Will you believe it??? And how well did they do it???
3 - 1 is a score line, which even the ardent French fan would have thought possible before the game or even during the half time break. But that is how it ended. And Spain was one of the strongest teams on paper - atleast that's what i thought :) But Spain did play a scrappy game and perhaps dint deserve to win today. And France was no different, but it just had some experienced players who played a really clever good game.
And just for the record - Brazil swept aside the challenge from Ghana with a 3-0 win. Ronaldo made history to become the highest goal scorer in WC history. Brazil has never been beaten by and African team and no African team has ever scored against Brazil - both in the WC tournaments. Perhaps this was a more difficult thing to keep intact, rather than winning the match and Brazil won everything this day.
6th time??? 3 more matches to go :)
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
The weirdo Quotient!!!
I was tagged by prad. So I'm supposed to write 6 weird things about me. I dunno how weird i really am. May be I'll know when i get to the end of this list :)
1. I cannot throw away anything i use, even the waste ones. The CDs and DVDs that i burnt wrongly are sprayed all over my reading table, sometimes used to cover water glasses. I still have my old mobile SIM cards (3 of them), heck - i have the welcome packages these guys give. My first card was a prepaid and i have all the recharge vouchers. The list will keep growing on and on i guess :) I dunno why, but even though there is absolutely no use to them, i cannot throw them away. It always needs a "clean sweep" operation by my mom to force me to throw away such stuff :)
2. I remember dates - birthdays, anniversaries, when my friend wore the black dress the prev time, when we had our prev team meeting - i just remember dates. Pretty normal??? I don't remember what happened on the date ;)
3. I get hungry by 12 in the night. Whatever i had had for dinner, i feel hungry right at the stroke of midnight and i start hunting all over my house for something to eat.
4. I like shopping, and i can say that again, and again. I can say many examples for this, but this one wud be on top of the list - i shop when i am bored, when i have nothing to do :) I just love to spend time in showrooms analyzing one item in display with another, making a choice, and finally flipping one of my cards to pay for it in style :) If there is one word to say how i feel - i ENJOY shopping. And it is not like i throw away money, i handle my money very well. But it is impossible to keep me away from shopping for few months continuously :)
5. I am very fond of giving gyan - both about things i know and things i don't know. I always feel like the big bro when someone starts asking the right questions and NO - i don't act like one. And when i have ppl asking questions to me, i really go out of my way to gather info and get them stuff. This - i do for everyone, even if i know the person for a mere 3 minutes.
6. I can strike a rapport with someone in just a few minutes. But the weird thing is that i can do that with small sweet kids. Kids just love me - even a kid whom I'm seeing for the first time in a bus :) I am an instant hit with kids - and it is good for me too coz i just love to be with kids. But i find it weird when a small cute girl, (who'd hardly be 4 or 5) whom I've never ever seen, smiling and playing to be with me inside a public bus - believe me, it happened :) And many similar things happened as well. Weird really :)
I dunno how weird the list is - i just typed down all that came to my mind first. I am supposed to pass the band to some others i guess. But wicked pradip has included all the bloggers who visit my blog in his list :( I know others, but they are all busy at the moment and i don't guess they'll have anything other than GMAT to write in their blogs :)
So - I leave that open to all the readers of my blog. If u r interested, u can take it on and let the world know how weird u really are ;)
1. I cannot throw away anything i use, even the waste ones. The CDs and DVDs that i burnt wrongly are sprayed all over my reading table, sometimes used to cover water glasses. I still have my old mobile SIM cards (3 of them), heck - i have the welcome packages these guys give. My first card was a prepaid and i have all the recharge vouchers. The list will keep growing on and on i guess :) I dunno why, but even though there is absolutely no use to them, i cannot throw them away. It always needs a "clean sweep" operation by my mom to force me to throw away such stuff :)
2. I remember dates - birthdays, anniversaries, when my friend wore the black dress the prev time, when we had our prev team meeting - i just remember dates. Pretty normal??? I don't remember what happened on the date ;)
3. I get hungry by 12 in the night. Whatever i had had for dinner, i feel hungry right at the stroke of midnight and i start hunting all over my house for something to eat.
4. I like shopping, and i can say that again, and again. I can say many examples for this, but this one wud be on top of the list - i shop when i am bored, when i have nothing to do :) I just love to spend time in showrooms analyzing one item in display with another, making a choice, and finally flipping one of my cards to pay for it in style :) If there is one word to say how i feel - i ENJOY shopping. And it is not like i throw away money, i handle my money very well. But it is impossible to keep me away from shopping for few months continuously :)
5. I am very fond of giving gyan - both about things i know and things i don't know. I always feel like the big bro when someone starts asking the right questions and NO - i don't act like one. And when i have ppl asking questions to me, i really go out of my way to gather info and get them stuff. This - i do for everyone, even if i know the person for a mere 3 minutes.
6. I can strike a rapport with someone in just a few minutes. But the weird thing is that i can do that with small sweet kids. Kids just love me - even a kid whom I'm seeing for the first time in a bus :) I am an instant hit with kids - and it is good for me too coz i just love to be with kids. But i find it weird when a small cute girl, (who'd hardly be 4 or 5) whom I've never ever seen, smiling and playing to be with me inside a public bus - believe me, it happened :) And many similar things happened as well. Weird really :)
I dunno how weird the list is - i just typed down all that came to my mind first. I am supposed to pass the band to some others i guess. But wicked pradip has included all the bloggers who visit my blog in his list :( I know others, but they are all busy at the moment and i don't guess they'll have anything other than GMAT to write in their blogs :)
So - I leave that open to all the readers of my blog. If u r interested, u can take it on and let the world know how weird u really are ;)
An easy chance for Italy to play in the WC Semis
Perhaps. I accept that Ukraine is not a push over, but against Italy??? I'll place all my money on Italy, atleast till they get the first Red Card ;)
For all these years I've been seeing football, i always see Italy in a very very competitive pool. And they throw in so much of emotion and energy and commitment into their game, that as a neutral observer (which i wasn't) you will have to support them. One of the matches which i can never forget in my life is the Euro 2000 Finals between France and Italy. Italy, reduced to 10 men around the 10th minute or so, played bravely for the next 110 minutes (i guess the golden goal rule was present in those days) and then lost the game in the penalties (Totti the culprit i guess). Maldini is one of my football heroes.
Back to the future, i now find Italy and Ukraine to have qualified for the QFs of WC 06 and i guess Italy has a great chance to win and play, probably Brazil, in the Semis. That'll be a diff story altogether - but i guess they shud be in the semis.
For all these years I've been seeing football, i always see Italy in a very very competitive pool. And they throw in so much of emotion and energy and commitment into their game, that as a neutral observer (which i wasn't) you will have to support them. One of the matches which i can never forget in my life is the Euro 2000 Finals between France and Italy. Italy, reduced to 10 men around the 10th minute or so, played bravely for the next 110 minutes (i guess the golden goal rule was present in those days) and then lost the game in the penalties (Totti the culprit i guess). Maldini is one of my football heroes.
Back to the future, i now find Italy and Ukraine to have qualified for the QFs of WC 06 and i guess Italy has a great chance to win and play, probably Brazil, in the Semis. That'll be a diff story altogether - but i guess they shud be in the semis.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
England and Portugal make it to the last 8
And how scrappy were both the games???
While the England Vs Ecuador game was so boring, the Portugal Vs Netherlands game was pretty interesting, but for the wrong reasons.
In the whole English camp i find one spirited person and he scored today. And this is the second time England scrape through to a win with David Beckham's goal. It was one of his trade mark curving, dipping free kicks today and with this seamless balls, it is only gonna be more difficult for the goal keeper. Apart from that single moment, there was nothing, plain nothing in the game. If England keeps playing so, it cannot think of the cup anymore. As Mr.Terry said "Improve or face DQ".
While spirit was found lacking in the prev game, it was over flowing in the second game. The game had less football and more chaos - a fact perfectly explained by the number of cards shown in the game. There were totally 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards. Harsha Bhogle, who was hosting the post game show commented "This is more like a game of rummy" :) Whatever it was - Portugal won.
But the cost it has paid might just be a bit too much. 2 players who wont play the next game coz of their red cards and the next 1 week might not be enough to get Ronaldo back on the turf. All this only means Advantage-England. Whoever wins that QF match, i don't think they'll win their next match which will be against the winner of the Argentina Vs Germany match.
While the England Vs Ecuador game was so boring, the Portugal Vs Netherlands game was pretty interesting, but for the wrong reasons.
In the whole English camp i find one spirited person and he scored today. And this is the second time England scrape through to a win with David Beckham's goal. It was one of his trade mark curving, dipping free kicks today and with this seamless balls, it is only gonna be more difficult for the goal keeper. Apart from that single moment, there was nothing, plain nothing in the game. If England keeps playing so, it cannot think of the cup anymore. As Mr.Terry said "Improve or face DQ".
While spirit was found lacking in the prev game, it was over flowing in the second game. The game had less football and more chaos - a fact perfectly explained by the number of cards shown in the game. There were totally 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards. Harsha Bhogle, who was hosting the post game show commented "This is more like a game of rummy" :) Whatever it was - Portugal won.
But the cost it has paid might just be a bit too much. 2 players who wont play the next game coz of their red cards and the next 1 week might not be enough to get Ronaldo back on the turf. All this only means Advantage-England. Whoever wins that QF match, i don't think they'll win their next match which will be against the winner of the Argentina Vs Germany match.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Germany and Argentina through
An early burst from Germany swept away Sweden.
Pure class from Argentina accounted for Mexico.
Sweden and Mexico will pack their bags.
Germany and Argentina were the 2 teams to qualify for QF in WC 06 and will face each other. And what a match will that be!!! Germany were so strong today - both in the game as well as the mind games. 18 minutes and they had netted 2 goals. Argentina, after that 6-0 against a weak team, hasn't really been in that kind of a form in it's other matches. Today, they had to sweat into extra time. But they are such a strong team on paper.
Things are getting spicy :)
Needless to say - I am licking my lips :)
Pure class from Argentina accounted for Mexico.
Sweden and Mexico will pack their bags.
Germany and Argentina were the 2 teams to qualify for QF in WC 06 and will face each other. And what a match will that be!!! Germany were so strong today - both in the game as well as the mind games. 18 minutes and they had netted 2 goals. Argentina, after that 6-0 against a weak team, hasn't really been in that kind of a form in it's other matches. Today, they had to sweat into extra time. But they are such a strong team on paper.
Things are getting spicy :)
Needless to say - I am licking my lips :)
Microsoft Vista - First Look
Just installed the Beta release of Microsoft Vista. Needless to say, the visual experience is really good. But all that at the cost of CPU performance - I'm disappointed.
Let's start with the pros:
Cons:
First look - Mixed emotions :)
Let's start with the pros:
- Really neat and pleasant layout. First of all, Windows as a OS is a GUI thingy and it scores full marks here. Even with all the gizmos shut down, the basic window layout (though kind of "inspired" from the KDE layouts) is different from the prev Windows layouts we have seen and is good. Good work.
- Security features seem to have been improved. This is something about which Microsoft has been screaming out day after day. There are checks for almost every damn thing u do on ur PC. It is annoying for the normal user - I wudnt wanna click on the "Allow" button thrice to move a file from my Desktop to the Recycle Bin :(
- Search options - plainly an extension of the Google Desktop, but I wudnt give points to either team coz we never know who thought abt it first :) Vista has been in design for so long. But it drives the point that tomorrow's computing will be search based. So they have worked on it and added a lot of features reg this. Much on this later.
