SWAAANS

ooom.. my first post on the blog...
so i finally got the impetus of saving my experiences as blog postings when i met a very good frnd and he further forced me to keep posting so that all my experiences and mistakes( hope i don’t make any) can be useful for future aspirants...(wow i am used to think about this word so often when writing essays...)..

anyways lets get started...though I am in the second step of my application process but will try to start from the first step i.e giving GMAT... ..First misconception about MBA....that GMAT is the first step...i would rater say ideally it is the last step...haha am i turning the table up side down.. believe me i am not...

When I was well into the application process, writing essays and likes i realized that if one plans his MBA 2-3 yrs before actually giving GMAT how easy it would have been to write the essays.
Anyways I promise this would be my second post soon.... but for now lets not digress and come to "How to play GMAT GMAT".. Its easy to say play now but to prevent GMAT playing a game with you on G day (common acronym for GMAT day-G day) one need to be well prepared.

Lets be succinct and try to finds points to proceed to GMAT preparation.

1. Start building network. With whatever little experience I have had, I can vouch that this will always stand as my first bullet everywhere. And by build network it does not mean visiting orkut daily and search for people, to me it means finding people who you think are good and can be resourceful...i know i know u never know who can be of help someday, so be generic and concentrate on finding people who are biggies...i.e. if you find out people like Vice President in a company, some one in higher management and likes you would realize that talking to these people how perspective changes.... (This is one of my fav topic....I dream to write a book on this...lets see when the dream comes true...)...ok to summarize in Hindi " be jugado" haha let me translate....... jugado = resourceful.

to be specific to GMAT on this bullet, find people and friends who have given GMAT and HAVE DONE WELL ( i hope i am clear as what i am trying to say).

2. First thing first. Don’t think twice and buy the book "Official guide to GMAT" I suggest buy both 10th and 11th edition. Many people say and I second them that this is the bible for GMAT ( for Christians reading please pardon me for comparing Bible to any other book)

3. Have a fair idea on when you think to give GMAT. if you planning to apply to US B schools the first deadline for all schools is October mid types and for the second round Jan first week types. So think accordingly and plan. Have read somewhere that adcomm (admission committee...believe me u will come across this word 100 times a day while working on applications) correlates when u gave GMAT and when u r applying. I don’t agree, so don’t want to write more on this.

4. So if you have read some pages of Official guide and you still want to read further that’s time to celebrate. Just kidding... Have a idea of what is the exam pattern like.

5. Now the best part. INTERNET. Dive into the plethora of information and catch some gold fish, what I mean is that there is so much information available that its easy to drown but try to figure out some discussion forums where like minded people do like minded talks in a like minded fashion. Some of the sites I comprehensively followed are www.scoretop.com, www.sentencecorrection.com, www.testmagic.com . For me scoretop was the best frnd, even beating my wife in terms of the time I spent with scoretop.. hope she doesn’t read all this..

6. In retrospection i feel scoretop was the best thing that happened to me. I sincerely want to thank for such an amazing initiative.

7. Start reading posts and start participating in discussions. This i believe is the fastest boat to catch to reach the destination. Reading posts you will realize what GMAT is all about and what direction u need to take ur preparation. One good thing I liked about scoretop is that the posts people post are obviously questions which either they cud not solve or some magnanimous guy (can even be a gal) think he ( might be she) can share with fellow scortopians. Simply this helps..

8. Ok so what about the material. Spent time to collect all the material you can fetch from whatever resources u can. Are you understanding the significance of bullet one. Some of the material i used was:
-- Official Guide 10 & 11 edition No doubt, best material.
You might feel the questions are on a easier side but dont make the impression that GMAT will be same. these are sample questions. Most important take away from this book s the explanation of the questions. I read somewhere " each and every explanation must be on urs tips on the G day" and I can vouch for the truthness of that statement.

--Kaplan. CD and Book.
In terms of the toughenss of the material, no doubt this is tougher than actual GMAT but u also need things to scare you ...dont you...
I think this is a good material to practise. CD has lot of practice questions with decent enough explanations.

--princeton. CD and Book.
i think CD is better. Again not correct representation of exact GMAT questions but good for practice.

-- Manhattan guide to sentence correction.
Undoubtedly the best book ever written on Sentence correction preparation. (please don’t sue me for overemphasizing on this book, there might be better material but I am not aware). I think there is a soft copy of this book floating somewhere on www.scoretop.com
Amazing book for idiots like me who don’t want to read Wren and Martin. Just kidding, this book explains the common errors GMAT tests.

-- now some misc material. Most of this material drove me crazy and tried to flounder me until someone rescued me by telling that these material are not so good and don’t do them diligently. Anyways if you like to take chances the list goes like this.
Barrons, powerprep, novas, 800score.com, crackGMAT, GMAT soft and so on the list continues until u reach moon.

Don’t run corners finding these material. If you are flirting with scoretop properly you will find all the relevant and good material from these misc items as part of some discussion thread.

-9 Now back to www.scoretop.com. I am sure I am still in love with this beauty.
Link to debrief I had posted on scoretop after my GMAT ( by the way I have scored 750 in my GMAT)
http://www.scoretop.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=31070&KW=620+to+750

-10. so if you are still reading and not cursing me I must say you have a quality to write in your application essays “determination”.

So that’s all, I hope I can be useful to one and all. Hope you had a great time and best of luck (you bet with me u will need lots) for your sojourn to MBA.

Disclaimer: Each and every though and expression is this blog is my view and are not intended to breach anything or hurt anyone. I cant guarantee on any of the above suggestions but can vouch that the same worked for me.