The last two months have been transformational. Its a collective result of multiple diverse forces. I have learnt, grown and changed. My attitude and approach are new.

To see things from the other side has been the biggest of the learning.  To step out from within yourself, from everything you are, you know and you think, to give a message to the other side in a way that appeals and connects. To look at myself from the eye of the world. I am a pawn in the game of the world. My value should be known, to be given a weight.

Everything is a life changing experience – be ready to be blown away, to only reveal the better side of you!

MBA is about giving you a new start in life. It builds clarity of thought and reason.
But of course, who you are and what you’ve done until now is what defines the way you live and act, and that baggage you carry.
It will push you to think about what you are, and what you want in life.
It will challenge you, intimidate you, push you to your limits of capability and perseverance.
You will do the things which you never imagined or planned for.
You will realize hidden potential, inner strengths, and the value of things.
Helps develop the task that looked mountainous look reasonably easy after this.
The way you look at and value different things will definitely change.

MBA is a world-lab. Everybody comes out a changed and self and outside world aware person.
In between all the  noise around, you will find yourself.
In the messy and chaotic world out there, you will learn to find a gap and make an impact.
You see similar inner drive and character in all the totally new people out there
You know the real future of the world and the leaders of tomorrow.

MBA teaches you to focus on the most important things in life – time and people. Everything else – Opportunity, money, fame, positioning start here.
It teaches you to decide what you do every moment to carve out your future.
The biggest learning probably is that life can’t be lived tomorrow, and the best you can do today is better than the better of tomorrow.
Also that the clarity, conviction and interest in anything you do is very much evident in the way you talk, and that there is absolutely no point and no value in being fake and unsure.
MBA teaches you that you can’t wait for tomorrow to live your life, and so with all the good and bad, you have to make the most of today!

Manage to survive, deal with and enjoy the craziness around.
Just that there is not separate reentry to the world; it is a continuum
MBA teaches you to differentiate between what you want and what you can get and gives you the tools to get what you want. But yeah, everything in life requires a little bit of persistence and struggle. Getting to the ends is what matters, not really the minor hurdles along the way.
If you have lived to your fullest today, you are good.

Monday Morning: 6:45 am -  Getting up -”Where did the weekend go!!??”

(Had gone to bed at 2:00 after a 3 hour mega cooking session to prepare food that hopefully lasts a week.)

7:00 am – 8:00 am -  Getting ready, cornflakes for breakfast, Jam Sandwich in the lunch box.

Miss the campus shuttle by 30 seconds. But thank goodness, campus is still walking distance away and weather is great

8:00 am – 9:00am

Call a friend in India – walk while I talk – catch up on Bangalore news

8:30 am – 10:20 am Managing organization class. New study group. Analysis on how personality traits affect team performance.

10:20 am – 10:30 Check email and reply to a few

10:30 am – 12:30 am – Interpersonal Communications class – Half the class has a mock interview. I am on the interviewing panel. Look up the resumes and discuss questions and structure in the 5 minute break midway.

12:30 – 1:30 Corporate Presentation + Grab lunch

1:30 – 3:00 – Accounting assignment which is due Tuesday morning

3:00 – 3:30 – Prepare for case disussion with Managing Orgs Study group.

3:30 – 5:30 – Probability and Decision Making Class

5:30 – 6:00 Case Discussion, realize that I prepared for the wrong case!

6:00 – 6:30 Take some printouts, preparation for Wednesday’s class

6:30 – 7:30 Meet 2nd year students in the Lounge, discuss Life, Assignments, Recruitments.

7:30 – 8:00 Wait for the bus and get back home. Call a friend and a cousin on the way back

8:00 – 8:30 Eat, relax

8:30 – 9:00 – Catch up pending mails. Start Accounting Assignment, realize that I need to refer the textbook, go to a friends place to get it.

9:00 – 10:30 – Class and Subjects discussions at the friends place. Snack.

10:30 – 11:30 Call home, call bro, call a cousin.

