Over the past couple of weeks I have spoken to many people. Most wanted to know about my journey to ISB. There are so many things involved that I could hardly portray the right picture every time. I have put my thoughts and experiences in words. Hope this helps someone.
Posts in Chronological order -
My MBA dream
GMAT - I
GMAT -II
ISB
Monday, December 14, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
ISB
Application and research
After assessing the pros and cons of a few good programs, I zeroed in on ISB. ISB scored heavily on ROI, brand value, effort required in the app (Thankfully just 3x300 word essays). FT rankings for the last two years allayed my fears of global recognition. While I was writing my essays I looked for all possible sources of help. There are numerous websites, blogs etc detailing the art of writing good MBA essays.
Although presented differently the golden rules of writing good essays are -
1) Know your self. Sounds non-sense, right? I thought so too when I first read it. But then the answer to the following questions should help you understand - Can you summarize your life's goal in one line? Do you know what's your thing. Do you have any idea what would you do for the rest of your life? and etc etc. regardless of the answers, do some introspection. This would help your thought process on Why MBA/ISB/now questions. Use your understanding of your dreams and values to weave a story. This step is very important as a MBA is a big investment in terms of time and money and without solid reasons for it you might regret later on. So assess your reasons and make an informed decision.
2) Be clear in what you say. Read your response again and again to ensure that you have answered the question. Get feedback from others. Often it's hard to critique your own work.
3) ISB essays are tough considering you have to sound convincing in the 300 word limit. For me this was a blessing. I am not a proponent of writing lengthy essays when the point can be communicated in a few sentences. Prioritize all the points you intend to mention and elaborate on a top few.
4) Structure your essay - make it readable. Break the essay down in paragraphs.
The most important advice I can give is - get it reviewed, by people who understand MBA essay writing, preferably current/ex students. There is an enormous difference between my first draft and the final essays. There will be a few who say the essays are very well written. Don't take them too seriously. Your best bet is someone who critiques and gives valid reasoning for his/her comments. Its human nature - we tend to dislike ppl who find fault with our work. But these are going to be your best friends in the MBA essay game.
A B-school values the interest you show in their program highly. Do some reading on the target school. Talk to alumni/current students. Find out what's the most attractive aspect (MTA) in the program for you. It could be anything such as the professional/social clubs, the facilities on campus, the parties etc. I have a keen interest in extra curriculars (had been quite active in college) so reading about the clubs really got me excited. Find the MTA and do mention it in the application.
Interview
ISB and almost all other good B-schools view a candidate positively for his/her contribution towards the society. Many of us join NGOs for namesake. My advice is - the ad com is exp enough to sniff such people. You don't want to come across as someone who is manipulative and untruthful. One glitch can overshadow your entire life's good work. Think twice as it's a big stake gamble. The admission director sums it up brilliantly - http://www.isb.edu/Blog/admissionsdirector/2009/11/25/Round-one-done-Few-observations.aspx
Same holds true for every thing else that goes in the app. DO NOT write something just because it makes the essays impressive. You will be seen in bad light if after all the hype built in the essays, you come out as a damp squib in the interview. Avoid anything that can't be defended convincingly during the interview. I did commit the mistake of mentioning current affairs in my app. It's not that I don't follow current affairs but just that I am no expert in it. Back in coll I used to quiz and all but not any more. I was lucky to get away with it. I hope .. you know what I mean.
ISB's interview is mostly profile based. The panel is comprised of 2-3 members from the ad com, alumni, and current students. With a few exceptions, the interviews are not stress interviews. Go through the pagal guy forums to read the experiences of candidates. My suggestion is - 1) know your application really well. 2) Have an explanation for everything mentioned. 3) Think of a few qualities/experiences (strengths, weaknesses, ethical dilemma etc ) not mentioned in the application. 4) Be confident and just be yourself, which is easy if you have written your essays yourself.5) Be formally and adequately dressed. Under dressing is a strict no no. You want to present your best self right? So put some effort in the way you look. 6) Smile and give the impression that you are ease. (I know it's easier said than done ;-) , but its true.)
