Of losses and moanings

Australia lost the Ashes, and as a result suffered a big drop in the ICC test rankings.

Of all people, I was hoping for a OZ victory and was disappointed. While everyone else is blaming Ponting for the loss, I would say he is a poor guy and needs to be felt for. The Oz team is a new team, and almost all of them were having their first Ashes outing outside of Australia. Do not forget the absence of McGrath, Warne, Langer, Hayden et al. And to top them, Bret Lee was not fit.

It will take time for this new team to come up to OZ standards. I will wait for the complete OZ dominance in tests.

While for One-dayers I will still back my home team India. With The 'Wall' back in team, i am looking forward to a recuperated Indian team in the Champions trophy and the upcoming triangular series in Lanka.

A word on AWA for GMAT

Now that I am done with GMAT (My Experience with GMAT) with an AWA score of 5.5 I can give some gyan on improving your AWA score in GMAT and something about preparation.

1. Be consistent in preparation - Read a lot, may be one or two essays a day. No need to spend more than 5-10 minutes per day on this. But avoid last minute reading.  Many people concentrate on the AWA only in the last few days and try to cram everything they read. This is a bad strategy unless you are a news reporter or someone who is a skilled writer.

2. Do not use heavy lingo - Try to gather strong arguments and not heavy phrases or jargon. Essay should be written in simple language and the reader should be able to comprehend.

3. Have arguments that are strong -Think with a cool head and list down all the arguments that you think are relevant here. Also think about what other information you could add. If you come across a lot of arguments, do not write all your arguments in the essay. As it might go very long and remember time is always ticking. Stick to the strongest points.

4. Think through the essay first, and outline how you want to format it. Dont just start the essay as soon as you see the topic.

5. Assumptions - Most of the times the statements being provided are based on some assumptions. Read them carefully and find out the hidden assumptions.

6. When preparing for essays - Do not just blindly read the essays. Read the subject first, what is asked and then try to list down points. No need to write the whole essay, and then when you read the essay, see what are the points you missed and how you could have improved the structure of the essay.

7. The format and structure of the essay - while there is no template to follow for essays, you must space them out carefully. Separate logical statements into paragraphs. Think about how your ideas should be conveyed to someone who reads them. Starting and concluding statements should be strong and have an impact on the reader.

8. Grammar - Your essays should have ideally no grammatical errors. But it is fine to have a few mistakes here and there but not too many.

9. Revise - You must read it once before submitting. Its is a MUST to do.

10. Save time for the end - For revision and do further editing you must save some time. Do not write till the end. And do not try to write a very long essay. Two to three strong arguments are often good enough.

11. While taking prep tests, take them once in a while. This helps in making you ready for the actual test in which you will have to sit through long hours. If you can attempt the AWA in each test. But in the last 2-3 tests that you take (mostly GMAT prep tests) , you must take the AWA seriously. Send them to friends for review as well if you can. It helps.

12. Read from trusted sources - Do not read from just any source. Buy a book or a CD. Reading magazines and newspapers also helps but when it comes to essays you must have a collection of some good AWA essays to read and get a feel.

13. Read the instructions and tips from the GMAT official guide very carefully. I read them twice, once when starting the preparation and then one day before GMAT (i had nothing to do that day ;))

14. Do not panic if till the last day you are not confident about your essays. Remember AWA is the easiest part of the whole GMAT test. So take it lightly and do not worry too much.

15. If you can not write grammatically correct sentences, then you must refer to a good grammar book and have a solid grounding in English grammar before thinking about GMAT.

Urge to do an MBA

Day by day, moment by moment, the urge to do an MBA is increasing. I cant think of anything else now. Its like a cancer. I cant get rid of it now.

I think I am desparate to do an MBA now. It was just a dream, a few months back. Now things have changed. I can not live a day without thinking of doing an MBA now . It will be painful if I do not get admit anywhere.

Need to list a few more reach schools now. Need to get practical with the list of schools.

Started researching US B-Schools as well

Until now I have been thinking about schools in UK only. But it seems the job scenario in UK is bad as compared to that in US. People are recruiting in US, especially if you want to go into consulting/technology related field post-MBA (think tech think silicon valey in the west coast).

Now I think I will have to start thinking about a few schools in US as well. Trying to find a few where cost is low, or where scholarships are easy to get. A few which come to my mind are:

Kelly, indiana. - around 92 K USD

Texas AMU - around 80k USD

Now the question is - "is it worth it?" .  I am now in a situation where I am deciding schools as per Budget and not as per my goals and ambitions. Need to rethink. Need to go back to my dreams. Need to sleep.

More schools added to the list of target schools

I have added the following to the list of schools I am targetting:

1. Cranfield : Good feedback from one of the alumn

2. Richard Ivey, Canada : Reasons  - 1 year course, case study based learning, visa requirements simple.

3. Manchester Business School - a safe school incase ....

Asked my supervisor for LORs

Had a talk with my manager for letter of recommendation. She was shocked to know that I would be leaving my job. She was probably thinking that after having being worked for 5 years now in this present company, I would be continuing till retirement.