- That's what I've seen in the 30 mins I have used it.
Cons:
- The OS is CPU and memory intensive - to put it mildly. I have a P4 2.8G machine with 512 MB of RAM and it is just not enough. I guess I have to spend some money bumping up the RAM (Microsoft recommends 1 GB). Will update u folks on the difference once I can afford a RAM.
- Installing your devices drivers and software cud be a big pain. I had to do some weird stuff to get my Sound Card (Creative 7.1 SB Live 24-bit) working, but yeah it works now. And luckily Microsoft uses its own device specific display driver. It does not even allow me to install my own driver for my display card (NVidia 5500 FX). But whatever has been installed is good enough, so no complaints. I guess it will be the same for all the display devices on the compatibility (or eligibility) list Microsoft has put out.
- Update: Call it the advantage of investing in standard hardware, both my audio and video vendors have released drivers for Vista Beta and so i'm happee :) Still can't get sound thru all 5 of my speakers. Havent worked on it though - next weekend seems to be the time for it.
- The busy protection mechanisms I mentioned above - it is irritating.
- That's what I've seen in the 30 mins I have used it.
First look - Mixed emotions :)
Friday, June 23, 2006
Time for serious business
The group matches are basically a chance for the good teams to build up into form and also to provide an opportunity for the lesser known ones (read qualifiers) to perform at the big stage. Well, as of now - the fun part of World cup 2006 is over.
From today, every match will push one team out of the race and that will change a lot of stuff in the approach of the teams. They will be more desperate, they will take more chances, they will want to win and they will know that if they don't, they don't have another chance.
Well folks - the Round of 16 begins today evening (IST i mean) and i cannot hide my excitement. As a big big Football fan, it cannot get bigger than this for me and I'm already licking my lips. Just take a look at the teams lined up in the stage and you'll know why i get s excited.
Come what may - I'm backing Brazil again. For all that i see, Spain and Argentina seem to be the only 2 teams which match Brazil in skills and people power, in all departments - Defense, Attack and Play making. England could do well as well (provided their defense loses all that stupidity it displayed in the last game) and is kind of on par with Germany. The good thing is that these teams are well placed in the various groups which means that they have a realistic chance of moving up all the way upto the Semi Finals. I'd place my money on 4 of these 5 teams featuring in the Semi finals.
Till then, I'm glued to the TV set :)
From today, every match will push one team out of the race and that will change a lot of stuff in the approach of the teams. They will be more desperate, they will take more chances, they will want to win and they will know that if they don't, they don't have another chance.
Well folks - the Round of 16 begins today evening (IST i mean) and i cannot hide my excitement. As a big big Football fan, it cannot get bigger than this for me and I'm already licking my lips. Just take a look at the teams lined up in the stage and you'll know why i get s excited.
Come what may - I'm backing Brazil again. For all that i see, Spain and Argentina seem to be the only 2 teams which match Brazil in skills and people power, in all departments - Defense, Attack and Play making. England could do well as well (provided their defense loses all that stupidity it displayed in the last game) and is kind of on par with Germany. The good thing is that these teams are well placed in the various groups which means that they have a realistic chance of moving up all the way upto the Semi Finals. I'd place my money on 4 of these 5 teams featuring in the Semi finals.
Till then, I'm glued to the TV set :)
Quite a strange week.
From Anxiety to Exhilaration to Desperation...
I missed to mention the fever :)
I was anxious coz i knew that my score reports would come in some time this week. Eventhough GMAC says 20 days, it normally comes in after a fortnight. The week started in a bad way - i dint go to work on Monday coz of a fever. A fever which still has some 10% of it within me. A fever which has sent my perennially affected Sinus glands some over time work. A fever that has left me tired as the weekend begins. I dint go to work on Tuesday as well, something very important coz i don't remember the last time i was on leave for bad health.
But then, a friend had come back from US and was planning to come to our office to see us all. So out goes fever to the dust bin and i went to office, only to find that i was right on time for a weekly status meet, inside a chilling cold Meeting room. Sat through the meeting cursing my luck (or the lack of it) and she came just when the meet got over. There are 2 more of us in our small "gang" and we kept speaking on and on for more than 3 hrs - it was a gr8 time. The usual US chocolates were there to keep the energy levels flowing :)
Tuesday had started on an interesting note coz i saw this mail from GMAC which screamed "SCORE REPORT AVAILABLE IN 24 HRS". Why on earth did they have to do that??? They cud have sent that once the report was available. Why build anxiety??? I was all the more anxious coz of my interesting essays - i was eager to know how it worked with the GMAC team. But Tuesday had a great ending coz i was able to d/l the score card in approx 18 hrs after the mail. And my essays had been hugely successful. I came back home shivering but smiling :)
The rest of the week has been pretty normal work + school investigation stuff. But i slacked a bit in work. We had a long long design discussion on Wednesday (i was still not well) and some follow up work to do on Thursday and Friday. Figured out one Wednesday that some of my understandings were wrong and then i cud not work out simple stuff on Thursday. My mentor gave me an earful on Thursday, to get me back to track. Guess it is a combination of the fever and "high" given by the GMAT score sheet. Was good to remind myself that i still had to live with this work for the next 1 yr or so and hence i better don't slack.
Today has been jus bad. Had to run around the whole day to get some stupid 10 yr old h/w working and then had to run some more to make that speak with a brand new one. Did get that done, but it took one heck of a day. It was all the more frustrating coz we had an existing h/w which was fully configured and it got spoilt. And there was so much s/w tweaking around to do. And there was so much spec reading to do. There was just so much to do. Hopefully everything is ready - we are set to do the work and it shud go thru well on Monday. Such a bad day.
Now - here lies the weekend ahead of me. Hope it will bring some fun. Have to attend an engagement tomorrow. Time to parteee...
I missed to mention the fever :)
I was anxious coz i knew that my score reports would come in some time this week. Eventhough GMAC says 20 days, it normally comes in after a fortnight. The week started in a bad way - i dint go to work on Monday coz of a fever. A fever which still has some 10% of it within me. A fever which has sent my perennially affected Sinus glands some over time work. A fever that has left me tired as the weekend begins. I dint go to work on Tuesday as well, something very important coz i don't remember the last time i was on leave for bad health.
But then, a friend had come back from US and was planning to come to our office to see us all. So out goes fever to the dust bin and i went to office, only to find that i was right on time for a weekly status meet, inside a chilling cold Meeting room. Sat through the meeting cursing my luck (or the lack of it) and she came just when the meet got over. There are 2 more of us in our small "gang" and we kept speaking on and on for more than 3 hrs - it was a gr8 time. The usual US chocolates were there to keep the energy levels flowing :)
Tuesday had started on an interesting note coz i saw this mail from GMAC which screamed "SCORE REPORT AVAILABLE IN 24 HRS". Why on earth did they have to do that??? They cud have sent that once the report was available. Why build anxiety??? I was all the more anxious coz of my interesting essays - i was eager to know how it worked with the GMAC team. But Tuesday had a great ending coz i was able to d/l the score card in approx 18 hrs after the mail. And my essays had been hugely successful. I came back home shivering but smiling :)
The rest of the week has been pretty normal work + school investigation stuff. But i slacked a bit in work. We had a long long design discussion on Wednesday (i was still not well) and some follow up work to do on Thursday and Friday. Figured out one Wednesday that some of my understandings were wrong and then i cud not work out simple stuff on Thursday. My mentor gave me an earful on Thursday, to get me back to track. Guess it is a combination of the fever and "high" given by the GMAT score sheet. Was good to remind myself that i still had to live with this work for the next 1 yr or so and hence i better don't slack.
Today has been jus bad. Had to run around the whole day to get some stupid 10 yr old h/w working and then had to run some more to make that speak with a brand new one. Did get that done, but it took one heck of a day. It was all the more frustrating coz we had an existing h/w which was fully configured and it got spoilt. And there was so much s/w tweaking around to do. And there was so much spec reading to do. There was just so much to do. Hopefully everything is ready - we are set to do the work and it shud go thru well on Monday. Such a bad day.
Now - here lies the weekend ahead of me. Hope it will bring some fun. Have to attend an engagement tomorrow. Time to parteee...
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
The journey begins...
Time to put GMAT behind and get a move on!!!
Q: Move on??? Where to???
A: To the "Apping" process folkies...
Q: So soon???
A: Well, when it comes to Apping, no soon is so soon ;)
Q: Am I ready to work on the Apps???
A: I don't know. I guess i wont know even after I'd get done with Apping :)
If these stupid answers don't drive the point, I'm just trying to say "come what may, I'm beginning my application process".
So - 7 schools it will be. The 7 on the left side of the blog. I am taking 3 BIG risks, out of which Harvard is the Biggest, not by much distance from the others though. Do i have the so called Killer profiles to get into these much desired campuses - i don't know again :) But I'd rather make a damn good attempt at these schools and give myself a chance, rather than make statements like "You know, i just might have got into Wharton. If only had i applied".
Yeah it costs me more than US$600. And i might not even get interview calls from these schools coz of the fucking competitive profile group I'd fall into. But heck, it is definitely worth it. DEFINITELY. So - Mr.I goin for da kill :)
Jus completed my "Field Trip" - visiting the application pages of these schools. Some schools have put up info reg Fall 2007 applications, some still have the 2006 applications and, surprise surprise, Columbia has released the application packet. It really has begun.
Have downloaded the application PDF to get a feel. Need to start working on the essays - there are about 4 of them to write and one of them seems to be an absolute bomb shell :( But that's where the fun is ;) I'm sure I'm gonna have fun writing up these essays.
Just about the perfect time for an unexpected display of camaraderie - one of my team mates (well, Ex-team mate infact) mailed me greeting on my GMAT scores. We then had a small discussion reg applications et al. The he silently dropped in a mail saying he has 4 really good books abt Applications and Admission procedures of US B Schools and he'd be glad to lend whatever i want. Needless to say, I replied "Gimme all" :)
Spoke to my mentor and my manager reg the Recos. One of the biggest advantages of my team is that i now have these 2 ppl, whom i know at first name basis, and they're in a position to write my recos. This can be really good - i now learn :)
Okie - so this is how it all begins. It looks like things are falling into place. Hopefully, they shud all remain in place for the next few months.
Q: Move on??? Where to???
A: To the "Apping" process folkies...
Q: So soon???
A: Well, when it comes to Apping, no soon is so soon ;)
Q: Am I ready to work on the Apps???
A: I don't know. I guess i wont know even after I'd get done with Apping :)
If these stupid answers don't drive the point, I'm just trying to say "come what may, I'm beginning my application process".
So - 7 schools it will be. The 7 on the left side of the blog. I am taking 3 BIG risks, out of which Harvard is the Biggest, not by much distance from the others though. Do i have the so called Killer profiles to get into these much desired campuses - i don't know again :) But I'd rather make a damn good attempt at these schools and give myself a chance, rather than make statements like "You know, i just might have got into Wharton. If only had i applied".
Yeah it costs me more than US$600. And i might not even get interview calls from these schools coz of the fucking competitive profile group I'd fall into. But heck, it is definitely worth it. DEFINITELY. So - Mr.I goin for da kill :)
Jus completed my "Field Trip" - visiting the application pages of these schools. Some schools have put up info reg Fall 2007 applications, some still have the 2006 applications and, surprise surprise, Columbia has released the application packet. It really has begun.