My interview exp on Pagalguy - http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/international-indian-mba-schools-accepting/37061-isb-class-of-2011-aspirants-476.html#post1712699
Next, I am going to write about something that is very important but grossly underestimated. When you have gone through the above phases, you start reliving the exp of your interview. You start weighing every word uttered, every story narrated for its merit to portray you in good light. You fret unnecessarily over what's over. Negative thoughts surround you and you think of a hundred things that went wrong. In short your negative thoughts undermine all your strengths. Instead of imagining a positive result you start preparing yourself for a ding. This is the worst you can do to yourself. I believe our thoughts have a great tendency of turning into reality. So be your biggest friend and dream of success, expect a positive result, pray for it and it will happen. Hope for the best and enjoy your time while it lasts.
After assessing the pros and cons of a few good programs, I zeroed in on ISB. ISB scored heavily on ROI, brand value, effort required in the app (Thankfully just 3x300 word essays). FT rankings for the last two years allayed my fears of global recognition. While I was writing my essays I looked for all possible sources of help. There are numerous websites, blogs etc detailing the art of writing good MBA essays.
Although presented differently the golden rules of writing good essays are -
1) Know your self. Sounds non-sense, right? I thought so too when I first read it. But then the answer to the following questions should help you understand - Can you summarize your life's goal in one line? Do you know what's your thing. Do you have any idea what would you do for the rest of your life? and etc etc. regardless of the answers, do some introspection. This would help your thought process on Why MBA/ISB/now questions. Use your understanding of your dreams and values to weave a story. This step is very important as a MBA is a big investment in terms of time and money and without solid reasons for it you might regret later on. So assess your reasons and make an informed decision.
2) Be clear in what you say. Read your response again and again to ensure that you have answered the question. Get feedback from others. Often it's hard to critique your own work.
3) ISB essays are tough considering you have to sound convincing in the 300 word limit. For me this was a blessing. I am not a proponent of writing lengthy essays when the point can be communicated in a few sentences. Prioritize all the points you intend to mention and elaborate on a top few.
4) Structure your essay - make it readable. Break the essay down in paragraphs.
The most important advice I can give is - get it reviewed, by people who understand MBA essay writing, preferably current/ex students. There is an enormous difference between my first draft and the final essays. There will be a few who say the essays are very well written. Don't take them too seriously. Your best bet is someone who critiques and gives valid reasoning for his/her comments. Its human nature - we tend to dislike ppl who find fault with our work. But these are going to be your best friends in the MBA essay game.
A B-school values the interest you show in their program highly. Do some reading on the target school. Talk to alumni/current students. Find out what's the most attractive aspect (MTA) in the program for you. It could be anything such as the professional/social clubs, the facilities on campus, the parties etc. I have a keen interest in extra curriculars (had been quite active in college) so reading about the clubs really got me excited. Find the MTA and do mention it in the application.
Interview
ISB and almost all other good B-schools view a candidate positively for his/her contribution towards the society. Many of us join NGOs for namesake. My advice is - the ad com is exp enough to sniff such people. You don't want to come across as someone who is manipulative and untruthful. One glitch can overshadow your entire life's good work. Think twice as it's a big stake gamble. The admission director sums it up brilliantly - http://www.isb.edu/Blog/admissionsdirector/2009/11/25/Round-one-done-Few-observations.aspx
Same holds true for every thing else that goes in the app. DO NOT write something just because it makes the essays impressive. You will be seen in bad light if after all the hype built in the essays, you come out as a damp squib in the interview. Avoid anything that can't be defended convincingly during the interview. I did commit the mistake of mentioning current affairs in my app. It's not that I don't follow current affairs but just that I am no expert in it. Back in coll I used to quiz and all but not any more. I was lucky to get away with it. I hope .. you know what I mean.
ISB's interview is mostly profile based. The panel is comprised of 2-3 members from the ad com, alumni, and current students. With a few exceptions, the interviews are not stress interviews. Go through the pagal guy forums to read the experiences of candidates. My suggestion is - 1) know your application really well. 2) Have an explanation for everything mentioned. 3) Think of a few qualities/experiences (strengths, weaknesses, ethical dilemma etc ) not mentioned in the application. 4) Be confident and just be yourself, which is easy if you have written your essays yourself.5) Be formally and adequately dressed. Under dressing is a strict no no. You want to present your best self right? So put some effort in the way you look. 6) Smile and give the impression that you are ease. (I know it's easier said than done ;-) , but its true.)