I think I somewhere expected this reaction. I know she has some limitations in terms of understading the future aspiration of people she manages. Well, thats a different story altogether. Point is, she has agreed to give me the LOR and I am obliged. I hope she writes a strong recommendation for me.

Now the search is on for the second person. My choices are 1) my previous manager, 2)my manager in previous company 3) my team lead in previous company 4) some other manager in current company.

I think I will be taking one from each for the various schools I will be applying to. Each and every reference counts.

First shortlist of b-schools

1. Judge, Cambridge

2. Said, Oxford

3. NUS, Singapore

4. ISB Hyderabad

Why Judge : Best reach school as per my profile. Best school as per my post MBA goals. Good number of scholarships as well.

Why Said : Oxford's brand value. And nothing else.

NUS : Brand singapore. Good rankings, and placements are good. Good fit in terms of profile. Closer to india and hence would feel closer to my wifey in case she cant leave her job ;)

Why ISB : Do not know. !! I need to find out more on this, if I want to be considered a serious applicany. But yes I would be applying becuase its in India. And cost is reasonable. R1 deaslines close on sept 15, so cant make it. Will think about it in R2, and will have time to research as well.

Search for Schools started

Now that I have got my gmat score, I can start my search for B-Schools. Its already august and I am probably too late. But I think I will be able to apply to alteast 1 school in R1.

Here are my criteria for choosing a b-school :

1. 12 months course : It should be a 12 -15 months course and not more. So I am tilting towards the courses in UK.


2. Fees : Frankly speaking I can not afford more than 80k USD in fees. So most of the US schools are out of range. About Schols ? Lets see.


3. Focus on Entrepreneurship/technology/consulting. Being an IT professional and having being worked for more than 6 years now, I am in love with IT now. And I would love to work in it post MBA as well. Of course not in the role of a developer but as a consultant or a business head. I have a fair bit of experience in managing a small startup as well, and I would love to join it post my MBA, and hence choosing a school with good focus on entrepreneurship.

My GMAT story

Done with my GMAT on 05 aug 2009.

My Profile : Indian IT Male, 6 years Exp.
GMAT booked : 17th June 2009. Preparation started the same day.
GMAT taken : 05th August 2009.
Preparation time : 50 days.
Score : 720 Q50, V38. (overall 94 %ile) AWA - 5.5

Books and materials referred :
1. OG12. (The Official Guide by GMAC)
2. Kaplan Verbal workbook
3. Kaplan Premier 2009
4. Manhattan SC Guide
5. 1000 SC. - One of the most commonly used Sentence Correction material referred by students. Search over the internet to get it.

Tests taken prior to GMAT (not in chronological order):

1. GMAT Prep1 - taken thrice - : 700 (Q49, V37) , 700 (Q50, V35) , 740 (Q49, V42)


2. GMAT Prep2 - taken twice - : 720 (Q50, V38), 730 (Q49, V40)


3. MGMAT Free test - 670 ( Q48, V33 )


4. MGMAT 1 - 640 - ( Q46, V32 )


5. MGMAT 2 - 680 - ( Q48, V34 )


6. MGMAT 3 - 710 - ( Q51, V36 )


7. MGMAT 4 - 720 - ( Q51, V37 )


8. MGMAT 5 - 710 - ( Q49, V38 )


9. MGMAT 6 - 680 - ( Q49, V34 )


10. Kaplan Test on CD - 1 - 590 (Q48 V28)

Here is a summary of what I have to say about my GMAT experience and advice to others.

1. Regular practice is the key. How many days you take, depends on the individual, but I think one should be in touch always. One month practice, then break, the practice is not the way. You should be in the zone when you are taking the actual GMAT. For this, one has to build a momentum , and carry that to the test.


2. At the time of the test, staying focused is the key. Take a lot of mock tests to make yourself aware of test environment. To gauge time strategies etc..


3. GMATPrep tests are the key to success. You should use them wisely. Retaking them helps, but you should not retake within 2-3 days else there is a repeat of questions and you will get skewed scores. I would suggest one should take the GMATPrep tests atleast 3-4 times. Save GMATPrep 2 for last 5-10 days of your preparation and take this test in absolute test environment with AWA, breaks etc. Try to score as much as in GMATPrep2 and do look at where you went wrong.


4. For any materials other than SC, i dont think you need to go for materials beyond OG. Take the OG seriously, and keep a error log. Revisit OG once completed. For PS/DS I reinstalled GMATPrep quite a lot of time and got a lot of new questions. It is a huge bank !


5. For SC, Manhattan SC Guide is a must. I also referred to the 1000SC series.


6. Kaplan books and tests are a waste of time, in my opinion. Kaplan tests have different styles of questions, esp in Verbal, and sometimes I didn't agree to their CR answers. So I found them useless.


7. For AWA, one must practice writing, and that too in test environment. Sometimes 30 minutes seem very less a time.