Have downloaded the application PDF to get a feel. Need to start working on the essays - there are about 4 of them to write and one of them seems to be an absolute bomb shell :( But that's where the fun is ;) I'm sure I'm gonna have fun writing up these essays.
Just about the perfect time for an unexpected display of camaraderie - one of my team mates (well, Ex-team mate infact) mailed me greeting on my GMAT scores. We then had a small discussion reg applications et al. The he silently dropped in a mail saying he has 4 really good books abt Applications and Admission procedures of US B Schools and he'd be glad to lend whatever i want. Needless to say, I replied "Gimme all" :)
Spoke to my mentor and my manager reg the Recos. One of the biggest advantages of my team is that i now have these 2 ppl, whom i know at first name basis, and they're in a position to write my recos. This can be really good - i now learn :)
Okie - so this is how it all begins. It looks like things are falling into place. Hopefully, they shud all remain in place for the next few months.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
It is official - ppl appreciate my writing skills...
Hehhe... That's just to say I got my official score report today. And guess what, GMAT scorers gave me a perfect 6 in AWA. I am so thrilled abt that because I had tried to be a bit too creative, out of instinct basically, when I wrote my Analysis of an Argument essay. And some 2 hrs and 30 mins later, I had begun to worry about it.
I very well knew that the essay readers in the AdComm (yes - I hear that the GMAT essays of international applicants are read and evaluated by the schools) of diff schools would appreciate those essays, coz their roles are very different from the GMAT essay evaluators (both the software and the human readers I mean). I was not sure whether the GMAT evaluators would appreciate my being creative in a professional essay - but sure like hell they did :)
And the funny thing would have been if I had scored a 4 or 5 in these essays - the AdComm members would read the essays and inspite of them being good they'd have these doubts in their minds as "why did this essay score only 4 (or 5)". Now that's out of the questions and that's why I am glad.
All in all - the GMAT has been done with in clinical fashion. Next lies applying. I have almost decided on the schools. Hoping for one more clinical performance to seal the show in R1 itself :)
I very well knew that the essay readers in the AdComm (yes - I hear that the GMAT essays of international applicants are read and evaluated by the schools) of diff schools would appreciate those essays, coz their roles are very different from the GMAT essay evaluators (both the software and the human readers I mean). I was not sure whether the GMAT evaluators would appreciate my being creative in a professional essay - but sure like hell they did :)
And the funny thing would have been if I had scored a 4 or 5 in these essays - the AdComm members would read the essays and inspite of them being good they'd have these doubts in their minds as "why did this essay score only 4 (or 5)". Now that's out of the questions and that's why I am glad.
All in all - the GMAT has been done with in clinical fashion. Next lies applying. I have almost decided on the schools. Hoping for one more clinical performance to seal the show in R1 itself :)
Monday, June 19, 2006
A strange world I live in...
God knows how ppl turn out to be. There is a lot of truth when someone says "you never know what lies beneath". Not that i am surrounded by lot of ill minded ppl, but I'm jus a bit disappointed by the way some ppl (whom i know for quite some time) back off from doing really simple stuff when asked. The stuff i asked were hardly gonna make them sweat, i was kind of asking them to share their experiences and views abt stuff where they've "been there, done that".
I'm shocked by the completely contrasting nature of these ppl, who cant do such simple stuff for ppl they know, compared to the kind of ppl i meet at public forums like PG. The camaraderie and the willingness of the members of this forum in helping ppl whom they hardly even know is probably unheard of in the world in which these friends of mine exist.
The funniest (and perhaps the most heartening) thing is that atleast i am so different from these guys. I clearly belong to the latter group and I'm glad I'm so. Sharing experience is the least one can do in helping someone and here, look at these ppl.
One word replies on the messenger that clearly shows the "I'm not interested in wasting my time on u" attitude. And if that puts u off - the other one simply runs away half way thru a chat session when u start asking the questions. May be the first guy was having a bad evening and may be the second guy had something more important to attend. Heck, I've then had multiple instances where these guys can see me online (in the same way as i can see him) and does even bother to drop a "Hi" or try to continue the discussion.
May when someone asks info from these guys, it makes them feel important. My middle finger to u buddies, and a 4 letter word to add with it. I've decided not to ask anything from these folks again n my whole life. I get put off with such stuff very easily and however benign i might have become over the years, this just broke the limits.
Heck what is the value add of these guys to the society??? Zilch. They might as well not exist. And all the info i was trying to get from them cud probably be obtained from some other source - human or otherwise. The only difference might be that i already know these ppl and there is no ice breaking to be done. But now i know - there are so many unknown ppl in this world who will help u in ways better than the known ones do. And having been a member of few of the wonderful public forums throughout my GMAT prep, i know there really aint no ice. While there might be few of these fucked up guys around, the rest of the world is still intact.
Strange world, but sweet :)
I'm shocked by the completely contrasting nature of these ppl, who cant do such simple stuff for ppl they know, compared to the kind of ppl i meet at public forums like PG. The camaraderie and the willingness of the members of this forum in helping ppl whom they hardly even know is probably unheard of in the world in which these friends of mine exist.
The funniest (and perhaps the most heartening) thing is that atleast i am so different from these guys. I clearly belong to the latter group and I'm glad I'm so. Sharing experience is the least one can do in helping someone and here, look at these ppl.
One word replies on the messenger that clearly shows the "I'm not interested in wasting my time on u" attitude. And if that puts u off - the other one simply runs away half way thru a chat session when u start asking the questions. May be the first guy was having a bad evening and may be the second guy had something more important to attend. Heck, I've then had multiple instances where these guys can see me online (in the same way as i can see him) and does even bother to drop a "Hi" or try to continue the discussion.
May when someone asks info from these guys, it makes them feel important. My middle finger to u buddies, and a 4 letter word to add with it. I've decided not to ask anything from these folks again n my whole life. I get put off with such stuff very easily and however benign i might have become over the years, this just broke the limits.
Heck what is the value add of these guys to the society??? Zilch. They might as well not exist. And all the info i was trying to get from them cud probably be obtained from some other source - human or otherwise. The only difference might be that i already know these ppl and there is no ice breaking to be done. But now i know - there are so many unknown ppl in this world who will help u in ways better than the known ones do. And having been a member of few of the wonderful public forums throughout my GMAT prep, i know there really aint no ice. While there might be few of these fucked up guys around, the rest of the world is still intact.
Strange world, but sweet :)
Sunday, June 18, 2006
To Fin or to Mark
Well Well Well...
For someone who seems to be so sure about his short term and long term career goals, i am now one helluva confused soul. The whole thing started when i began collecting info reg schools to short list the ones to which I'm gonna apply. Now came in the concept of schools which are strong in a particular specialization. That is where my confusion starts.
For all these days, i was this "I want to get into Finance" kinda guy. Do i say that coz it is cool to say so - NO!!! I decided on Finance coz i loved it. I loved the stuff i read up on finance, i loved the stuff i read abt finance guys and bankers. I really wanted to be a Finance guy, after my MBA ofcourse. And i know I will do well in the job also - I feel I'm more suited for it.
Now, precisely like the usual confused soul I am, I've begun to like whatever I read about marketing too. And yeah - the stuff i read about marketing guys impresses me much as well. So - does that mean i want to become a marketing guru - May be!!!
The thing is - i don't have a clear choice at present. That i think will not change, however much i dig in this direction. Guess the post appears as confused as i am now. The decision I've come to is this: I will apply to schools that have both these specializations, which kind of bring in companies from both the domains and i will decide on my specialization during the course of my studies. There is no way by which I am gonna know the finer points of both these types. It's a personal choice and I dont wanna follow the words of others.
Now the big question is, what does this change??? This changes the choice of schools. The good news is that the schools where i wanna be aren't bad in Marketing as well, while this new found love on marketing brings in one Mark heavy school, Kellogg.
Let's get going with the stats, based on the % of grads placed in various functions (with total number of student inside braces):
As far as the US schools are concerned, i guess i will apply to the ones in the list above. Though Columbia and Chicago are so very heavy in Fin, I am ready to go there and take the chance. But I'd be throwing the kitchen sink @ the first 3 in the list - pull out everything to get into one of those :) Let us see - hope i don't have to worry abt the other schools at all.
So that's the list for the time being. I must start working on the application packets of these schools, do a lot of profiling and all that crap. Long way to go...
Jus for the record, here comes the "other" schools (abt which i haven't decided as yet and hopefully wont have to decide at all), in the same order
For someone who seems to be so sure about his short term and long term career goals, i am now one helluva confused soul. The whole thing started when i began collecting info reg schools to short list the ones to which I'm gonna apply. Now came in the concept of schools which are strong in a particular specialization. That is where my confusion starts.
For all these days, i was this "I want to get into Finance" kinda guy. Do i say that coz it is cool to say so - NO!!! I decided on Finance coz i loved it. I loved the stuff i read up on finance, i loved the stuff i read abt finance guys and bankers. I really wanted to be a Finance guy, after my MBA ofcourse. And i know I will do well in the job also - I feel I'm more suited for it.
Now, precisely like the usual confused soul I am, I've begun to like whatever I read about marketing too. And yeah - the stuff i read about marketing guys impresses me much as well. So - does that mean i want to become a marketing guru - May be!!!
The thing is - i don't have a clear choice at present. That i think will not change, however much i dig in this direction. Guess the post appears as confused as i am now. The decision I've come to is this: I will apply to schools that have both these specializations, which kind of bring in companies from both the domains and i will decide on my specialization during the course of my studies. There is no way by which I am gonna know the finer points of both these types. It's a personal choice and I dont wanna follow the words of others.
Now the big question is, what does this change??? This changes the choice of schools. The good news is that the schools where i wanna be aren't bad in Marketing as well, while this new found love on marketing brings in one Mark heavy school, Kellogg.
Let's get going with the stats, based on the % of grads placed in various functions (with total number of student inside braces):
So - apart from Chicago and Columbia, which are finance HEAVY (atleast half the class has Fin guys), the other schools are okay in both the specializations. I am now confused over applying to London - looks like I need to dig more.School Finance Roles Marketing Roles
Harvard(895) 31 22
Stanford(371) 31 15
Wharton(825) 22 14
Chicago(520) 59 07
Columbia(502) 50 09
Kellogg(535) 24 30
London(no info) 38 -
As far as the US schools are concerned, i guess i will apply to the ones in the list above. Though Columbia and Chicago are so very heavy in Fin, I am ready to go there and take the chance. But I'd be throwing the kitchen sink @ the first 3 in the list - pull out everything to get into one of those :) Let us see - hope i don't have to worry abt the other schools at all.
So that's the list for the time being. I must start working on the application packets of these schools, do a lot of profiling and all that crap. Long way to go...
Jus for the record, here comes the "other" schools (abt which i haven't decided as yet and hopefully wont have to decide at all), in the same order
Tuck(262) 35 18Statistics Courtesy: Best Business Schools - Forbes
Yale(215) 47 13
Stern(364) 56 20
Duke(402) 39 27
UCLA(329) 43 20
Ross(434) 30 30
Thursday, June 15, 2006
The after effects!!!
I received this SMS from a recent friend and i think it is definitely worth its place on the cyber world.
