Resources

This page intends to provide GMAT Test Takers with useful links
www.pagalguy.com
www.veritasprep.com
www.manhattangmat.com
www.kaptest.com
www.esnips.com
www.princetonreview.com
www.tcyonline.com
www.mba-forums.com
www.businessweek.com
www.isb.edu

University Applications - Part2

The admissions committee looks for high levels of self-motivation, commitment and expects your essays to reflect the same. However, that does not mean that you need to have something extra-ordinary or fake to boost your profile. If an essay wants you to talk about some major achievement in life, then the achievement need not necessarily be from your work experience. Even personal life achievements can be described. The evaluator is interested to understand your personality. During the application process for INSEAD, one of my students felt that his purchase of a flat in Mumbai was an achievement. He felt that this was a significant achievement based on his family background. He asked me whether he could take this case. Of course it is an achievement. He mentioned that along with another achievement at work. If you think his chances were slim, think again. He has secured admission into INSEAD and one of his interviewers told him that the achievements were definitely noteworthy.

As I menioned in the earlier post, your passion and drive to achieve results brings in a sparkle to your essays. These are stories of your life. One lady applying to Oxford (Said Business School) felt that doing a post graduation from a metro city like Bangalore and moving on to become a teacher was an achievement. She grew up in a rural area in Karnataka and the conditions there were such that hardly any girl was sent to college or for that matter even high school. This no doubt is an achievement. The story must be showcased well and if al the other parts of the application are well placed, an evaluator will certainly like to see such an achievement. At the end of it all, there is no right story or wrong story for achievements, failures etc. Its all about the ones that matter to you the most (for achievements) and what you learnt from experience (failures / setbacks).

Talking about a failure, setback, try not to shift the blame to some other party. This is one of the gravest mistakes one can make in an essay. I fully agree that there are external forces that come into play during our setback periods. Just make a one line reference and focus more on what happened, how you rectified things from your end and what have you learnt from mistakes. Mistakes are bound to happen and we all learn from our mistakes. As long as you emerged stronger from that event, you fall into the professional achievers category by default.

Most universities these days ask for the starting and ending salaries during your tenure at work. Unfortunately, a vast majority of business schools ask for salaries in USD, Euros, GBP etc and the amount seems extremely low when rupees are converted into these currencies. Don't worry about that. Check whether the form has a field that allows you to show the conversion factors. In case you don't have provision for that field, then do make it a point to explain the ROE conversion in the Additional Admissions part. The evaluator is more keen on analysing your career progress as higher remuneration implies that you have grown well at your workplace. Also the growth levels are measured by the ratio of later incomes with previous ones. Ultimately, this ratio will remain the same regardless of currencies used in the calculations. So if you were earning 3.5 Lakhs PA in 2006 and now earn 5 Lakhs PA, your growth has been almost 100% This will work in your favor even though the dollar amount may seem low. If all other aspects in your profile are good, the university will certainly help you with the scholarships and financial aid.

Ace The GMAT - Part3

Today we will look at tips and tricks to crack the Reading Comprehension (RC) part of the Verbal Section. Typically, you will come across 4 passages on the GMAT. The passages revolve around General Science, Social Science and Business Science. General Science passages are dense with scientific details. Social Science passages normally trace developments in social welfare related issues. Business Science passages revolve around strategy and results.

Normally, you get your first passage within the first 12 questions and the next passage within the next 12 questions. These passages will normally have 4 questions per passage. The first 2 passages actually determine the overall score level you will reach at the end of the Verbal Section. (Not to forget that the questions here on SC and CR will also determine your score). Roughly you have 2 minutes per question on Verbal translating to 8 minutes per passage for the first 2 passages. Of this, 4 minutes should be reserved for going through the passage and the balance to answer the questions.

Never ever let your personal knowledge about a subject interfere with your unerstanding of the passage. Treat the passage as text to read and analyze. Never go too much into the details as you don't get scores for that. You need to quickly comprehend the passage and attack the questions. I quite like the approach suggested by Princeton Review and Kaplan. A passage map definitely helps crack the RC part very well. Even before you start reading the passage, you should have a template in place with the following details to be filled in....

Purpose of the Essay, Scope of Topics/Subjects used and Paragraph structure. One way is to have the following format ready on your rough working sheets.

Purpose

Scope

Style

P1 (Outline of Para1)

P2 (Outline of Para2)

P3 (Outline of Para3) so on and so forth.

