The Broad Reality of the Altered Indian Mindset

Firstly, thank you everyone for reading this blog over the past year and for your constant support! This week I started receiving emails about any help/advice I could offer with respect to each of your individual situations, and I hope my comments helped you out. It feels good knowing that I may have helped some people the way others have helped me.

Moving on, today's blog post addresses an important issue - the Indian mindset. No, this is not GMAT-related, so if that's what you're here for, then this is not the post for you. My dad has a habit of sending me around four to five articles a day from the Times of India, just to learn and keep in touch with whats happening back at home. And a couple of days ago, he sent me this article, titled "Shining India, swaggering India".

The title of the article as well as the opening sentence - Rage is the dominant emotion in India today - can be perhaps a little misleading. The article doesn't discuss rage and how to overcome it. Rather, the article addresses the Indian mentality of power, and how power is more abused than put to good use - and this is addressed right from the second line.

How many times do we speak of corrupt politicians and other people of authority? The following paragraph is spot on:

Time was when politicians showed humility, even if fake and contrived, to the public, fully conscious of the optics of the folded hands. Today, a chief minister walks off in a huff when her constituents ask questions that she finds inconvenient. And then sends cops to check out the antecedents of the questioners, who are college students. Her message is unambiguous: I am powerful and, therefore, can do whatever I want to you serfs. 

It is to be noted that abusing power is not restricted to the celebs. Ordinary people abuse waiters, maids, security guards, small shop owners and others with similar professions. There is no civility in everyday conversations. I don't mean this to come off as arrogance, but to give an example, I use 'please' and 'thank you' pretty often. Shop owners and waiters are literally startled when that happens - and it even goes to the extreme where sometimes I am asked to pay more in shops as they think I'm a foreigner. All because I was polite. As the article says:

Such messages, coming from those who are in public life and should be role models of civility, filter down rapidly. The signal is unambiguous: power allows you to strut and squash anyone who is beneath you. More money, better job, bigger car are all markers of influence and muscle, which must be deployed to show the lower orders their place. To these superior beings, the ordinary laws do not apply. VIPs of all hues, for example, do not believe in queues of any kind. How often do we see this sense of entitlement being played out at airports, where the great and the good breeze past security? Body checks and boring lines at immigration are not for them.

The rising rage is directly related to our increasing lack of civility. Sorry seems to be a word that has disappeared from our lexicon. When common courtesies, such as holding the door open for someone behind you, vanish, a society is well on the road to boorishness and eventually rage. Good manners are the bedrock of civilised social transactions; are we a good-mannered people? 

The really sad thing is that people accept this - people accept the fact that we Indians have different rules of treating people depending on who that is, something even the writer of the article noted:

The bizarre part is that we, as citizens of a democratic country, freely accept and even justify such feudal inequality. After Shah Rukh Khan, who finds it difficult to keep his temper in check in India, was held up for questioning at an American airport, many Indians were outraged because a celebrity was treated in this manner. It did not occur to them that for an American customs official, there are no exceptions, only the rules that must be followed. We quietly and happily submit to the Indian way of doing things, which is to have a different set of rules for VIPs; there our sense of rage deserts us. 

How on earth can people even think that they are better than others because of what they do? What about those who happen to be born into a rich family and start acting like they own the world? What about those who use their fame to act like they are God's gift to the rest of our country?

No one knows when this will end. The biggest shame is that our rage seems to be directed towards those at the bottom of the social ladder, those unable to defend themselves, those who are expected to merely surrender as the 'superiors' use their authority on them. As the writer of the article asks:

What will happen if one day they start showing their rage? 

Clear Admit's School Snapshot Review: IESE Business School

I downloaded Clear Admit's School Snapshot for IESE Business School a couple of days ago, and my initial impression was one regret. I don't know when these were made available, but I do know they weren't available when I was choosing my schools, and I wish they were.

