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Monday, May 31, 2010

Road to MBA - DAY 7

Outcome of Day 7:
- More insights into usage of pronouns and adjectives
- good progress with Manhattan SC guide

Took a MGMAT, scored pathetic:
SCORE & OVERVIEW OF RESULTS
TYPE SCORE ESTIMATED PERCENTILE RANK
Quantitative 38 55 %
Verbal 29 56 %
Total 560 57 %


Lessons Learnt:

- Dont ignore quant, keep practicing everyday
- Dont be overconfident
- start with the OG as soon as possible

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Road to MBA - DAY 6


Had a very tiring day at office today, couldn't do any GMAT preparation.
However i collected the info regarding the Essays and related stuff. So not entirely a day wasted

Friday, May 28, 2010

Road to MBA - DAY 4 and Day 5

Couldn't blog yesterday :( Hence the summary of two days:

DAY 4:
Started to work on Verbal. Manhattan Prep SC Guide seems to be good book. I am picking up the speed now. Feeling lot more confident on Verbal now. Completed the first two chapters.

Learning's from the Day:
1. Avoid passive voice
2. Avoid being + verb form
3. such as is used to indicate examples, like is used to indicate similarity
4. Avoid redundancy
5. Dont change the subject when looking for the right answer
6. Check the singular and plural, subject verb agreement


DAY 5:
Today researched about the schools. Since i have to prepare for the essays as well, collected the info regarding the schools, downloaded various brochures. Rethinking the strategy of working on Verbal or Quant?

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Nifty slumps 3% on European Woes - Analysis by a soon to be MBA

It looks like the bull run is coming to an end!!! The benchmark indices NSE and Sensex tanked 3% today due to poor global cues. Unfortunately there is a lot of bad news coming from all the corners, North Koreans and the South Koreans are almost at war. The statement of the US president asking for the American troops in S.E Asia to be on alert didn't go well with the markets either. If this was not enough, news came in late afternoon that Spain was heading the Greece way.
there is a lot of pessimism in the European markets, but the reaction here to the situation in Europe is little too soon, too fast and too much.

Road to MBA - DAY 3

Not much GMAT preparation for today. I am looking at the bigger picture ;), today brainstormed on "Why do I need an MBA". Collected a lot of points, hoping to prepare a CV soon and send it for analysis to few B Schools and ClearAdmit. This session also gave me the much needed motivation to stretch myself further!!!!
Now i have to do a MBA whatever it takes, and i will ensure i will clear the first hurdle the "GMAT" with flying colours.
starting with the Manhattan SC today, i have to hit 650 this weekend in the GMAT powerprep

Road to MBA - DAY 2

Not much progress today, still undecided as to how to deal with Verbal. Planning to start with Manhattan Verbal from tomorrow onwards. Have to compensate for today's loss of 1 hr tomorrow.
cant afford to be distracted by twitter.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

Monday, May 24, 2010

Frailty thy name is politics!

Its really appalling to see our Mr Clean Image PM Dr. Manmohan Singh defend his telecom minister who is in midst of one of the greatest scams of our time. Mr Raja is alleged to have allocated the 2G spectrum at throwaway prices of 2000-3000 cr, when the asking rate was around 55000 crores. Many of the Indian entities who purchased the licenses then sold their share to foreign investors at 1500% premium!!!. Recently the sale of 3G spectrum fetched the govt a whopping 60000 crores. When asked about the anomaly in the pricing of the spectrum, the telecom minister defended himself by saying that 2G is like a "ration rice" and 3G is like a basmati rice!!!
I would like to remind our esteemed minister that the "rationed rice" which is subsidised by the govt is for the poor people in the country - in the same context i would like to know the 2G spectrum was sold at subsidised rate for poor telecom operators? ( read Reliance - the Ambanis, Unitech, Airtel).

Its true that politics really brings the worst out of men. How else can one explain our PM defending the tainted minister. The compulsions of coalition politics really brings the issue of 2 party system to the forefront.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Road to MBA - DAY 1

Here is the summary of Day1:

Took the Powerprep test and scored 610. Its a pathetic score to say the least. However i can now do a better analysis of my strengths and weakness.

Detailed Score :

Quant Score - 48
Verbal Score - 26 (???)
Total Score - 610

My takeaways from Day1

- Need to improve my verbal to a great extent.
- Improve my reading skills. ( For certain big passages i was not even able to read them completely, need to really work on my concentration skills)
- Dont assume things and solve ( for DA)
- Avoid silly mistakes in quant
- Brush up quant fundas

I know after practising on quant for some more time, i can improve upon my quant score, but i really have an uphill task for tackling verbal

Is China's Economy Overheating?

