Dream run

Already !!

2010-07-27T11:47:00.003+05:30

This post was conceptualized just a minute ago..

I already hate being a consultant..

details later ...

Update :-

As much as I hate being a consultanat I also can vouch that some people will love being a consultant. The biggest plus is challenging job and no stagnancy.. biggest minus is no time for family and if you were me then no time to even see your family ... i am mostly out of city :-(

will explain these further ... hopefully sooner than later ...

Epilogue

2010-04-02T04:18:00.000+05:30

Sometimes in life you just wonder how time flies and that exactly echoes my thoughts at the moment.

This might be the last post here on this blog ....

I cant believe my journey of MBA is over and I am ready to plunge into the next adventure which mother destiny has in store for me ..

When I wrote my first weekly post I was excited to pen down even the minutest details but as the time passed I got busier and the story got repetitive ( assignments, exams, workload, activities) and I believe my writing skills did not do justice to the wonderful year I spent here...

It was a fabulous journey and there were great moments to cherish all throughout... The friends I made here , The learnings I had , The fun and frolic and of course the academic takeaways ... Words can never do justice ....

I also thought I would write every week but could not for obvious reasons... I tried to keep it updated but I know I lagged a lot ... Nonetheless it was real fun penning the most happening year of my life and I actually gave myself a pat on my back after penning the last week post .... The last chapter was over and so it comes to an end ....

There were hits and misses... joys and sorrows ... Successes and failures ... a complete mixed bag ....

The dream career which I thought remained a dream but nevertheless I have something which I will enjoy and hopefully do good in it ... The doors or corporate world are wide open and I cant wait to see it from new eyes ...

This blog has been a chapter of my life and tomorrow a new chapter will begin ... I just need to turn the page ... I will definitely revisit this blog frequently to relive the moments I spent at ISB and am sure to smile ear to ear while reading each one of them ...

It has been great writing in here and I sincerely hope folks who read this will enjoy as much as I did in writing these ...

I will keep signing in here to check if any comments/queries are there .. Just leave a comment and I will try to be as prompt as I can ... I might not be the best person for any MBA related questions but having been thru the grind I can always give an honest opinion ...

I will be back to post some arbit MBA stuff if I feel like but as of now :-

Its curtain time folks !!!

Godspeed and Good Luck !!!

Pranay Raicha

Week 46 - The last chapter !!

2010-03-31T05:12:00.000+05:30

Exams are over.. de-orientation week is in full swing ... No more assignments ... no more lectures.. only few days from graduation ...

And the facebook is replete with nostalgia/last messages... some of my favs are

1) From Saiket

The last CPs.. the last cold calls, the rogues playing Nascar in the last row.. The TA in the corner watching silently as always.., the occasional jokes that will make the entire class laugh.. the 10min break in between... and so on.. will be history in few hours.. hmn..

2) From Sindhu

A momentous year, went as silently as it came... Sat in the curved classes for the last time, listened to the prof in the well of the class for the last time, enthusiasm and anticipation when I came in... memories and nostalgia as I move out... Cheers to a year well spent

3) From Vineet

Too many lasts to count ..last assignment, last class, last standing ovation to prof, last exam........But why count the lasts n not count on what lasts forever... numerous memories, actuation of dream MBA, and most importantly - Lifelong friends !!! Curtain's aren't down. They never are. Just that the game is all set to be more interesting than ever before !!

Khallaas ( My Facebook status)

And it is over.

Finished.

Done.

week 46 :- Nearing the end

2010-03-24T15:13:00.001+05:30

It is raining events at ISB...

Portrait project by the photography club

SLC events.. many of them ...i love their tagline .. "Getting you a life .. One even at a time"

You are never alone at ISB.. if nothing then u have assignments .. specially when u r nearing end of term ...

so people are just doing minimal needed to wrap up assignments.. only ones studying are

1) who love grades

2) who are whisker away from deans list

3) who have set targets like 3 , 3.5 or 2.5 ( min for graduation)

4) who are just in the deans list
5) and some idiots

and not to mention .. everyone is nostalgic ....

Facebook is replete with nostalgia status messages....

Fun time over...

Need to prepare for corporate life again ...

btw,

i got my offer letter ... so i have a job.. for sure ... no reneging by company ... i luv them for that ...

Date and location are confirmed yet titles tentative for the lack of written communication ...

Rest is best...

End of most happening year of lives of 570 people is just round the corner ..

1 week of studies .. 1 weekend of exams .,... 1 de-orientation week .. 1 day of graduation...

and it is over ...

So soon !!!

weeks 43, 44, 45 - Monotony

2010-03-15T15:33:00.000+05:30

Nothing new at all .... Absolutely nothing novel..

I honestly dont know what 2 write ...

same old classes.. same old environment .. nostalgia all around ..

folks with jobs having fun ... Folks with no jobs are full fledgedly hunting for one..

campus is replete with nostalgia..
yearbook is being made...
graduation is so near...
Midterm of term 8 is over .. no one read.. no one bothered...
I finished my mid term paper in 23 minutes.. my fastest till date ...

Rest is best ... My joining and other information will come by next week ...
that will take me to a whole new station ...

Am already looking fwd 2 it ..

Weeks 41 & 42 - Fun for some .. none for some ...

2010-03-04T19:32:00.000+05:30

Have been really lazy ..... Sloppy and careless ... but have had lots of fun .... And know what .. I am typing this sitting in a class... trust me blogging is best use of time in this class ...

41st week

It was exams of term 7 which announced that term 8 is round the corner and the end is about to begin ...
First time I had a course in which I was not having SRK as my group mate ... he has been tagging along ( rather i m tagging .... whatever !!) Am not used to prepare for end terms.. he is the one who is attentive and intelligent and serious chap .. [Serious = Still after grades ;-)]
but then it makes sense for him he is all close to the coveted dean's list .. hope he makes it..

Just 2 papers later I was done with term 7 .. and managed to ensure that I will not flunk...also ensured that i wont get an A.. But thats ok ... I am nowhere near deans list ...

Anyway after exams the fun part started .. vacations ...

42nd week

This was a week of fun ... For me .. because I am relieved.....for folks who have not yet signed on the dotted line it was a tough period... It was week with completely contrasting memories ..... people with job were in frolic mode and rest were not .. they were still studying ... prepping hard and giving luck a best shot ...

week 43 is term 8 .. beginning of end ...

Setting right expectations !!

2010-02-18T04:15:00.001+05:30

Lets face it :-

No MBA school is a hogwarts ( unless you are amongst the likes of wharton stanford etc)...
Have received calls/mails from some of new admits asking for information regarding placements etc... One thing which is common is that everyone has high expectations... I had them too.. Its natural.. But unfortunately they are not fulfilled in majority of cases ... Off course there are exceptions but i have said this earlier too "They are exceptions"....
___________________________________________________
On a different note :- In past few days I feel like gaining popularity ( thanks to my weekly chronicle) ..
I am happy I could help ...

