Mission aborted!!!

640 50 27

Irrespective of the outcome, i had planned to do many activities. Primary of them, thanking all those who supported through this journey. special mention to Iday who guided me and patiently answered my queries.

Penultimate day

Needless to say i didn't do anything worth mentioning as far as preparation is concerned..... or is it one way of preparing for exam?? I don't know why i am getting nervous. This is not the first time i am taking a career-defining exam. I have seen it all. 12th board exam (the present academic bas have made those exams irrelevant as far as the engineering stream is concerned it was quite different in my days), college exams... and this is not going to be last of such moment in my life.

(Start dreaming)Just imagine stepping into the bed room for the first night. What a big moment for a virgin like me .(Stop dreaming) Man this exam is nothing compared to that.One should learn to take everything in his/her stride. I am also learning.

I tried to redo certain parts in prep materials. I was not concentrating at all. I was thinking of both pleasures the success would bring and pressures the failure would bring. I decided to see the test centre cos i should not be searching the centre tomorrow. Transferred my weight on libero. It didn't start for a while (poor maintenance?!?!). On the way, I almost got crushed by MTC bus. I skidded near Choolaimedu with the bike landing heavily on my left leg.....Hmmm I am beginning to sense fortune here. I was not killed by the accident. My legs are safe. Seems like lady luck is going to have a date with me tomorrow. With this thought, now, I am confident of taking GMAT challenge.

Dwindler's List

I have decided on the five schools which i would give for free scores in the GMAT exam.
York University: Schulich
McGill University
University of British Columbia: Sauder
Queen's School of Business
National University of Singapore

I have selected schools in a such a way it could cover the entire spectrum.While the course offered in Queens is what i am aiming for, there are other universities which i am ready to settle. The main criterion for selection has been the fees. (what to do? middle class mind man!!)Ofcourse, Schulich is top of all univs.McGill and UBC are with manageable fees. NUS being my poor cousin. Based on the GMAT score, my risk taking ability would increase. :) Till then this is the list.

GMAT PREP 2

740 (Didn't note the split some i think 51 and 40+)

I started the day directly without any warmup. I usually warm up reading newspaper before indulging any GMAT activity. Today, i didn't do that. Just thought what difference does it going to make. It did make a difference. I completed 2 essays. I was feeling uneasy. I was not concentrating enough. By subconsious mind was doing all the work. After 10 questions or so, i got an easy question. I was really sad. I thought something is terribly wrong. You guys remember the static screen that would appear in DD before the programs start around 5pm. My mind was like that today. I decided against all my strength to quit the test. I know i was trying to stimulate the test day as far as possible. In the test day, i cannot do what i was doing today. But, why carry on when you are not at all thinking.

All thoughts of failure and subsequent embarrassment were simulated in my mind. I couldn't take it any more. I started reading Business Today and slept unknowningly. My mom woke me up for lunch. I washed my face and took the test again. As i don't want to face the same question again, I tried re-installing. GMAT prep was very smart, it gave me the same session. Then, i decided ...o.k i would take the same test. I completed the test. Again concentration was o.k. I never believed it was a good atempt.

Quants was killing me. Usually, i do 1 question/minute and have sufficient time to spare. Today, hmm-um... May be i am missing Kap800 here. Hope i don't miss it dearly in actual test. First time in my life, i was enjoying verbal more than quants. number of mistakes stands at 5 for quants and 11 for verbal.I don't know what to take from the test. Though, there are lots of positives and 740 is very commendable, there is a sense of fear going on undercurrent in my stomach.

This is what my last three tests show
670
770
740

The average is 730 and my aim is 800. This test changed all my perceptions about my strengths and weaknesses. I want to finish this as fast as possible. Can't wait for the moment!!!.

POWER PREP 2

770 Q51 V42

I was very disappointed to miss 800 by just 30. o.k o.k just kidding.The initial thought was "What ?!?!". cos i really didn't concentrate well. It didn't require. Most of the questions were reminiscent of OG questions. I had 28 and 18 minutes to spare in quants and verbal respectively. I decided to discard this score as i thought this was not reflecting my actual ability. But, the very taste of 770 was very good. Just thinking.... mission 800 was afterall not impossible.

Fifth day gone

I took Kaplan book's practice test. Best thing about the test was that i was able to concentrate the entire 3 to 4 hrs. I took full length test including AWA. I never thought i could focus given what happened the entire last week. (I wasted much of the time including watching some soft porn movie clips. Bad boy huh?!?!). Main point is that i took this test seriously.

Result
Figures indicate Quants followed by Verbal
Time to spare 15 20
Correct 35 31
Wrong 2 10
Raw Score 34.5 28.5
Scaled Score 52 38
Total 670
Percentile 91

PS and DS are very silly mistakes. One was multiplication error and other was ...i thought 0 is not a multiple of 5.I am both happy as well as worried about RC. I always think RC is my weak point. Happy because i got only 3 wrongs. Worried because i am consistently making mistake in my first RC (5th question this time). It is the first question i flunk always. I was really surprised by the amount of mistakes i did in SC. Many were close. CR is my strong point of all three.A credible performance indeed. But, nowhere close to my target 800.

Plan ahead