May 29, 2012 – Powers in the Quant Section in GMAT

While I have been working on the quant section, POWERS is one of the topics that is tested and on which questions can be expected. Below are a few pointers to keep in mind with regards to the Powers that I have been able to recollect and which I have read in a few quant related articles --:

1.                 Keep in mind the properties of Powers (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication)

2.         0 is an EVEN number

3.         An even power is always positive, whether the base is positive or negative. 

             Eg :-- 

                       (-2)^2 = 4 and (2)^2 = 4

4.         An odd power retains the base's original sign.

             Eg :-- 

                       (-2)^3 = -8 and (2)^3 = 8

5.                 Adding and subtracting powers with the same base:

               

                        DON'T: add or subtract the exponents

                        Example: x³ + x⁵ ≠ x⁸

                        Do: extract the highest common factor.

                        Example: x³ + x⁵ = x³(1+x²)

6.        If you're not sure that you factored the expression correctly, check that re-expanding the brackets does return to the original expression. This is a method to cross-check and should be used if you have time and are unsure of your answer

7.       Like terms (same base and same exponent) can always be added/subtracted:

6a² + 3a² = 9a²

8.        Whenever one encounters an even root in the GMAT, it only represents the positive solution. Which is why x in the quadratic equation x^2-4=0 will equal ±2, but if it is stated as only √4 then it will equal 2 alone. By EVEN Root, the statement refers to square root or 4^th root, 6^th root and so on.

9.       In other words, both positive and negative roots must be considered if we placed the square root ourselves, as part of solving an equation, for example.

10.      If the root sign is already there to begin with, it signifies only the positive root (This is a mathematical convention).

May 20, 2012 – The importance of time on a minute by minute basis

It has been quite some time, a month to be precise, since I last updated an entry here. The reason though was a valid one that being that I had a much needed vacation and got some time off. This was particularly needed to recharge the sagging batteries since the last unsuccessful admission application cycle which seemed to have sapped my energy. Hopefully this will refuel and fully recharge my batteries for this season.

I was fortunate to experience the transport services in the United Kingdom during my vacation. The most important takeaway from my experience there was the importance of time on a minute by minute basis. I missed a few trains and buses since I was late by a minute or two. That said, when I was before time the train / bus was running about 3-4 minutes late. An irony indeed :D !

It is not rocket science to link that the GMAT being an adaptive time based test makes one value the importance of time. That said, personally, I have experienced that though one does realize that one has only 75 minutes for the 37 Q / 41 V questions it is letting go that needs practice and more practice. Sometimes we just get stuck into a question for too long (too long can be anything from 4 minutes to 7 or 8 minutes). We feel like we might be able to solve the question but then it just does not happen. I recommend that if it is taking more than 3 minutes then it time to just make an educated guess and move on. It is better to guess on the DS than performing one on the PS.

What do I mean by letting go here exactly? So let me just explain it in a slightly more detailed manner. The 75 minutes are normally split into either a small question count or a minutes slot as per one’s convenience. I prefer splitting the number of questions to be completed / left corresponding to the minutes left on the test. For a tentative plan please find the illustration as below --:

Q.05 – 63 mins left

Q.10 – 52 mins left

Q. 20 – 33 mins left

Q. 30 – 14 mins left

Q. 35 – 4 mins left

I devised this during my first attempt since the time clock on the GMAT shows us the time remaining. I would advise you to devise your own strategy time clock for reference. I have observed that the question from 5 to 10 tend to be more intensive. My personal observation has been that the first 3-4 questions tend to be of Problem Solving and then the next 2-3 questions tend to be of Data Sufficiency. Also my own testing experience is that I tend to relax from questions 13 to 25 tending to miss the time and trying to increase my accuracy. I have decided that I have to consciously prevent this from happening again in my attempt this time. I will be taking care of this issue during my mocks as well.

I am working towards preparing a strategy for my preparation now. I know that I need to really work hard on my Quant side to push it to a score of 48 or 49 Q. The problem is that I know the basics but somehow am not efficient enough in the application.

I have a few things in mind for this issue. One is the concept of Ball-Parking. I attended the BeatTheGMAT webinar on the IR and during a session by the instructor from MasterGMAT he illustrated an example on this concept of Ball-Parking. I will try and understand more on this concept and provide an entry once I have a concise understanding of this interesting concept. Getting back to the table now to decide up on a good strategy to supplement and aid my preparation.