___________________________________________________

Career switch story .. Switches happen
---------------------------------------------------------------
1)
Most of it happens in consulting .. Consulting involves everything so it is a career switch because you never work on similar stuff continuously ... ISB is one of the best consulting B-Schools in India ( or Asia?) .... But consulting is not everyone's cup of tea... It involves travelling , it needs grades , consistent academic performance, well rounded personality ... lot of stuff .. Thats why consulting is most sought after jobs at ISB.. I too prepared for them .. everyone does....

2)
After consulting it is mostly a career leap within the industry .. Our batch too is replete with such cases and this makes perfect logical sense too.. You know abt the industry u were working in.. u hv done MBA so u deserve a steeper career and accelerated path ...

3)
Then comes the actual switch which most of the new admits look for .. From IT to marketing or vice versa.. From IT to operations and vice versa.. etc etc.. completely perpendicular career paths... Thats where exceptional people succeed... The examples are few and far... I can only tell why this happened in my batch and this is completely my hypothesis.
----------------
a) Economy was down so companies preferred prior work experience .... Makes sense.. They want few people...
b) Companies have lot of choices .. No of interested candidates outnumbers the number of posts ( atleast in initial days of placements when most of the dream companies where every "SWITCHER" wants to go ...
c) People want to switch roles but might not be willing to take fresher level salary in some field where they will be completely new ...
d) Large batch size of ISB - This factor is positive throughout the year and adds to ISB experience but then plays a huge negative in placements season .. The bargaining power is with companies .. They have choices , they have jobs , they are authority...
----------------
---------------------------------------------------------------

I ended up in 2) .. I got a better role in same industry .. I am Relieved ... Will be happy soon.. hopefully :-)

So what should people in 3rd category do....
1) Be god like :-) .. Do everything possible to manifest passion for new role ....
2) Participate in the club activities to network and build a strong user base...
3) Take part (and win) some competitions which strengthen your resume for such companies...
4) Be well read about everything .. You should be able to answer questions which someone with a background in that industry is able to answer ( stuff which wont be taught)
5) Use clubs and preparation materials of past year generously
6) Pray to god that economy improves and company's hire in large numbers ...
7) Try and get grades... it does not matter everywhere but showcases your intelligence ..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is a great place to be .. Just set your expectations right and understand a few things

- This is just a hault and not the destinations
- First job is not last ( though it usually sets the direction)
- getting a career switch of type 2 is good..
- dont compare your career with others.. everyone has unique past and that helps in shaping future ...
- Salary matters but roles and company matter more ( to me)
- There are very smart people around.. do not get bogged down.. u have something whic others dont have .. thats why you are selected
- if u need to value MBA then try to imagine your career with or without MBA and then take a call and not by imagining your post MBA job with someone else's post MBA job .. Thats not right ( though is most common, i still fall into that trap in my mood swings)
- best is yet to come .. always ...

God speed and Good Luck !!!

week 39 and 40 - relieved and unhappy

2010-02-09T18:05:00.000+05:30

The relieved word in the subject is for the fact that I have signed off an offer in ISB campus ... Unhappy is the feeling because of following reasons

1) I am not happy with the location offered. Having worked for 6.5 years I wanted to go to a city where I can stay for next few years atleast but this city was a strict no no. Actually I turned down the offer initially because of this. But thanks to some sensible friends I grabbed it again.

2) The package offered though is good is not what I dreamt off before joining ISB. But then it was my dreams that were off the mark. There have been cases in ISB where people actually landed up dream offers but such folks and extremely brilliant, deserving, lucky and exceptional.

What makes me happy is that role is good. After the roller coaster ride of one year the switch I wanted from my new job is there ans is something in which i will leverage my past experiences. Just as I said in my interviews:- A job where I can deploy the blend of my education and experience ...

What relieved me the most was that I now have something to fallback on and the worries of loan installments are no more there... The joining date ad location are not 100% final yet but tentative information is there ...

-------------

Coming to weekly stories
past 2 weeks have been similar to 2 weeks prior to those.. same mixed bag .. just that there are more number of relieved faces... Folks who have not yet landed an offer are still hopeful because some great firms have signed up off late and many more are lined up for the upcoming placement season ( 12th to 21st Feb) ...

Not too sure what else to chronicle. Term 7 classes ended and the costliest subject which i bought this term was the one in which i slept most ... first 6 lectures because i was up till late prepping and last 4 out of habit ...

Term 8 bidding happened and people are now deciding on their graduation requirements ... I m majoring in Strategy and Marketing. In hindsight I should have heard to my freiends who warned me against marketing.. I too feel marketing subjects are a lot more repetitive and that finance or operations would have involved more learning .. Finance was something i could not relate to so no issues operations is my background and would have me if I had majored in operations ... but then i came here for a career switch so I did no do what i did prior to ISB...

This post is not really a chronicle but a reflection , i guess...

Term exams coming up ...

time to read the syllabus and find out what the hell went on in term 7 lectures ..

btw, 3 subjects in term 7 was definitely a good decision ...

weel 37 & 38 - Mixed bag

2010-01-24T03:36:00.000+05:30

These 2 weeks were probably the longest in ISB...for many it was 37th week, for some it was 37th ad 38thj and for many more longer weeks are in sight ..

placements are emanating realities so unexpected and so naked that everyone is shocked ...

it is tough .. very tough.

Many are done .. many are still fighting .. I am in majority ( still striving ) ..

hopefully should be over soon ..

Btw, Got rejects from HUL and ZS.. latter would probably linger a lot longer in thoughts than former ..
also took a bold decision of saying no to a company ....

course of life has changed .. atleast for next few years .. the ISB brand will always be there ... all are hoping to ripe in years to come ....

fingers crossed, hands folded, some smiling faces, some frustrated, some sad, some rejected, some dejected..
life in all flavours ....

week 36 & 37 - silence

2010-01-14T04:15:00.000+05:30

It is getting close to end.

Glum faces, anxious walks, deep epiphanies , nervous smiles...
and very very few - confident, chilled out people...

it is war and people are gearing up ...

No one knows what subjects they are reading, people hv forgotten pre-reads .... It doesnt matter anymore ...

me ? - in between ... high mood swings .. surrounded by worries ... at times happy and chilled ...

dont really know what this phase is ..
The only word comes to mind is IMPORTANT .. really IMPORTANT

Hope for Godspeed !!

week 34 and 35 - Stagnancy again

2010-01-01T23:04:00.000+05:30

No new adventures .. same old life ... There is no point writing assignments terms in every post...
Only thing new are rejects .. all consultung companies have proved to be unlucky ;-)

IT career option seems the only way to go ... The one which I escaped from ...Lets see...

A friend put on facebook succintly

26 Dec 2008 - In front of office computer " Why am I doing this technology stuff.. I am going to ISB anyway.
26th Dec 2009 - In front of ISB lecture notes " Whay am I doing this business stuff . I m going to technology anyway..

INteresting, unfortunate and true in most cases

week 33 ... Finding answers !!

2009-12-17T03:16:00.000+05:30

Dual minds ... The usual me ... Need to shift focus from CP and other activities which make no sense now to something important .. placement prep...

last week attended 2 case prep meetings to reassert the fact .. preparation = zilch...

attended a mock interview .... left , right and center ... no direction was spared ...

classes assignments etc are usual..

ISB is defininitely happening these days .. My buddy has penned it here.

