" Who will dare to relax after paying 15 lakhs ?"
I was wrong... I said that people seemed to relax yesterday but today I found that most have been slogging yesterday ... I felt it first when I went to the attrium in the evening where I found a lot of students studying in groups ... I found that some are already done with the Monday's work ...I did ask why they are not taking rest for a day... The first line of today's blog was the response I got for that.

I watched the "Satya" movie yesterday. It was a good movie and typical ramgopal type. It did some analysis and have sent to my group for compiling ...

I am already late ... Let me go and prepare for Monday's work ...

It was a sunny day ... Yesterday evening I enjoyed my time walking around the campus, swimming in the night,watching tv, chatting with the friends ... It feels so good to relax after a hectic week ... Today again, I am free watching TV and hearing songs ... There are assignments to be completed but no one seems to be bothered about it. Today, the movie "Satya" will be screened at the auditorium for doing analysis of the movie characters. I haven't yet watched this movie and will watch it today. I can watch in my laptop but I don't like watching movies in a small screen.

Good climate ... Cool lectures ... Afternoon sleep... Today was a cool day ... Mainly because I am free till Monday except for a half-an-hour class tomorrow.

We had a small quiz today and three assignments are due on Monday.

Today let me tell more about me. I finished my BE in computer Engg. and joined iNautix technologies in Chennai. I didn't had any big aims and just wanted to lead the rest of my life as an IT professional. iNautix was a great place to work and I loved IT. When my friends were trying hard to crack CAT, I was trying to prove myself in the work. I believed that an MBA is not required to climb the corporate ladder, but the learning from work experience would suffice. I was getting good ratings and hefty bonus. I didn't want to waste my two years in MBA.

As I had said earlier, we never know when our mind would change ... Mine changed when I read an article about MBA and its importance for people with work experience ... It was on the beginning of November, when I decided MBA is not a bad choice. Still I was not prepared to spend two full years for it. At that time, I accidentally visited the ISB web-page and thought the course would suit me. I was in US then and my colleagues there convinced me a post-graduate degree would matter in the long-run though not in the short run. I decided to go for it and started my GMAT prep. Time went so fast and now I am in the ISB still wondering how to use this one-year most efficiently.

With just one week of classes, I have started feeling that an MBA is worth pursuing. The lessons taught in MBA are the ones which every person in a responsible position should know. I will discuss about how I got into the ISB, later.

And regarding unwanted comments in my comments section … If it continues, I may be forced to remove the comment section …

Yesterday evening was too hectic... four chapters and two cases to be read and one assignment to be completed ... I was one of the lucky few who managed to sleep by 12:00 PM. There were guys who slept only for one or two hours... Today is comparitively free and I went for a swim. I am not yet swimming properly but could manage to swim and escape if situation arises.

I am gradually getting comfortable with this school. Yet the buildings and this life have not become dear to me but the name "ISB" has. Still I cannot believe that I am doing my MBA. Before four months, I was strongly opposing going for MBA. Life changes rapidly and mind changes more rapidly ... I am just watching the changes happening to me as a spectator.

I submitted my first assignment today exactly at 8:00 AM, which was the deadline. I have not done it correctly but more or less have got the concepts correct. Today I got an interesting assignment to evaluate the characters of the movie "Satya".

I have started getting used to my room and this school. I know one day I may feel bad to leave this room and place but that's life ...

AND THUS WENT THE FIRST CLASS ...

I was in before 5 minutes. Sharply at 8:30, the class began. The name tag before me - "Sujayath" - gave me a proud feeling that I was part of the ISB. I am not going to comment on the class or the professor. But I had a feeling that I am learning from the best faculty. There was a grim silence throughout the class and there were some fifty hands rising up for each question asked. Class participation carries marks. We were supposed to be prepared with the concepts the professor would be teaching on that day. ( I can anticipate the question - "Strange ! Then what does they teach ?". The class is just a brush-up of concepts and more of an application of concepts in case studies). I was looking for oppurtunities when I could raise my hand but didn't get any ... The class was over and he handed over an assignment due on wednesday.

The next class was relaxing. There was a rumour yesterday that we were supposed to do some home-work for this class. Prof. had sent a mail to everyone that we need not worry about home-works. He also easied us by saying that there are no marks for class participation. It was a bit relaxed class.

Afternoon, I went late to the class and noticed that asst. dean was there on the class. I don't know whether I was marked present or absent for the class. It was about leadership development. If I am absent for two classes, my grade would be decreased by one letter grade.

And I am back to the room. I am waiting for the barber to come. Let me have a hair-cut.

All the pre-term courses are over. The real ride starts from Monday. There are a lot to prepare for the first class and I am in lack of time. My groupmates are calling me for carting. It will take away 5 hours from my schedule but I may go for it. Once the term starts, I may not be able to do that.