11:30 – 1:30 Assignment, almost fall asleep doing it.

I am really really happy!! Almost everything can change in a day,  it looks like my life is all set to take a bright new turn!

Wow, the news is still sinking in!! After a few rejects and at a time when I was almost losing hope, this comes as a reminder that things will work out eventually if you have the perseverance to put in enough good work.

This was my last application, and I think the maturity increase over the last 6 months definitely showed up in the essays and the interview.

Clarity in presentation of self and future goals, quality of past  accomplishments, attitude and confidence – seem to be the main criteria in the evaluation of an applicant.

I cannot imagine all opportunities and experiences in life that this seat will open up for me in the future , but for today,  it definitely has been a very happy moment and a great relief – an accomplishment and a satisfaction in itself.

Thanks for all the people who wished me luck in the process, and everybody who provided me with constant support and encouragement throughout.

Special mention: Aditya – my brother, friend, philosopher,  guide,  critic, bouncing board etc etc – it would surely not be possible without you

I was really glad, I think I do express a lot through my expressions and telephonic interviews were restricting in that sense. Also, with just audio, the pauses and the filler words may seem more evident and (possibly) disturbing.

The Tepper students meet held at Bangalore in January was really very informative.  It was very good to see the admission committee members:  Gwendolyn Stanczak and James Frick come to India in person and spend a lot of time in interacting with the prospective students, providing a lot of inputs and information about the school. This has set the stage in my preparation about the school and evaluation of my fit to the school.

The interview started with the usual questions: About myself, about my career role post graduation,  one of my recent accomplishments, why MBA, why now, why Tepper, what after MBA, specific industry/role, information I have collected about it, my strength, one area to improve in, one difficult team situation, what i do in my free time,.. Pretty conversational, and pleasant. Then it was followed by the questions I had about the school/course and he gave the answers with some detail. 30 mins sharp.

Went pretty well,  two big plus’es: me being more organised and well presented in my talk, and use of video.

I spoke with full  optimism and confidence, energy and enthusiasm. Waiting for the results now, I sure hope I get through.

This is the las t one for this year, this is the last pebble I am throwing into the ocean for now, and things might go downwards from here. Yet,  Im mentally re-analysing all of this year’s applications, so that I do everything better next year, if I dont get in this time.

Brief me about your work post graduation

More follow up about the actual work

Tell me about a significant leadership experience

Tell me about a teamwork related conflict you faced

Why MBA

How did you make the choice about this career path

Have you done more research about this path?

Where else have you applied? Why?

Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision

Any questions?

Quite conversational, the discussion went well.

Most people say Telephonic is disadvantageous, but it looked very professional, I don’t think (and hope) it isn’t really so much of a difference.

Waiting and looking forward to a positive response.

Links about Developed India, the Governments current plan

http://www.surfindia.com/finance/budget-india/

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/pranab-mukherjees-union-budget-speech-2009-2010-full-text_100214038.html

http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_040213.htm

http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/nov/14spec.htm

http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2009/08/stanford-leads-the-best-business-schools/

• Clock – the ticking clock will change the way you think if you arent used to practice and taking tests in timed conditions. Never ignore the clock at any point in the preparation
• Poor performance in the essays – If you havent taken them seriously in the practice tests,  and realise that the outcome is below par in the actual, the confidence level may come down.
• Bad time management due to pressure, and it backfiring on you – you spend extra time one question, and realise you shouldnt have done that, then you’d be tempted to complete the next few fast, and so will drop in accuracy
• Firsts  ( tension, too much focus on time to think clearly,  no focus due to non calm mind, drawing a blank, feel like in a trance) – Try to have a strong mind, and be balanced. You can, if you think you can.
• Higher than expected difficulty levels -  You surely can expect some variations in the ‘perceived’ difficulty level, but its recommended to not focus on that, rather take one question at a time, and focus on giving your best to it.
• Unexpected disturbances – cant focus when there all others around you are typing their essays? learn to block noise

A lot of these translate to how serious you were in the practise tests compared to the actual tests.