A list of core courses, a brief description on the School's Faculty and Curriculum, as well as a report on the campus, student life, and social clubs. A detailed statistical representation on the admission trends for the School, including class profiles and post-MBA career tracks. Finally, procedures for application and financing the MBA. In short, literally everything you need to know about a School, its stance on business education, facilities offered, and admission and application statistics. 

When I was gathering information, I had to pour through the IESE website as well as other sites like Beat The GMAT, FT Global MBA Rankings and QS rankings for MBA universities. Clear Admit have just done the work for you in the School Snapshot series. I haven't downloaded any other School Snapshot, but based on this one, (and the fact that it's free, so what are you really losing?) I'd say its worth the download. 

GMAT Review: Part II - Tips

Part II of the GMAT Review deals with tips for acing the GMAT - what to do, what not to do, based on what I've learnt and what I've read. See Part I for information on learning and strategy. The following bits of information are resources and procedures I highly recommend in order to get a good score.

Plan your timeline


Create a study timeline. This should vary from person to person, as it depends on the areas of weakness or the areas you would like to target. Take a practice test to gauge your level, and go through the answers to find out the areas in which you are lacking. Most people are weaker in Verbal, so start with that. Devote a certain number of weeks for each section of the GMAT. I suggest devoting approximately two hours a day per weekday and maybe four to five hours a day per weekend - this means that your entire prep should last around 3 months. 

Learn first, then attack the questions

Read through the concepts presented, as well as the strategies put forward to help you tackle each type of question. Each concept is usually presented with an example. Work through these as you learn, so that you can help understand how they are used. Use the review questions in each strategy book to help you.

Flashcards

You can download some free flashcards here. Or you can use Manhattan GMAT's flashcards, available for free with any purchase of MGMAT products. Or (and this is my advice), make your own. There is no better way to instill the concepts in your head than by writing it down. You can also make the flashcards in the format that would suit you the most. I made my 'flashcards' on PowerPoint, and you can find them here:

Sentence Correction

Critical Reasoning

Reading Comprehension

Data Sufficiency

Problem Solving

Official Guides

Bear in mind, however, to not start practicing questions from the Official Guide that address those concepts. Questions on the GMAT are never organised by concept, nor by topic, and practicing them in order will not help you one bit. You need to have all strategies and concepts in your head so that your mind learns how to switch from one to another; you need to learn how to switch from RC to CR, from stats to algebra, from SC to RC. I suggest learning and working through each strategy book, before then devoting all your time on the OGs. 

Use an error log

There are several available online, but my favorites are the ones found here. I downloaded them and updated them as I was working - yes they do slow you down as you have to update the log after every question, but they do help you in figuring out which areas you need to target and what your strengths and your weaknesses are. 

Take a break

There's no point in taking time off work or studies and concentrating solely on the GMAT for 12 hours a day. The test works to test your understanding and your ability to think, and not your memorization techniques. Try not to exceed 20 hours of GMAT-related study a week, and take one day off per week - one day where you don't even think about the GMAT. Your brain needs that break to work better.

Practice tests

Take one of the free practice tests available from GMAC on www.mba.com as a diagnostic before you start your prep. It will help gauge your level so you know where you stand and just how much you need to improve. Take the same test again after you have gone through the strategy books and worked through the review questions. There should be some sort of improvement - if not, its time to review those concepts. If you have improved, then dive into the OGs. Manhattan GMAT provides 6 full length practice tests, so use those as well; take the first after working with the OG for a couple of weeks. Just a note though - no practice test can be as beneficial to you as the ones provided by GMAC. Use your second practice test a couple of weeks before your real test, so you have the chance to take it more than once if you wish. Aim to take a total of 6-8 full length tests during the course of your study.


Fixing the test date


The biggest mistake I made was fixing my date before the start of my prep. I am one of those people who need a deadline looming over their heads to get working. Unfortunately, since I was living in a new country for an internship, I just did not have the discipline required to work day in and day out on the GMAT - I wanted to travel, really get to know the city and do all those touristy things, since I didn't know if I would ever make it there. Due to this distraction, I wasn't able to fully complete the OG; in fact I was just halfway through, and didn't even touch the OG Verbal and Quant books. So either book your date in advance and reschedule it if you haven't finished with your material, or else only schedule your test when you are sufficiently prepared and are confident of acing the test. 

