Saturday, March 29, 2008

End of the GMAT Quarter

I have scored 710 in the GMAT. It's not earth shattering but it’s a decent score and it’s “an accurate estimation of my ability” (this phrase comes from one of my prep books). It was a fantastic battle of wits and though I miss the adrenaline charged prep days, I’m very happy and want to thank some people here:

Jivtesh (aka Jitu, aka Jivi) – Best brother in the world. Also my best friend. Expert at the carrot and stick approach. “If you get a good score, you’ll go to a good school …If you go to a good school; you’ll get to be with the most interesting people in the world for the rest of your life.”
Col Kanwaljit Singh – Father, friend, support system. My dad is not the overtly expressive, affectionate type. He’s the type who spends hours and days researching prep institutes, making a comprehensive list of them and then ranking them according to multiple criteria- duration of course, distance from home, success stories, et al so that I can decide which one is best for me.
Ashish K Gupta – Friend and sharer of happiness, misery, trial and triumphs for the last ten years. “What you need is a change in direction. You need to get into something that you will be effortlessly good at. In short, you need to get an MBA. Just take a look at the ISB site.” And all I needed to do was look at the ISB site.
Neelesh M – Gave me the all important last minute tips the night before the exam. “Remember to cap your pen - it keeps drying up; Carry something to eat in the break; this is just your kind of exam- you’ll do well”
Pooja Negi – One of those blessings that only the luckiest people get. Pooja and I have been friends since we were both giggling schoolgirls. She’s the kind of girl who calls you up from London twice a week just to say that she believes in you and she can just ‘sense that you’re going to do great things’. And this woman has this ethereal, other world air about her that you find everything she says so convincing.
Sonal Verma – A ten year history of mutual affection and admiration. I know that she does not lie, so when she says that she knows that I’m going to go places, I believe her.
P Promod and Nileena Promod– My boss and his wife. He, because he voiced encouragement and gave quiet support; She, because she always listens with perfect empathy to all my rants and also because she makes such fantastic coffee and ‘puttu’.
My friends Kimmi , Sapna , Anuradha, Vishal, The RDs and of course my supermom – What did I do to deserve such a consistent support system?
So I have taken the first step towards the dream. But like Jitu said, it’s only 30 percent of the job done. But what a thirty percent it was. Specific goals to fulfill, a deadline to meet, and success so much within reach - how I wish all of life were like preparing for GMAT. When it seemed that coordinate geometry was going to be my Achilles’ heel, I spent one whole week doing nothing but coordinate geometry, hour after hour. Marcus Buckingham (now, Discover your strengths) tells me to concentrate on my strengths and not worry about my weaknesses. I love him but I refused to obey him when it came to my GMAT prep. When I started out, Critical reasoning was another fragile area but by the end of three months, I found myself analyzing my friends’ and colleagues’ conversations…..”Sir, it rather looks to me like your plan suffers from the fallacy of biased sampling. What would strengthen your argument is some evidence that your survey actually did consider all the parameters required. Also, there exists an unsupported assumption that wishing for change is the same as a desire to work for the change…..” I bet they’re all glad I studied for only three months.

2 comments:

  1. "fallacy of biased sampling" = priceless !

    I was thinking - conversations with you are always so interesting, I can't imagine how much more interesting it would get when you do your MBA at one of the top institutions!

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  2. At first thought after reading the post i felt that she did not thank me, but rightfully so i had nothing to do with the 710!! (congrats by the way)... Let me tell you what i know of Manjot - She is the kind of person who would "Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully" and now expect such a person of doing MBA and leading an organization someday, Would be so cool!!

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