


Just because they do not protest, does not mean they cannot enjoy the sun!



SFPD does deserve some thanks...

GMAT Update: RC

So in my last post, I was lamenting about how tough RC is and also having thoughts that I'll never improve! How wrong was I!

Thanks to suggestions by folks who left comments here and a bit of googling for more strategies, in the past week, I've noticed a marked improvement in my RC timing (I average ~ <12 minutes with 5-7 questions per passage and have a decent hit-rate (80% ish).

I also felt that I was getting a bit too intimidated by the passage. Even before starting to read, I'd be so stressed and in the back of my mind have thoughts about it being tough and how much it matters to me to get into business school. Needless to say, I'd never really read the passage, which means I fumbled with the questions.

Last week something inside of me clicked. Since then, I've been treating RC with confidence. To be honest, I actually find these passages quite interesting (OK, fine. The biology ones are soooo damn boring - no offense to bio-majors and any of my pre-med cousins who may read this, but everything else is interesting). Also, I just do not thing of it as tough anymore. Complex, yes. But that's fun. Tough - no. This attitude has made a HUGE difference.

Now, when I solve a passage, I just read it as if I'm lapping up information, and have simply learned to note the authors tone and structure as he goes through the passage. I'm also picking up some new words to add to my vocabulary and am going to try it out on everyone I encounter.


Ah, finally I get the feeling that I am going to be able to conquer RC!

GMAT Prep Update and RC frustrations

Its been a while since I posted here, but really feel the need to vent my frustrations a bit - and what better place than my blog!

Over the past month, I've been studying for the GMAT off n' on (more on than off) and mostly gotten all the Math fundas down. I also did enough problems of each section to know where my largest weakness is: as expected it is Reading Comprehension.

While I felt that most of the mistakes I make in most of the sections were careless errors, the Reading Comprehension mistakes were simply due to stress and not "getting it". It takes me about 8 minutes to completely read a passage and another 3-4 minutes to answer 4-5 questions on that passage.

Most books/sites suggest making notes (1-2 sentences) of each paragraph and then referring to those notes. My problem is, I end up spending almost 7-8 minutes reading and making these notes (which I do not even bother to refer back to!). Whenever I try to speed up my reading, I end up not getting the questions right.

I spent a good part of today getting extremely frustrated since I could not figure out a way to tackle the RC. I think what I'm going to try to follow is to only write the main topic in the first paragraph and unless there is a new topic / idea introduced stop making notes and just read through the whole thing. Also, I'll try to read the first question so I know what to look for while going through the paragraph and it may force and entice me to read more actively.

My goal is to bring my average time for reading a passage to 4-4.5 minutes, and being able to read it comfortably so as to not make mistakes.

GMAT Math Study Strategy

Although I have a Engineering/Science background, over the past 6 years, my math is rusty. As I look at most problems, I feel that I "almost know the answer" but cannot quite "get it". For now, I've decided I'm going to get all my math concepts right, first, and then proceed with problem solving.

Here is the strategy that I'm following:

• I use the Green Quantitative OG book as my guide for sections to study. This book has basic information on each topic.
• For each topic, I go through the following books for lists of formula's and understanding of concepts:
• Green Quantitative OG book)
• Barrons GRE (yes, you read correct: I use a GRE book for the math concepts since they have more details and formula's compared to any other GMAT book I was able to find)
• Barrons GMAT
• Kaplans Premier GMAT

• For each topic, write the formula's on a sheet of paper. Make separate sheets for different topics, so you can add to the topic later.
  
• Do not just write formula's. Understand the concept as well.
• Lastly, spend a few minutes everyday revising the formula's you have written. By the time you're ready for the GMAT they must be a part of your bloodstream!
  

My GMAT Study Strategy

After reviewing a lot of success stories and based on what I feel like I will need to work on, I've formulated the following strategy to ace the GMAT:

Books

I plan to use the following books for preparation:

• Kaplan Premier
• Official Guide (Orange book)
• Quantitative and Verbal Official guides
• Kaplan 800
  
• Barrons
  
• Manhattan Sentence Correction
  

Study plan

1) Diagnostic and Strategy

• For each section, make notes on the strategy outlined in the books.
  
• Then complete the relevant section in the Kaplan book.
  
• Complete all sections this way.
  

2) At this stage, I should have a clear idea of which section I need more work on and also have a good idea of strategies to solve problems from each section. This should remove the stress of having to tackle unknown sections later.

3) OG and Kaplan 800: Starting from the toughest section, do all the problems in these books.

When working on any section, each day, do at least 5-10 problems of a previously completed section as well. For example, if I'm done Problem Solving and then am working on Critical reasoning, do 5-10 problems of problem solving everyday along with the Critical Reasoning questions.

4) After OG and Kaplan 800, if required do more problems from Manhattan books.

5) Redo all incorrect/hard/unsure questions again - until I get 100% right. Do this every 2 weeks.

6) Notes and other info:

• While solving problems, make elaborate recordings of answers in the excel sheet to ensure that the hard, tricky, incorrect and confusing questions can be redone.
• Each problem solving session is to have ~40 questions, timed. Use excel to record answers.
• Once the above books are done, redo only the questions that were hard, tricky, got wrong or took a lot of time to finish.
• Get familiar with AWA on weekends.
• Study for 2 hours on weekdays and 5 ours on each weekend day.
  

Excel sheet format

Columns:

• Question #
• Time
• Answer (Actual)
• Attempt 1
• Answer (Selected)
• Right/Wrong
• Slow
• Unsure
• Careless Error
• Conceptual Error
• Note

• Attempt 2
• Answer (Selected)
• Right/Wrong
• Slow
• Unsure
• Careless Error
• Conceptual Error
• Notes

Here we go...

I just started studying for the GMAT - the first step towards applying to business school. This blog will capture my journey and the things I learn along the process of getting into a top B-school!