My performance was affected to some extent as I was very casual about practise tests, so didnt have the time management problems mentioned about, but in the actual test,  I didnt fare well enough in this area.

The better you can visualise problems, and take steps to counter them, the better your performance will be All the best!

http://www.800score.com/score2.php

Get to know how the mapping of practice test score to the Actual GMAT using this:

http://gmatclub.com/gmat-score-estimate/

Very useful to plan the focus study areas.

Excellent compilation, and a very useful one, do go through it to get an idea about which area to focus on:
http://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-diagnostic-test-quest-for-best-gmat-diagnostic-test-79502.html

There are detailed answer explainations, a very good graphical projection of the different analyses of your performance, and quite an interactive forum to discuss anythign if required.

I felt that this was a little harder than the questions I had seen on Gmatprep,  so dont be too bothered if  you dont get most of them right.

Afterall – the total score depends on the verbal performance too.

In my case,  at the GMAT centre in Bangalore, there was some technical problem. They kept on telling stories like “The exams are not downloaded, the internet connection was bad yest night” etc.  This was really an unbelievable story. Added to that was “It may be done in 5 mins, may take half an hour, cant say” story. Finally, after making us wait for 3 and a half hours,  said that they had to wait for the people taking the exam to finish before they could start some maintanance work, and so it would take atleast another 2 hours atleast to start our test and that we could either wait if we liked, or reschedule to another day.

Bad quality of infrastructure, and the processes they have to keep them ready and usable  – it seemed. Extremely unprofessional, they making us wait for so long. I expected better quality and arrangements. The rescheduling process was good though.

I was lucky to find another slot in the same week. Though I am in no hurry in terms of applications dates, my system was reluctant to accept that the exam is not yet over, and that I have to probably study for a few more hours, before I can tag the exam as ‘done’.

The focus and the josh would probably be changed by any unplanned events, like a break from study.  Variables like office work load  make it harder. Yet, it is important to make a schedule and stick to it – until the test is over.

• Though they have 20 % people in the 3- 4 years experience, the average GMAT score of people with an engineering background is 740! Omg. Its ridiculously high.
• And it does seem like they do give a lot of weight age to GMAT scores!
• They reserve about 50% seats for R1 and 50% for R2 –generally in proportion with the incoming apps in each round. Except last year, they have always had more apps in R2. There can be people from R1 waitlisted, and they would receive confirmation based on R2 apps and admits.
• The percentage of the class broadly reflects the percentage of the application – they say. I.e if 75% of apps are from engineers, then 75% of their class will have to be engineers. Hmm. I doubt if this is completely true. In my opinion, they would always want diversity, people from different backgrounds, and so they wont totally mirror the apps percentages. Anyway, even if the proportion is truly maintained, the (numbers of people getting in)/(number of people who applied) is lower compared the other domains, because of the high number of people applying.
• First time applicants – 1 in 13 is the ratio – 8-5-1 (applications – interviews – admits)
• Reappliants – out of ~380+ applicants, ~90+ were given admits.
• Placement statistics of batch of 2009 – which isnt there on their website yet – was projected.  As expected, a dip in the average salaries. Noticed a dip in the number of ‘general management’ domain – from 22% in 2008 to about 5 or 6% in 2009, though this is a reflection more of the industry trends, rather than ISB trend. Anyway, this data is expected to be out soon, on their website, as their placement season went on till end-of-June, though the batch graduated in April.

The rest – as I remember- was yada-yada.

They had alumni from varied backgrounds in the session, that’s appreciable. And as expected, lots of people attending. Three batches, of about 200- 250 people.

First of all, it can be either true or false.

If it is true, why isn’t it out in the open? Why doesn’t GMAC announce it right away. What would it change – it would change the focus of the people like me who spend time on Quant higher level difficulty questions hoping to compensate for the weaknesses in the verbal portion, without realizing that maybe it would never happen.