As you red through the passage, put down the outline as soon as you finish a paragraph. After going through the entire passage, make a brief summary of summaries and plug in the purpose, scope and style. Style basically helps you eliminate some of the options on General Questions.

For general questions, you should not have to go back to the passage again. Your passage map itself should help you eliminate wrong answer choices. For detail questions, your passage map should help you locate the context quickly. Again use passage maps to your advantage by eliminating wrong options. Always read the line before and after the detail question so that you are very clear about the context. These methods do need some practice. However, if you follow these patterns, you will definitely raise your scores signifantly.

Many people dread RC but the fact is that RC can be a very high scoring part. The questions are not varied in terms of difficulty level. The system is not computing your score after each question. You enter the RC passage based on where you stand vis a vis other questions. The system classifies entire passages into easy, medium, difficult levels etc. If you have entered the first passage with a good strike rate on the other questions, your scores are bound to increase. As with SC and CR, go through all the options before you select your answer.

With these tips, I think I have covered the Verbal Practice tips. The next post on Ace the GMAT will focus on AWA and some tips regarding Quantitative section.

University Applications

We have been discussion preparations for GMAT, researching business schools etc. I will continue to post further on those topics. However, I now want to also focus on the university applications part. Some myths and facts that we need to clear before we move further.
Myth1: I need to have a lavish vocabulary to impress the admissions committee
Fact: While a lavish vocabulary is good, using too many woolly and fluffy words can actually reduce your chance to grab a berth and get short-listed for the interview. Based on inputs from friends, peers and acquaintances in business school, and some pedantic knowledge via media (now I could easily have said theoretical instead of pedantic. What was your first reaction when you read 'pedantic'?), the evaluator of your essay has about 10 minutes to score the essays. What the evaluator is looking for is your experience, your thought process and your power of communication. The evaluator could be a senior student from the business school, a faculty member or some external consultant hired to do the evaulation. The evaluator wants to understand your story not your vocabulary. Trust me if the evaluator has to resort to the thesaurus every minute, its a big turn-off.

Myth2: I need to spend a lot of hours and money to get a good essay done
Fact: You don't need more than 10 hours to get a crisp application package in place. Your resume is in place but it typically is drafted to apply for jobs. A typical MBA Application Resume is never more than 1 page giving an executive summary of your work experience, proficiency in your area of work and academic skills. A lot of information, normally present in the job resume is filled in by you in certain forms provided by the business school. You need not repeat it.

Moreover, its going to be extremely difficult for an external consultant to draft your story. You know your story best. You should be the one driving this. That being said, it is always good to have 2 or 3 opinions on the essays preferably from various backgrounds. Lets say you are into marketing, you should try to choose 1 friend, 1 business acquaintance and a good consultant if you can find one (this is not mandatory at all) There are multitudes of people who pay consultants hefty sums of USD 150 to USD 500 to get an application package done. Unless you don't really value your money, don't go for it. Either get a consultant who can do at least 3 applications for you within USD 100 or seek assistance from some local freelance journalist who writes about careers and education. (Typically they charge about USD 10 to USD 25 per hour. A fruitful application session is done within 3 hours)

To simplify myths further, I have decided to share some of the Winning Essays done at GMAT Wings. These are all essays that either got our student admitted or at least an interview call. These essays have been reproduced with permission from the candidates. Sensitive information has been masked for obvious reasons. I would like to stress that any attempt to reproduce the essays will only harm an aspirant's chances with business schools. These materials are not protected by copyright laws. Feel free to share these with your friends, colleagues who might benefit from these inspiring essays.

The essays can be found on www.gmatwings.in

Explore B-School Options

I have been blogging about how to ace the GMAT. Before I continue with that, I would like to address a very key issue regarding B-Schools. From personal exprience, I have observed that a lot of MBA aspirants don't spend a lot of time researching their B-School options. Some are so obssessed with B-School Ranks and Brands that they forget their own career goals in the process. There are some very reputed business schools who have joined the bandwagon with a plethora of new business schools, locating campuses in fancy locations abroad and try to entice students with the aid of these backgrounds.

The reality is that it doesn't really matter whether the campus is in Dubai, Singapore, Toronto, Montreal or whatever. The business school may be one of repute but what is the value you can get out of that B-school? Will it help you strengthen your foundations and help you secure good placements? Whats the faculty background of the business school? How strong is its alumni network? How much of alumni access do you get in the program?

