Long way to go...

GMAT timer that I downloaded really did improve my timing for the verbal section. It’s a nice app to keep track of your pace.
However I noticed that my success rate reduced with the addition of timer. One of the reasons could be I was more conscious about finishing every question within 1 min 50 seconds benchmark?
I guess more time based practice would help me with both accuracy and adherence to time
For Day 13(May 12) Completed with verbal sets 9, 10 and analyzed. Was surprised to see more wrong answers in SC (mostly silly mistakes).
Also, once I have reached 95% success rate in both CR and SC, have to work on the RC. I sometimes see 50% error rate for RC. Not good at all. Long way to go and fingers crossed.

Day 12(May 11):

• Worked on Verbal set 7 and 8 – 7 analyzed, 8 yet to be
• Took GMAT prep but stopped after the quants section. The concentration was not 100 %. Will start it again some time soon to know my status
• Also have to work on my timing. I feel am working out 30-45 minutes late for the verbal sections.

Progress Till now

Day 1(April 26):

· Started with Princeton Review ‘Manual for the GMAT’ Completed till assignment 3

· Planning to complete the book tomorrow

Day 2(April 27):

· Princeton Review ‘Manual for the GMAT’ Completed till assignment 5

· I know its slow progress. Will complete the verbal tomorrow

· POWER PREP test – got 600. Analyzed the wrong answers

Day 3(April 28):

· Princeton Review ‘Manual for the GMAT’ completed all the assignments and the lessons related to verbal

· Worked 14 questions from Verbal Set 1 from system

· Worked 60 SC questions from OG11

Day 4(April 29):

· Completed remaining questions from Verbal Set1 and analyzed

· Completed Verbal Set 2 and analyzed

· Completed 12 questions from Verbal Set3

Day 5(April 30):

· Completed Verbal Set 4 and analyzed

May 01 and 02 – Break for my cousin’s marriage

Day 6(May 03):

· Worked out 21 questions from Verbal Set 5 – yet to analyze

· Planning to complete CR bible tomorrow since many answers go wrong in CR

· Also tired after the Marriage trip, so will sleep in sometime.

Day 7(May 04):

· Started with CR bible

· Great book with great information

· Completed some 85 pages

Day 8(May 05):

· Progressing with CR bible

· Am sure of CR performance improvement upon completion of this book – fingers crossed

· Completed 171 pages in this book

Day 9(May 06):

· Still progressing with CR bible (I know it’s very slow)

· I will be leaving to my Friends marriage tonight. Will ramp up the preps after coming back from it

· Completed till 234 pages (Assumption Questions – yet to be analyzed)

· Also planning to blog all the information – Larger audience (more brains more ideas)

May 07 and 08 – Break for my best friend’s marriage (Yeah I know 2 weeks two marriage :-), but cant afford to miss both )

Day 10(May 09):

· Completed the CR bible – Excellent book. Am sure it will help me see an improved CR score.

· Planning to start of with one GMAT prep test tomorrow, to see where I stand with ten days of preparation passing by. All I would need is concentration and focus to crack the test. God give me the power.

· Ok. One glance on the CR bible notes and am heading to bed.

Day 11(May 10):

· CR bible did help in the CR section.

· Worked on Verbal set 5 and 6 – analyzed.

· Don’t know why but scared to take the full length. I have to do it tomorrow for sure.

Walking thru my plan

This time it is serious stuff ..I sat one fine day to decide on my mba plans and how am going to achieve the same...till now i see good progress..am preparing for GMAT..yeah my real dream and passion(MBA)...i have a log of every day happenings from April 26th (day I started) till today, which i would be posting in my next blog..also to keep up with other MBA and GMAT enthusiasts around the world, am planning to request 'Beat the GMAT' to add my blog with their pre-mba link...have to find out the way to do that...
Also, I would keep this place to track down my progress in GMAT and for other shouts...Catch you soon...

What do i do?

Wishing you all a happy new year. Wishing everyone including me :-) for their dream to come true this year.

Regarding my previous blog plan.As usual this plan busted as well. not that this plan was a flop without any actions taken on it. This just didnt seem to be what I wanted. thats it. I know am going to be sitting and studying in my dream B-School someday. but when and how am going to make that - am really not aware of. am a strong believer of CANI - Continous and Never Ending Inprovement - 'Kaizen' as the Japanese call it. there is something in my mind which always says this is the stuff you have to believe in. for that I need to take control of my mind somehow and not let my mind control me. am just smiling thinking who instructed the previous statement to be written..anyway one of the option is pranayama (deep breathing) and books..lets wait and see..