2 Grades of term 5 are released .. as usual A- ... it has become a stale news .... and umimportant to.. but the student ( of school days) is still to accept that grades dont matter anymore :)

Need to focus ... but then there is no shortlist yet to actually garner focus ... lets see..

week 32 .. nothin new

2009-12-10T04:00:00.000+05:30

last week has been routine ...

COBE assignments
LSCM assignments
DGIS assignments

MGTM finally started .. Prof Henry Moon had some visa issues due to which everything was postponed by 10 days ...

Apart from that only change is that Nocturnality within me is at its peak...
For past many days I am sleeping at abt 6 AM.. even when i crash to bed easly I end up getting up and doing something ...

Paradigm is shifting .. Consulting fever is slowly percolating the campus... Shortlists of big 2 are out .... and the results aren't too encouraging for 500 out of 570 ... 4 more lists to be published and then the consulting fever will be constrained amongst 125 odd shortlists ... Luckiest/smartest ones getting more than one shortlists and luckier/smarter ones gettign atleast one shortlist..

Big G was the disappointment for many ... Their requirement was major in Comp Science and after 7-8 years I actually realized i am not from comp science background ...

Still many more to go but then there are more students anyday ....

It is only going to get tougher .....

week 31 - chilled start to term 6

2009-12-01T03:48:00.000+05:30

Though term 6 is one of the most gyaan-filled term for me .. the starter week was not much of workload... I have only 4o cases this term .. 1 per subject per lecture ... Talk about case method of learning and i will take away the hilt in this term ..

if only i study .. The paradigm has finally shifted to what we all are here for .. Jobs... Grades dont matter anymore .. Term 5 grades will be the last which we will write in our CVs...Term 6 grades will come when all the shorlisting will be over and hence the grades would not matter .. I dont mind 4 B's in rest of the subjects if I have an A grade job ...

ok ok .. I will do with an A- job.. when i talk to people around i still find many who though worried, have high cutoffs predefined for their target salary... As much as i wish everybody gets their best i doubt this will be the case...

I have applied to ATK, google this week.. just like mckenzie these are companies where applyying is part of graduation .. more than half of the batch applies and more thab three fourth of the applicants get rejected .. still people apply.. i did too .. no second thoughts ...

Come to think of it I would be happy if I get (whatever i was earning before + incremental promotion which I left to join ISB + loan installment + any positive number) .. This actually is lower than what an ideal me wants but then i agree that many students are miles ahead of me and the ones which are behind me are not far ...

I am however giving my best shot so as not to regret in future .. one important thing which shorlisting of this year signifies is the background and work experience before ISB matters a lot .. probably more than grades (if you leave aside creme de la creme companies) ... u need to show a good fit to the role ... aha !! a news ;-)

a) past experience
b) work at ISB - thsi ones toughest bcoz u cant work at ISB more than what many people worked prior to ISB ... thats one of the main reasons I did not take finance ...
c) Passion - i dont really understand how we show this is a page cv ..

Term 6 is ok ..
LSCM is very interesting and what adds fun is that only interesting individuals get enrolled so cp is good ..
COBE - i feel is faff till now ... but thats what marketing is ..
DGIS - the course overall let me down .. i expected a lot more ..
MGTM - the course is running 3 lectures behind schedule , so have not attended a single class till date but the professor's rating has already soared the expectations ...

hoping for the best ..
Best is now defined as a scnari where you have some shortlists .. COme January and best will be a scenario where you have a job ..

P.S. term 5 marks are being declared an there are very slim chances that I will be in top 100 after term 5 grades ... lets c...

Godspeed !!!

Week 30 ... The term break that never was ...

2009-11-27T13:45:00.000+05:30

The week started with same old boring end terms .. MKTR and MKSV in 2 successive days .. both text books opened night prior to exam ...

The subject was my facebook status for 5 days ... It was a term break of 5 days with 5 things to be done

1) MKTR assignment:- Perhaps most interesting of all. Involved diving into 7000 records of data and analyzing the car preferences of middle class Indians ... I ended up doing nothing in this project for 2 reasons a) SRK was best person to do this because of his SQL server skills b) I had otehr assignments to complete because SRK was busy in this

2) MKSV Assignment :- Again a report , pure dil se stuff, we search we search we google we search again and then from many searched PDFs we jot down stuff which we dont understand ( expecting that TAs and profs will understand and will bless us with marks) Sure there was analysis part too. but then worst part is to collate the work of all group members .. worst bcoz that made me the only person to have read all BS and then make a coherent flow from 4 5 incoherent repetitive stuff... MKSV was less onerous because the group was good overall ... Lets see...

3) NEGA Assignment :- I liked this one too.. NEGA was one good subject in which we finally came to know of some concrete concepts which helped us structurally analyze incidents of our life too ... good stuff.. a thumbs up from me ... Assignment was a tad lengthy .. again a good group member chipped in to ensure we put up a decent show ..

4) BTC corporate challenge:- 3rd round was Deloitte ... we thought we would do it in a night but when finally sat on the last night we ended up doing nothing till 2 AM ( the deadlined was 7:30 AM) .. we did put some gyaan but the outcome was not up to our expectations ... a bad third attempt will eventually wash away the hardwork of initial 2 rounds ...

5) HUL - We did not send an entry because we started on last night and realized it needs a 2 minute AVI file so we were already short if time ..

Apart from that we played monopoly a lot of times..So much that I am bored of it now ...
But was great fun ...

Rest is ok..

Have applied for Mck and ATK .. not that i will get a shortlist ... it is just a ritual to apply to these companies ...

Week 29 ... The lucky me !!

2009-11-20T00:46:00.000+05:30

Week 29. One week which had a few good news.. Well nothing really important but then whatever we get in this rollercoaster year is a bonus..
The news was postponement of a few assignments which if we had to submit would have ended in blunderous submissions... Solely for the lack of time as u might know by know ... At least I know ..

there were reports for BBMK MKSV NEGA, presentations for BBMK and MKTR ..
Good fun ... NEGA was probably last week ... We knew for long that we will need to write these reports but then we always wait for last day .. voluntatily, if not involuntarily :-)

Anyways, MKSV and MKTR have been postponed so more abt them next week ..
BBMK took most of the time .. what I hate most in electives is that we finally end up dividing work in group assignments .. so learning is somewhat different for everyone ( if there is any) ... Plus there is extra load of managing multiple groups ...

Grades of term 4 are out .. and so am i ( from list of top 100 ).. As usual I missed 2 grades by a margin of less than 1 mark .. This took total toll to 7 grades (after not counting 3 subjects in because I had to account for 3 in which I had been lucky) in four terms .. Had I been on other side of luck in these 7 i would have got a scholarship .. but thats ok .. i am here for the holistic MBA experience you see ...

The bad news is that all postponed assignments are due next week (which is the time when I m typing this post) so that will take away the term break ...

BBMK presentation was good .. Great job overall.. However I dont like to have freeriders... thats beyond my control though ...

Another expected bad news was the rejection of my first job application ( A D Little) CGPA , Relevant Experience , Extra currics I had none of these ... just the guts to apply, or shamelessness if you wanna call it :-)

Keeping up the spirit I have applied for McK too.. with a CG of 3.53 .. that is a suicide .. but I have 60 of themm After Mck and ADL it is now 58 ...