My interview exp on Pagalguy - http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/international-indian-mba-schools-accepting/37061-isb-class-of-2011-aspirants-476.html#post1712699
Next, I am going to write about something that is very important but grossly underestimated. When you have gone through the above phases, you start reliving the exp of your interview. You start weighing every word uttered, every story narrated for its merit to portray you in good light. You fret unnecessarily over what's over. Negative thoughts surround you and you think of a hundred things that went wrong. In short your negative thoughts undermine all your strengths. Instead of imagining a positive result you start preparing yourself for a ding. This is the worst you can do to yourself. I believe our thoughts have a great tendency of turning into reality. So be your biggest friend and dream of success, expect a positive result, pray for it and it will happen. Hope for the best and enjoy your time while it lasts.
GMAT -II
I decided not to apply with a score of 640. I let a few months go by with out giving too much thought about MBA, GMAT and stuff. In hindsight I think this time recharged my mental batteries. I started thinking about GMAT again in Feb 2009. This time too it was motivated by the possible project termination in Canada. Since there was no clear date of return there was no deadline set for GMAT yet. It's strange that I saw India as a place where I could never achieve the level of performance possible in Canada, for reasons stated in the last blog. I was determined to prove it right this time. Just like last time my prep was irregular at first. I found three major activities that constantly gave me a break from the GMT prep.
1) Ice skating - I am an outdoor person who likes playing actual sports more than video games (may be because I suck @ video games and not so much in actual sport). Last winter I learnt to skate on the Rideau canal (supposed to be world's longest skating rink, measures 7.5 Kms across) in Ottawa. I spent many hours perfecting my skating skills. So my interest in sports did steal some time away from my prep but that was fine I had not fixed an appointment yet.
2) I was dating - :-) .. more than a time stealer I'd say this was a motivator as my date too was preparing for some exam of hers. And our association helped both of us.
3) I got sick - For the first half of 2009, I was paranoid and in a state of mental disarray. It's funny though how it all started. On our maiden skiing outing I saw my friend putting up a heart rate monitor before skiing. This spiked my curiosity as the guy was the same age as me and healthy too. On asking he said he just uses it as precautionary measure as a high heart rate is very dangerous. Before this time I had never bothered about heart rate and other medical bull shit. But the next time I stepped on the treadmill I consciously started thinking about my heart beat - is it beating faster, it is skipping beats, is there a slight pain? blah blah.. I became so concerned that I had trouble sleeping. The thing continued and it effected my general health. I consulted physicians, got some blood work done and every thing came clean. But my mind said I was sick. And since the mind is the driver, the body obliged. Long story short, eventually I realized what's going on and have been on a corrective path ever since. This taught me a very important lesson - the power our thoughts wield on our existence.
Finally the date of return was set and so was the GMAT date- July 3rd 2009. I decided to follow a different strategy this time as clearly my last one (or rather a lack on one) didn't help much. I dug through the blogs, forums (beatthegmat.com) etc. One thing became apparent - there is no one size fits all thing here. I decided to try a few, take the best out of each one, and form my own strategy. I never had any trouble with maths so I decided to work on my weakest link - English. English section consists of Reading comprehension(RC), Critical reasoning(CR) and Sentence correction(SC). Out of the 3, SC is the one which follows a set of rules, the rules of GMAT English. If one aces these rules, one can get a good score in SC. After some research I concluded Manhattan's SC is the best book to prepare for SC. I ordered one on Amazon and got it in a week. I studied the rules of sentence formation. Applying these rules sometimes seemed counter-intuitive but that's the fun with rules, you can apply objective thinking on a subjective English. You become a machine, you turn off your logic and just go through the algorithm. And to your delight more often than not this approach yields results, at least in GMAT SC. For the RC preparation I read a lot of articles on the internet. NYtimes and WSJ were two favorite destinations. Its important to understand the impact a sentence has on the whole passage. You learn to identify the important parts and skip the useless clutter. The exercise did lend me confidence. Though it was better than last time but still unpredictable. CR - I didn't do much here as I never had problems here. I guess RC prep helped here too.