China's gross domestic product grew at a rate of 11.9% in the first quarter of 2010, compared to the same period a year before. HSBC predicts that the China's GDP would grow by a 11% this year.
Thats a bit too fast going by even's China's standard. The massive govt stimulus has sparked a rise in inflation. There is a property bubble building up in the real estate market. The prices in the housing market have risen by 11% compared to last year. Several economists are predicting a bubble burst soon. I hope China learns from the mistake of US and reins in the prices, otherwise the mortgage crises in China would be inevitable.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

The King of Clay is back!


Who can possibly beat Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros? This question was already on everyone’s lips 12 months ago, and little did we know that we were going to get an emphatic answer. This year however, the Majorcan has managed to become an even hotter favourite than in 2009…

For the first time since he made his debut in 2005, Rafael Nadal will not be going to the French Open as defending champion. This year, that particular honour goes to the Spaniard’s chief rival, Roger Federer. Does the Swiss maestro finally winning his first major on clay in 2009 represent the end of an era, or was it merely a parenthesis?

Despite his defeat to Robin Soderling in the round of 16 last year which was perhaps the perfect illustration of how nothing can ever be taken for granted in the world of sport, Rafa will again be the red-hot favourite at the 2010 French Open. But why is it that the four-time champion looks more of a shoe-in than ever, despite his long unbeaten streak on the Paris clay having come to an end?

No road to Paris via Barcelona

Firstly, Nadal chose to not to play in Barcelona this year – a tough decision for the 23-year-old. To the casual observer, it is a relatively insignificant tournament, but Rafa had won it on no fewer than five occasions in the past and it of course represented another chance for glory in front of his home crowd. It was a real sacrifice, and one made very much with Roland Garros in mind.

While we will never know how much his defeat to Soderling was due to his knee injury, Rafa has certainly learnt the lessons of 2009 and there is no way that he will arrive in Paris in anything less than top form physically. Last year’s marathon semi-final win over Novak Djokovic at the Madrid masters was the straw which broke the camel’s back towards the end of an exhausting season on the European red brick, and so the king of clay simply decided to cross a tournament off his busy 2010 schedule. When he arrives in Madrid this time around, he will be fresher than in previous years, particularly since he only dropped 14 games in winning his sixth title in Monte Carlo, although his fifth Rome crown did take a little more out of him.

Secondly, Rafa will be out for revenge. His defeat to Soderling, with the Swede being buoyed by a crowd which very much decided to cheer for the underdog on that fateful Sunday, was a real body-blow to Nadal, and he will not let it happen again in a hurry. He then went without a title in a barren spell which lasted 11 months, which seemed to spur him on even further in Monte Carlo and Rome this year, the first of which he won with style, the second with substance.
"The important thing is to have enough motivation to want to improve all the time," he said after his win over David Ferrer as dusk fell on the brand new centre court at the Foro Italico in the Italian capital. "I am probably more happy winning without playing my best," he added, referring to the struggle he had in his semi-final against Latvian surprise package Ernest Gulbis.
Barring injuries, Nadal will therefore arrive at the French in peak physical form, highly motivated and brimming with confidence. His opponents be warned – it will take something special to pull off a “Robin Soderling” act on Rafa in 2010…

The Road to an MBA

The road to an MBA begins with a GMAT. Now that i have scheduled my GMAT test, here is how i plan to go about it.

1. Gather info regarding the GMAT - DONE
2. Purchase the GMAT Bibles - OG Series - DONE
3. Brush up the fundas - DONE
4. Start with Quant from OG - IN PROGRESS
5. Start the SC from Manhattan SC guide - YET TO START
6. Start CR using powerscore - YET TO START

Apart from all these i am planning to take a weekly test and track my progress and ofcourse spend atleast half an hour reading The Economist and NY Times

A new life n a new beginning!!!!!!

Its a new life a new beginning.. A very short but sweet song from the movie - Bachna Ae Haseeno.

Well i am now drawing inspiration from this song, and planning a start a new life. the last one year has been very demanding, hence a long break from blogging.

Wondering what the new beginning? Here it is:
1. Booked the GMAT test on 10th August

So until then Eat GMAT, Drink GMAT and Sleep GMAT