I feel great reading this and i feel a great lot better coz someone thought me worthy to send this :)
Now - let us move to listing out the after effects of the 3 months of rigor which i put my mind and body through.
I am close to short listing the schools to which I'm gonna apply in round 1. Columbia has already released their application packet and the deadlines. Will have to start working soon i guess. I am still giving myself some time to come out of the hangover of that 750 and, this is more true than the former, these physical after effects of those 3 months.
However we look at it, isn't it better to say "I got sick scoring 750" rather than saying "I got sick coz i dint score 750" :)
I know how shamelessly I'm boasting ;)
"When you are inspired from some great purpose, some extraordinary project - all your thoughts break their bounds; your mind transcend limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world, where talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamt yourself to be."
I feel great reading this and i feel a great lot better coz someone thought me worthy to send this :)
Now - let us move to listing out the after effects of the 3 months of rigor which i put my mind and body through.
- My right eye has been hyper stressed and there are dark marks all over the surface of the eyes :( And both the eyes have a reddish tint to them. There is a permanent irritating sensation in the eye and the bad news is that i have to keep looking at the computer screen all day thru. The good news is that all this is not troubling me much and is actually going away day after day :)
- The wrists of both my hands hurt everyday. There were few days in last week where i was barely able to move them, but the pain has subsided a lot these days. I still cannot hold my plate for long when i eat - but I'm slowly getting there. I'm glad that i can hold my spoon all the way :)
- I had this consistent feeling of "I'm sick" and it has built up to a good fever today.
I am close to short listing the schools to which I'm gonna apply in round 1. Columbia has already released their application packet and the deadlines. Will have to start working soon i guess. I am still giving myself some time to come out of the hangover of that 750 and, this is more true than the former, these physical after effects of those 3 months.
However we look at it, isn't it better to say "I got sick scoring 750" rather than saying "I got sick coz i dint score 750" :)
I know how shamelessly I'm boasting ;)
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Pudupettai - The Review.
The decision:
I was so bored in life (and office of course) that by 6:15PM i was saying to myself "This is just not working". Yesterday morning, i happened to see few clips from the movie in some TV review and i was itching to see the movie since then. I saw my To-Do list. I had to do some minor changes in a doc and send it to my colleague and then i was done. I checked out the site of satyam cinemas and found that the bookings were still open.
I rushed through this doc (time 6:30), collected my stuff and ran out of office (6:35 PM) walked the distance from my office to Satyam (6:45PM) and there was this big Queue. Got the tickets and entered the theatre a good 10mins late i guess. I had missed the first song (Enga Area - the choreo for which i had liked and really wanted to see), but got to see the movie from the point where the story begins. So no complaints. Let's move on...
The audience:
Surprise, Surprise - or was it only for me. The theatre was almost 60% empty!!! There were empty seats all over the place. I walked down the dark lane, found my seat and sat down - not knowing how the next 3 hrs were gonna be and i was really afraid now, seeing the strength of the audience. That's when Danush (or Kokki Kumar) comes back from a movie and sees the body of his mother, who was killed by Kokki's dad. No no - this is not gonna be anywhere close to story telling. That is one thing i don't intend to do.
The cast:
It can simply be said that this is a Danush movie - from scene 1 (or atleast the first scene i saw) till the credentials (which was quite funny), the movie had Danush all over the place. While his show in Kadhal Konden was pretty good, Danush seems to have lost things a bit since then. Perhaps a bit too confused on differentiating between over acting (remember sullan???) and amplified acting (remember that rain dance in KK???). How he fares in Pudupettai, that comes later. Now to the others.
The next important actor is Sneha, as a prositute who later becomes Danush's wife. And then there are all those ppl Danush kills, his friends and his foes, his guide and yeah, his wink-i-come-wink-i-go wife Sonia. The movie has few of the budding and talented (and by now proven) technicians of kollywood on its credit rolls. Direction, Music, Cinematography are definitely worth mentioning.
The movie:
It is, first of all, a story abt a ruffian. So be prepared for a blood bath. The story, is about how Danush enters the gang world, rises up and falls down. The movie has some interesting happenings surrounding this story line. Does the movie try to convey any message or something??? No and Yes. Go see for yourself :)
Now - the things i feel abt the movie. Let's start with the lead characters. I came out of the theatre with this feeling that Danush had not used this opportunity to the level he cud have. Looks like brother Selva has churned out scene after scene where Danush has scope for performing, and Danush hasn't gone to the heights he can. Let's accept it - Danush can act, provided the role fits his physique. Here, the role is tailor made for him. Physically, he fits the underworld slum dwelling ruffian to the dot.
As i mentioned above, i guess he is in a confused state as to how much he can fly. I'd have been satisfied if he'd just flown a bit more. He hasn't done bad at all - but there is jus this diff between master class and an attempt to be one. There are scenes where he is very good, especially the jail monologues, and he's pretty impressive in the way he uses his eyes. But danush, u shud have pushed urself just that bit more. I don't think this performance is gonna change ur present market situation in a big way. Let us just get done with Danush saying "He was good, better than few of his recent films, but definitely not his best".
Next - Sneha. Damsel in distress, deep distress. Looks like Danush's elder sister in the movie, but it does not appear odd to me coz such families, where the qife is a lot bigger than the lean wiry husband, are quite common in these kinda places. She really hasn't much to do, apart from giving that "I'm in distress" look in very scene. There is one scene where she had the opportunity to perform and she does extremely well - two thumbs up. Overall - limited opportunities, well used.
The rest of the cast do their job. There are so many characters, and the movie does go at a good pace, that u fail to keep track of many characters. But it is to be accepted that the remaining members of the cast have done their job without much fuss and, hence, no major screw ups, and this is one of the strengths of the movie. Credit goes to Selva ofcourse, for drawing out such clean performances from his cast.
The movie is raw, but classy. Eventhough violence has been glorified, as is obvious from the tag line "survival of the fittest", it is not unnecessary since the movie deals with ruffians anyway. The use of graphics in fight scenes has worked well and is perhaps not too obvious (except for ppl like me) at all. The cinematography does need special mention - it is just too good and the colors in the movie are really vibrant. Music, by Yuvan, needs no speaking about and is already a BIG hit. Yuvan scores in BGM too.
Summary:
I loved the movie, but hated the unnecessary cuts made by the theatre (why u satyam???). The storyline and charectorisation is something new (and hence appealing), the movie is technically too good and has performances which wud fall between "decent" and "good" ratings, with some rare "that's better" scenes. I keep cribbing coz i keep seeing a "wow" possibility in every scene :)
To sum it all - definitely worth seeing once. I might even have a second look.
I'm impressed. I'd give 4 on 5.
Good effort fellas!!! Congrats...
I was so bored in life (and office of course) that by 6:15PM i was saying to myself "This is just not working". Yesterday morning, i happened to see few clips from the movie in some TV review and i was itching to see the movie since then. I saw my To-Do list. I had to do some minor changes in a doc and send it to my colleague and then i was done. I checked out the site of satyam cinemas and found that the bookings were still open.
I rushed through this doc (time 6:30), collected my stuff and ran out of office (6:35 PM) walked the distance from my office to Satyam (6:45PM) and there was this big Queue. Got the tickets and entered the theatre a good 10mins late i guess. I had missed the first song (Enga Area - the choreo for which i had liked and really wanted to see), but got to see the movie from the point where the story begins. So no complaints. Let's move on...
The audience:
Surprise, Surprise - or was it only for me. The theatre was almost 60% empty!!! There were empty seats all over the place. I walked down the dark lane, found my seat and sat down - not knowing how the next 3 hrs were gonna be and i was really afraid now, seeing the strength of the audience. That's when Danush (or Kokki Kumar) comes back from a movie and sees the body of his mother, who was killed by Kokki's dad. No no - this is not gonna be anywhere close to story telling. That is one thing i don't intend to do.
The cast:
It can simply be said that this is a Danush movie - from scene 1 (or atleast the first scene i saw) till the credentials (which was quite funny), the movie had Danush all over the place. While his show in Kadhal Konden was pretty good, Danush seems to have lost things a bit since then. Perhaps a bit too confused on differentiating between over acting (remember sullan???) and amplified acting (remember that rain dance in KK???). How he fares in Pudupettai, that comes later. Now to the others.
The next important actor is Sneha, as a prositute who later becomes Danush's wife. And then there are all those ppl Danush kills, his friends and his foes, his guide and yeah, his wink-i-come-wink-i-go wife Sonia. The movie has few of the budding and talented (and by now proven) technicians of kollywood on its credit rolls. Direction, Music, Cinematography are definitely worth mentioning.
The movie:
It is, first of all, a story abt a ruffian. So be prepared for a blood bath. The story, is about how Danush enters the gang world, rises up and falls down. The movie has some interesting happenings surrounding this story line. Does the movie try to convey any message or something??? No and Yes. Go see for yourself :)
Now - the things i feel abt the movie. Let's start with the lead characters. I came out of the theatre with this feeling that Danush had not used this opportunity to the level he cud have. Looks like brother Selva has churned out scene after scene where Danush has scope for performing, and Danush hasn't gone to the heights he can. Let's accept it - Danush can act, provided the role fits his physique. Here, the role is tailor made for him. Physically, he fits the underworld slum dwelling ruffian to the dot.
As i mentioned above, i guess he is in a confused state as to how much he can fly. I'd have been satisfied if he'd just flown a bit more. He hasn't done bad at all - but there is jus this diff between master class and an attempt to be one. There are scenes where he is very good, especially the jail monologues, and he's pretty impressive in the way he uses his eyes. But danush, u shud have pushed urself just that bit more. I don't think this performance is gonna change ur present market situation in a big way. Let us just get done with Danush saying "He was good, better than few of his recent films, but definitely not his best".
Next - Sneha. Damsel in distress, deep distress. Looks like Danush's elder sister in the movie, but it does not appear odd to me coz such families, where the qife is a lot bigger than the lean wiry husband, are quite common in these kinda places. She really hasn't much to do, apart from giving that "I'm in distress" look in very scene. There is one scene where she had the opportunity to perform and she does extremely well - two thumbs up. Overall - limited opportunities, well used.
The rest of the cast do their job. There are so many characters, and the movie does go at a good pace, that u fail to keep track of many characters. But it is to be accepted that the remaining members of the cast have done their job without much fuss and, hence, no major screw ups, and this is one of the strengths of the movie. Credit goes to Selva ofcourse, for drawing out such clean performances from his cast.
The movie is raw, but classy. Eventhough violence has been glorified, as is obvious from the tag line "survival of the fittest", it is not unnecessary since the movie deals with ruffians anyway. The use of graphics in fight scenes has worked well and is perhaps not too obvious (except for ppl like me) at all. The cinematography does need special mention - it is just too good and the colors in the movie are really vibrant. Music, by Yuvan, needs no speaking about and is already a BIG hit. Yuvan scores in BGM too.
Summary:
I loved the movie, but hated the unnecessary cuts made by the theatre (why u satyam???). The storyline and charectorisation is something new (and hence appealing), the movie is technically too good and has performances which wud fall between "decent" and "good" ratings, with some rare "that's better" scenes. I keep cribbing coz i keep seeing a "wow" possibility in every scene :)
To sum it all - definitely worth seeing once. I might even have a second look.
I'm impressed. I'd give 4 on 5.
Good effort fellas!!! Congrats...
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Some more tinkering with the blog...
