Stress is a Tensor ...

My life through the MBA application process while I try to get my Professional Engineer's License ...

Friday, May 26, 2006

Phew !

The GMAT is done and I should tell y'all that during the test I did not think I got anything wrong and was promptly surprised when the big 8-0-0 did not pop up. Just kidding (a bit); all I can say is that my score is not going to keep me out of any school. But my application could.

So I have started working on the rest of the package. Though I put down five schools to send my score reports to (when the computer asked me before the test started), I am not very sure about all five of them. I am planning a few talks with some of the professors and students in a few select schools before I finalize my list.

With the GMAT now firmly behind me (unless GMAC calls to tell me that mysteriously lost all records of my test and cannot report my scores to anyone) I feel like sharing a few observations that I have made so far.

As the days wound down towards my GMAT, I wasted a lot of my time. While I wanted to gather GMAT info, I was actually reading the excellent MBA blogs that are available. It used to be the case that the closer I got to the information I needed, less was the chance of me getting sidetracked.

With the MBA Blog phenomenon, that is no longer the case. Moreover, these blogs were worse than reading stuff on espn.com or on the BBC in that they distracted me with things that are related to my MBA and and contributed to a big time loss in focus.

So those who are set to take the GMAT, do not get lost reading the blog entries that DO NOT talk about the GMAT. As for the test itself, there is no need to get bogged down with various books. The OG and the Manhattan books are enough actually. I started with the Princeton Review from the local library and lost interest in a couple of days. Then I heard about and bought the OG and Kaplan's 800 book (I highly recommend both, though I read only half of the Kaplan 800).

I had the Manhattan GMAT books on Sentence Correction, Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning. The last two topics are in one book and I never read it. The Manhattan books are good in that they walk you through the problems in the OG though that is not necessary. In all, I did not read any book in its entirety except the OG.

Also, test day mechanics are very important. If you are well rested and wake up on the right side of your (or someone else's) bed, you will do pretty well.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

As I watch the paper turn yellow ...

Usually, my job is partially interesting. There are lessons to be learnt, from others mistakes, of course, and things chug along pretty briskly. It even gets downright entertaining when some mindless contractors try to think and solve their problems without looking at the drawings that they are provided with. That the drawings are insufficient and inaccurate is not a secret either, with all the "By Others", "General Contractor to Coordinate before Fabrication" and "Field Verify Dimensions" signs acting as giveaways. Site visits and Construction Administration can be fun too, especially when folks at the construction site have had a few beers over lunch.

The past few days have been contrary to the norm. Even though the weather has been great, I have been stuck in the office doing some donkey work that is so uninteresting that I feel like going out to the parking lot and yelling at the top of my lungs once every hour.

Every day, I turn into a zombie by the end of the day with no will of doing anything more. This is affecting my preparations for the upcoming D-Day. I have stopped doing anything substantial for the GMAT. I go over questions from the OG and compare them with the notes from the Manhattan GMAT guides for an hour or so each evening.

I will be writing a couple more AWA essays and take the second GMATPrep test in the next couple of days and that will be all. I am planning to unwind during the weekend and play some basketball, something that I have not done in two months. I may go dancing too. This saturday being the fourth one of the month will probably have some swing/shag/lindy at the Loafers Beach Club in Raleigh. Sweet ! That thought cheers me up ! Later ...

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Food for thought

While chatting with my friend, the topic of conversation shifted to the choice of business program and school. His take was that I should apply to the LFM program at MIT Sloan since my background was well suited to manage operations and manufacturing. Though I was not looking at that line of work, I continued to listen as he went on, saying that the only shortcoming of that program in preparing a candidate for an entrepreneurial career (my choice) was that the LFM program was weak in Finance.

At this, I mentioned that finance in a start up, especially in early stages, is pretty straight forward and that general management and marketing skills are more vital to the fledgling venture. Marketing, as compared to finance, in this scenario is more important as the young company needs to sell its product, however non-groundbreaking (read mediocere) it may be, in order to survive.