Maths - was my strength and it seemed a good idea to capitalize on it to push up the overall score. I scored a 49 last time. This time I aimed for a 51 or a 50 at least. I realized all I need is a bit more practice. I needed to learn how to get through maths without burning too much fuel so that by the time I reach English the mental battery is not depleted. There is no substitute to practice, so I practiced. I thought the brain must be trained to handle all the sections in tandem. For this I started practicing all the sections in one sitting. I would appropriate equal time to both the sections which was further divided among their respective subsections. So the pattern was equal number of questions from each section for every sitting.
I followed this strategy almost a week to the test. My test was scheduled on a Friday and since my work had officially ended, I took the whole week off. All I did in this week was simulation tests. By doing I mean I thoroughly analyzed the answers, even the correct ones that took some time to figure out. I took both the mba.com sim tests and a few from Manhattan (that came free with the SC book). My Sim test scores followed an arithemetic progression - 710,730,750,770. I stopped at 770 as didn't want get a 790, otherwise would have to go over 800 in the final one ;-) .
If the Sim test scores were anything to go by, I should get a 770, was my thought a night before. But alas, I knew it was foolish to read too much into those scores.
Finally the D-Day came. Unlike the last time I took the afternoon slot when the brain would be sufficiently greased. Besides there was this feeling that nothing should be similar to last time. I was soon to find out that some things remain the same. I Went through the authentication process with ease. It was similar to last time except the additional palm scan. With all the procedures out of the way I was ready to get in the test room and find out if my new strategy was worth anything. The invigilator opened the door and offered me a seat. Behold, I don't want the same seat that screwed me last time. But had no option as all the others were taken. Man there goes my - diff-from-last-time up in the air. I told myself don't be ridiculous, a seat holds no power. The true power lies in my head.
I started with the test, the essays were a breeze as one can BS his/her way out. Maths was cool too except for a few questions towards the end. I got a bunch of hard ones (thought I must be doing good). I decided to not spend too much fuel here as I would need it in the next section. I didn't mind loosing a point here if I could redeem it in the Eng section. Eng was to me as Roland Garros was to Federer until 2009. I took the optional 10 minute break, went to the loo, had ice tea and came back to finish the battle. I did not get any euphoric sense of correctness unlike last time. I wrapped up the section right on time. My expectations were a 51 on maths and 40's in English. And my score was - 740, Maths - 50, English - 41. As I said earlier wouldn't mind trading a point from maths to English. I was glad the effort paid off.
The next step was to finalize the schools to apply. With this score I was well above the average GMAT for literally any b-school in the world. But the demographics put a spanner in the wheels of my confidence. 740 is good for the average guy but for an Indian IT male this is commonplace. As it turns out I decided to apply to just one school. It was risky as I was putting all my eggs in the same basket but a better one at that. I decided to wait another year if I have too but not compromise on the quality of the school.
1) Ice skating - I am an outdoor person who likes playing actual sports more than video games (may be because I suck @ video games and not so much in actual sport). Last winter I learnt to skate on the Rideau canal (supposed to be world's longest skating rink, measures 7.5 Kms across) in Ottawa. I spent many hours perfecting my skating skills. So my interest in sports did steal some time away from my prep but that was fine I had not fixed an appointment yet.
2) I was dating - :-) .. more than a time stealer I'd say this was a motivator as my date too was preparing for some exam of hers. And our association helped both of us.
3) I got sick - For the first half of 2009, I was paranoid and in a state of mental disarray. It's funny though how it all started. On our maiden skiing outing I saw my friend putting up a heart rate monitor before skiing. This spiked my curiosity as the guy was the same age as me and healthy too. On asking he said he just uses it as precautionary measure as a high heart rate is very dangerous. Before this time I had never bothered about heart rate and other medical bull shit. But the next time I stepped on the treadmill I consciously started thinking about my heart beat - is it beating faster, it is skipping beats, is there a slight pain? blah blah.. I became so concerned that I had trouble sleeping. The thing continued and it effected my general health. I consulted physicians, got some blood work done and every thing came clean. But my mind said I was sick. And since the mind is the driver, the body obliged. Long story short, eventually I realized what's going on and have been on a corrective path ever since. This taught me a very important lesson - the power our thoughts wield on our existence.