I was not happy with the dull grey look. Even the last time when i had to settle on it coz of lack of time, i decided to myself that I'll work on it sometime in the future. So - today is that future, and i have nothing to do as well. So i decided I'd spend some time working on the blog in trying to make it appear better. I hope it is better after those hours i put in.
To start with, i thought I'd use a completely new theme. I found this one which i think is very good. The author has many more templates, you can find here. But due to my lack of skill with web designing et al, i was not able to get the css stuff to work with this xhtml page. I spent some tome attempting to get it working, but i wasn't getting any of the formatting i was doing. So i said "Ditch it" and decided to work on the template i had, and change it in a way i liked. That's what has lead to this new color scheme and all.
The background and color change was simple. I still had to search the net for html color codes (yeah!!! I'm that bad) to get that exact color i wanted. For sometime, i was like "Jo" in the rmkv ad :) Once i got the color, i then had to get a pic to place on top of the blog. This was the interesting business.
I wanted the color of the pic to match with the color of the headers. Since I'm not one of these ppl who'd say "I'll get a pic and changes the color of the blog to match it", i searched some time to see if i can get a pic that matched this color. No!!!
So, i decided to use something i found in the site i mentioned above, and modify it to suit my needs. First i did some work in mspaint to shape it. Then i used this free pic editor called "irphan viewer" and applied some effects on the pic. First i adjusted the color shades to change the hue of the blue to match the color in the blog. Then i applied the "sharpness" filter on it some 3 times, this made the pic full of lines of diff color. Then i applied the "explosion" filter on it, which lead to this. Pretty simple huh??? Pain in the ass... I'm sure there are better ways to go abt this, but this is all the knowledge i have :(
Now - all work done and i guess the blog looks a lot more brighter and appealing. The grey one was all dull and boring. What say ppl???
To start with, i thought I'd use a completely new theme. I found this one which i think is very good. The author has many more templates, you can find here. But due to my lack of skill with web designing et al, i was not able to get the css stuff to work with this xhtml page. I spent some tome attempting to get it working, but i wasn't getting any of the formatting i was doing. So i said "Ditch it" and decided to work on the template i had, and change it in a way i liked. That's what has lead to this new color scheme and all.
The background and color change was simple. I still had to search the net for html color codes (yeah!!! I'm that bad) to get that exact color i wanted. For sometime, i was like "Jo" in the rmkv ad :) Once i got the color, i then had to get a pic to place on top of the blog. This was the interesting business.
I wanted the color of the pic to match with the color of the headers. Since I'm not one of these ppl who'd say "I'll get a pic and changes the color of the blog to match it", i searched some time to see if i can get a pic that matched this color. No!!!
So, i decided to use something i found in the site i mentioned above, and modify it to suit my needs. First i did some work in mspaint to shape it. Then i used this free pic editor called "irphan viewer" and applied some effects on the pic. First i adjusted the color shades to change the hue of the blue to match the color in the blog. Then i applied the "sharpness" filter on it some 3 times, this made the pic full of lines of diff color. Then i applied the "explosion" filter on it, which lead to this. Pretty simple huh??? Pain in the ass... I'm sure there are better ways to go abt this, but this is all the knowledge i have :(
Now - all work done and i guess the blog looks a lot more brighter and appealing. The grey one was all dull and boring. What say ppl???
Friday, June 09, 2006
How GMAT has changed Mr.I.
"Dishu Dishu Dishu Dishu Dishu Dishu Dishu Dishum"...
Shot by the securities of the CM, Mr.Raghuvaran, flies and falls near the door. He shud be dead by now!!! Sorry - but this is Tamil Cinema. This is the time for "punch dialogues".
With all those bullets inside, he smiles (?!??!) - "That was a good interview".
I am in that kind of a mood today - looking back at the past 3 months and comparing the Iday who was in Feb to the one who is in June. There is a BIG difference on his resume for sure. There seems to be a BIG difference in his personality as well.
No no. The score hasn't made me insane :) There is enough reason, which made me look at myself and say "Hey, that's not the me i know". Let us see why.
I had this belief about myself that i am really good at stuff, but i don't perform well because i am not interested or i don't work as well as i can. I fail, but i say to myself "hey, that's jus coz i did not make enough efforts".
But the real fact was that i really haven't achieved anything in life since my std.12th scores. I call that an achievement coz of my peer level et al and i know it still inspired students of my school, where the score is yet to be crossed :) And yeah, i really don't wanna consider a BE degree (81%, 3.7GPA, first class with distinction) in a pretty good college as an achievement. I wasn't even the best in my class. My scrap book was full of "I know u have lot of talent, but u shud have made the efforts" or "you and this guy deserve to be the toppers of this class, but u guys jus dint try". Well, that's not anywhere close to achieving the real thing. But really, i was still honored coz it is great when ppl see that you can achieve something when u really haven't achieved it at all.
Juror 1 says "Guilty"
Moving on, i spent the next 2 years in my first company. I have never achieved the best ratings one can get - but there were one reason or the other to let me console myself that i could have, but was deprived of it. In hindsight, the first year was debatable and the second year is still under debate :)
Juror 2 says "Guilty"
The came the Management tests. Since i was now seriously bored abt whatever little thing i was working on and i was looking to move into management coz it appealed more to me, i applied to 3 of these tests. I bought all prep material from IMS and decided to prepare myself. Jus like all previous endings, i dint score enough for even a single call.
Juror 3 says "Guilty"
Judge chuckles and says "I forgot when u last did something mentionable kiddo. Why do u even wanna make a case. Don't waste my time - go".
This is when, thankfully, i really stood away from myself and observed what a big loser I'd became. Thankfully, again, everyone gets their inspirations just in time. It is upto the individual to get inspired really.
And this is where i have to mention two of my friends, who, in spite of seeing me only failing, believed that i can win :) I'd dutifully report all my failures to both of them. One always used to listen to me when i blabbered abt management and really was the first person to accept the fact that i am fit for management.
The other one really dint know me for long, at least not as long as the first friend knew me. BTW - probably the first set of news i gave her were these failure messages. So probably, she was just being good with me. But it really did make a big impact. She did this for ALL my results and it was like getting on to my nerves :)
And this ALL FOR GOOD made me think. This is why i started the post with that Raghuvaran dialogue. This is where the analogy is. This is where i was inspired - to go in search of that "good" this was supposed to mean. What can be good in a CAT and XAT failure??? "Look beyond Iday" - screamed my inner soul. And that is how the tryst with GMAT began. 4 months later - I'm typing this post with a 750 on my resume :)
As i keep saying, things have just began and I'm far from relaxing. But hey, this is my moment #1. I HAVE to pause and enjoy it, before i lay the foundation for moment #2, #3 and henceforth. They will come - but lemme have some fun now :)
And, am i not supposed to say how this has changed me. Let's get the list rolling...
These days, life seems to have come to a standstill with no GMAT preps to do in the night. But it is a good thing right!!! I am now waiting for the schools to release their application packets and then starts the real fun. Looking forward to it and hope that the application process will be all the more interesting and enriching :)
Really long post. Thanks for staying with me till here...
You guys are sweet :)
Shot by the securities of the CM, Mr.Raghuvaran, flies and falls near the door. He shud be dead by now!!! Sorry - but this is Tamil Cinema. This is the time for "punch dialogues".
With all those bullets inside, he smiles (?!??!) - "That was a good interview".
I am in that kind of a mood today - looking back at the past 3 months and comparing the Iday who was in Feb to the one who is in June. There is a BIG difference on his resume for sure. There seems to be a BIG difference in his personality as well.
No no. The score hasn't made me insane :) There is enough reason, which made me look at myself and say "Hey, that's not the me i know". Let us see why.
I had this belief about myself that i am really good at stuff, but i don't perform well because i am not interested or i don't work as well as i can. I fail, but i say to myself "hey, that's jus coz i did not make enough efforts".
But the real fact was that i really haven't achieved anything in life since my std.12th scores. I call that an achievement coz of my peer level et al and i know it still inspired students of my school, where the score is yet to be crossed :) And yeah, i really don't wanna consider a BE degree (81%, 3.7GPA, first class with distinction) in a pretty good college as an achievement. I wasn't even the best in my class. My scrap book was full of "I know u have lot of talent, but u shud have made the efforts" or "you and this guy deserve to be the toppers of this class, but u guys jus dint try". Well, that's not anywhere close to achieving the real thing. But really, i was still honored coz it is great when ppl see that you can achieve something when u really haven't achieved it at all.
Juror 1 says "Guilty"
Moving on, i spent the next 2 years in my first company. I have never achieved the best ratings one can get - but there were one reason or the other to let me console myself that i could have, but was deprived of it. In hindsight, the first year was debatable and the second year is still under debate :)
Juror 2 says "Guilty"
The came the Management tests. Since i was now seriously bored abt whatever little thing i was working on and i was looking to move into management coz it appealed more to me, i applied to 3 of these tests. I bought all prep material from IMS and decided to prepare myself. Jus like all previous endings, i dint score enough for even a single call.
Juror 3 says "Guilty"
Judge chuckles and says "I forgot when u last did something mentionable kiddo. Why do u even wanna make a case. Don't waste my time - go".
This is when, thankfully, i really stood away from myself and observed what a big loser I'd became. Thankfully, again, everyone gets their inspirations just in time. It is upto the individual to get inspired really.
And this is where i have to mention two of my friends, who, in spite of seeing me only failing, believed that i can win :) I'd dutifully report all my failures to both of them. One always used to listen to me when i blabbered abt management and really was the first person to accept the fact that i am fit for management.
The other one really dint know me for long, at least not as long as the first friend knew me. BTW - probably the first set of news i gave her were these failure messages. So probably, she was just being good with me. But it really did make a big impact. She did this for ALL my results and it was like getting on to my nerves :)
And this ALL FOR GOOD made me think. This is why i started the post with that Raghuvaran dialogue. This is where the analogy is. This is where i was inspired - to go in search of that "good" this was supposed to mean. What can be good in a CAT and XAT failure??? "Look beyond Iday" - screamed my inner soul. And that is how the tryst with GMAT began. 4 months later - I'm typing this post with a 750 on my resume :)
As i keep saying, things have just began and I'm far from relaxing. But hey, this is my moment #1. I HAVE to pause and enjoy it, before i lay the foundation for moment #2, #3 and henceforth. They will come - but lemme have some fun now :)
And, am i not supposed to say how this has changed me. Let's get the list rolling...
- For starters, i now know i really am what i thought of me. If, and only if, i put my heart into something, i will, and that's a definite will, succeed and succeed with great returns.
- My perspective of my future has changed in a big way. i see everything i do today as a step to some goal i have set for myself some 15 or 20 yrs from now. I know what my short term goals are and i know what my long term goals are. I know i can achieve them.
- I am more serious than before. A bit more happy, as a friend today observed, but a lot more focused and worried, coz i know my long term goals and i know I've got some rough time ahead.
- I am a lot more organized now - prepping with all those resources has brought the time clerk out of me and that's a big big plus to me. I never thought i was good in that dept.
- When someone says "this weekend I'm gonna prepare", i don't make fun of him/her like in the past. I know what it really means :)
- There are ppl looking at me differently and i am able to observe that and take it in the stride. I hear the word "inspiration" very frequently these days :)
- I've moved from a seeker role to a helper role, atleast with respect to GMAT. I am rolling out advises to many ppl i hardly even know, and i am really happy doing that.