Another strange observation has been the desperation to get into B-School in a particular year. There are a lot of people who do research schools and short-list schools for themselves. Due to some reason (GMAT Score / Interview / Application etc) these people don't manage to get into their dream schools or reach schools. Suddenly something takes them over. They are so bogged down by the pressure to go for the MBA that common sense becomes an extremely precious commodity! They just look at a business school abroad and feel that they can get in (and thats probably the case many a time). However, as mentioned above, once in this mental frame, they forget about all the research they did. All that they know is that they want to join 'some' b-school. Well if you wanted to join 'some' b-school, why take the pains of investing (in this case wasting) precious time and money. There are plenty of fly by night b-school degrees that will fetch far better returns. At least the fly by night operators don't end up getting you in a terrible loan position.

Take stock of your personal, financial and career position. Remind yourself why you want the MBA. You want it for career growth, right? You want to be in a good position with bright future prospects. Your GMAT score is valid for 5 years. If you have a good GMAT score but somehow faced the closed door, take a chill pill. What possibly went wrong? If the b-school gives you feedback on your application, its extremely good. However, many b-schools choose not to given individual application feedback. Look at the pool of admitted students. What was so distinct about people who got admitted with lower GMAT scores? What extra efforts can you put in to enhance your skills, professional courses and career progress before applying next year? It helps to discuss your applications with a seasoned professional. This professional could be some senior person in your known circles or an external consultant. If everything is fine and the GMAT score is below 20 points from the median GMAT score, try taking the GMAT once again with more practice.

Placement Statistics / Return on Investment
Always look at the median salaries of the previous placement cycle. Average will simply distort the numbers. Median gives you a realistic measure. Always remember that even the median figure discloses 'Cost to Company (CTC)' and not salary. A pragmatic measure in terms of net take home salary would be about 60% to 65% of the quoted CTC (Factoring perquisites, taxes and other deductions). If you have to take a loan to finance your MBA, what portion of the median salary will go towards the loan. It normally takes about 4 to 7 years to repay the loan amount. These are messages sent down by the hundreds and thousands of people who have gone for an MBA from sub-optimal universities/b-schools only to realize that they burnt their fingers big time.

To Be Continued...Raj
info@gmatwings.in
www.gmatwings.in

Ace The GMAT - Part2

Continuing from the previous post, I would now like to touch upon a few tips regarding the Verbal Section. This section has hassled thousands of GMAT test takers over the last 2 years. As most of you are aware, there are 3 sub-sections to the Verbal Section. Reading Comprehension (RC), Sentence Correction (SC) and Critical Reasoning (CR). Lets see some basic building blocks of CR.

CR is predominantly based on Inductive Logic unlike Deductive Logic in the Indian B-School entrance exams. however, there are some strands of Deductive Logic that you should bear in mind. First, 'If A, Then B'. Now look at the following conclusions

• If Not A, Then Not B
• If Not B, Then Not A

Which of these do you think is valid? If you say both are correct, then you are absolutely wrong. Only the second option is logically correct.

Another premise to look out for is All X are Y. Now see the following conclusions

• Some Y are X
• All Y are X

Which of these will always be logically correct? If you said its the first conclusion, then you are bang on target. Some Y are X will always be true. However, All Y are X may not always be true.

If you can have these 2 deductive logic threads ingrained in you, you are set to take CR to the next level. In inductive logic, the simple theme to remember is Assumption + Evidence = Conclusion.

An assumption is never stated explicitly. It is the basic foundation on which an argument stands. So an assumption has to be as strong as possible. Evidence is what an author will give basis which he arrives at a conclusion. Your role in Critical Reasoning is similar to that of a lawyer. You are going into the court for a case but you don't know whether you are a part of defence or prosecution. Your attitude is 'I really don't care whether I have to attack or defend. I will win regardless of my position'. Remember that on the CR, you hold the rights. Any argument can be strengthened or weakened on the GMAT. It simply depends on what the question stem wants you to do. It may seem a little strange in the beginning but to get into this habit, start with the OG Verbal book. Look at the first 20 question stems. Don't bother about what the question is asking you to do. Simply read the text. Sit back for a moment and think - If I had to attack this argument, how can I do that? Vice versa, think if you had to defend this argument, what points can you put forth?

If you have to look for an assumption, look for an assumption as strong as possible.