Hoping for the best :-)

And yeah, cud finally find time to jot down this post in this hectic term break (where I have 3 assignments and a competition) because I am the only lucky b*****d (out of 570) whose house is without power ..

I hate life at times ... rather most of the times ...

A typical day... Shouvik style

2009-11-11T22:35:00.002+05:30

Blatant copy paste from Shouvik. He is just so awesome.

Damn Obelix. Spare ribs, pork with cumin, pork roast, braised pork. Barrel of beer. You do the math, the man had it good. I’m not one to deny a good man his cholesterol, but when I’m armed with a catapult and a kitchen knife and the solo wild boar in the ISB campus doesn’t show up, my anger’s on boiling point. Pardon the pun, but at this juncture, I’m pretty darned ‘bored’ to death. So I make a few calls to the few good women on campus. Friday night and everyone’s busy looking pretty. Cucumbers, mud packs, almond paste on their faces, so I’m perfunctorily brushed off.
That’s a long fall, brother. From intrepid boar-hunter to feeling like a fly. Optionless, I optimize the situation, dial the digits of a few close buddies. Half an hour and we’re all tuneless Mohd. Rafis, bawling our larynxes off, with bottles of Old Monk and Teachers losing their colour as the minutes roll.

Monday morning and I’m feeling blue. Not the pale ‘ISB logo’ blue but hardcore deep, deep blue. Armed with nicotine, caffeine and common sense, I enter the class. Everyone looks fresh. I wonder how. Figures and facts roll by, the Mensa club wannabes stretch their arms to dislocation point for a fraction of class participation credit. No love lost there, but some points leave me a severe sense of déjà vu. Didn’t the teacher just mention that point, or am I dozing off, again? Never mind. Evening, and it’s time for some club meets, some study group meets (Lehar Kurkure, Thums Up, Haldirams, cashew nuts, and the course pack), a spot of football, where I dodder like a rheumatic rascal. But the point is I try.

These days, I’ve been planning an arm-wrestling and beer-guzzling gig, not to mention posters for Kargil Diwas. Hands and tiny brain packed to capacity, I am bothered with a nagging suspicion that I’ll miss this place sorely. Now for some rumination on that as I head towards Goel’s greasy gruel on a perfect Sunday noon. Shalom.

Week 27 and 28 !!

2009-11-09T22:41:00.003+05:30

My Bad... This the second time I am combining 2 posts in one ... but then it was beyond my control...
The taxing max week (week 26 , my previous post) spilled all over week 27 and then week 27 had its surprises for week 28 and week 29 now stares at us with 6 deliverables due in next 100 hours ...

Week 27 was marked with competitions ... The flavor of the season, as I have already posted in a recent entry, is competitions .. Core terms are over and no one bothers about grade now .... Ok ok ... I do .. but still significantly lower than what I used to be ...

few reasons for a change in mindset
1) My core term CGPS finally is all screwed up at 3.54 ... I could have done well and I should have done weel but then "plain unlucky" title is worthy on me ...

2) Core terms CGPA are more important for campus purposes and we now need to focus on getting some spikes in our resume .. Enter competitions and its a beeline to having a spike point to talk about ...

3) I now say .. I am here for the holistic experience and not just grades ... I am lying for sure but not 100% though .. i have learnt a lot here in past 6 months and remaining few have their ows agenda ...

Few good things happened with me though.

1) I applied for my first job. Arthur D Little. Its a consulting firm and I sttand no chance of shortlisting but then its a learning too.. If selected I get an interview experience ( They take as many as 5 6 rounds ) .. An interview experience because I will not stand more than a round... simply because our case prep group is still prepping for our first meet ... And I cant blame them .. I too am in same boat... If not selected then i will hopefully be more worried and hence more bothered thusr more serious about prepping ...

2) I was able to put in decent entries ( as I always think they are ) for competitions I participated in ... No good news yet though ... VCIC was one which we could not do even though the deadlines were extended... poor team I guess ..

3) ELP is kind of on track .. The client is liking what we are offering him .. Though an earlier meet with one of the marketing heads was disappointing all in all the client understands we are doing a good job given our constraints ...

And in the regulars

Classes are an eclectic mix of boring and interesting , zero to max take aways ...
As of now I m poised to get a poorer CG i term 5 than my average of term 4 .. but I am pulling my socks .. and you know I dont really start studying till last night ....
I am sure I will be able to manage ...

Plenty of assignments due this week.. Quite a few delivered in last 2 weeks ... 2 end terms next week along with 2 competition entries and 2 more assignment...

Rollercoater Ride it has been so far ... Literally

Week 26 - Taxing Max

2009-11-01T12:38:00.001+05:30

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Week 25 - Post Interval action

2009-10-21T10:22:00.001+05:30

I should probably change the blog posting day to wednesday.. That when i usually post...
(though a week later at some times) Last 2 weeks were great. Term 5 has blowm a lot away. The subjects were finally finalized after all that bidding first week of classes and at the end of 2 weeks I have already lost interest in 2 subjects MKSV and BBMK.. Way too slow .. non engaging profs...

Topic and content matter .. Profs matter more ...

The thing that deserves mention is what makes this term different .. Different study groups and
so it requires a hell lot of coorcdination .. I was lucky to have formed groups with few new people ...

Another is competitions .. Its like at every point of time somewhere some comopetition is being
launched and people have suddenly realized we need atleast one on the CV.. And that makes
sense .. Plus it is a welcome change ... though life becomes tiring , some thinking out of the
box , some designing , some formatting .... and all at the cost of pre-reads :-)

The good part for me in term 5 .. No Mid term... and only 2 end terms ... Bad part, lots and lots of assignments and projects ... and high weightage end terms..

We have weathered 4 terms .. 4 more to go ...
Focus is changing .... Gotta foocus !!!
Hopefully :-)

Week 24 - Biggest term break ever !!!

2009-10-13T12:17:00.002+05:30

Core terms are over ... Before the grind begins for electives there was a break ... 10 days.. 10 well deserved days .. and I just had fun ..

Slept and Slept and Slept ...

Week 22 and Week 23 !!! Twins ??

2009-10-06T10:48:00.003+05:30

Sorry. I know I m combining 2 weeks details into one but then I will try to do justice.

Weel 22 was crazy. We had 5 nightouts (almost) in 7 days and our eyes were actually drooling about bed. We were just done with the mid terms on the weekend and so the background of not sleeping is all set already ( given that you all know i study only on last day, no matter how much i hate myself for that).

On monday after classes I went to SRK's place to do something about the BTC corporate challenge but he was not well so after trying and trying and not getting anything done I left after an hour . Kind off disappointed I was. But then thats ok. He too had slogged hard for midterms and was tired too.

Tuesday was the deadline for DConstruct a competition we were interested in so me , shouvik and deepu puled off the whole night ... making a 6 slide PPT. We actually started for that competition at abt 10 and sat till 6 in the morning.... We made 6 slides of PPT but could not really format them nicely so it was time to fall back on SRK "the great formatter". We called him to wake him up and he surprised me by saying that he dint sleep and has completed work on BTC corp challenge thing. I was smiling ear to ear. What a pleasant surprise it was.

