GMAT Done

So GMAT fever is over!!! I scored 680 and I still can't get over the shock. Everybody has been telling me that it's a good score but I am not satisfied. What happened to the 700+ scores that I was getting in all practice tests?? My score breakdown was 48 in Quant and 34 in Verbal. My overconfidence in verbal was the cause I guess. How could I screw up where I expected to do really well? I even considered taking the test again because I know I can get a 700+. However, I don't have time, because the application deadlines are fast approaching. Anyway, the good news is that B-Schools consider Quant scores more than Verbal, and a 48 in Quant is really good.
Next steps are TOEFL and essays and I have no intentions of screwing up anymore.

On the day I took GMAT. Were the Red Heels unlucky??? Still wondering....

I reached Dehradun today and so did my cousins. There are14 adults and 3 kids in my home at this moment and I am having a great time with my family. We have some fabulous plans for Diwali :-)

Introspection and Retrospection - 2 Days 2 Go!!

Yesterday I took another practice test of GmatPrep (from mba.com) and guess what my score was............. a 7.... 5... 0....... yeah a 750!!!! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw my score. It took time to register that grand figure in my head and to digest the fact that I just scored nearly 100 percentile. My score was 49 in Quant and 42 in Verbal. Yeah, I know.... 49 Quant is amazing :-) Everybody has been telling me that. I just wish I could score a wee bit better in Verbal. I am greedy, I admit.

However, there's someone who has been dampening my high spirits with loads of doubts, apprehensions, misgivings, qualms, dreads, and fears. That someone is the other half of my personality. No, I am not a twisted character suffering from MPD, in case somebody is getting any such ideas. Like everybody else, I have this high-spirited, vivacious, confident, optimistic and happy self; and another gloomy, pessimistic, agonised and dispirited self which sometimes brings me down. Now the pessimistic-me is worried that since all the material that I have studied consists of just one book (Official Guide), the scores that I am getting in practice tests are just a stroke of luck, and this lucky streak may or may not be there on the D-Day. Since I have decided to take the exam on 25th October (Yes, I preponed it by a whole month. Gulp!), I don't have time to go through any more material. All I can do is take as many tests as I can and then work on questions that I get wrong.

2 days to go and all I have studied is the OG! I don't believe I am actually doing this. Heck, I got above 700 in all three practice tests.... I will just keep my fingers crossed now (except when I am typing).

I don't have any preparation for AWA, will work on it in these 2 days as best as I can.

2 days.... GULP!!!!

News News News

Gosh! So many things happened since I last posted that I don't know where to start. Let me give the news in bullet points.

* I got a 710 again in my second practice test (Quant 47, Verbal 41).
* NV has gone to US and will have her baby there. (Did I mention that she is pregnant? Well, she is.)
* I bought knee-high boots for winters. Can't wait for the weather to get cold.
* Priya is going to California during Christmas and New Year's.
* Mom and Dad have gone to Sikkim, leaving me alone at home
* I have decided that I will pre-pone my GMAT date to 1st week of November

Whew! I will elaborate now. I downloaded test software from mba.com just to be sure that my score is reliable. I really doubted my last score, but a 710 again has boosted my confidence. What was surprising this time was my quant score. I jumped from 39 in quant to 47, although dropped in verbal from 48 to 41. But I don't mind the drop as long as my points stay in the 40s range. The decision to pre-pone my exam has come after this new found confidence in my preparation.

NV is almost 7 months pregnant and was going to have her baby in Kanpur but suddenly her husband had to leave for U.S. and after much thought she decided to accompany him. The shocking part of the story is that none of us had any inkling that she is leaving for US. Well, I admit we were not in touch with her since something like 15 days. She mailed us all today to inform us that she arrived in Virginia yesterday and will be back in Februray after having her baby in Jan. Now, were we shocked? We felt flabbergasted, thunderstruck and similar stuff. When a 7 months pregnant female suddenly decides to have her baby in US instead of her in-laws place, it's normal to be shocked. She and her hubby will look for an apartment now and for doctors who will take care of her. I support her as always, may she have a baby as unpredictable and daring as she is.

My knee-high boots look sexy. However, I had a tough time buying them. I had no plans of buying any such thing but so wanted to have them when I spotted them at a shop in Janpath (I am an impulsive shopper). I was wearing a long skirt and chappals on that eventful day when I bought my boots. I pointed out around 4 pairs to the shop attendant and said I wanted to try those. Now, I have small feet and always find it tough to find footwear in my size. This shop attendant said he had boots in my size, took out various boxes and sat down to help me try the boots. He took out the first pair and I stepped out of my chappals and sat on a sofa to try the boots. It now occured to me that I will have to pull up my long skirt to my knees to try the boots. It would have been so much better if I was wearing capris or a short skirt. Anyway, feeling awkward I put my leg into the boot that the shop attendant was holding out for me. It fit my foot perfectly. Now the attendant started pulling up the side zipper. Damn!! It was tight, the zipper wouldn't close and I embarassingly asked him to take off the boots and let me try another pair. My sister gave me a laughing look which meant, "You should start dieting". I scowled and tried another pair but the same thing happened again. This time the attendant tried hard to pull up the zipper and even asked me to stand so that the Boots could fit me. I guess he was desperate to sell because the boots in his shop were weird (I am sure the boots were weird and my legs are absolutely fine). I finally bought a bigger size but they fit me well and I will soon post a pic of them.