- There just might be many many more - i really dunno
These days, life seems to have come to a standstill with no GMAT preps to do in the night. But it is a good thing right!!! I am now waiting for the schools to release their application packets and then starts the real fun. Looking forward to it and hope that the application process will be all the more interesting and enriching :)
Really long post. Thanks for staying with me till here...
You guys are sweet :)
Thursday, June 08, 2006
The day after GMAT
This post should really have come yesterday - but due to technical difficulties, the post got delayed by a day :)
Woke up on Wednesday and pinched myself, and pinched again. Me - 750!!! It felt so good, i cannot explain to you people. I quickly reminded to myself "this is just the beginning dude. Miles to go before you can relax". I said that a few more times, jus to register it into my system and moved to office.
Get into office and the day really starts. Since i dropped in the prev day - many of the people knew my score. My manager and my mentor already knew, and so did few of my colleagues. So i was having some extended discussion about how things move on from here, hinted abt recos to my manager and mentor and did all that stuff. Basically, i was boasting shamelessly - but there's nothing wrong in that ppl. It is all part of the deal ;)
Come to my inbox and there are mails from ppl all over the place. It seems that i underestimated the number of people who frequent my blog. The first wish yesterday came on the blog from Rajagopal. Many of my college friends had already caught me on the fone and wished me. And then, more friends sent their wishes through the blog, emails, sms's and fone calls. "Every dog has it's day" - me was thinking :)
I had really thought that all my class folks atleast visited my blog. Hence i dint send them any mail stating "I did this one good thing in life". Sorry if some of u folks dint get to know the info. Some of the guys were sweet enough to mail me and ask, when it shud have been me informing them. So got some delayed "wow"s from these ppl as well.
The icing on the cake really was this post made in our group blog and the responses i got from some of my friends. It felt really great to receive all that appreciation from these ppl. Thanks again folks, for all that. And special thanks to Karthik who kept greeting me wherever he got a chance :)
Thanks a million to all u folks. Hope i put up similar shows in the applications and the interviews and get into that damned dream school. Then i can blog from across the globe :)
Again i remind myself - "this is just the beginning dude. Miles to go before you can relax"...
Woke up on Wednesday and pinched myself, and pinched again. Me - 750!!! It felt so good, i cannot explain to you people. I quickly reminded to myself "this is just the beginning dude. Miles to go before you can relax". I said that a few more times, jus to register it into my system and moved to office.
Get into office and the day really starts. Since i dropped in the prev day - many of the people knew my score. My manager and my mentor already knew, and so did few of my colleagues. So i was having some extended discussion about how things move on from here, hinted abt recos to my manager and mentor and did all that stuff. Basically, i was boasting shamelessly - but there's nothing wrong in that ppl. It is all part of the deal ;)
Come to my inbox and there are mails from ppl all over the place. It seems that i underestimated the number of people who frequent my blog. The first wish yesterday came on the blog from Rajagopal. Many of my college friends had already caught me on the fone and wished me. And then, more friends sent their wishes through the blog, emails, sms's and fone calls. "Every dog has it's day" - me was thinking :)
I had really thought that all my class folks atleast visited my blog. Hence i dint send them any mail stating "I did this one good thing in life". Sorry if some of u folks dint get to know the info. Some of the guys were sweet enough to mail me and ask, when it shud have been me informing them. So got some delayed "wow"s from these ppl as well.
The icing on the cake really was this post made in our group blog and the responses i got from some of my friends. It felt really great to receive all that appreciation from these ppl. Thanks again folks, for all that. And special thanks to Karthik who kept greeting me wherever he got a chance :)
Thanks a million to all u folks. Hope i put up similar shows in the applications and the interviews and get into that damned dream school. Then i can blog from across the globe :)
Again i remind myself - "this is just the beginning dude. Miles to go before you can relax"...
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
My date with GMAT
Tring... Tring...
A female receptionist (FR) voice answering "Hello!"
Me: "My name is Idayathullah. I have booked an appointment for GMAT this afternoon."
FR: "Yes sir. Tell me"
Me: "I would like to know the documents and other stuff to be brought to the test center"
FR: "Bring your passport and the GMAT confirmation mail sir. That would do."
So started the devils day (06.06.06), my date with GMAT. Will i unearth the devil or meet heavenly success - this day will tell.
I was not keen on working anything today morning. But still i forced myself into looking into the AWA stuff from Princeton and OG. I also skimmed through the Grammar rules mentioned in the SC section of OG. "Enough is enough" - echoed my conscience from outer space. I cannot hold back enough!!! I was itching to finish the test.
I had the passport, but i dint have a printout of the confirmation mail. I decided I'd have to pause at some computer center on the way. Took bath, put on my jean and one of the sentimental shirts i have - i was ready.
First stop - the nearest browsing center. Found that it was locked. Hmm... Good signs :) I decided I'd move to the test center and look for a browsing center somewhere nearby. The test center was in Nungambakkam, one of the prominent places in Chennai and there MUST be a browsing center there. I had already spotted the building one my way back from work. So i reached there easily. Time was just 12:15 PM.
The Pearson center was in the 6th floor and i decided I'd check that out, just to avoid any late surprises. The center was where it was supposed to be. So i moved out in search of the browsing center. Surprisingly i had to walk quite some distance before i cud spot one. Went in and took printouts for some 50 bucks and started the long walk back.
Knock Knock - hey Pearson, this is Idayathullah all set to try his hand at GMAT. Let me in.
There was this "meesakaara nanba" who wanted me to make entries in his register and the time was 12:40.
Went in and found 3 ladies sitting in. Looks like they take shifts and that means FR is not around. The other receptionist asked for my passport and a single piece of all the printouts i had taken. (auspicious sign number 2). I had to make a digital signature, which went wrong in the first attempt (asn 3), had my finger print registered and also had a mug shot taken.
"You can get in Mr.Idayathullah" - said the lady. So it begins and i was inside the test center some 40 minutes before scheduled time. I'd have lost my mind had i been made to wait there. So i get in. I was given a erasable scrap pad and a felt tipped pen. Was not bad - pretty much usable. They again took my finger print readings and was told that the same would be done on every entry and exit.
Entered the test hall and very very auspiciously, the mug shot appeared on the screen and scared the shit out of me :(
This was just not my day...
First impressions about the test - it was exactly similar to the GMATPrep software, right down from the tone of the blue being used till the font. No change at all. It was a good thing really. A new appearance would have had some effect on the test takers for sure. Okie let's go to the test...
First was AWA as usual, started with analysis of argument. Went on well, wrote a long essay with some 3 or 4 good points. Used all the 30 minutes to draft a good essay. Next came Analysis of an argument. Wrote a really long essay - had many points to discuss. Developed a home-grown example as well.
10 minutes of break - with finger prints being registered on the way out and the way in.
GMAT Math - something about which i have been very confident about since day 1 of preparations. Now was the time to test thy mettle and score well. The section went on well, with no big hickups. There were Questions where i had to think for 3 or 4 minutes, and there were also questions where i cud get the answer in a mere 10 seconds. Towards the end of the Math section, i was beginning to feel the fatigue. I could not come to any conclusion about the section - i just decided to forget about it and move on...
10 minutes of break - with finger prints being registered on the way out and the way in.
GMAT Verbal - something that was challenging to me since day 1 of preparations. Now was the time to implement all those plans i had drafted to tackle this session. In all the previous tests i had taken, apart from the PowerPrep Test 2, i was never confident of many answers i would select. Today was a lot better - i can make many confident selections, especially in the SC Questions. There was a marked improvement in the performance and i could feel it myself. RC and CR were not bad as well - I'm sure i dint screw up in a big way.
All done - now came the survey. Really - this one adds drama to the whole situation. As and when i completed each page in the survey, i only got more tensed. As i said, i cud not decide about Math and was not sure about Verbal anyway - so there were some "dhak dhak" moments.
Okie - now i finished all these 8 pages and hit the last next button. To tell the truth, i was scared to even look at the screen :) And then i gathered all my courage and literally peeped at the screen - and was THRILLED to see a 750.
Raised the hand, got out of the room and received my unofficial score sheet.
Really - it still hasn't sunk in :)
A female receptionist (FR) voice answering "Hello!"
Me: "My name is Idayathullah. I have booked an appointment for GMAT this afternoon."
FR: "Yes sir. Tell me"
Me: "I would like to know the documents and other stuff to be brought to the test center"
FR: "Bring your passport and the GMAT confirmation mail sir. That would do."
So started the devils day (06.06.06), my date with GMAT. Will i unearth the devil or meet heavenly success - this day will tell.
I was not keen on working anything today morning. But still i forced myself into looking into the AWA stuff from Princeton and OG. I also skimmed through the Grammar rules mentioned in the SC section of OG. "Enough is enough" - echoed my conscience from outer space. I cannot hold back enough!!! I was itching to finish the test.
I had the passport, but i dint have a printout of the confirmation mail. I decided I'd have to pause at some computer center on the way. Took bath, put on my jean and one of the sentimental shirts i have - i was ready.
First stop - the nearest browsing center. Found that it was locked. Hmm... Good signs :) I decided I'd move to the test center and look for a browsing center somewhere nearby. The test center was in Nungambakkam, one of the prominent places in Chennai and there MUST be a browsing center there. I had already spotted the building one my way back from work. So i reached there easily. Time was just 12:15 PM.
The Pearson center was in the 6th floor and i decided I'd check that out, just to avoid any late surprises. The center was where it was supposed to be. So i moved out in search of the browsing center. Surprisingly i had to walk quite some distance before i cud spot one. Went in and took printouts for some 50 bucks and started the long walk back.
Knock Knock - hey Pearson, this is Idayathullah all set to try his hand at GMAT. Let me in.
There was this "meesakaara nanba" who wanted me to make entries in his register and the time was 12:40.
Went in and found 3 ladies sitting in. Looks like they take shifts and that means FR is not around. The other receptionist asked for my passport and a single piece of all the printouts i had taken. (auspicious sign number 2). I had to make a digital signature, which went wrong in the first attempt (asn 3), had my finger print registered and also had a mug shot taken.
"You can get in Mr.Idayathullah" - said the lady. So it begins and i was inside the test center some 40 minutes before scheduled time. I'd have lost my mind had i been made to wait there. So i get in. I was given a erasable scrap pad and a felt tipped pen. Was not bad - pretty much usable. They again took my finger print readings and was told that the same would be done on every entry and exit.
Entered the test hall and very very auspiciously, the mug shot appeared on the screen and scared the shit out of me :(
This was just not my day...
First impressions about the test - it was exactly similar to the GMATPrep software, right down from the tone of the blue being used till the font. No change at all. It was a good thing really. A new appearance would have had some effect on the test takers for sure. Okie let's go to the test...
First was AWA as usual, started with analysis of argument. Went on well, wrote a long essay with some 3 or 4 good points. Used all the 30 minutes to draft a good essay. Next came Analysis of an argument. Wrote a really long essay - had many points to discuss. Developed a home-grown example as well.
10 minutes of break - with finger prints being registered on the way out and the way in.
GMAT Math - something about which i have been very confident about since day 1 of preparations. Now was the time to test thy mettle and score well. The section went on well, with no big hickups. There were Questions where i had to think for 3 or 4 minutes, and there were also questions where i cud get the answer in a mere 10 seconds. Towards the end of the Math section, i was beginning to feel the fatigue. I could not come to any conclusion about the section - i just decided to forget about it and move on...
