The GMAT debacle?

Thank you to every one who wished me luck yesterday. It made my day yesterday!
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Wrote the GMAT earlier today. Not as horrific as I had imagined in my nightmares but tad disappointing.

I ended up with a 680 - Q47, V 37.

Surprisingly, I thought I totally bombed the Quant (I had only 1.5 minutes left with 4 questions to go) and simply guessed answers. There were a lot of DS questions. Most of the PS questions seemed easy, however I completely stumbled on the co-ordinate geometry ones (there were 3-4 of these and I did not get any on the practice tests). Given my engineering background, its a shame I did not do well on the co-ordinate geomentry, or in general on the Quant.

The verbal was not that bad - or so I thought!. For most of the SC's I could pinpoint the mistakes. But still I expected a bit more on the verbal section.

Overall I'm happy it's done. It's a relief. However, a 680 is not going to get me into any of my target schools, which means I probably need to start hitting the books again. I probably will take it easy for a day or two and figure out a decent strategy in the meanwhile to redo the GMAT - and ACE it this time.

Here's to ROUND 2!

D - 1

So the GMAT is tomorrow. I was going to treat today as any other day and go to work and just be normal. However, something came over me on Monday and I took today and tomorrow off. I thought I'd hang out at home and just go through the explanations for the tough problems for GMAT, read some math formulas and the SC notes one last time.

However, as I sit here (for the past three hours) I seriously feel like doing almost nothing. I've just spent the past 2 hours reading random blog posts and forum posts on how people aced the GMAT. Some of it was inspiring. I'm also getting the feeling I did not prepare enough. I could have done more papers, more practice, more everything! Ugh!

For better or worse, I've kept the feeling of rescheduling the GMAT at bay. Mostly because, I just dread having to study for the GMAT all over again.

For today, I just need to keep my cool and trust that the dots will all just connect tomorrow!

GMATPrep Test 1

Just gave the first GMATPrep Test 1 and got a 710. I am quite happy but looking at my mistakes, there was only 1 question that I did not get conceptually. All the others were silly mistakes. When I re-solved them, I got the right answer.

I got 12 each wrong for Quant and Verbal. However, I feel I could have done tad better in Quant, had I not done the following idiotic things: a) Answer the phone while taking a test. Ya, smart move. But it was the wife :) and b) Take a break... I was feeling cold (SF summer) so went and put on a sweater. This left me with < 10 seconds to solve the last Quant question which I could have easily gotten right. But this is a mock test so I wont have my phone during the real one and will make sure I wear a sweater to the test.

Most of my mistakes in verbal were distributed between SC and CR and 2 RC ones (surprisingly since the RC passages were soooooooooo boring I answered some of them with no interest at all).

With 10 days to go, I still have a chance to give a few more exams and practice some more. Doing the Kaplan 800 at this stage also helps a bit.

GMAT Day coming soon

So I've not posted on the blog for a while. Mainly because there was not much to post on the MBA front. A lot of stuff going on at work which is exciting and I'll update y'all on that soon.

GMAT: I am giving the exam at the end of this month. Although I feel I've studied enough, I am not feeling confident. I am averaging between 600-700 on most tests that I've taken so far (Kaplan and MGMAT). I know their scores are sort of scaled down so I'm not so worried about the score anymore. As long as I make it around the 750 mark on the real deal I'll be happy.

However, for the past 2 weeks I've really slacked on studying. Just do not feel like it. If x = y+2 is x divisible by 4? I really don't give a rats ass anymore :(

I've also started having thoughts that I'm not ready for the exam yet and I need to study more. Which makes me feel I need to reschedule the GMAT. I know, bad idea. But I've not written an exam in so many years...

Maybe the right thing to do for the next 2-3 weeks is focus on studying from the Kaplan 800, take (and retake) the GMATPrep tests and in general just go over the problems I found hard during my studying.

I'm not sure what I just rambled, but this is my braindump. Feeling sorta scared and low...

Updates

It's been a while since I've posted, but I really feel like I must post more often. So here's a few updates:

GMAT Status: It's been slow. I really hate this. I hate my own lack of serious commitment. Just because work got busy is no excuse to be slow. I've completed RC and am more than half-way through the Manhattan SC book. It IS really quite good, but at times I feel it lacks explanations, for which I use a book called "Painless Grammar". The combination of these two seems to work out quite well. I've also re-paced myself and instead of setting super aggressive goals on how much I can finish off in a day (and then constantly failing to meet them), I've begun to set smaller goals that are actually achievable on a daily basis.

Work: Ah, this is really ramping up. I had a feeling life would just go on at this end and I could happily bask in GMAT-land. But it's all for the better. I have started working on a brand new project which is going to be a public facing site and so has all sorts of different requirements than I'm mostly used to. Even more fun is, I get to have my own summer intern this year! Am I excited or what! Finally, someone to get me my regular fix of green tea! Now we talkin' business! Jokes apart, I'm really excited about this. I still remember when I was an intern for the first time, almost eight years ago. Time flies...

My manager also let it slip, that if all goes well, he will recommend me to be promoted to a manager! I'm wary of such promises. I've also been considering a few changes career-wise, but maybe that's a post for another day.

Anyway, so the past two weeks have mostly been interviewing candidates, work on the new project, kicking myself for not keeping up with the GMAT.

I really hope this new plan of keeping things simple with the GMAT works out and I'll be able to give the exam before June ends.

That's it at my end for now. Its almost 3 AM. Time to shut up and sleep.

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!