Before the real test

Do not take any practice tests on the week of your real tests. Do not overwork with practice problems either. Ideally you should not work on the GMAT at all on the day before your test. If you are like me and need to have a look at the problems to get your brain ready to tackle the test, then do one problem in each area on the morning of the test - i.e. one question each for RC, CR, SC, PS, DS and IR. 

To all those giving their tests soon, good luck! Feel free to ask me for anything you need. 

GMAT Review: Part I - Learning

A long overdue post, since I took the GMAT on 14th October 2012. But I was slightly ashamed of my just-acceptable score of 700, which was below the median accepted score for all the six schools I was applying to. Surprisingly, I wasn't the only one in this position, as during the month of October I spotted quite a few posts on BTG about retake stratgies for those already in the 700-800 range. I was annoyed at myself for being able to score upto 750 in practice, and that was probably the reason for the disappointment.  Looking back (gotta love hindsight), it was silly of me to be ashamed - 90th percentile is still no easy feat, and I'm proud of myself. Now that I've moved on, I feel more comfortable talking about it, and hence, this blog post.

My advice for retakers, in case you're interested, is don't sweat it. It is true that schools will focus more on GMAT scores when deciding between two candidates or deciding the admission priority of the waitlisted applicants. But it is also true that once you reach a certain score (let's say 680), your GMAT is crossed off the AdCom's checklist and they're on to other aspects of your application. Everyone knows that there's a plus/minus of 30 points, so AdCom members are generally willing to give you the benefit of those extra points. It may also help to note that if they honestly hesistate on accepting you solely on the basis of your GMAT score, they will contact you and perhaps request you to retake the exam. In fact, I think one of my schools had a checkbox on the self-reporting scores page, where I had to tick whether I would retake the GMAT if I were asked.

When it comes to taking the GMAT, it's important to understand that you just cannot memorise your way through the test. That's not to say some have unsucceeded in doing so; in fact a fellow BTG forum user who apparently scored a 760 on the GMAT recently posted the following "I am in oil. Please advise schools for me." (He said a lot more, but I was too shocked after reading that first sentence that I didn't somehow want to read the rest).

I like to believe one has truly only aced the GMAT if one continues to use the concepts learnt in reality. And for that reason, I cannot stress enough on learning before practicing. My strategies are now perfectly in place, and I also used the knowledge I gained and incorporated it into my essays, which I think definitely helped.

http://www.afewgoodminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Verbal_GMAT_Focus.jpg

Several strategy books exist, and several good ones too. How do you pick? The following post helped me out. I used that list and several other forums, and after almost two weeks, finally chose the following (see my blog post on this topic):

The Official Guide for GMAT Review:

This book is an absolute must for anyone taking the GMAT. From the makers of the test themselves, this has a zillion practice questions, all of them being genuine past questions, and hence really help you get an idea of the types of questions you will be dealing with on the actual test. This book also has some review, but I suggest skipping it, as it's really not that great.

GMAT Quantitative Review & GMAT Verbal Review:

Again, these are practice books with genuine past questions, and while there are a couple of repetitions, most questions are different from the ones in the OG. Get this only if you need more practice after completing the OG. I made the mistake of ordering these early on, and really did not have the time to attack the questions here. 

 

Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guide - Number Properties:

Great book. The book includes strategies for attacking problems which you have probably seen in O Levels (or equivalent) and hence just don't remember how to deal with them - that's how basic they are. As an engineering student, I've done math that is way harder than this, and end up using the calculator to perform such problems. Not on the GMAT! Totally worth the buy.

Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guide - Word Translations:

I found this book useful because it helps you to break down the questions into solvable pieces. Too often you get a question on the GMAT that is longwinded, and by the time you finish reading the question, you panic because you have no idea what you really have to do, or else you calculate the wrong value (which is also an answer choice, as the cheeky people in GMAC anticipate your mistakes). While this may not be a must-buy, it's worth it if you're out of touch with word problems. 