Diwali and my new plans...

First of all I Wish everyone a happy diwali!!!!

Some people keep asking whats the reason behind all these festivals apart from a big story behind it...Somehow I believe every festival in India has a specific scientific reason behind it...Yes Diwali also has it..
"Looking at the Deepavali festival from the scientific point of view, it should be noted that at one time in the distant past, our ancestors lived in the Arctic region (the polar region). In this region, darkness prevailed for six months. The sun appears on Mesha Sankranti day (the sun entering the Aries sign of Zodiac). The sun sets in this region on Tula Sankranti day (when the sun enters Libra). In the movement between these two signs, there is an interval of six months. After the sun sets in Libra, the dark half-year starts. Today is the fourteenth day (Chaturdashi) in the month of Kartik. It is the New Moon day (Amaavaasya). This month is called Kaumudi. The people in the polar region used to start lighting their lamps from this day. The lighting of the lamp is not without significance, as they would be in darkness for a long period. They described the lamp that was lit as "Nitya-jyoti" (the perennial)."

Ok. I felt that nothing interesting or unique was happening in my life to share it with others..I always had/have this desire of more intersting stuffs to happen in my life which others find it really attractive that they talk about with much appreciation...And i found the solution for this would be my action towards my passion(mba) without any further delays..Ofcourse the results can't be seen immediately tomorrow..only 'time' has the answer for it..After pondering upon my thoughts for a much long time, I decided I have to do a MBA in one of the IIM's and not outside India(whatever the heck reason for it)..Now that am into this IT field, there is no other choice apart from this..So, I cant say 'i will try to get into one of the IIMs', rather, I have to say 'I will get into one of the IIMs'....So am going to start my preparations from today and document briefly every step that will help me in advancing towards my place in one of the IIM's (be it be solving maths, english stuffs, forums, reading a book or even watching a movie which somehow helped me in my path towards IIM :-) )..
ok so here is the plan..everyday from today (October 18th 2009) till same day next year(2010), I would be answering the below questions to keep track of what am doing
How much time spent on
(1) MBA Forums
(2) Maths preparation(CAT books)
(3) English preparation(CAT books)
(4) TV
(5) Guitar
(6) Gym
(7) Office Stuff(technical)
(8) Any Book (and name the book)
(9) Blog
(10) Other non MBA stuff(mention)
(11) Other MBA Stuff(mention)
(12) Nonsense stuff

Irrespective of if I do the above stuffs or not, the above details will be logged in the blog everyday 11:00 PM IST..Apart from that other blogs if any will go in seperately...

Lets see how my Life plan from now looks like
am 26-27 years old
STEP1: one year CAT preparation - 27-28
STEP2: two years MBA in IIM - 29-30
STEP3: 5 years of consulting or travel Job - 34-35

Rest of the plan after successfully completing the first step in the above plan :-)

Mood Swings !!!

Dont know why but in the recent past i witnessed lot of mood swings and also seen my thoughts or plans dancing and attaining disparate forms every fortnight...though everything happened for good, still am searching reasons for these happenings...
It all started with one fine day in US. I was checking out my mails like every other day and something inside asked me to come back to India and I obeyed it...then followed by me postponing my MBA plans (my dismal GMAT score of 640 may be a other reason here)..though the MBA plan is still on I had to put a semicolon for a while still not sure about the exact reason though..later i witnessed many of my friends from wharton, kellogs and from other Bschools still hunting for jobs after their graduation -> this makes me think sometimes, my decision to postpone MBA was good atleast for the time being.. though i dont want to take this as a excuse for my dismal 640 in gmat, still i believe in the concept of 'everything happens for good'..lets wait and see what ive got...
now again all of a sudden i got the US craze..yes i want to go back to US for work...maybe thats becoz of the sick unprofessional work culture in India...yes i feel working in my bangalore office is like sitting in a fish market and doing my software coding stuff...nothing offensive..i feel our indian software industry for whatever reasons have recruited every possible person - the final result -> 10% of the company sweating it out to keep the work and the company running and the rest using the company as a coffee shop..that's my feeling...
maybe other reason for my US urge maybe listening to more of my fav rock bands and relating my life with the videos and lyrics of every song :-) ..recent courtesy 'Coldplay'.
Don't worry about the post..Its like just random ramblings...I've just written down whatever that hit my mind..