Finally the date of return was set and so was the GMAT date- July 3rd 2009. I decided to follow a different strategy this time as clearly my last one (or rather a lack on one) didn't help much. I dug through the blogs, forums (beatthegmat.com) etc. One thing became apparent - there is no one size fits all thing here. I decided to try a few, take the best out of each one, and form my own strategy. I never had any trouble with maths so I decided to work on my weakest link - English. English section consists of Reading comprehension(RC), Critical reasoning(CR) and Sentence correction(SC). Out of the 3, SC is the one which follows a set of rules, the rules of GMAT English. If one aces these rules, one can get a good score in SC. After some research I concluded Manhattan's SC is the best book to prepare for SC. I ordered one on Amazon and got it in a week. I studied the rules of sentence formation. Applying these rules sometimes seemed counter-intuitive but that's the fun with rules, you can apply objective thinking on a subjective English. You become a machine, you turn off your logic and just go through the algorithm. And to your delight more often than not this approach yields results, at least in GMAT SC. For the RC preparation I read a lot of articles on the internet. NYtimes and WSJ were two favorite destinations. Its important to understand the impact a sentence has on the whole passage. You learn to identify the important parts and skip the useless clutter. The exercise did lend me confidence. Though it was better than last time but still unpredictable. CR - I didn't do much here as I never had problems here. I guess RC prep helped here too.
Maths - was my strength and it seemed a good idea to capitalize on it to push up the overall score. I scored a 49 last time. This time I aimed for a 51 or a 50 at least. I realized all I need is a bit more practice. I needed to learn how to get through maths without burning too much fuel so that by the time I reach English the mental battery is not depleted. There is no substitute to practice, so I practiced. I thought the brain must be trained to handle all the sections in tandem. For this I started practicing all the sections in one sitting. I would appropriate equal time to both the sections which was further divided among their respective subsections. So the pattern was equal number of questions from each section for every sitting.
I followed this strategy almost a week to the test. My test was scheduled on a Friday and since my work had officially ended, I took the whole week off. All I did in this week was simulation tests. By doing I mean I thoroughly analyzed the answers, even the correct ones that took some time to figure out. I took both the mba.com sim tests and a few from Manhattan (that came free with the SC book). My Sim test scores followed an arithemetic progression - 710,730,750,770. I stopped at 770 as didn't want get a 790, otherwise would have to go over 800 in the final one ;-) .
If the Sim test scores were anything to go by, I should get a 770, was my thought a night before. But alas, I knew it was foolish to read too much into those scores.
Finally the D-Day came. Unlike the last time I took the afternoon slot when the brain would be sufficiently greased. Besides there was this feeling that nothing should be similar to last time. I was soon to find out that some things remain the same. I Went through the authentication process with ease. It was similar to last time except the additional palm scan. With all the procedures out of the way I was ready to get in the test room and find out if my new strategy was worth anything. The invigilator opened the door and offered me a seat. Behold, I don't want the same seat that screwed me last time. But had no option as all the others were taken. Man there goes my - diff-from-last-time up in the air. I told myself don't be ridiculous, a seat holds no power. The true power lies in my head.
I started with the test, the essays were a breeze as one can BS his/her way out. Maths was cool too except for a few questions towards the end. I got a bunch of hard ones (thought I must be doing good). I decided to not spend too much fuel here as I would need it in the next section. I didn't mind loosing a point here if I could redeem it in the Eng section. Eng was to me as Roland Garros was to Federer until 2009. I took the optional 10 minute break, went to the loo, had ice tea and came back to finish the battle. I did not get any euphoric sense of correctness unlike last time. I wrapped up the section right on time. My expectations were a 51 on maths and 40's in English. And my score was - 740, Maths - 50, English - 41. As I said earlier wouldn't mind trading a point from maths to English. I was glad the effort paid off.
The next step was to finalize the schools to apply. With this score I was well above the average GMAT for literally any b-school in the world. But the demographics put a spanner in the wheels of my confidence. 740 is good for the average guy but for an Indian IT male this is commonplace. As it turns out I decided to apply to just one school. It was risky as I was putting all my eggs in the same basket but a better one at that. I decided to wait another year if I have too but not compromise on the quality of the school.
GMAT - I
I decided to take the GMAT in the spring of 2008. After some research I discovered I was racing against time to apply for the 2009 session. A couple of things that helped me in Canada were - more time for personal use after work and the resourceful public library. I visited the library on almost every weekend.