Powerscore Critical Reasoning Bible:

This was the first book I started with, and I loved it. It clearly approaches the different types of CR questions that will come up on the test - from an explanation on what the question is looking for, to strategies to find the right answer. Best book I bought, in my opinion. Highly recommended. 

Veritas Prep GMAT Reading Comprehension:

This is a pretty decent book - the strategies barely made up 20 pages, after which it was practice questions. But one can't blame Veritas Prep for that - how on earth does one teach reading comprehension anyway? They do a pretty decent job of it. 4 stars.

Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guide - Sentence Correction:

This ties with the CR Bible for the best book. I'm looking to sell my GMAT books but I won't sell this one. It has everyone one needs to know about grammar and spotting the errors in a given sentence. Yes its a little longwinded, but how else can one cover all the possible grammatical errors that are tested? 100% recommended. 

Part II of my GMAT Review will be out next week, where I'll discuss some tips on how I 'aced' (not really) the GMAT - what I learnt, what I didn't, and how I'd go about it if I were to do it all over again. Check back soon!

Being a Novak Djokovic fan is finally paying off.

As a rabid tennis fan, there’s no tournament more exclusive than Wimbledon. Maybe because it’s the oldest grand slam, maybe because it’s on grass, or maybe because traditionally all players wear white, Wimbledon just oozes class. Not only that, but the crowd are probably the most well behaved out of all tennis spectators. One can only compare them to the ones at Roland Garros, for example, with the unruly crowd, some half drunk, booing certain players for challenging a line call. *shudders*

Being a Djokovic fan since he burst into the scene in 2007, I’ve been more inclined towards hard courts, perhaps because that’s his favorite surface. Plus, he never used to be very good on grass – he’s reached a couple of finals in smaller tournaments, but never had much success in Wimbledon. His style of play never suited the grass courts. Until this year, of course.

Six months into the season, and he’s lost just one match. Yes, he’s won a whopping 47 matches out of 48, his only loss of the year coming in the semifinals of Roland Garros by none other than Roger Federer. Eight tournaments entered, seven won. We all thought this incredible run would end when the grass season began, but that was far from the truth – he’s now in the finals of Wimbledon, and by doing so, has successfully snatched the World #1 ranking from Rafael Nadal. Does it get any better than this?

Yes it would – if he were to win on Sunday. He would then officially have his first major title as the World #1. A first ever Wimbledon title. Additionally, he would be one of only five or six people to have won their first grass court tournament in Wimbledon. But who stands in his way? Yep, you guessed it. Nadal hasn’t lost in Wimbledon since 2007. And one can’t help but feel that Djokovic has already reached an emotional high after just making the final.

Except for last year, Wimbledon finals since 2006 have all gone to five sets. But how do you pick between these two? I would say Nadal’s the favorite, but it’s too close to call. All I know is, no matter who wins, it’s going to be a thriller. No matter who wins, I’m not going to have any nails left. No matter who wins, this is a Wimbledon I’ll never forget.

Being a Djokovic fan is finally paying off. 

A Comparison

Whether I’m making new friends or chatting with my friends back home, I always get asked the same question: which is better, Nottingham or Malaysia? I never did have a proper answer to this; how on earth you compare two completely different places? Then my parents asked me the same question, and for them, a shrug doesn’t just answer it. Now that I’ve been here for almost two months, I should know the answer to this right? So I came up with a list of all the differences that just stand out, starting from the university itself to other aspects of living.

Malaysia:

Nothing beats Malaysian prices. I am shocked at how much I pay in the UK, and I will never ever again complain about prices when I get back. Cafeteria food isn’t more than a pound (after conversion) and you can get some amazing clothes for about 10-15 pounds. But in Nottingham, each (decent) meal costs about 4 pounds, and even the ugliest possible outfit costs about 30 pounds.