10 minutes of break - with finger prints being registered on the way out and the way in.
GMAT Verbal - something that was challenging to me since day 1 of preparations. Now was the time to implement all those plans i had drafted to tackle this session. In all the previous tests i had taken, apart from the PowerPrep Test 2, i was never confident of many answers i would select. Today was a lot better - i can make many confident selections, especially in the SC Questions. There was a marked improvement in the performance and i could feel it myself. RC and CR were not bad as well - I'm sure i dint screw up in a big way.
All done - now came the survey. Really - this one adds drama to the whole situation. As and when i completed each page in the survey, i only got more tensed. As i said, i cud not decide about Math and was not sure about Verbal anyway - so there were some "dhak dhak" moments.
Okie - now i finished all these 8 pages and hit the last next button. To tell the truth, i was scared to even look at the screen :) And then i gathered all my courage and literally peeped at the screen - and was THRILLED to see a 750.
Raised the hand, got out of the room and received my unofficial score sheet.
Really - it still hasn't sunk in :)
Mission GMAT - accomplished...
I scored 750 (Q50 V41).
I am just so very happy that the two and a half months of hard work resulted in this.
Hard work pays - true :)
I was this sober guy, trying to move on with life for all these days since my CAT debacle and the close miss with XLRI. Now - the world just looks a lot brighter.
Ivy League - here "I" comes ;)
I am just so very happy that the two and a half months of hard work resulted in this.
Hard work pays - true :)
I was this sober guy, trying to move on with life for all these days since my CAT debacle and the close miss with XLRI. Now - the world just looks a lot brighter.
Ivy League - here "I" comes ;)
Monday, June 05, 2006
The problem of a plenty
I thought i wudnt come online for the entire day, but the ordeal of choosing 5 schools to report my scores tomorrow made me do some last minute googling and all. I thought I'd very well post the stuff on my blog too :)
I have chosen my 5 schools and the list stands so:
The perennial optimist i am - I'd stick to this list only and hope that I'd score enough to apply to my preferred schools.
As u guys must have noticed, the flavor of the list is finance. That's the target sector and that justifies the choice of these schools for me. There are lot of other factors as well, but this single thing prevented schools like Harvard, MIT and UCB from featuring in my list.
I haven't done anything today. Tried my hand at some CR with Kaplan 800 and found it too boring. So decided I'd chill out. Having chilled out too much, now i wanna do something; which is really good in a way. So I'd probably do all the Math formula and Grammar rules revision now and also work on the AWA section.
I'm still confused reg the choice of schools. So if any of u got any opinions, plz drop in a comment. I'd login tomorrow morning to finalize the list, before starting to the test center.
I have chosen my 5 schools and the list stands so:
- Wharton
- Stanford
- Columbia
- London
- Chicago
- Stern
- Dartmouth
- Yale
- Ross
- Kellogg
- UCLA
- Duke
The perennial optimist i am - I'd stick to this list only and hope that I'd score enough to apply to my preferred schools.
As u guys must have noticed, the flavor of the list is finance. That's the target sector and that justifies the choice of these schools for me. There are lot of other factors as well, but this single thing prevented schools like Harvard, MIT and UCB from featuring in my list.
I haven't done anything today. Tried my hand at some CR with Kaplan 800 and found it too boring. So decided I'd chill out. Having chilled out too much, now i wanna do something; which is really good in a way. So I'd probably do all the Math formula and Grammar rules revision now and also work on the AWA section.
I'm still confused reg the choice of schools. So if any of u got any opinions, plz drop in a comment. I'd login tomorrow morning to finalize the list, before starting to the test center.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Tomorrow is the day...
I'm surprisingly chilled now. May be this is what an overdose of pressure does to a person :)
I've slogged through more than 2 months of practice, practice and more practice.
I've given test after test after test during these days and followed them all with detailed analysis of my performances in each of these tests.
I've covered up around 2500 pages of material, or more than 2000 Questions during these practice routines.
Now is the time to put it all to work and reap rewards - hopefully.
I guess this is the time when the fear of failure sets in!!!
This is the time when Questions like "what if" sweeps through someone's mind!!!
I'm no different. Strangely, even though i am supremely confident of a good math show and a decent verbal show, i get this odd feeling of "What if things go bad tomorrow???", "What if i end up with a less than expected score???"
I know!!! I have to let them pass. May be it is because i have jus woken up from a good sleep and find it hard to kill more than a day of anticipation. May be it is because i am too eager to take up the test. May be because i jus wanna finish this stuff and I'm already looking forward to the fun of the application submission process. May be it is all of these put together :)
There is nothing like waiting for tomorrow :) But i have to do that today, and do that well.
I am planning to finish the stuff in Kaplan 800 today. All verbal, so that things will be fresh in my mind tomorrow. Will revise all Math formulas and Verbal rules today evening and that's it. I will also revisit the AWA fundas - but i know it is gonna be completely my own literature there. Once I'm done with all these, I'd get all my stuff for tomorrow ready and hit the bed. The boring India-WI match can go take a spin ;)
As i keep saying always, the real challenge for me tomorrow will be to sit through the exam. The time I'd spent in front of the computer becomes painfully obvious by the time i reach verbal - coz I'd be having fun during AWA and math. I'll have to dig through the last 75 minutes and stretch for the home run. Will do :)
I don't think I'll blog for the remaining of the day or tomorrow morning. So the next u'll hear from me will be about the score. Till then - have fun folks :)
I've slogged through more than 2 months of practice, practice and more practice.
I've given test after test after test during these days and followed them all with detailed analysis of my performances in each of these tests.
I've covered up around 2500 pages of material, or more than 2000 Questions during these practice routines.
Now is the time to put it all to work and reap rewards - hopefully.
I guess this is the time when the fear of failure sets in!!!
This is the time when Questions like "what if" sweeps through someone's mind!!!
I'm no different. Strangely, even though i am supremely confident of a good math show and a decent verbal show, i get this odd feeling of "What if things go bad tomorrow???", "What if i end up with a less than expected score???"
I know!!! I have to let them pass. May be it is because i have jus woken up from a good sleep and find it hard to kill more than a day of anticipation. May be it is because i am too eager to take up the test. May be because i jus wanna finish this stuff and I'm already looking forward to the fun of the application submission process. May be it is all of these put together :)
There is nothing like waiting for tomorrow :) But i have to do that today, and do that well.
I am planning to finish the stuff in Kaplan 800 today. All verbal, so that things will be fresh in my mind tomorrow. Will revise all Math formulas and Verbal rules today evening and that's it. I will also revisit the AWA fundas - but i know it is gonna be completely my own literature there. Once I'm done with all these, I'd get all my stuff for tomorrow ready and hit the bed. The boring India-WI match can go take a spin ;)
As i keep saying always, the real challenge for me tomorrow will be to sit through the exam. The time I'd spent in front of the computer becomes painfully obvious by the time i reach verbal - coz I'd be having fun during AWA and math. I'll have to dig through the last 75 minutes and stretch for the home run. Will do :)
I don't think I'll blog for the remaining of the day or tomorrow morning. So the next u'll hear from me will be about the score. Till then - have fun folks :)
1 day to go...
Jus gave my GMATPrep test 2.
Scored 700 - Q 47 and V 38.
That was a lesson on how, or rather when, not to take a test. I was disoriented, tired, sleepy and all the sober things in life. Q 47 does not disappoint me at all - i know i am gonna do well in GMAT math. Today my mind was so pre-occupied with yesterday's show that i did not get time to work on the last Q in math. Infact, i had to hurry with my last 10 Qs for loss of time. I am sure such stuff wont happen in the test. Simply saying, no issues :)
V 38 - as i always keep saying, i will take that any day. Considering all my cribbing about being disoriented and all, that is much better too. I did concentrate more in section V, but again - the events that happened yesterday are jus too good to forget :)
So - with a less than normal competency level, i have scored 700 and i will take that to be a good sign. Having said that, I must also accept the fact that i have to display much much higher levels of concentration in the test center to reach the scores i want to achieve.
Okie - the dance team is meeting at the Amethyst this evening. Gotta get ready for that.
ciao...
Scored 700 - Q 47 and V 38.
That was a lesson on how, or rather when, not to take a test. I was disoriented, tired, sleepy and all the sober things in life. Q 47 does not disappoint me at all - i know i am gonna do well in GMAT math. Today my mind was so pre-occupied with yesterday's show that i did not get time to work on the last Q in math. Infact, i had to hurry with my last 10 Qs for loss of time. I am sure such stuff wont happen in the test. Simply saying, no issues :)
V 38 - as i always keep saying, i will take that any day. Considering all my cribbing about being disoriented and all, that is much better too. I did concentrate more in section V, but again - the events that happened yesterday are jus too good to forget :)
So - with a less than normal competency level, i have scored 700 and i will take that to be a good sign. Having said that, I must also accept the fact that i have to display much much higher levels of concentration in the test center to reach the scores i want to achieve.
Okie - the dance team is meeting at the Amethyst this evening. Gotta get ready for that.
ciao...
Saturday, June 03, 2006
2 days to go...
Today was "footloose" :)
That was the name of the song I've been hearing for the past 3 weeks and performed at the Swingers Summer show tonight.
First things first, no touching books today. Worked on Kaplan 800 last night and will work on the same again tonight before sleeping. Simply to keep in touch with something related to GMAT. Tomorrow will be GMATPrep test 2. Then will finish all the remaining portions of Kaplan 800, refresh all Math formulas and Verbal rules - I'll be set.
Now to the show. We had rehearsals in the morning and it turned out to be one big scene. The rehearsals, as such, started way later than they were scheduled - for god-knows-what reasons. We were asked to assemble @ Music Academy by 9 and the practice runs started only by around 10:30.
Things were going on smoothly and we were all getting free shows of the dances for which ppl were gonna pay 250 or 350 bucks later in the day. When our turn came, something happened - which really shudnt have happened. The trouble maker was this guy, who co-ordinates and choreos in the other branch of Swingers, who was on the Music player.
We had some ppl missing. Many infact. Our choreographer was supposed to dance with us in the show and she dint dance in the dry run. One of the girls had her semester exam in the morning. One of the guys, who dint know the steps by then, was not confident and so he dint come up to stage.
Irene (of whom u guys shud be familiar by now) wanted him to come up on stage and we were waiting for him. It would have hardly been 2 or 3 minutes before someone had searched him and found out that he had infact left the place.
Now this guy from the other branch was asking all kind of Questions like "Is that all???", "Only 3 formations???", "Is this how they start???" - about a dance he hardly even knew. No - don't get me wrong. He is a good dancer (reason why he teaches and we learn), but he has no knowledge about the one Irene had choreographed, and that said, it is beyond comprehension as to why he must be so technically bothered about the dance.
And yeah, by the time we were waiting for the missing dancer guy, this guy, in a bid to act too smart, said something like "We cannot keep waiting for one single person. We will move on to the next dance" and all. Irene was pissed, with reason...
Then there was major drama - we did the dance immediately, Irene spoke to Prasanna and got us another round, we called the missing dancer in and did do a dry run with him around. Irene was happy, so were we - for her :) We felt bad to have embarrassed her in front of her contemporaries, coz of one of us.