Anyways we submitted Dconstruct on Tuesday (almost another night out) ( got rejected next week). Submitted the BTC thing on wednesday ( will be rejected on national level but we hope to qualify for round 2 of BTC corp challenge)..

Thursday was another competition but we finally dropped it knowing that it was way to open ended and that pure gyaan which will be selected for round 2 cannot be given in a day.

So wednesday we started working on 2 humongous assignments .. SAIT and GSBC and actually finished on sunday .. All plans of preparing for end terms starting next thursday went down the drain ... So did the sleeping plans before starting the end term prep...

This was week 22 for me.

Week 23 started with we submitting the 2 assignments and starting for end terms with continued sleepless nights ...a few more of them and we were done with end terms of term 4.

INVA was breeze , MGTO wowed everyone , GSB stumped everyone and SAIT too was ok ...

Anyways that calls for intermission of the ISB chapter with core terms and electives round the corner..

The weekend was planned to be spent in Bangalore with the gang but then flood in south caused the buses to be cancelled and thoe plans too bit dust ...

Anyways we had fun here...

week 21 - Why oh Why ?

2009-09-23T15:29:00.002+05:30

week 21 - midterms for 4th term...
INVA was ok but paper was tougher based on what was taught in class...
SAIT and MGTO are the reasons behind the subject of the post .. they were test of ur writing speed and how much can u reword same fact again and again ...

I hated the MGTO paper specially ...we expected 4 questions and we had 10 questions...
midterms were sat and sun and we had classes till friday ...

i felt like signing off from ISB ...

Next week is comptition week .. ( i say this bcoz it is already wednesdayof next wednesday ) ...
stay tuned ....

Week 20 - Already forgotten !!

2009-09-17T02:49:00.003+05:30

It is thursday and I m posting my last week.. I honestly cant recall anything right now ... the classes were boring , prose conferences continued , takeaway tending to zero .. etc etc ..

Just a few submissions here and there .. I liked the MGTO classes this week.. The professor is cool .. Louis Martin .. The subject souns relevant but then again it is more to be learnt by practical experiences ... Fun, nonetheless.

We had AIKYA launch last week .. That was interesting ( accompanied by delicious dinner) .. We have an AIKYA family now and they are renowned and settled businessmen of Hyd... It was sure fun ...

More later... Too tired to think ..

19th week - A term break in itself

2009-09-07T12:03:00.002+05:30

This was one hell of a week ... No, not assignment wise but by the fact that this had varied emotions everyday ... day 1 and day 2 we had first classes of all 4 subjects and it felt like we are in some kind of prose conference ... no subject was interesting ( except INVA the only saviour) as none was quant ... not that i m good in quants but the fact which troubles is that i m bad in non-quant subjects ...

Wednesday wass the same ... Thursday we heard the news of sudden demise of Andhra Pradesh CM Mr YSR Reddy and ISB inrespect cancelled all events for the week including thursday classes..

so we had holiday on thursday , fri , saturday and sunday ... this was a term break .. isn't it :-)

watched lot of movies completed the only assignment due monday .. wrapped the week with another movie 2 dinner outings ( ok 1 dinner and 1 ice cream outing) and a pizza day in between...

Was fun but now the season of competition is here .. ME and Deep also tries hands at writing a paper but could not come up with something concrete ...so dropped teh idea.. it was better to participate nicely in few competitions than just participate in all ...

lets see how week 2 of term 4 goes.. we have 2 extra classes 1 tonight and another on thursday ..

Profs I miss !!

2009-08-31T10:29:00.003+05:30

I posted abt Mohan Sir and Prashant Sir but have not posted abt any other profes since then...
I need some energy and time to post abt a few more

Prof Jagmohan Raju
Prof Bhagwaan Choudhary
Prof Suren Mansinghka
Prof Ram Bala
Prof Sumit Kunnumkal

Each one of the above helped in groom ...
More on each one later ...

I wish I could add to the list in term 4 kicking off today ...

Week # 18 - Doing nothing is fun too ..

2009-08-31T10:20:00.003+05:30

Wooohoooo ... Term 3 is over ... The toughest ( as ancestors say) is over ..

Ok ok .. lets go chronologically ...
Monday was exam day .. CorpFin came and took all of us with a storm .. people say that anyone who said that he knew answers to most of the questions is bluffing ... forget most the same statement was for few questions too.. I myself found as many as 4 true statements when the question was "Which one is true" :-0... In Corp Fin we say " All is well that ends"...

Madm was long and boring .. i hope i did ok in that .. an A (Howzzzat) will make me happy .. but not sure .. i always keep some space for probability and my silly mistakes.. lets c whats in store ..

Operations was bad.. i made lotsa silly mistakes .. fortunately few were in last step of BIG numericals.. lets c what happens ... an A- would definitely hurt ...

Then came the term break.. I slept on tuesday and i woke up on friday.. i actually dint step out of my studio for 2 days .. i love doing nothing ... I saw a few movies which were pending for years now... "The Shawshank Redemption" needs a special mention for sure .. GodLike movie with an eternal message of hope ... few dinners with wifey and friends and thats all..

i m penning this on monday 10:30 AM and have a class at 1:45...

Term 4 is shouting " here I come" ... it is a short term... will be over in 33 days flat ... end to end .. so lots of classes but assignments are fewer this time .... more focus on individual performances.. exams have a higher weightage .. i hope to not-commit any silly mistakes atleast this time ...

Quoting Andy Dufrense (from The Shawshank Redemption) -
HOPE IS A GOOD THING... IT PROBABLY IS THE BEST OF THINGS ...

Week 17 - Fatigued by exams !!

2009-08-25T22:01:00.003+05:30

I have started disliking it ... Specially when I dont understand what's going on .. Corporate finance was one such subject in which I could not understand a thing .. the worst part , exams were conceptual , the best part noone knew the concepts. Sure there were gods and geeks few and far in between but it remained, for a change, land of mortals ...

Last week went into finalizing the Entrepreneurship report. Thanks to Arvind, the CEO of Reverie we did manage a decent report. Hopefullt grades would reflect that ... Apart from that not much to do , just 4 assignments ... In retrospection 4 assignments a week now sound kind of chilled .. There was panic as end terms of MADM and OPMG were carrying lot of weightage given the absense of mid terms in these subjects ...

More on End terms later.. This term break is not free as there is a lot of backlog on ELP which we need to cope up with ...

GodSpeed !!!

Week 16 - Hectic as expected

2009-08-18T01:22:00.003+05:30

A hectic week full of assignments and submissions...
This week too was the usual... we were running around to meet the deadlines and were definitely enjoying it .. though we are used to it but so are we to use expletives describing our misery ....

the weekle posts are getting smaller and smaller because the delta in eperience from a week to another is reducing.. every week has an assignment lineup to be finished ... every class has a case or 2 to read and analyze and prepare and discuss and note bulleted points and take printouts and carry them to class and do arbit CP and come back and take out the course pack to read next day's case and the vivisious cycle continutes ...