In Malaysia, you can be sure of one thing – great food. I miss chilly chicken! No offense to the English people, but I hate British food. For someone who’s been brought up with a cuisine where each dish contains a zillion different spices, British food is awfully bland. Even their idea of ‘spice’ and ‘chilly’ is bland for me. Thank God for Indian takeaways.

Timings – you can have meals anytime you want. You don’t have to wait for a certain time. You want rice at 10 am? You got it. You want a meal at 1 in the morning? Not a problem. It’s so much more easygoing.

I never thought I’d say this, but I miss the Malaysian sun. I’m one of those people who prefer being cold over being hot any day, but there is such a thing as too cold. I miss wearing shorts and spaghetti-strap tops, I miss not bothering to wear three layers of clothing every time you want to step out to get some water or take out the trash.

Nottingham:

A much bigger campus – I think five to six times the size of the campus back at Malaysia. And that’s just the main campus, there are two more campuses. It’s so big that unless you’re the type who loves a good workout or have plenty of time to spare, you need a bus to get from one end to the other. Apart from your classmates and neighbors, you don’t see anyone twice in the same week. Not only that, but it’s so green and architecture of the buildings is so beautiful. You get the feeling of being in a real fancy and luxurious place.

Lecturers here are much better. What’s so different is that they all love to teach. In fact, I absolutely adore my signal processing lecturer – he loves his subject so much! Today his face practically lit up when he was talking about the theory of filters, which has got to be one of the driest subjects ever. As opposed to my lecturer for electrical engineering last year in Malaysia, who wished he wasn’t given the job at all.

Technological advancement – this might be rather geeky, but I love the system here for coursework submission. The stapler and the date stamp are all automatic, with sensors to recognize the paper. No extra person being employed just to tear off a receipt and stamp you submission sheet.

The location of the campus is great; it’s a 10 minute bus ride to get to the City, where there are streets and streets of amazing shops and brands, and where almost all the restaurants, pubs, and clubs of Nottingham are located.

Perhaps because of such a location, the social life is far better here. There are so many events organized that you actually end up missing some amazing ones because you just had someplace else to be. There are bars even on campus, where everyone goes after 6 pm.

Shopping is great here; it’s a shopper’s paradise. Lovely designs, lovely colors, the fashion here is amazing. The prices, not so much, but that hasn’t stopped me from already buying new dresses and a couple of pairs of boots.

Public transport here is great, you can get anywhere you want fairly easily, and there’s no bargaining at all, so you know that you aren’t overpaying. Not to mention discount cards for bus travel and comfortable buses (with wooden flooring!), yep, it’s a pleasure to take public transport.

Student accommodation here is so lovely. It’s fresh, clean and new-looking. Not just my hall, but all the halls of residence.  Students also get a lot of recognition here, from temporary jobs to discounts at almost every single store.

That’s a pretty exhaustive list!

First Impressions of England

Its been two weeks since I even visited my blog. I knew when I began this, that over time it’ll be hard to keep this up, but I had no idea that I would even be able to get some time to peep in. But that’s just how hectic its has been.

So I’m in England finally, it’s great to actually be here instead of just waiting and waiting for it to happen all summer. So I thought I’ll use my blog as a travelogue, and write about the places I visit and the impressions I had of them. To start off, here are my thoughts of England on my very first day.  

My first impression? COLD. I step out of Heathrow and this blast of icy air greets me, instantly making me rack my brains to remember where I’d kept a spare sweater. In most countries, airports and airplanes are generally colder than the outside surrounding temperature. Let me tell you, that’s not the case in England. My teeth begin to chatter at once, and everyone around me exclaims in their own language pretty much what I just described.  

My second impression? GREEN. The drive from London to Nottingham took just over two hours, but I didn’t see anything on the way except huge green grasslands, tall and grown green trees, green bushes, and green plants of all shapes and sizes. There was absolutely no other view. No buildings, no people, nothing. The only living creatures I saw apart from the ones in cars on the road with us were cows and bulls grazing calmly on the grasslands at either side of us.