Colour Me Purple

In the past few days I have realised how much influence colors have on us. We may or may not realise it but our moods change according to the colors around us. I had never thought much about it till recently when we got our house painted in new colors. I chose all the colors of-course, my parents don't have enough energy to argue with me. I was all set to experiment, no matter how absurd the color seems; fortunately the results are great.



This one's my fav, in my bedroom. Purple + Pink = tranquility + romance :-)








Orange and White in living room. Did I hear someone say 'Vibrant'?










I am in love with the new colors. They have given a new life to my home and to me too in some aspects.
Talking about colors, it seems I love 'Blue' when it comes to accessories. I was going through my junk pile and noticed this. Have a look.

You Will Always Be My Friend

This weekend I went shopping with Mom and Dad and while Dad was going through greeting cards in Archie's Gallery, I was going through the T-Shirts they had on display. They had a nice collection of Tees with some really witty statements. I don't remember any of them now, except one. This one caught my eye and I immeadiately thought of NV. It said, "You will always be my friend. You know too much!" It made me smile and brought forth a cascade of thoughts.
I pondered over it that night. Come to think of it among my friends we all know so much about each other that if we decide to ruin each other's life, we can easily do that. Ye!! Gives me that evil power over them, but then they possess the same power over me. If I try to recall what all I know about all the close frends I have ever had, I can list some pretty nasty details. :-) Multiple affairs (not at the same time, all my frends are decent), drinking, gambling, a wedding in a temple (I and NV signed the marriage certificate as witnesses), and other things which I would not list here (this isn't that kind of blog) :-) Superb!!!!
If we assume the statement on the Tee to be true (my engineering language), it implies that we will all stay friends forever. Our dark secrets bond us together. On a serious note, I love all my friends. Dark secrets or no, I do hope we always stay bonded.

Ratan Tata Vs. Mamta Banerjee

Don't we all think that it was the right thing to move out of Singur for Ratan Tata? Don't we all feel sympathetic about the huge losses he has incurred in the Singur plant? Don't we all feel that Mamta Banerjee was villanous in her acts? I thought so too, until today. While watching Ratan Tata's interviews over the national news channels, I always felt strongly that what he did was right in principle. Now the West Bengal ruling government would learn its lessons, even the opposition would learn some lessons, and that it serves them right for not co-operating with an industrialist like Ratan Tata, which would have been in their own best interests.
I thought all this till I read an article by Prem Shankar Jha in the editorial section of Hindustan Times. To say the least, I feel I have been looking at only one side of the coin, just like most of the national news channels are portraying. Ratan Tata said in his press conference that "We believe a fair compensation has been paid". Jha raises an apt question, "Paid by whom?" The compensation (Rs 131 Crore) has actually entirely been paid by the West Bengal Government. Tatas had taken the land from the government at a lease with a meagre lease rent. This was why it was so easy for the Tatas to move out because they had so little at stake there. Although there investment in the Nano project was 15oo crores, but a major portion of this was in equipment and machinery and other movable things, which they will move out. They would still face a big loss in infrastructure etc, but it would be quite less than what the West Bengal Government would.
Moreover, the land was acquired forcefully by brutal beatings given by policemen to local people. About 400 villagers were demanding their land back since they considered it to be the only security in an uncertain and unorganised sector of non-agricultural jobs. However, Ratan Tata would still have been totally non-guilty if there was no way of making the landholders beneficiaries instead of victims. Jha comes up with an ingenious yet simple strategy - what if the Tatas decided to set aside just one quarter of 1% of their annual sales revenue and distributed it as anuual royalty to owners and sharecroppers. With an annual turnover of 5000 crore (from 500,000 cars), the royalty would have amounted to Rs 125000 crore per acre per year to be split between landowners and sharecroppers. To recover this, the Tatas would have had to increase the price of their car by only Rs 250.
Now the question is would Mamta Banerjee have refused such an offer? Of course not, the farmers wouldn't have let her. Ratan Tata has only proved that he is just another industrialist who did not try an approach that has never been tried in our country.

Omigosh!

I took my first GMAT full length practice test today and was no less than shocked with the result!
I am quite confident about my verbal skills but I come from an engineering background for heaven's sake!!!! I should score better in Quant :-(
Anyway despite my poor performance in Quant, my score was a whopping 710. Ye Ye Ye!!!! Clap Clap Clap!!!! Kudos!!!! Am I getting too excited??? Well, I have to be, coz I never aimed that high even for the main exam, much less for the first ever full length test I took. My score was 39 for Quant and 48 (Grinning) for verbal!! Verbal score is better than I expected but Quant was the dampener.
Still, a 710 is shocking for me. Probably I underestimated myself, or worse, probably the test software I used is total crap. I downloaded the GMAT prep software from prepwizard.com. I am satisfied with the level of questions that I got, but a 710 still gives me doubts about the reliability of the scoring. Anyway, a quick analysis of my quant section made it clear that there are certain types of questions at which I totally suck (excuse the expression). These are probability, sequences and series and Data sufficiency questions. Need to work harder in these areas. Also, I totally mismanaged my time for quant, randomly guessing the last 4 questions without even reading them properly. I am happy with my verbal section, though there is always scope for improvement, particulary in Reading Comprehension.
Still, I got a 710 folks!!!! :-) This has acted as a big boost for me and I am now aiming for a higher score in the real exam. I hope that my scores go up from here.