A chance to win scholarship by writing out essays

For all those who are in the process of applying to a B-school or preparing for GMAT, the BeatTheGMAT site is like a repository for information, problems and a lot more. The site is hosting the annual scholarship this year and the deadline for the scholarship is 23rd April night. The rewards include quite a few goodies which include GMAT prep courses, admission consultancy freebies and so on. For more details, please refer to the site below --:

 http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/scholarship

To sum it up, like its aptly mentioned in the information, what do you have to lose?! So get going, get writing, this might be a good opportunity to get a feel of what writing essays in an application is all about. 

Cheerio.

April 15, 2012 – Retrospective Introspection (Part 3 – Reasons for the ding)

On the other front, I have been thinking on the cause of rejection and failure to even get an interview call. I am awaiting feedback from Indian School of Business (ISB) and I have a gut feeling that they would say that I lost out in view of the competition and a below average GMAT score. 

I was able to come down to the following possible chinks in the armour --:

a. GMAT. This was the weakest link and a no-brainer really. I have started preparing again and will be giving it in the new pattern as I believe that the new Integrated Reasoning ( IR ) section would be a good indicator of my data analysis abilities if I intend to apply for a consulting job. Also since this IR section has replaced one of the essays it will not have any bearing on my actual GMAT (Q/V) score. This is one area that I will improve and if things go as per my plan this will not be an issue this time around.

b. I did not spend enough time on my essays as I should have. Thanks to the critical suggestions and suggested improvements by an ex-colleague who also happens to be an alumni from ISB, they were decent enough but I think the content that I enclosed in them did not pack enough punch in them. I need to improve on really choosing the content material with a lot more care in my next application.

c. My extra-curricular activities were not good enough. This might be a possibility but 2 of my achievements were representing the state in a national competition for a sport during my secondary schooling days and heading the IEEE student’s chapter in which we had organized educational sessions for the school students in the schools run by the municipal corporation. I am afraid I cannot do much more in this part as of now. 

d. Recommendations. I though hard on this part and I am convinced that I had the two best judges of my ability to recommend me. I did not seek to read their recommendations owing moral obligations but I am pretty sure that they both would have surely done great justice in their feedback. The more important point is when re-applying I can either choose to use these same recommendations or then use new ones. The guys that I had chosen were the best choices and the ones who observed me from the closest quarters. I am not at all keen on seeking recommendations from my present organization as it will probably end all chances of any progression in my present profile. 

e. Spreading my net of schools to apply. I am thinking on this aspect and had thought on it the last time as well. The US schools and European schools are way out of budget. Also the most important thing is that 2 years might be a rather large investment and I would rather prefer ISB’s 1 year course. I am delving further on this aspect as of now.

A few points that I have been trying to do in addition to all the above points are --:

I. I have been trying to get in touch with alumni having pre-MBA background similar to min so that I can get an idea on the possibilities after getting a MBA. That is to really pump up and be clear in my Why MBA aspect.

II. Evaluating the need / possibility of an admission consultant for my re-application. I am not sure on this aspect as of now though I am seriously contemplating it.

April 14, 2012 – Retrospective Introspection (Part 2 – Whether to re-apply)

Moving ahead, a very important question that has been troubling me is whether I re-apply immediately this year or wait for a year and then re-apply.

There a few things in this aspect as below --:

i. The Positives --:

The positives of re-applying after 1 more year are plenty, more significantly increased international exposure, reduced financial burden to pay the steep fees and increased clarity on future goals, etc. 

ii. The Negatives --:  

There are a few personal things that would make it difficult to push it ahead by another year. This is the prime most reason of my not wanting to push it ahead by a year.

iii. Changes since the last application --:

If I am to re-apply immediately this year then I will need to show the improvements from my last re-application. On this point I have a few positives. The biggest change is international exposure of almost 5-6 months at 2 client locations. One was a new customer for the company and I was designated to handle the first big revenue impacting event (i.e. the Christmas and New Year period) after the purchase of our product. I handled it pretty well and there were no issues/outages. This is a big achievement since I had just completed 6 months in the organization and had moved out from my comfort zone of my previous job in a different sub-vertical to a new sub-vertical in my existing job profile.

