Hi PGuys and PGals,

Well, it looks like people want to listen to my rants and ravings after all…. So here it is, a blow-by-
blow account of all the details about my Prep.

But first, a bit about me and my profile… some people asked me about myself, so I’ll put in lot of
lines about myself :-). (This is mostly a copy from one of my previous posts, so all of those who
have read it already can please just skip this bit).

Education:
I'm an MCA from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology 2002 batch, which I finished
with a CGPA of 9.02/10. Before that I did my BSc(H) from Delhi University, Hansraj College.
Since MCA takes 3 years, I guess for purposes of the application they'll consider that I already
have a Masters Degree. It also means that by the time I start Business School, I'll have about 5
years of work ex. I also used to do a lot of choreographies during my MCA (I was called the
'Choreo Queen of the PGs' ), so I have some good extra curricular activities to my name.
Work Ex:
I joined CSC from campus, and worked there for almost 3 years. In 2005 I left CSC to join a
smaller company -NIIT Technologies- because I wanted a role shift, and they agreed to
'transition' me.
I moved from a techie role to that of a Business Analyst, after training in Testing for two months
under our QA head in NIIT Tech.
(This was Ritu Gupta, who happens to be an IIM-B MBA with 15+ years of experience--- She was
a major inspiration for me. She encouraged me to go for an International MBA, and believed in
me enough when I scarcely believed in myself. My team lead Kakali Pal was wonderful too. Ever
encouraging… I couldn’t have done it without them. If I put in the perspiration, they were the
inspiration).

I went for this role shift, because after 3 years of working as a Techie, I knew for sure that I
wanted to understand the BUSINESS more, not just the technology that enabled it. I knew I
wanted to be at a level that drove the technology, and so I moved into the Business side of IT
enabled services.

I have been working for almost a year as a Business Analyst now, in the Insurance Domain. It's
not as fancy as it sounds, I basically write the Business Specs, and do all the black box testing
and facilitate the acceptance testing for my SPRs. Which again, is another fancy way of saying
that I run after all the business users trying to finalise the requirements, do my meagre stuff,
make sure that atleast the code won't blow up in anyone's face, and then run after them again,
trying cajole them to give their sign-offs on the implemented SPR.
That’s it… that’s me.

The Prep…

1. Four months to go…

I decided to give the GMAT in January this year. However, I wasn’t able to start any serious Prep
till April. In April, I signed up for the IMS coaching, because I needed something to get myself into
the groove. I concentrated on the IMS material for the Quant, and on Kaplan for the verbal.

Here I must say something about Saurabh who taught us Quant in the IMS Noida centre. He is
way cool. He taught us at a hard brisk pace, but made sure we got the concepts, while
encouraging us to aim high. He was a friend and a tutor… on the last few days, in the middle of
my panic attacks, I have called him at 10:00 at night to ask him to solve a Quant problem that
was eluding me… and he never grumbled once. Always a smile, always a helping had. Thanks
Saurabh… you’re the best.

After having finished the Kaplan Premier Program (except the CD tests), I finished Kaplan’s
Verbal and Quantitative workbooks. The Kaplan books really helped to improve my command on
the verbal questions.

2. Two months to go…

After doing all the IMS BRMs and the Kaplan Verbal Workbook, I started on OG11.
I divided it up, so I would do about 20 questions each day from each of the 5 question types (DS,
PS, CR, RC and SC). I was working too, so I could spare a maximum of 2 hours a day, not more.
I tried putting in a bit more on the weekends, but I had both my coaching classes to attend, and
my sleep to catch up on- so I could put in a max of 5 hours each on Sat and Sun (including the 2
hours for coaching classes).

I also plotted ‘accuracy curves’ I would calculate the percentage of correct questions for each
day, and then see how I progressed from day to day.
OG11 questions are arranged in order of difficulty (or so the book claims). I reasoned that if my
scores decreased, it meant that my Prep was not improving at the same rate as the level of
difficulty was rising. If it stayed constant, then my rate of improvement was the same as the rise in
difficulty, and if the scores rose, then I was improving at a higher rate.

On the third day my scores dropped dramatically. I took some time off from OG and did Kaplan
800 thoroughly. I have to say, the verbal strategies in this book are great. Be it CR, RC or SC, I
found Kaplan great.
I started on the OG again. This time, I was hitting the harder questions, but my scores had
improved. Kaplan 800 had done its job. :-)

My problem areas had been DS and SC. I did a causal analysis for both, to identify the areas that
were pulling me down. I went by the Pareto Law… and identified the ‘20%’ areas that were
causing ‘80%’ of the effect.
I found that in DS, I got most of the questions wrong because I muddled up the two Statements. I
would drag information from one into the other. I managed to stop this by practicing as much as I
could.