This weekend is last before the end terms and i m actually having a terribly time ... I corp fin class I feel i am at/ a 5 star hotel... where does one pay 5000 to sleep for 2 hours :-)

OPMG is fun and I should be able to pull it off to an A- easily .. similarly MADM ( worst subject at ISB till date ) .... i hope i can run tha extra mile to make my grade sheet look a bit better ...

For Term 2 grades of 3 subjects are out ..
DMOP = A (Finally I broke the A- jinx)
GLEC = A- ( despite scoring 91.3% marls ; B ranged from 84 to 90.6 and A started from 92.9)
(I have a silly mistake to mourn upon , in one submission 1 page was not printed properly and the cost of not checking is 1 grade .. this is the 4th subject in which I missed an A grade by < 2 marks)
MKDM = A- ( Jinx is back)
CSTR - I am not expecting A.. so A- it will be ...

End terms preparation eed to start but there are 5 assignments which are due this week ..

GodSpeed !!!

Week 15 - Transition from chilled to spine chilling !!!

2009-08-10T23:23:00.002+05:30

Enough of chilling around..
this week was chill till the weekend and then came the supe duper hectic weekend ...

i had 9 activities to complete over weekend but ended up finishing 3 , postponing 2 and dropping 4 of them..

end terms are around already and way too many assignments to be finished before that ...

its only going to get worse for next 2 weeks ..

sorry for the short post !!!

Week 14 - Chilled one too !!

2009-08-03T19:53:00.002+05:30

It is proven. It is fina. Term 3 is not at all hectic as term 1 or term2. Or is it that we have become efficient. Naah !! its definitely the former.... The only reason term 3 is chilled because there is no midterm in 3 subjects.

This week was similar to last week.. chilled week , chilled weekend and then jam packed sunday.... Sunday demanded time for assignments. :-)

I took part in few competitions which could have made life tougher.. but none seemed to attract me finally or have deadlines later... Lets see how they go finally...

Corp fin midterm is round the corner. Gotta start studying.

13th Week - A chilled one !!

2009-07-27T17:11:00.004+05:30

A chilled one? At ISB ? You serious ?
And still weekly post on Monday and not on Sunday... Well yeah!!! Everything is true... Term 3 seems coolest (till now).. First class of term 3 on monday and many were snoring ... Not me .. I slept on wednesday in the same class :-)....
I liked the profs of term 3 as the best lot till now .. the core prof for me is still Mohan sir but the overall total of term 3 profs is higher than terms 1 and 2...

Term 2 end terms marks are out and i hv realized getting above average is not very.... i m actually hoping a better term than term 1 .... max i m expecting is 2 As and 2 A-'s... hoping for the best ...

Term 3 subjects are interesting too... 3 subjects do not have any midterm ( which gives us a 6 week long break , leaving aside the assignments which are 3 every week) and 1 of them does not even have an end term... but there is a bad news too for folks like me ... 3 subjects have CP marks at which i m pathetic at best ... always below average in CP u see.... so even if I do decently in end terms i would end up as A-....

Monay classses started ( so did the sleeping ) ... Tueday another 2 subjects introduced... wednesday a submission .. thursday classes and fun ... friday LDP and fun ... Saturday fun and Sunday assignment ( precisely the reason why i cudnt write my weekly chronicle on Sunday) ...

Thursday was sports day of A11 ... we played cricket , TT and carrom till late night ...

Sunday ended with Kargil Diwas being celebrated at ISB ... it was a humbling experience to listen to the stories of the 527 great men who made the ultimate sacrifice so that me and my loved ones can sleep peacefully ... When the disussion went towards management lessons at army it wook away the emotion of day but whenever someone narrated last letter or valour tales of martyrs i almost my head bowed down in respect ... One good experience ...

Week 2 of term 3 looks chilled too ...

Week 12 - Term 2 anti climax but still quarter MBA ..

2009-07-20T20:28:00.004+05:30

Term 2 end terms .... They came and they stormed me ... Upside down was the direction of my preparations... Well not that bad but they weren't good either ... Started with MKDM and it was more of gyaan subject .. I believe I did decent but then decent at ISB only gets you a B grade :-(
Then was the turn of economics in which we never understood a word in the class... all 10 classes were complete waste.... we slogged last night before the exams and puked whatever we knew on the answer paper... hope to do ok ... ( B grade Again ?) ... Then came DMOP ... .This was adrenaline pumping as my midterm marks were good and this could fetch me my first "A".. I did ok in exams and I am hoping for one :-) Compstrat was the longest exam i ever sat for .. 4 hours.. that too 2 hours of no answer sheet .. just reading and anlyzing the case ... and then last 2 hours for putting in place all the thought wandering here and there while reading the case .... whetever .!!!! as usual i was ecstatic after this on as i was quarter mba .. Well I hope (want ?) to get better grades than term 1 but not too sure as there was only 1 subject in which crisp and concise answers mattered and not gyaan ( which i m terrible at)..

Anyways .. tuesday night was games night with A11 going to AOE night... Wednesday was spent chilling out and I watched 2 movies ( desi ones) on TV which i really enjoyed with popcorns :-)

Wednesday night the term break pretty much ended because we were reminded of the compstrat devil called Project report which was due sunday and carried 35% weightage ... so we divided the work on wed night and disersed...thursday was afulld ay LDP which was completely wasted by the instructor ... I dint like any LDPs till now but this one was the worst ... I am not at all looking forward to other 2 which I have coming up in next term .... just want it to be done and over with ...

Thurday night we went for paid preview of Harry Potter and Half blood prince and I loved the outing ... good fun .. friday went in writing my part of compstrat report and saturday wsa agai nfun .. sunday submitted the compstrat report in huffle puffle and then went for a spanish dinner with smiley to end the term break and weekend ...

Term 2 takeaways:-
1) I can never study on time .. no matter how much I try I end up studying last night...
2)Less careless mistakes = very good marks... not that i dint know this but this time i followed this in DMOP....
3) Take part in everything possible... Possible is the keyword here... u cant do anything but put in your best on everything ... I applied for ELP and it got approved today .. so it was worth staying up till 5 in the morning drafting the EOI document...
4) Sun yaar .. Chill Maar

Term 3 is said to be the acme of workload in ISB and it has already started...
Details next week ....

till then...
Adios !!!

Week 11 - Exams fever Again !!

2009-07-14T17:50:00.002+05:30

I m posting this after my end terms which finished an hour back ... I will keep this till last sunday as usual and to ne honest this can be shortes weekly post with just one word inscribed to the core. Preparations.

This is what happens always to me .. No matter how much I try , no matter how much I wish , i just dont succeeed in doing it .. It is not preparation ... It is timely preparation.. I always end up starting at the last .. Though till date i never short of time and I always complete my syllabus and have my head held high when I walk in to the exam room ( No matter how the results are.. I atleast feel confident) ...

Last week there were fewer assignments and now in hindsight i feel I could have devoted some more time for studies... But last week I did 2 things which I wanted to do..
I signed up for ICON project ( Internal consulting project) and submitted for an application for the same .. topic was same .. Improving alum relations .... We spent 2 nights doing that .. brainstorming and then drafting the EoI (expression of interest) ... was fun .. then got rejected ... i later came to know that our document was not beautiful... it was not formatted and neither looked embellished and jazzy ....