If you have to arrive at a conclusion look for a safe conclusion. 'Never', 'No', 'All', 'Always' are keywords that are almost always wrong conclusions. Look out for the keywords like 'some', 'perhaps', 'probably', 'maybe' etc. Wear the hat of a good politician or quaky astrologer. they make such equivocal statements. The best example I can think of is that of Nadi astrologers in South India. You give your thumb impression and after half an hour, the guy comes up with some dried palm leaf with scribbles only he can understand. Then he rattles out some 'poetry' and translates that for you. Typical statements given to a young guy, single, due to be married soon. 'Thou shall have a bride who will be the last off-spring of her parents. Maybe, just maybe she might be the second or the second last. Thou shall marry a girl who will be very fair and good looking. Maybe, just maybe she will have a wheatish tinge in some portions of her limbs. Her name will start with the letters A, K, S, R, T, P, D. The name will have a good meaning. Most probably she will come into your life from the South, South-East or North direction. Her house will be located at a distance ranging from 100km to 1000km'. All right enough of the Nadi astrologer. Lets get back to the GMAT business. Did you get the point Im trying to make regarding conclusions? Its always a dichotomy, a dilemna-like situation. Maybe, maybe not. A conclusion is supposed to cover both sides ;)

The other thing to remember is the management jargon of 'Apple to Apple' comparison. You always compare 2 relatively equal objects, people, capabilties. Any deviation from that and the argument falls apart.

Oh how can I forget to stress on the importance of percentages and statistics. The GMAT test masters love to throw arguments based on percentages and statistics. The moment you see percentages, immediately check whether the evidence has some reference to absolute numbers. If not then the argument is baseless. This is similar to some of the simple Data Sufficiency questions you get on the quantitative.

1. Sam got a 5% increase in his salary

2. Judy got an 8% increase in her salary

Who earns more after these increases? Can you answer the question with the 2 statements. Smart - you cannot. Same logic applies in Critical Reasoning.

Once you have these basics in place, its just a matter of practice to attack CR questions. Its actually no big deal. By and large you will be able to do it on your own. It does help to have a coach. Be very careful when you choose a coach. Don't get misled by big brands and big bucks. Exhorbitant fees are no guarantee that you will do well. On the other hand, economically priced coaching does not mean compromise on quality. There are a good number of coaches all over India who give personalized coaching at economic prices and different versions of GMAT Coaching. For example, in Pune GMAT Wings offers GMAT Comprehensive, GMAT Verbal and coming up with a GMAT Sprint version (a fast-track crash course at advanced levels). Visit http://www.gmatwings.in/ for details. In Bangalore, Arun Jagan and team conduct a Bootcamp program with a lot of emphasis on the Verbal section. It is spaced across 2 weekends and normally there is 1 bootcamp every month. Visit http://www.crackverbal.com/ for details. In Chennai, GMAT 4u conducts extremely good courses at economic prices. Visit http://www.4gmat.com/ for details. They have a chapter in Bangalore as well.

Let me remind you, that at the end of the day, a coach can guide you, mentor you and help you channelize your efforts, time and hone your abilities. You are responsible for your career and need to take charge of it.

Now lets move over to the Sentence Correction part. You don't need to be a grammar guru or a Wren & Martin specialist for GMAT Sentences. There are some basic errors that are tested and there are some concepts that you just have to take them as given. for example, there is no logic as to why 'rather than' is a better option than 'instead of'. On the GMAT, if you have 2 equally correct options one of which has 'rather than' and the other has 'instead of', in all likelihood the one with rather than is considered correct. Similarly with idioms - there is no logic as to why a particular idiom should go that way but thats the way it has to be - period.

The most common errors tested in SC are Parallelism, Pronoun placement, misplaced modifiers, singular-plural, idioms, verb tenses and structural usage. For example

Ram and Shyam go to school. (and joins the 2 people and hence the verb has to be plural)

Ram as well as Shyam goes to school. (as well as is simply another factor. Our subject still remains Ram and hence the verb has to be singular)

In all probablity, modifiers will have a comma before or after the subject/object. The modifier has to be placed next to the subject/object it is modifying. However, remember that placed next to the subject/object does not necessarily mean after the subject/object. It could be just before the subject/object as well

Example

Ram and Shyam go to school, that is located in Swiss County (modifier is after the object school)

Born in 1995, Vishakha holds the record of being the youngest tennis champion. (modifier is before the subject, Vishakha)

Vishakha holds the record of being the youngest tennis champion, born in 1995 (Misplaced modifier. It has to immediately before or after Vishakha. This is the correct format if the modifier has to be after the subject. Vishakha, born in 1995, holds the record of being the youngest tennis champion)

Make sure you go through all the questions in the 'Must have books' listed in my previous posts. Maintain the error log, follow the schedule systematically and you will chuckle your way through the GMAT. Never ever make the mistake of phrasing the sentence in your own words. Remember that on the GMAT, you get 5 options that may not necessarily match with the sentence you have in mind. I fully agree with Princeton Review's technique for SC. You are looking for the best choice or many a time, the option that stinks the least.