In SC, my problem causes, in order of impact were:

* Idioms
* Pronoun Reference

I tackled the first one by making a list of 250 Idioms… and going through that list every morning.
For Pronoun reference, I found that the only way for me to handle this was to read the sentence
more ‘actively’ instead of passively, and just be really careful.
I think my analysis must have worked, because my SC accuracy went up from 70% to 95%. I
started getting a consistent 90-95% accuracy in SC. My DS accuracy went up to about 92-96%.
After finishing OG11, and trying to block the loopholes in my Prep, I bought the OG Verbal and
Quant workbooks. When I did these two (again about 20 questions each day from each section), I
calculated my ‘weighted accuracy’.
Since the questions are arranged in order of difficulty, I weighted the questions. The first 1/3 at
level one, the next 1/3 at level 2, and last 1/3 at level three.
I found that as a result of all the Prep, my accuracy had gone up to

* PS 98.3%
* DS 95.3%
* CR 96.8%
 * RC 92.4%
* SC 91.5%

I had done a few paper tests too. Three IMS ones, and the paper test in the Kaplan Premier
program. My scores were:
IMS Diagnostic: 680 (this was a ‘no prep’ score)
IMS Paper test 1: 730
IMS Paper test 4: 740
Kaplan Paper test: 710

3. The Last Two weeks…

I had taken leave for the last two weeks before my GMAT. Unfortunately, I had a release on the
14th of July. As a result, I could hardly study from 3rd July to 14th July. When I took my first test
(the Crack-GMAT free online test) on the 15th of July, I scored just 650. I was unable to finish the
Quant section (I had lost so much speed), and I was panicking through the verbal section,
watching the clock and going quietly crazy.

I didn’t cry or panic because I decided I didn’t have TIME to!!!! I put in my best in the last two
weeks. I gave 2 IMS CATs in which I scored 730 and 740 again. My Kaplan and GMAT Prep
scores were:

Kaplan CAT 1 670 ------ Q50 V36

Kaplan CAT 2 680 ------ Q50 V37
Kaplan CAT 3 640 ------ Q46 V34
Kaplan CAT 4 650 ------ Q42 V38
GMAT Prep 1 720------- Q49 V38 (4 days before the exam… Panic killed me here)
GMAT Prep 2 770------- Q50 V44 (2 days before the exam)

My Kaplan scores drove me crazy. I was really depressed at being unable to hit 700. My brother
Rana went out and got prints of all the posts of all the GMAT biggies on PaGalGuy… and showed
me their scores. He played counselor and tried to convince me that Kaplan was probably harder,
or had skewed scores, since all the Biggies had got Kaplan scores in the 650-700 range too.
Now, he’s a younger brother, and everyone knows Big Sisters Do Not Listen To Younger
Brothers. So I posted my panic post on PaGalGuy. Of course all you guys were great… esp
‘amitnsitian’. He was a major morale booster. Kunal Nagpal of the illustrious GMAT Biggie Group
pitched in with his morale boost too.

4. The Day Before the Exam…

I did nothing the day before the exam… I watched ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and gawked at Keira
Knightly. Even though I am female, I can’t help but gawk at her. And of course I gawked a fair
amount at ‘Mr Darcy’.
And then I prayed like crazy… I must have chanted for over an hour to bring my nerves under
control. I knew that the only thing that could mess up my exam was Panic.

5. D-Day…
I went to give the GMAT armed with my Passport and a big Bar of Lindt Dark Truffle Chocolate.
The AWA went fine in my estimation, but then, I have yet to see the scores.

The Quant started of fine… I am pretty sure I didn’t make any mistakes in the first 20. However,
around the 25th question, the questions had become quite tough, and I was lagging behind in
time. I was scared I wouldn’t be able to complete the questions, so the next few I marked in a
hurry, not bothering to really check the answers. There were a couple of questions so tough that I
knew it would take me longer than I could afford, to solve them. I think it was here that I made
about three or four mistakes. About the 33rd question, I was back in the pace again, and solved
the last four. Again, I don’t think I made any mistakes with these ones.

Verbal started off with a CR followed by and SC, and then 4 RC questions. My 7th question was
boldface CR. Knowing the reputation that boldfaces have of being tough, I guessed that I must
have done the first 6 correct.
I got another boldface in the 20s, and a third boldface as my 37th question. When I had 6-7
questions left, I had about 30 mins left. It took me about 16+ minutes to do the last 4 questions.
They were really tough. I thought to myself, OK, either my brain has given out under the stress, or
else I’m doing really well to get such toughies.

Thank God it was the second option :-)

6. And after….
If anyone needs to ask any questions, please feel free. I live in Noida, so if anyone needs me to
help them out personally, I’d be happy to do so. Please send me a PM, and I’ll see what I can do
to help.

Cheerio
Keya