I started reading the Princeton review for GMAT. This book is a good introduction for someone who has no idea what the test is all about as it explains in the simplest of languages using layman examples. I used this book to get a gist of things to come. I did not spend much time on this book as there was not much to practice. I moved on to Kaplan's prep stuff, which is better than the Princeton one in terms of the difficulty level of the questions. I skimmed through this book, did some problems and learnt a few fundamentals. I think the OG is the best prep books available. I got hold of OG12 and went through it cover to cover(I hate buying books that you'd hardly read more than once in a lifetime). I wasn't sure about the improvements that I made since I started prep'ing. The best way to find was by taking a Sim test. I took the mba.com's simulation test and scored a paltry 630. I had been studying for almost a month but the score did not reflect any improvement. I realized that sitting through the whole test was tough. Mental fatigue gets you towards the end. You know you should analyze a question a bit more but the mind is so fried by this time that you say what the hell, I just get over with it, screw the score. I figured the mind has to be trained to think clearly this long. I started spending more and more time practicing, thus following the brute force approach. In hindsight I think working smarter and harder is the magic pill to success. Hard work alone makes an ass of you.
In July of 2008 I learnt that my Canada assignment could end in a couple of months. This news derailed many of plans, but for the sake of sticking to the topic I would just talk about the one relevant here. Even though my studies had been random, I had been digging GMAT books for around a couple of months by now. I wanted to get over with GMAT while in Canada. I agree that many ppl do take the exam in India and get awesome scores. (And I too would have been one of them had I haven't got the onsite opportunity). But now that I was in a slightly advantageous position I decided to put it to best possible use, at least for getting the GMAT out of the way. With all this happening in the background I took the GMAT appointment for the 25th of sep 2008 (ya that's my official b'day as well). I had around a month and a half to spare before the test. Since I had already gone through most of the books I started taking simulation tests. I was happy just by the taking the tests and thinking that I am training myself for the 4 hour marathon. I did not analyze my answers after the tests as I thought just sitting through it and tackling the questions was good enough (which later was proved wrong). Like most of you I too had been educated in good English medium schools. I rated my English language abilities highly. I thought I could get a decent score in English just relying on my intuition. So all I did was read the question and select the answer based on how an option sounded (far from logical way.. no doubt I flunked in the end).
My sim test scores ranged from 650-730 with an average of 680. With a little luck and a final push I hoped to land somewhere around the 720 mark. Of all the sections on the GMAT I practiced English the least. I wanted to rely on my intuition (to clear out all confusuion - not because I was confident or something, but because I was lazy). Over the last few months I could not figure a relation between the time spent practicing English and the scores on the sim tests. Cracking English seemed a case of pure luck. Sometimes I got all the RC's and CR's right sometimes none. It never occurred to me that there could be a flaw in my strategy.
Finally the test day arrived. I reached the venue an hour in advance, which happened to be 7:15 am. I don't remember why the hell did I choose this hour, I was still a bit asleep. The test started at the scheduled time. I breezed through the essays without a hiccup (got a 5.5 with a days prep). The maths section was fine except the beginning. I was treading too cautiously that I faced the risk of exhausting the allotted time before the last question. In the last quarter I did some questions really hastily and I think would have got a few questions wrong. (got a 49, which was a mark short of my expectation). Now came the decider English. Started off well. I followed the "what sounds right" approach. When you use this approach you end up feeling great as every selection you made sounds correct to you. But it could be far from truth and this approach frequently yields surprizing results. The paper ended and I was hopeful of a good final score. Sitting through many sim tests I had trained my mind to sail through the 4 hour long exercise. It clearly showed in my actual test. I was still fresh after the test. Feeling confident I clicked the "Send Score" button and the next screen was the bitter truth I wasn't prepared to face. I had estimated my score to lie between 680-720. I got a 640, a measly 26 in English (my lowest Eng score till date in over 15 sims and 2 actuals). My predictions had gone haywire. The invigilator lady handed me the score print out and said - "congratulations", to this day I don't know if she meant it sarcastically.
I wasn't actually sad. I was disappointed that all the hard work, time, money etc went in vain. I went to work for the remainder of the day. Told who ever inquired (definitely didn't go announcing as I did for the ISB selection). Life went on with the routine stuff for the remainder of the year. As it turned out my on-site assignment did get an extension. So I was staying here for a little longer and was hoping to fight the beast gain (read GMAT).