Another interesting stuff which took 1 whole night ( and hence next day) was drafting the ELP proposal.. project is very interesting and I am seriously hoping to get some good outcome ...

Lets see..
apart from that it was the original theme .. Preparations ..

Whatever....

Next week - term 2 end terms and term 2 take aways

Week 10 ... Craziness redefined !!

2009-07-07T02:21:00.003+05:30

Phew,
I have a comp strat case tomorrow and more stuff to touch upon in other three subjects but I m still jotting this entry because I dont wanna b 2 late ... As it it i m sure week 11 entry will be postponed give the fact that I have End terms next monday ( Ya ya .. Again !!!)

This week was pretty much as hectic as last week .. But there was a difference.. Last week was hectic due to academic demands but this one was more profound and learning ( WTF?)
I was dead busy as I got involved in clubs and ICON and ELP in addition to our very own and regular ISB study assignments ...

We dint have many assignments during the week but we had 2 big deliverables due on monday
GLEC country report due monday night and DMOP case study due on Monday noon..

Proud to be the time manager I charted out a plan from A11 ( my study group) that we will finish these on thursday night with a maximum buffer of one day , in which case we will be done max by friday thereby enabling us full 2 days of freedom and emptiness ( in positive sense off course) .. Here is how it went .. We finished DMOP assignment on Monday 2 Am and GLEC report on monday 7 PM....

We had freedom on saturday and sunday but i utilised it in catching up with my sleep and pretty much lazed around ....

I thought in last term that i will be regular but guess that is never to happen ... I always was , always am and always will be the slog over batsman ... managing a decent score but never a century ..

And yes as predicted .. My silly mistakes cost me 3 A grades and I finally ended term 1 with 4 A negatives .. I missed A grade in accounting , economics and stats by 2 marks each ... God tried his best and compensated by making me A- in marketing where I was expecting B..

Still I am at loss.. But thats ok ... I knew life would go for a toss..

M having fun !!!

Week 9 !!!

2009-06-28T23:48:00.003+05:30

I am free today.. Thats a rare scenario in ISB !!! I have ample time to pen this down ...Probably because what just passed by was the most hectic week ( scheduled) of term 2 ...

We had DMOP case study on monday , GLEC prelims report on tuesday , Markstrat decision on wednesday , DMOP homework on thursday , Midterms on Friday and Markstrat decision on saturday...
Sunday had to be free :-)

We survived and even submitted everything on time ... every time ...
Apart from that this week was last class of Proessor Bhardwaj and Professor Kale
Felt bad but change is constant and in case of ISB faculties it is inevitable .. Our section A was pissed off with Eco mid term paper (prof actually copied questions from his sample set) as it was so easy it did not make any sense ... and people actually mocked as to why did they study ..
DMOP too was a disaster in itself and people again thought why did we study.. it did not make any big difference anyway...
If the same thing continues we will probably have to read only 2 subjects to prepare in end terms .. MarkStrat and CompStrat..

Next week should be great because we have professor Jagmohan Raju coming to teach us ... Lot of expectations already .. Should be fun ...

Life never rests at ISB ..

Good Bye Prashant Sir !!

2009-06-27T21:39:00.003+05:30

This is sayonara to Professon Prashant Kale. He was another one after Mohan sir to ensure a place in my blog. So that whenever i revisit ISB year in my life I can recall him and smile.

Awesome !!! Simplicity , intelligence personified. He had an exceptional ability to dissect the case from several angles and yet present to us a new perspective everytime. He did every case in a way that none of us ever thought off. His class had a lot of "AHA" moments. Everytime we were stumped and reckoned
"Oh yes !!! What he is saying can also be deduced from the case"
"Ohh!!! I dint look at this fact this way"
"Oopsss!!! Where was this the case"...

He left us speechless everytime.... I just wish I had him for the whole term.

Coming to his other abilities... He dint need name tags even on day one. He knew everyone's profile before stepping into class... He knew beforehand which student would be right at which point of time ( based on profile ) to carry forward the discussion ... He overheard a collegue talking to her husband and could deduce that it was anniversary and started the class by wishing her....

Stumped us everyday !!!

If I have to compare him to anyone i adore... I would make the decision based on his ability to minutely observe everything and uncanny capacity to interlink each word spoken in the class and relating one point to another in a fantastic manner.... When he carried home the point we always felt this was so easy and obvious ... The decision would be easy..

He definitely is Sherlock Holmes of Competitive Strategy...

We gave him a send off on his last class by dressing as school going kids and I rocked the day when i came from pee pee and asked him " Sir please may I come in" .. Everybody was in splits !!!

P.S. --> I thought I would write a post comparing Mohan Sir and Prashant Sir but I believe they uncomparable .. Flawless in their respective fields ...

I personally liked Mohan Sir more because he taught a boring subject yet made it most interesting one in term 1..
Prashant Sir did the same to comp strat in term 2...

ISB mast jagah hai yaar !!!!

Week 8 !!

2009-06-22T02:11:00.003+05:30

We did even worse in Markstrat. 2 periods gone and we are rock bottom.
High hopes riding on our new products for next two periods.

Apart from that this week was not really different from usual ones...
Monday to thurday classes.. prereads ( which we dont do anymore !!) , CP ( which i cant do anymore) ..and assignments ( which are fun for a change in this term) ...

Weekend we did lotsa assignments .. next week is rocking. We have a submission everyday and we have managed to finish 2 of next weeks 5 submission thsi weekend. Great job I wud say.

Gives us time to study next week for the term 2 mid terms .. best part of mid terms .. only 2 papers.. need to prepare both ..

DMOP i feel comfy but eco is bad .. we got a raw deal n our prof.. 6 sections have a prof referred as GOD and we got one who makes us feel we are reverse ... well not litellay but he definitely tharashes all our hopes of learning a great subject per se..

thats ok still !!
part of the game !!

ISB still rocks !!

Ha ha Ha !!!

2009-06-22T02:09:00.004+05:30

This happened during Eco sample question discussion.

Shouvik - What is output per hour worked ?
Deep - यार , एक घंटे में कितना काम किया ये बताता है ।
Shouvik - Thank you yaar. (Superb timing for sarcasm !!!! )

Pranay - ROTFL gasping for breath.

GMAT Gyaan !!

2009-06-16T02:59:00.001+05:30

If you dont know I should tell you I am never going to write gyan articles.. I cant write them but I can provide links for many good articles becaus googling was what I did the most in my application days.

Here is a great post for GMAT preparation !!!

I will try and find my links repository and post it here !!!

Week 7 - Discovering sonites and vodites !!!

2009-06-16T02:24:00.002+05:30

Ya ya !! i know this was due yesterday but then sonites took a toll... Vodites are anticipated in 2nd week of term 2 but sonites have already attacked and captured our sleeps and thoughts ...

Only dreamign abt sonites is prohibited .. and thats because sonites does not give you enough time to doze off and you gotta start worryinhg about it before dreams land in your eyes via the helipad of black circled eyes !!!

