The prep begins

Its been 5 years since i passed out of college and appeared in any sort of exam. To gauge my current level i gave one mock GMAT test and scored pretty badly. I used crack_the_GMAT test and got 580 (q51, v14). It was hard to concentrate and i did quant in 40 minutes and verbal in around 35 minutes.

I found quant to be easy but the verbal section stunned me. I felt as if all the choices were the same. If i have to meet my target of > = 750, then i need to work hard on basics of verbal. Getting a 51 on quant was a pleasant feeling but i made few silly mistakes ( i think i got 3 wrong out of 37 and all 3 were stupid mistakes).

I have not yet taken the date and don't intend to take one till i feel confident, i will start putting in 1-2 hours daily for first 3-4 weeks and once my stamina improves i will start clocking 3 hours or so during weekdays and maybe more on weekends. (Ms S is not going to like my idea of studying so much )

I have shortlisted the following material for my prep:
Sentence Correction: Manhattan -- have heard a lot about it, og-10 and 12
CR - OG-10, 12
RC -- will try and read articles of The Economist to improve my concentration levels
Quant -- will brush up some fundamentals and solve tons of problems esp DS

Will try and learn few tricks to solve the problems efficiently and if i find any such tricks i will share them with you all.

I wAnt To bEll thE cAt!!!

Men love CATS (no slang intended) ! Atleast i do, a considerable part of my life has been spent chasing the cats. Be it the species called "Felis Catus" or the "Common Admission Test" or my latest fascination "Computer Adaptive Test".

I adopted one stray cat (actually the cat started to live in my house and i used to give her the left overs to feed on. But to add to my list of community services i would say that i had adopted the cat) in year 1999 and took good care of her( believe me). But the cat lived upto her treacherous image and left me alone in year 2000. This heartache screwed up my IIT JEE preparations (As if it was not for this reason i would have pummeled the JEE entrance).

After being dumped by a" felis catus" in year 2000, another CAT (common admission test) gave me a heartache in 2003. I had prepared hard for the exam but the paper got leaked (it was for the first time in the history of CAT, as if i would have scored 99.99 percentile if the paper was not cancelled ;) ) I was really DETERMINED to "bell the CAT" ( don't know whether i really wanted to crack the CAT or it was peer influence, i think it was latter) but again CAT delivered the knock out punch.

If i have to go by the history, i should stay away from CATS(be it animal, exam or any damn thing called cat) . Recently, a CAT called Computer Adaptive Testing aka GMAT crossed my path (As per hindu mythology its not a very auspicious sign) and boy, this time i really want to own this CAT.

I will keep you guys updated of my chase.(as of now only Ms S reads my blog :'( , so i shud have written i will keep you updated Ms S)