Yesterday there was a sudden party in the student village. I was tired and didn't go to party. Here party includes booze and dancing. I don't drink but like watching people drinking and dancing. There is a lot of energy flowing in these parties and would help to revive ourselves in the middle of the hectic schedule we are going through.

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Everyone who comes to the ISB for the first time will become spellbound. The campus is awesome. The hostels are known as student villages. The rooms have TV, bed, sofa, AC, etc etc and there will be servants to clean your room and make your bed. The hostel authorities treat you like a star hotel customer. You will feel like you are living in a luxury resort and not in a hostel.

Yet, I feel alone here. I feel like I am house arrested. Whenever I return from dinner, the solitude strikes me. I will walk very slowly from the dining hall to my room. Once I enter the room, I am alone. So, I will try to walk as slow as I can. I do not find many people sitting outside their rooms in the hostel premises. Either they study in their room or go to the library or academic center to study. Most of the rooms have four students sharing the apartment. There will be a common hall and seperate bedrooms. Unluckily I was allotted an apartment that has seperate rooms (no common hall) and shared only by two. This worsens my solitude.

I asked one of my group mates who usually studies in his room about the reason he is not going to the academic center for studying. He replied " I usually get distracted by beautiful girls. In ISB there are many, mostly studying at LRC (library) or at the academic center. I don't want to get distracted."

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People often ask me about my GMAT preperation and experiences. I have already shared my experiences in the testmagic forum, which I am giving here again for people who are yet to give their GMAT.

About my preperation ....

It was before three months, when I decided to go for MBA. I had no idea about GMAT, even no idea what it stands for. I bought Barron's guide and was browsing through it. Now I feel that the book gave me a completely different perspective of GMAT than what it really is. My comments about the book : It can supplement along with OG and Kaplan but would not suffice as a single resource to rely on. Maths section is good but verbal sucks. For SC, basic concepts can be obtained from that book but don't even go through the CR and RC part - a complete waste of time.

Well with Barrons in hand, hoping that GMAT is very simple (since Barrons was very simple), one day I came across this site. I was taken back by the discussions, particularly SC. I understood GMAT is something different. I was even afraid to register to this site. For one month, I was silently going through the discussions. Erin's explanations drew me into a new world. At this time, I didn't had any idea of what score I would get, but I was interested in this exam.

I found out there is something called OG which is a must for GMAT. Then I found out it is a book called Official Guide. I ordered it. the day when I got the book, I was very proud and with such a pride, I regsitered in this site.

Then I understood buying OG is just a first step. How to read it in an effecient way ? I know just reading the book will bore me and will spoil the interest I had for GMAT. I split the book into a series of tests - test taking was always an interesting task for me - I feel test taking like reading a mystery novel with an unexpected ending more twisting than any other Agatha cristy's climax. At this time, I already had a good knowledge about SC (I had read more than 50% of SCs in this forum). Before starting OG, I took powerprep I. I got 710. That gave me a confidence and started OG happily.

Now my life went hand in hand with OG. All these days, I was going through the discussions in this forum and I am not exaggerating when I say this site helped me more than OG. For SC, I started writing rules in a notebook whenever I come across one, whether from OG or from this site (the final count was 170 - yes...170 rules). CR was not a problem for me from the beginning.

Now I found I am lagging in DS. I was good but not very good in PS. I got Agarwal book and revived my basics. I got some probability and combinations material from net. I went through more than 70% of maths discussions in this forum. This gave me a very good understanding of probability. I also got a good understanding of Number properties from this forum. I took a princeton test (borrowed from my friend) every week. The score started from 710 and when I finished all the four, I was in 720. DS also improved well after sufficient practice. Basically I am an Engineer and hence Maths was not a problem at all. More than a month went very fast. OG was over.

I still had three weeks for exam. I borrowed kaplan and kaplan 800 from my friend. They didn't take more than a week. I took off from work while reading kaplan 800 and it took only two days to complete. Tip : Kaplan and Kaplan 800 are good books which require less time to complete. OG is tightly packed with a lot of questions and it requires a lot of time.

While doing OG, I noted down the question numbers that went wrong. After finishing kaplan, I solved the questions that went wrong. I solved SC section fully again.

In the final week, I borrowed ARCO's essay book from my friend ( am lucky to have such a friend who lended me all the books she had). I didn't go through it fully. I prepared templates for my essays. For AWA, I took some argument points from this book.

So, thats all about my practice ... I also did SC from GMAT+ and downdowndwn.net though I didn't do any other section from these.

In a nutshell :

AWA - Argument:

Prepare a template. Go through all the essay topis and make sure you are able to identify atleast one flaw. I did this the day before exam, when I was not able to find flaw, I depended on ARCO.

AWA - Issue:

Prepare a template. Go through all the essay topis and make sure you understand the topics.

In the exam, you can devote 5 to 10 minutes for thinking and outlining your essay. Typing essay takes less than 10 minutes once you have an outline. The last 10 minutes can be used for spell check and style. It took only two minutes for me to check and I went to next section in 22 minutes.