The show was kick-ass. The only bad point, from my side, about the show was that we the performers were asked to assemble by 4 PM for a 7PM show and even after our dances were over, we were not allowed to leave till 10, when the show ended. Having said that, it did give us some great time to socialize among ourselves, which we really haven't done all these days :)
I dint take any pix, but there are many who did. Will post them up once i get hold of them. The official Swingers video and fotos will come. I guess the show's getting displayed in SS Music sometime, dunno when. Will post the time if i get to know...
If there has been any day when I've said "I'm dead tired", it is today. Gonna sleep now and will get back to u folks after my GMATPrep test 2, with the scores.
That was the name of the song I've been hearing for the past 3 weeks and performed at the Swingers Summer show tonight.
First things first, no touching books today. Worked on Kaplan 800 last night and will work on the same again tonight before sleeping. Simply to keep in touch with something related to GMAT. Tomorrow will be GMATPrep test 2. Then will finish all the remaining portions of Kaplan 800, refresh all Math formulas and Verbal rules - I'll be set.
Now to the show. We had rehearsals in the morning and it turned out to be one big scene. The rehearsals, as such, started way later than they were scheduled - for god-knows-what reasons. We were asked to assemble @ Music Academy by 9 and the practice runs started only by around 10:30.
Things were going on smoothly and we were all getting free shows of the dances for which ppl were gonna pay 250 or 350 bucks later in the day. When our turn came, something happened - which really shudnt have happened. The trouble maker was this guy, who co-ordinates and choreos in the other branch of Swingers, who was on the Music player.
We had some ppl missing. Many infact. Our choreographer was supposed to dance with us in the show and she dint dance in the dry run. One of the girls had her semester exam in the morning. One of the guys, who dint know the steps by then, was not confident and so he dint come up to stage.
Irene (of whom u guys shud be familiar by now) wanted him to come up on stage and we were waiting for him. It would have hardly been 2 or 3 minutes before someone had searched him and found out that he had infact left the place.
Now this guy from the other branch was asking all kind of Questions like "Is that all???", "Only 3 formations???", "Is this how they start???" - about a dance he hardly even knew. No - don't get me wrong. He is a good dancer (reason why he teaches and we learn), but he has no knowledge about the one Irene had choreographed, and that said, it is beyond comprehension as to why he must be so technically bothered about the dance.
And yeah, by the time we were waiting for the missing dancer guy, this guy, in a bid to act too smart, said something like "We cannot keep waiting for one single person. We will move on to the next dance" and all. Irene was pissed, with reason...
Then there was major drama - we did the dance immediately, Irene spoke to Prasanna and got us another round, we called the missing dancer in and did do a dry run with him around. Irene was happy, so were we - for her :) We felt bad to have embarrassed her in front of her contemporaries, coz of one of us.
The show was kick-ass. The only bad point, from my side, about the show was that we the performers were asked to assemble by 4 PM for a 7PM show and even after our dances were over, we were not allowed to leave till 10, when the show ended. Having said that, it did give us some great time to socialize among ourselves, which we really haven't done all these days :)
I dint take any pix, but there are many who did. Will post them up once i get hold of them. The official Swingers video and fotos will come. I guess the show's getting displayed in SS Music sometime, dunno when. Will post the time if i get to know...
If there has been any day when I've said "I'm dead tired", it is today. Gonna sleep now and will get back to u folks after my GMATPrep test 2, with the scores.
Friday, June 02, 2006
I now know how a 760 wud feel!!!
Coz i scored exactly that in the PowerPrep test 2.
760 : Q 51 V 41
BTW, Q51 means i got NOTHING wrong. Nothing wrong and only 51??? That's the max GMAT wud give u. I knew that all along - GMAT jus does not give u more than 51, even if u get all of it correct. You can only score a maximum of 99 percentile in Q and V and 97 in AWA.
V41 - my best in this section till date. I used all my strategies and concentrated really hard. I will die to get this score on test day. Hopefully, it will be the same :) As i had mentioned earlier - I'd settle for anything above 38 anyway :)
What 760 does to me - nothing but raises hopes. I was all along ready to settle for anything above 720. As i had already mentioned in my blog, my aims were a Q50 (while I'd try for a 51) and V38 (or more :D). That is way beyond 720 i guess. A Q51 and V38 must give me a 740 atleast and I'd gladly take that.
I even did the AWA section properly this time, so i now know i can dig deep throughout the length of the test and still concentrate hard in section V. That is a great improvement from the days when i used to get pissed off by the 20th Q in V.
All said and done - I still have my reservations against PowerPrep. It simply does not consider 25% of the Qs for calculating the scores, which might not be the best thing to do in a simulated test. So it is also probable that most of my wrong answers in V went into those Qs which werent considered. That's lucky and there is no promise from lady luck that she would do the same to me on Tuesday :)
At the moment, 760 - Happy! Hope!!!
Now let us see what Sunday has in stores for me. And then it is Tuesday :)
I'm extremely hungry now :(
Gotta take my lunch. Ciao...
760 : Q 51 V 41
BTW, Q51 means i got NOTHING wrong. Nothing wrong and only 51??? That's the max GMAT wud give u. I knew that all along - GMAT jus does not give u more than 51, even if u get all of it correct. You can only score a maximum of 99 percentile in Q and V and 97 in AWA.
V41 - my best in this section till date. I used all my strategies and concentrated really hard. I will die to get this score on test day. Hopefully, it will be the same :) As i had mentioned earlier - I'd settle for anything above 38 anyway :)
What 760 does to me - nothing but raises hopes. I was all along ready to settle for anything above 720. As i had already mentioned in my blog, my aims were a Q50 (while I'd try for a 51) and V38 (or more :D). That is way beyond 720 i guess. A Q51 and V38 must give me a 740 atleast and I'd gladly take that.
I even did the AWA section properly this time, so i now know i can dig deep throughout the length of the test and still concentrate hard in section V. That is a great improvement from the days when i used to get pissed off by the 20th Q in V.
All said and done - I still have my reservations against PowerPrep. It simply does not consider 25% of the Qs for calculating the scores, which might not be the best thing to do in a simulated test. So it is also probable that most of my wrong answers in V went into those Qs which werent considered. That's lucky and there is no promise from lady luck that she would do the same to me on Tuesday :)
At the moment, 760 - Happy! Hope!!!
Now let us see what Sunday has in stores for me. And then it is Tuesday :)
I'm extremely hungry now :(
Gotta take my lunch. Ciao...
3 days to go...
I am on leave from today...
The thought of no office for the next 5 days is salivating, to say the least!!!
Spent some time with Kaplan 800 math in the night and woke up only now :D It is total bliss to wake up at 11:00 and see that there is no office going bull shit to be done.
Okie - to the plans for the day. Today i must take PowerPrep test 2. Will probably start by 12:00 noon, trying to keep it as close to 1:30 as possible. Will post the results in the evening for the world to see.
Since i was feeling very sleepy yesterday, i dint do the Kaplan 800 verbal section. So, once i am done with PowerPrep test 2, i will work on that.
Then there is the dance practice by 7 PM. Today is the last day before the show. We had kind of frozen all steps. We had to compromise on a lot of steps, coz few of the folks weren't comfortable doing them. While the deleted steps wud have been cool, we cant do anything but move on and do the best with what is possible :) I will do the company dance (the one done by the tutors and permanent dancers of Swingers) next year and console myself for all the steps i cud not do today ;)
Okie - time for breakfast. Then the test and then the post...
Till then - keep waiting :)
The thought of no office for the next 5 days is salivating, to say the least!!!
Spent some time with Kaplan 800 math in the night and woke up only now :D It is total bliss to wake up at 11:00 and see that there is no office going bull shit to be done.
Okie - to the plans for the day. Today i must take PowerPrep test 2. Will probably start by 12:00 noon, trying to keep it as close to 1:30 as possible. Will post the results in the evening for the world to see.
Since i was feeling very sleepy yesterday, i dint do the Kaplan 800 verbal section. So, once i am done with PowerPrep test 2, i will work on that.
Then there is the dance practice by 7 PM. Today is the last day before the show. We had kind of frozen all steps. We had to compromise on a lot of steps, coz few of the folks weren't comfortable doing them. While the deleted steps wud have been cool, we cant do anything but move on and do the best with what is possible :) I will do the company dance (the one done by the tutors and permanent dancers of Swingers) next year and console myself for all the steps i cud not do today ;)
Okie - time for breakfast. Then the test and then the post...
Till then - keep waiting :)
Thursday, June 01, 2006
4 days to go...
I am kind of feeling free and light now :)
I have decided that enough is enough!!! The dance show is a great deviation from the test. And as the show nears, I am thinking more about the dance (a passion anyway) than the test itself. Takes the pressure off in a big, enjoyable way!!!
But knowing the ill effects of losing concentration and focus, I make sure I give GMAT its share everyday. Eventhough I have finished all the material, I worked with Kaplan 800 for sometime yesterday. As usual, started with the math and the 3 hrs I spent yesterday reaffirmed my belief that my math is pretty much intact. GMAT math - here I come :)
Today is the Kaplan 800 verbal day. My policy with verbal is like this at the moment - during the morning of the test, I will spend about an hour going through all the various theories out together in all these prep materials, will try to memorize the rules mentioned in the OG and run to the test center. During the test, have fun with AWA and math (and, ofcourse, make sure I score well too) and concentrate hard on the verbal section. I really do not think I can do anything different between today and the test day :)
As it is, target math score is 50 and target verbal score is 38. Going by present experiences, the 50 in math seems secure, unless I screw up badly in the test center, and I see ready fro a 35 or more score in verbal. From 35 to 38, I guess it is a difference of getting 3 or 4 more correct answers, which I am sure I can achieve. Anything more, I will take I gladly :)
And yeah - busy 5 days ahead :(
Friday - PowerPrep test 2 and dance practice
Saturday - Dance like there is no tomorrow :)
Sunday - GMATprep test 2 and minor preps here and there
Monday - some major preps and a test if I feel like taking one.
Tuesday - Refresh all math formulas and verbal rules and Kick Ass ;)
I have decided that enough is enough!!! The dance show is a great deviation from the test. And as the show nears, I am thinking more about the dance (a passion anyway) than the test itself. Takes the pressure off in a big, enjoyable way!!!
But knowing the ill effects of losing concentration and focus, I make sure I give GMAT its share everyday. Eventhough I have finished all the material, I worked with Kaplan 800 for sometime yesterday. As usual, started with the math and the 3 hrs I spent yesterday reaffirmed my belief that my math is pretty much intact. GMAT math - here I come :)
Today is the Kaplan 800 verbal day. My policy with verbal is like this at the moment - during the morning of the test, I will spend about an hour going through all the various theories out together in all these prep materials, will try to memorize the rules mentioned in the OG and run to the test center. During the test, have fun with AWA and math (and, ofcourse, make sure I score well too) and concentrate hard on the verbal section. I really do not think I can do anything different between today and the test day :)
As it is, target math score is 50 and target verbal score is 38. Going by present experiences, the 50 in math seems secure, unless I screw up badly in the test center, and I see ready fro a 35 or more score in verbal. From 35 to 38, I guess it is a difference of getting 3 or 4 more correct answers, which I am sure I can achieve. Anything more, I will take I gladly :)
And yeah - busy 5 days ahead :(
Friday - PowerPrep test 2 and dance practice
Saturday - Dance like there is no tomorrow :)
Sunday - GMATprep test 2 and minor preps here and there
Monday - some major preps and a test if I feel like taking one.
Tuesday - Refresh all math formulas and verbal rules and Kick Ass ;)
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