Second up, I was immediately sent for my present assignment for duration of almost 6 months. This customer is our biggest customer in terms of size of market, contribution to our revenue and in general the deciding account for the entire customer group clients. This customer had just upgraded to a new architecture and release and was not satisfied with the project results. My presence in this project was to support and to stabilize the upgrade and resolve any issues. So far it has been fantastic in terms of stability achieved and issues have almost become zero and the customer has also released the payments and has expressed satisfaction in the new product features.

Third, I have been given a promotion as well as a change of designation. This is relatively appreciable since as I have mentioned above I am only 6 months old in the organization.

These are the most important improvements in my profile since the last application. 

It is the negatives that I am considering and at this point I am pretty much convinced to re-apply immediately this year. 

April 13, 2012 – Retrospective Introspection (Part 1 – Contemplating Future)

With things being pretty busy at work I did not make much headway into the deeper delve into what exactly I aspire of in life. Honestly, I have been trying to figure it for the last year or so and feel that it is not so easy or straight forward :( That said, I have come to this conclusion that one needs to have a broader aim set and take baby steps towards it. After all it is the journey in itself which is as enjoyable as the destination. Not sure if I am making much sense on this though.

Through the entire process, I realized that the joy that I got in resolving problems was personally satisfying. The very reason that I intended to approach the consulting profile is a step in this direction. As per my understanding of a consultant's profile this is the bread and butter of the job profile. The luring facet of facing something challenging on a regular basis is the real motivation for wanting the shift of functions. 

That said, I am pretty much aware of two things --:

1. That I might not possibly end up in consulting line even after a MBA since it is pretty competitive and number of people selected by the top consulting firms is pretty much on the lower side compared to the number of applicants. The alternative function / backup option I want to work on is Marketing. I was fortunate to experience and get a very slight feel of how the marketing side of things happens in an organization during my previous work profile. It was personally a really good eye-opener and also the quality of discussions in and around that particular vertical is also one of the main reasons of wanting to do an MBA. I firmly believe that one is only as good as the quality of one's discussions.

2. There is a chance that too many continuous challenges in the consulting industry can result in an imbalance in work-life balance and can also cause issues. Though this is a possibility that cannot be neglected and must be happening to a lot of consultants, this is something that I think might come into play a few years after being the consulting career and either ways it is a chance that I am willing to take.

I intend to have more discussions on this aspect of possible career verticals that are open to me with or without a MBA considering my exposure to a variety of technical aspects within the Telecom sector. I have presently discussed with a few B-School friends and also researched a few blogs on whether it is possible to transition to consulting / marketing vertical with a good brand without a MBA. The inference so far is that while it is not impossible to do so unfortunately it relatively rare and the people who do so have about 8-10 years of experience.

A job well begun is half done

April 10, 2012

With all the determination from yesterday, I started today’s preparation with a lot of gutso. The BeattheGmat daily question of the day is a nice start to have to the preparation. By signing up for this free service on the btg site, one gets one question each for Quant and Verbal daily. The level of questions varies and is a good daily tonic to have when taking on the GMAT. I had signed up for this service on my previous attempt as well but had not followed up on it. This time around I am dead serious of doing it on a daily basis regularly.

Another good resource is the 60-day guide on BTG. We get a daily list of activities and reading to follow and it is also a good practice. These though are my personal opinions as I traverse my path from 630 to 740.

The first problem (9 points and triangles) that I received in the daily quant itself stumped me. Even though I had seen this problem before I could not solve it. On reviewing the solution I feel that this was a tough one to start with and as mentioned in the comments it was a sure 750+ question. That said, it will be questions like this one that will be posed in the actual test if I intend to achieve my target score. A lot of work needs to be done in the quant arena if I am to improve from Q43 to Q50. It is surely possible and I am confident that I will make the leap this  time.

Another good resource that I encountered was the mastergmat website. I signed up for their free service which is valid for 1 week. I started with  the POE (Process Of Elimination) strategy and found it to be really good and effective for the problems in the review. Whether this can be used for all problems or not will be revealed as my practice sessions heat up. I will keep you updated on how this goes. I have not started with the verbal section as yet. I think I will start working on verbal from the coming week.

I feel an air of positivity in my preparation this time and the determination to see this through. Hope this stays till the end.