I started reading the Princeton review for GMAT. This book is a good introduction for someone who has no idea what the test is all about as it explains in the simplest of languages using layman examples. I used this book to get a gist of things to come. I did not spend much time on this book as there was not much to practice. I moved on to Kaplan's prep stuff, which is better than the Princeton one in terms of the difficulty level of the questions. I skimmed through this book, did some problems and learnt a few fundamentals. I think the OG is the best prep books available. I got hold of OG12 and went through it cover to cover(I hate buying books that you'd hardly read more than once in a lifetime). I wasn't sure about the improvements that I made since I started prep'ing. The best way to find was by taking a Sim test. I took the mba.com's simulation test and scored a paltry 630. I had been studying for almost a month but the score did not reflect any improvement. I realized that sitting through the whole test was tough. Mental fatigue gets you towards the end. You know you should analyze a question a bit more but the mind is so fried by this time that you say what the hell, I just get over with it, screw the score. I figured the mind has to be trained to think clearly this long. I started spending more and more time practicing, thus following the brute force approach. In hindsight I think working smarter and harder is the magic pill to success. Hard work alone makes an ass of you.
In July of 2008 I learnt that my Canada assignment could end in a couple of months. This news derailed many of plans, but for the sake of sticking to the topic I would just talk about the one relevant here. Even though my studies had been random, I had been digging GMAT books for around a couple of months by now. I wanted to get over with GMAT while in Canada. I agree that many ppl do take the exam in India and get awesome scores. (And I too would have been one of them had I haven't got the onsite opportunity). But now that I was in a slightly advantageous position I decided to put it to best possible use, at least for getting the GMAT out of the way. With all this happening in the background I took the GMAT appointment for the 25th of sep 2008 (ya that's my official b'day as well). I had around a month and a half to spare before the test. Since I had already gone through most of the books I started taking simulation tests. I was happy just by the taking the tests and thinking that I am training myself for the 4 hour marathon. I did not analyze my answers after the tests as I thought just sitting through it and tackling the questions was good enough (which later was proved wrong). Like most of you I too had been educated in good English medium schools. I rated my English language abilities highly. I thought I could get a decent score in English just relying on my intuition. So all I did was read the question and select the answer based on how an option sounded (far from logical way.. no doubt I flunked in the end).
My sim test scores ranged from 650-730 with an average of 680. With a little luck and a final push I hoped to land somewhere around the 720 mark. Of all the sections on the GMAT I practiced English the least. I wanted to rely on my intuition (to clear out all confusuion - not because I was confident or something, but because I was lazy). Over the last few months I could not figure a relation between the time spent practicing English and the scores on the sim tests. Cracking English seemed a case of pure luck. Sometimes I got all the RC's and CR's right sometimes none. It never occurred to me that there could be a flaw in my strategy.
Finally the test day arrived. I reached the venue an hour in advance, which happened to be 7:15 am. I don't remember why the hell did I choose this hour, I was still a bit asleep. The test started at the scheduled time. I breezed through the essays without a hiccup (got a 5.5 with a days prep). The maths section was fine except the beginning. I was treading too cautiously that I faced the risk of exhausting the allotted time before the last question. In the last quarter I did some questions really hastily and I think would have got a few questions wrong. (got a 49, which was a mark short of my expectation). Now came the decider English. Started off well. I followed the "what sounds right" approach. When you use this approach you end up feeling great as every selection you made sounds correct to you. But it could be far from truth and this approach frequently yields surprizing results. The paper ended and I was hopeful of a good final score. Sitting through many sim tests I had trained my mind to sail through the 4 hour long exercise. It clearly showed in my actual test. I was still fresh after the test. Feeling confident I clicked the "Send Score" button and the next screen was the bitter truth I wasn't prepared to face. I had estimated my score to lie between 680-720. I got a 640, a measly 26 in English (my lowest Eng score till date in over 15 sims and 2 actuals). My predictions had gone haywire. The invigilator lady handed me the score print out and said - "congratulations", to this day I don't know if she meant it sarcastically.
I wasn't actually sad. I was disappointed that all the hard work, time, money etc went in vain. I went to work for the remainder of the day. Told who ever inquired (definitely didn't go announcing as I did for the ISB selection). Life went on with the routine stuff for the remainder of the year. As it turned out my on-site assignment did get an extension. So I was staying here for a little longer and was hoping to fight the beast gain (read GMAT).