I am not experienced in this area (yet) and am eager to find out what the right answer is. I already suspect it to be a combination of the factors mentioned.

In other news, my Babie is now esconsced in Alexandria VA., a 20 minute Metro ride from her office and all set for her internship. I liked the DC area but that might be just because it was 75 degrees with a light breeze the entire weekend ;)

One week and counting down ...

Monday, May 15, 2006

Results from my first GMATPrep test

On saturday, I set aside a few hours when my girlfriend was supposed to be out shopping, to take the first of the two GMAT Prep tests that you can download from PearsonVue.

To start off, it went very well and I was feeling very good till the end of the first section (Quantitative) when the alarm on my phone went off. I promptly managed to mess up the answer that I was working on (the last question and I had about a minute left) and hence had to guess (incorrectly). Result: Raw score 50

The second section (Verbal) was even worse. My girlfriend called me no less than three times during this section and I did not even manage to finish the test. Result: Raw score 38.

Overall Score: 730. Not as bad as I expected it to be. I was startled, though, to find that almost all of my mistakes were on Sentence Correction Questions. I am working on it now, though I have already finished the Official Guide and I got almost all of the answers correct when I solved them.

I am currently reading up on 800score.com's section on the AWA. The term "E-Raters" sounds very fishy and I do not think this is a good way to grade the essays but, oh, well ...

I still can not decide on which schools to apply to beyond my first four, but, in my mind, I am leaning towards the West Coast (read Anderson/Haas).

Friday, May 12, 2006

Finished the Official Guide

Finally done with all the questions on the OG !!! The last things I worked on were the final fifty or so questions on Data Sufficiency and it will suffice to say that they are tricky. In my sleep deprived state (read "extremely sleepy") I did not not do too well compared to the rest of the quantitative section and my intuition seems to be better than my Math at times.

I already have one recommender lined up and she is happy that I am doing an MBA. She even went to the length of saying she always suspected that I would want to be an entreprenuer ! She added that it is the perfect time in my career to go for it. I told her to remember these words and put them words down on the reco. ;)

I will take my first look at the AWA tonight. I hope my buddy's assessment of it was on the money. (Improper pronoun usage ! )

I have now developed the power to irritate and annoy any and all of my colleagues by pointing out errors in their use of the English language. But I have vowed to use my powers to fight against crime and for World Peace.

My Babie (as Joey says "B-A-B-I-E") graduates this weekend ! I am so happy for her. She is moving to DC for the summer for an internship at CSPI. I am going to miss her a lot during the weekdays but I will get to see her on the weekends. In fact there is a carpool of guys driving up to DC to meet their girlfriends who work/intern there !!!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Wow!

Wow!
I am gonna become an Uncle/Aunt (again), depending on whether it is a boy or a girl ...
(that was supposed to be funny)

First Practice GMAT CAT

Well, it was okay. I did not take the quantitative section seriously and got disinterested with the proceedings halfway through. Yup ! That's me ! The verbal section was a bit too long (I was too slow) and I lacked clarity of thought. Maybe I should give these tests on weekend mornings instead of late night on a weekday.

Still managed a good score. If I can tweak this performance a bit and manage to keep my concentration high for a while, I will be a happy guy in the afternoon of the 30th.

The Kaplan GMAT 800 is really good practice for the tough stuff. It is also fun to see if people around me (mostly my girlfriend) can get the right answers to these questions. My girlfriend is very good, though, due to her background in Latin grammar and gets more answers right than I do.

In fact, overall, I think she has a great profile for a MBA applicant and would probably get into H/S/W/K if she applied. Too bad she is not interested in business or management :-(

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

GMAT

My GMAT is set for the 30th of this May (2006)! I decided to go with the early date so that I set myself a tougher target (hopefully one that I can meet). I am currently working on Sentence Correction with Kaplan GMAT 800 (which I think is a good book, by the way).

Next up - one of 800score.com's online tests and then on to Manhattan GMAT books and tests !!!