Wonder why could there be these unwritten nuances that are so critical in a standardised test like this one

Also, in Analysis of an issue, suggestions are to not be one sided, but be persuasive in what you support. Though a little bit of a contradiction it provides the content for one paragraph : acknowledgement of the other side of argument, but refuting it?

When you are reading a lots of blog posts / content on the web, its hard to determine which to give more priority to. There is probably more stuff which are just junk, and opinions of people, rather than facts / observations based on solid analysis. How smart is the e-rater that grades the essays is one thing I cant quite guage. Maybe its not required to be thinking of it. Never know.

I am taking one practice test a day – had not started writing the analysis essays until now, but realized that I have to work a little on it. Given 45 mins – I can make them look a lot better than 30 mins. Hard to get out of the chat lingo, the incomplete sentences and not having a spell checker run all the time.

• Taking no break b/w quant and verbal section – made me tired and unable to concentrate, also spending too much time in a few questions, having no time for the last 2 -3 hit me. ( this was the first time it had happenend )
• Not guessing for a question that I had no idea about, trying to work out a formula for it then – not worth the extra time spent on it – when you are unsure of whether you even know what you are doing.
• Not more than 3 mins for even the toughest of questions – ever
• Not reading all choices in SC/ RC questions – in any question actually- reduces silly mistakes.
• Non structured in eliminating answer choices – had to re-read choices – wasted time
• Susbstitute the right ans and read the complete sentence in SC before you mark and confirm.

• Re evaluate – How much you could have answered by going through the incorrect questions – without looking intot the correct answers
• For the mistakes that could be avoided – why was it not avoided? Didn’t read fully? Concentration? Clarity? Carelessness?
• For the others: Brush up those concepts if possible, else understand the soln to a level that the same funda can be applied if you see a similar prob again.
• Maintain an error log – serves as a list of things you need to remember / to have in mind, to prevent repeat mistakes.

• Structure your study plan – Atleast in terms of Test time, review time, practice time. Else, you’d be carried away by doing excess of one and nothing of the other.
• Review of the mistakes and understanding the root cause of error is more important than taking tests.
• Time your tests, time your practice questions, time everything after the initial concept learning stage of preparation.
• Concentrate when you are at it, else don’t do it. It matters a lot in the accuracy levels, time etc.
• Read blogs – read material which gives insights on the adaptiveness of GMAT, on book/test series feedback, whats important in the test, what range of individual scores lead to what total score, peoples experiences and what they could have done better/ apps, essays, experiences etc. The more you have GMAT on your mind, the more time you woud devote to it.
• Maintain error log, concept learn log, score log, study time, prep time table, mistakes log, so that you are not unaware of what you need to work on.

Preparations started about 3 months ago

OG 11^th ed:

Quant looked pretty simple.

Needed lots of improvement in SC; RC and CR were somewhere in between.

Went on to Kaplan 800 – that looked ok too – probably didn’t do it the ‘Test’ way – mistake – maybe ill revisit it sometime again.

Manhattan SC: Excellent book – Must read for people a little low on verbal scored – Im amazed at the content clarity, brevity and presentation in the book.

Practise Tests:

Was saving the GMATprep until now – because I did not want to myself at some point on the scores range, before going through the OG.

6/24 Mgmat –     660   Q 47 V 33

6/29 Princeton    680   Q 45 V 39

7/6 Powerprep   730    Q 49 V 41

7/8 Gmatprep     720   Q 49 V 41

7/9 Gmatprep     650   Q 48 V 31 << what happ?

Im from Bangalore, India, 25, Software Engineer, with 3 yrs work ex, undergrad in Engineering – IT.

Currently: Preparing for GMAT (scheduled for 21^st July), yet to make a list of schools to apply to.

Interests: General Management, Consulting, Marketing.

Why am I starting this blog?

Other than becoming a log of thoughts, events and progress, I want to build a network and connect with the fellow applicants/students around, to share opinions/ insights/ tips to get us to where we want to go in life

(Blogs have given me a lot of insight/ input which has helped me in GMAT prep– I really want to keep the ball rolling)