Thursday, December 10, 2009
My MBA dream
I am an engineer with an IT bellwether, so it goes without saying why I thought my job sucked just an year into it (btw I still do sometimes). The job was okay, can't really say wasn't challenging as it was one hell of a monster. Like every other job mine too had its moments of excitement and monotony. In the end it comes down to how long each of the phases last. Back in 2006-07 I was becoming restless with each passing day. The feeling of my insignificant existence led me on a journey of introspection. The thing that came out of it - I must change my job. The tech companies/sector seemed all the same. Jumping into any other sector was fraught with uncertainties but still worth a try. The easiest way - to jump ships seemed via the MBA route. So, I decided to take CAT.
I started preparing for the CAT and enrolled for the TIME test series. The preparations went on well initially. As I was getting warmed up work changed for worse. Suddenly it became extremely hectic. I was too drained to study after 12 hours at work, which I actually spent working :-(. My prep sessions became staggered as a result the momentum built over a month was lost over the next. The study was erratic at best and it appeared to be hopeless cause, which was reflected in the test series results. I did what we all do when confronted with overwhelming odds - Pray and jump in. Only a miracle could have got me a score worthy of the IIMS. But alas miracles seldom happen when you haven't done your homework. The result came, and as expected nothing to be proud of. Over the past several months I had been torn between MBA and job and as a result both suffered. I decided to focus my energies back on work at least until next year's CAT.
My yearly appraisal came around April. The ratings didn't match my expectations. I was obviously upset and communicated this to the management. Another period of restlessness followed. Luckily I got an on site opportunity for Canada and I grabbed it with both hands.
It was here that I gained better understanding of working with clients, my role didn't seem all that insignificant anymore. I enjoyed my time as well as I could. Although the job seemed better now, the seeds of career progression via the MBA route, sown back in India had by now turned into small saplings. No doubt I was having a nice time owing to work satisfaction (no insane hours at work), better management and not to forget I was making more money than ever. I thought of the opportunity at hand and decided to further my dreams. While in India the decision to do an MBA was motivated by boredom at work, in Canada I could see the full potential of this qualification. I realized that a MBA degree could be an enabler to live a life of my dreams. Where I get to do business (read interact/converse) with an international clientele and at the same time enjoy it too. Now that I had time and resources at my disposal, I began my research on MBA. As most of you already know GMAT is the way to go if one wishes to study in the better b-schools globally. Setting my sight on getting a good score, I began my GMAT preparation.
I started preparing for the CAT and enrolled for the TIME test series. The preparations went on well initially. As I was getting warmed up work changed for worse. Suddenly it became extremely hectic. I was too drained to study after 12 hours at work, which I actually spent working :-(. My prep sessions became staggered as a result the momentum built over a month was lost over the next. The study was erratic at best and it appeared to be hopeless cause, which was reflected in the test series results. I did what we all do when confronted with overwhelming odds - Pray and jump in. Only a miracle could have got me a score worthy of the IIMS. But alas miracles seldom happen when you haven't done your homework. The result came, and as expected nothing to be proud of. Over the past several months I had been torn between MBA and job and as a result both suffered. I decided to focus my energies back on work at least until next year's CAT.
My yearly appraisal came around April. The ratings didn't match my expectations. I was obviously upset and communicated this to the management. Another period of restlessness followed. Luckily I got an on site opportunity for Canada and I grabbed it with both hands.
It was here that I gained better understanding of working with clients, my role didn't seem all that insignificant anymore. I enjoyed my time as well as I could. Although the job seemed better now, the seeds of career progression via the MBA route, sown back in India had by now turned into small saplings. No doubt I was having a nice time owing to work satisfaction (no insane hours at work), better management and not to forget I was making more money than ever. I thought of the opportunity at hand and decided to further my dreams. While in India the decision to do an MBA was motivated by boredom at work, in Canada I could see the full potential of this qualification. I realized that a MBA degree could be an enabler to live a life of my dreams. Where I get to do business (read interact/converse) with an international clientele and at the same time enjoy it too. Now that I had time and resources at my disposal, I began my research on MBA. As most of you already know GMAT is the way to go if one wishes to study in the better b-schools globally. Setting my sight on getting a good score, I began my GMAT preparation.
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