Your primary challenge on the GMAT SC part is to identify the error in the original sentence. Once you have figured that out, simply do a vertical scan and spot options that repeat the same error. Eliminate those options without even reading the statements. Typically you will boil down to 2 or 3 options after your first scan. The GMAT test masters love to hassle you with extremely similar looking options. When you do your second vertical scan, you will realize that 1 or 2 options take care of the original error but bring in new errors in the statement. Eliminate them right away without even bothering to read the entire statement. The vertical scan will help you save a lot of time especially at higher levels and long sentences. Once you are down to the last 2 options, go through the entire option and pick the best option (or the one that stinks the least).

As long as you remember the technique, 'First Vertical Scan then Horizontal Scan', you are good to go for the SC part.

To be continued...

Best Regards...Raj

http://www.gmatwings.in/

info@gmatwings.in

Ace / Crack GMAT with 700+ Score Part1

This post is specifically for highly self-motivated GMAT aspirants who dream of cracking the GMAT with 700+ scores. They understand that more and more test takers are getting adept at test taking and the competition is getting much stiffer. The Verbal Section tends to take one's score down significantly. The point in case is that how come so many people who use the same material do not manage to score well on this standardized test. Main reasons are lack of stamina, focus and poor time management.

Some tips for Quantitative
Number Properties
It is extremely critical to understand behaviour of numbers. A good way to understand this is to take the following 7 numbers and understand their properties. Lets put the variable as x.
When x = 1/2, x ^ 2 = 1/4, x ^ 3 = 1/8 so on and so forth. Try this for any other positive fraction like 1/3, 1/5 etc. You will get similar results.
Property: Whenever is between 0 and 1, x raised to any power greater than 1 will have a value will lower than that of x

Similarly check for properties of 1 / x. If x = 1/2, 1/x = 2. Try this for any other positive fraction like 1/3, 1/5 etc. You will get similar results
Property: Whenever is between 0 and 1, reciprocal of x will be greater than x

Similarly try out number properties with x = 2, x = -1/2, x = -2. A savvy GMAT test taker learns these properties just as s/he did during school days for trigonometric ratios, factorization formulae etc.
Whenever there is a data sufficiency problem and there is concern regarding the number properties, a high scorer checks for the properties with 7 numbers 0, 1, -1, 2, -2, 1/2 and -1/2 as deemed appropriate. (The author of Ace The GMAT calls it the magic 7 numbers. I totally agree with him on this one)

Another important trick that savvy GMAT test takers use for multiplication is the application of Vedic Mathematics. If you had to say calculate 96 times 47, you would lose some time in calculating this with normal rules of multiplication.
Short Cut Method for Multiplying 2 digit numbers
98 x 47
Multiply the units digit of both the numbers i.e. 7 x 8 = 56. Retain 6 in the units digit of the answer and carry forward 5. Then cross multiply the units digit of one number with the tens digit of the other and add the products. In this case it will be (9 x 7) + (4 x 8) = 95. Add the carried forward portion of the previous multiplication i.e. 5 and the result is 100. Retain 0 in the tens place of the result and carry forward 10. Now multiply the tens digit of both the numbers i.e. 9 x 4 = 36. Add 10 to this result and you get 46. Prefix this with the answer and the resulting number is the final answer i.e. 4606.

Seems complicated - trust me its not. Lets try 69 x 29
9 x 9 = 81 Retain 1 in the units place and carry forward 8 (*1 is the answer)
(6 x 9) + (9 x 2) + Carry forward portion 8 = 80. Retain 0 in the tens place and carry forward 8
(*01 is the answer)
6 x 2 + Carry forward portion 8 = 20
Prefix this to 81 and the final answer is 2001

Try this with a few numbers and you will love the speed and accuracy with which you can solve problems.

...To Be Continued
http://www.gmatwings.in/
Email: info@gmatwings.in