PS:

Read as much as material you can. IMS material and Agarwal (both are Indian books) have a good range of formulae. Read to as much depth you can. For example, the formulae for radius of incircle/circumcircle inside an equilateral triangle, area of triangle formed by a sector in a circle etc seemed too deep for me but heard that they are also tested in GMAT.

DS:

Practise. Practise. Practise.

You should practise to a level where you know some things by heart like X^2 need not be greater than X, if X^2 is 1, X can be -1 etc. Read my post about the test ... 90% of my questions were from algebra and DS were more than PS. If I had concenterated on all other topics and have left DS algebra, I would have had a very bad time.

SC:

Form rules. Rely on OG. Og has more then 125 rules. Find them. DownDownDown and GMAT+ are also good.

CR:

Practise. I don't know what else to say. You have to get a feel of the questions.

RC:

Don't follow princeton's idea of skimming text. Don't follow blindly kaplan strategy also. I will give my strategy - This worked for me.

Non-Science passage:

Read the text and make sure you understand the text before going to questions. It is not necessary to note down the author's tone, purpose etc while reading the text as kaplan says. Just read the text and understand what is written. Once you do that, the author's tone and purpose would be revealed to you. Noting down tone and purpose will waste time. Remember you have only maximum 4 minutes to read the text. If you are running out of time, and are deciding to guess, guess RC questions especially if it has two questions only. You can find the number of questions for a given RC by seeing the top - It appears like "questions 31-32 are from this passage". Need not take notes also. It is better to spell out the content you read, in your own language.

Science passage:

Don't try to understand fully. Take notes in the form of a flow diagram. Most of the questions can be answered by seeing the notes. Some questions will require going back to passage. So, don't spend too much time in memorizing the content.

For RC, note key words like always, surely, etc which if appears in the answer most likely makes it incorrect.

Thats all from me ...

About the test

AWA :

I already went through most of the AWA topics and prepared outline for them. For issue, I got one from what I had prepared. Argument was a new one but easy. Overall, a breeze.

QUANT:

I had prepared very well for QUANT especially probability, mean/mode, SD, geometry, speed problems, profit/loss, permutation and combination, interest problems, number series, ratio proportions and work problems. I didn't get any questions from these areas except an easy one from Geometry and one very easy combination problem (Infact the question clearly indicated it is a combination problem and not permutation). 90% of my question were from Algebra and the remaining were from number properties and percentages. One question was from set theory.

The questions were very easy that I thought I have screwed up in the first ten questions. In fact, easier than any sample test I had taken. I don't know whether I felt it so easy as I was well prepared for Algebra. Even then, I took a lot of time for first ten questions that I had to blindly guess for two or three questions. I also did educated guessing for two questions. If I had managed time properly, I could have scored well in Quant. Even the questions I guessed were simple word problems only but lengthy. I know how to solve them but didn't had time. I think I had more DS questions than problem solving.

Verbal:

I was so upset after the QUANT. I thought I had done very poorly because I got only very easy questions and because I had guessed for five questions although they were easy. In this tense mood, I made a mistake. I wanted to finish the test as soon as possible because of frustration, and I skipped the break.

The earlier SC questions were little tricky. The first RC passage was vague but not hard. After that, I received very simple questions. SCs checked simple concepts like dangling modifiers and parallelism. I got very few CR - five or six only I think. They were simple too and one boldface - it was also easy. I again thought I had screwed up verbal as the questions were easy. I had a reason - My RCs had a maximum of 55 lines only. There were only three RCs. All were so simple in style and narration and questions were very direct. I was expecting four RCs with 75- 125 lines each if I had to cross 700. Most of the verbal questions were SCs. I managed time well in verbal. I finished with 5 minutes left.

I was so upset before seeing the score as I received only easy questions. When I saw the score, I was very happy. I could have done better in QUANT but its okay. I am content with my score and am not going to retry. I am very good at Maths but not so in Verbal. But in real test, verbal has boosted my score. I attribute this success to testmagic - especially to erin for his SC explanations.

Even after all this, I still doubt how I got 730 inspite of easy questions and random guessing in QUANT. Can I beleive unofficial score or should I keep my fingers crossed till I see my official score ?

Time Management:

Before starting the test, I made two tables in my scratch paper. One for QUANT and another for verbal. For QUANT, I wrote from 1 to 37 on one coumn. Against it wrote from 73 to 0 decreasing in interval of 2 (73, 71, 69 ...). The idea is whenever I want to know the time I am lagging, I have to see the time from the table across the question number and compare it with the time remaining. Though I was prepared like this, I took too much of time for first ten questions. In the midst of test, I was lagging by 15 minutes and could not help but guess for five questions.

For verbal, my table was as below.

0 - 75
7 - 63
14 - 50
21 - 38
28 - 25
35 - 13
41 - 0

I cultivated the habit of checking time for every 7 questions and it really helped me in the test.