My third impression? LUXURIOUS. Once the scenery got boring (which was within about three minutes of our travel if I’m not mistaken), I began to check out other vehicles on the motorway. And MAN! All I saw were Audis. I’m not even kidding a little bit. All kinds of Audis littered the motorway, from old, paint-peeling silver Ausid to new, shiny black ones with windows rolled down and music on full blast. Plenty of Mercs zoomed past us as well; Audis and Mercs made up most of the traffic, with a small percentage of Toyotas, which were taxis. I saw one Honda, and maybe one Ford. That’s it.

Shame.

But I love it here. And I can’t wait to start exploring. And, in the future, get myself a brand new Audi. 

This Is What A Blog's About.

I sat down today to write something new, but, as usual, my mind became completely blank. So to get started, I started browsing blogs, and came across an article that contained blogging tips. However, it wasn’t the article that caught my interest; it was the debate that was going on in the comments section.

What are blogs for? Some people advice that a blog post must always be informative, so that the reader will go away with a new thought or idea in his mind. But isn’t that what newspapers are for? Others suggest that whatever you write about, make sure that you don’t rant about it. Nothing kills a good blog post like a rant, because guess what, people aren’t interested in your problems, and negativity in general. A blog should be useful and helpful to other people, or else it is nothing but a waste of space.

But I beg to differ.

What’s wrong with an angry outburst here and there? Besides, ranting isn’t always necessarily angry – it’s sometimes just a feeling of disappointment, rejection or frustration when things don’t go a certain way. People can definitely relate to that. A good personal rant can make for an excellent read by those who are feeling the same way, but do not have the outlet (or the balls) to express their true feelings. A child might suppress his emotions in front of his parents, but let it all out on a blog. Other children reading that blog will sympathize, and this child will feel better knowing that he’s not the only one on this planet who is being screwed over. Same goes for anyone who’s been in a similarly maddening position – a frustrated employee, a discouraged student, a rejected singer.

Rants (if written the right way) can also be quite humorous, so where’s the negativity there? Sure, it might be a problem that’s being described, but with a satirical spin on it, which can make for quite an enjoyable read.

Lastly, saying that people aren’t interested in negativity is like saying George Bush is extremely intelligent and did not deserve to have a shoe thrown at him ( I watched the video of this for the umpteenth time this afternoon, you can check it out here). Misery loves company, remember? There are a gazillion people in the world who would like nothing better than to read something depressing, either because they a) love telling other people what to do, b) are good at giving advice, or c) feel slightly satisfied that there are other people out there having a life worse than their own.

So why not give them some satisfaction?

"Just gonna stand there and watch me burn, but that's alright because I like the way it hurts"

Those are the first two lines of Eminem's new song featuring Rihanna called "Love the way you lie". I just can’t stop listening to it. Not just because of the music (I love rap), but also because of the lyrics. Many of Eminem's lyrics are really meaningful, but none as much as this one. Google it, or take a look at the lyrics for yourself here.

My favourite line apart from the one above is this:

Now you get to watch her leave

Out the window
Guess that's why they call it window pane

Pure genius methinks. 

It's such a relatable song, both on an emotional as well as on a physical level. Anyone who has been in a serious relationship will know what this song is all about - the first feelings of love, of not having enough of each other, that rush from just spending time with each other, to feelings of suffocation, of pressure, of tension, and of anger. The beginning where it's new, it’s intoxicating, it’s exciting. And the end where it’s intolerable to the point of rage, pain and hatred. Not just that, but it also touches on being in an abusive relationship. This song is sexy.

And if the right message isn't delivered in the lyrics, it definitely is in the music video for this song. Eminem and Rihanna just belt out the words and aren't all that important in the video, but what makes it click is the show put on by Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan. You can watch the video here.

The pair plays volatile lovers in the video, and spends most of the time alternating between passionately kissing or fighting, screaming and shouting throughout. They share an amazingly powerful chemistry, and are one of the reasons why this video is such a success. This, combined with the use of fire makes it oh so sexy.

I’m addicted!

Note: This is purely my opinion and has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with my personal life. Please do not read too much into this and start feeling sorry for me. Cheers!