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.