Enough suspense !!! Sonites and Vodites are 2 products in MarkStrat marketing simulation game which we are playing in term 2 @ ISB... Even before the week started we were warned that this is the markstrat term and this is litmus test for the study group bonding made in term 1...

It was definitely fun ... we spent whole weekend on decision 2 analysinr , re-analysing data and then again checking and re-checking the decisions made and in the end flunked with flying colours when the results came out !!! We hit the rock bottom of ISB in terms of revenues .. We mocked at ourselves and I specially ROTFL recalling Shouvik's expression when he said " We had an insightful discussion" I loved the depth in the thought process we have manifested."

Coming to few other subjects which we are treating as they are no-grade subjects .. MarkStrat is the only voice echoing in ISB.

Global eco prof received brickbats after first 2 sessions but improved amazingly in 3rd one ... I m sure it will only get better ....
DMOP is quant-heaviest subject probably with the prof amazingly talented but m not sure if he is able to communicate all he knows ...
CSTR is the one I love ( and fear) the most ... Prof Prashant Kale is just awesome .. He has ability to dissect a case from various angles and show us different perspectives everytime ... The class rocks .. Fear because he loves cold calling and my turn is yet to come ...

Thats pretty much of this week ... Will b back with more one liners abt subjects and more posts on MakStrat.

Till then .. Good morning and have a Good Day .. I gotta think sonites and vodites ...

P.S. - And I heard term 2 was easier ...

Sonites and Vodites !!!

2009-06-14T02:04:00.001+05:30

Life contains only 2 things ..
Sonites and Vodites.

Details to follow on week 7 entry ...

Term 1 results !!!

2009-06-11T12:52:00.003+05:30

I wish I had a magic wand to revert my silly mistakes.....
It would cost me a grade in 3 subjects....

Week 6 - Term 1 hits and misses !!!

2009-06-08T00:01:00.004+05:30

Term 1 is over. Faster than a flash. It has been only a wink since I checked into ISB and i am already 12.5% MBA.

Frantic !!!
Crazy !!!
Awesome !!!

Term exams were an eye opener to all my preparations and dedications. Accounting was ok but as usual I made some silly mistakes.
Eco was a disaster. I did not expect that anything which was given 3 minutes in class will have weightage of 6 marks out of 36. Even better something untouched garnered 3 marks weightage.
Stats was easy as expected and I made silly ones as expected. Marketing was faff and I along with everyone gave the best possible gyaan I could give in that limited time with my limited skills.

I am not expecting much...

Then came the much deserved break of 5 days .. To compound the fun mom is here ... went on for shopping , eating mom-cooked delicacies round the clock and watched a movie ( finally !!!) after 2 months ... Lotsa fun ..

Had 2 half days of LDP sessions .. 3 more full days to go ... The sessions were regular gyaan.. I attended Emotional intelligence ( which was more of emotional atyachaar) and time management ( which ended 25 minutes late) ... still there were few take aways which will see light of this blog in coming week if time permits ....

Hits of term 1

1) ISB - An amazing break after 78 months of working hard(ly?)
2) O-Week and talent nite - Seemed hectic then and now i know it was lull before the storm.
3) Elections :- Some great take aways ( my week 5 post is on this)

Misses of term 1

1) Grades :- I would be lying if I say I dint want them. Everybody wants them.
2) Class economist :- One thing I would regret. It would have been fun but alas my time-mismanagement.

Take aways from term 1

Manage time if you want the best at ISB. There is a lot to do ... Hope to use this in term 2 though I know it is tough for careless me ....

Lets C..

Term 2 is again a level playing field. It is a New beginning. New hopes , New subjects , New time table and this happens every 6 weeks.

P.S. - Have bought TT and Baddy racquets and I own a yonex lawn tennis racquet ( thanks pa) too .. So more distractions for me to learn time management ...

Stay tuned !!!

Week 5 !!!

2009-06-04T16:02:00.003+05:30

Week 5, which btw got over last sunday, gets its due share today..... Week 6 beginning were end terms thereby bolstering my resistance to not-log-in here....

Week 5 was adrenaline rush , courtesy the assignments due before end terms and off course the end term preparations which were supposedly in full swing .... However what I intend to pen down today is the unique experience i had in week 5 ... I ran in elections @ ISB .. It was for the post of director - alumni affairs ... Before you have an adrenaline rush let me tell you that I lost .... But it was great fun coupled with great learning ...

Elections were on Thursday and Wednesday was the soap box presentations .... Tuesday evening was deadline for drafting a manifesto .... Till monday evening i was contemplating the option whether to do it or not ... Then came the shocker mail on monday evening 7 PM which said that due to plethora of contestants the deadlines were revised and now manifestos were due tuesday morning ... I almost stepped out ... I was working on assignment with my study group and at 10 we had barely started ...

Then we started the debate of to do or not to do ... I almost convinced 2 of my study group mates for standing in elections too .. they were interested and motivated but ultimately backed out citing genuine reasons ... In the process I was sure that I would run if I am able to draft a decent manifesto ... I started it at 1 am and finished it at 5 am .. thansk to all my study group mates i could have decent reveisions too .... sent the manifesto and next up was the soap box presentations ....

Went for classes at 8 came back at 1 , had lunch and called SRK for my presentation and practice... I could do a decent practive but at the end was not too convinced of my own o/p.. and then for the moment i got panicked when i entered the khemka auditorium .. i thought i m so under prepared.. but then neha and sk wee there to boost me up .. what workes wonders for me was one line whch Shom said " What matters is the experience . This is the place to fail." I was suddenly looking forward to it. At the end i did a okayish kind of job while presenting my candidature but was happy that i atleast attempted.. the candidate who won definitely was better and deserving ... I got the experience and I was happy... I was told that my output was very good given the effort i put in the process .... 4 hrs manifesto and 4 hrs soapbox... In the end a win win for me ....

Apart from elections nothing week 5 offered fadm assignments , eco assignments etc but they were routines...

Week 6 had end terms .. details in next post ...
----------------
This is my first ever election manifesto ( could be last too ) !!! (Thanks Adarsh!!!!)

Manifesto – Director Alumni Affairs – ISB Co 2010Pranay Raicha - 9666407210

The world is ready to give up its secrets if we only know how to knock, how to give it the necessary blow. The strength and force of the blow comes through a Vision. Take up that ONE vision. Make that vision your life - think of It, dream of It, live for It.

-Confucius, The Chinese Philosopher

When I started writing this manifesto there was a strong urge to define a vision which would carry forward the legacy of Alumni affairs. The vision that I have for Alumni Affairs council is:-

“To nurture the alum relationships by harnessing the existing infrastructure and fostering innovative ideas resulting in a resonating community.”

Below is my thought process to achieve what I have envisioned.

1) Instilling a sense of belongingness in our Alumni :- We always have expectations from our Alumni. How about giving something back to them as current students? I believe there is a need to inculcate a feeling in Alumni that they are still ISBians and that ISB is still their abode. This can be achieved bya. Revamping the Alumni site to not only act as a social networking portal but also give them more details and make it easily accessible to all ISBians.b. Inviting alums to all activities and events happening @ ISB; (incl. parties for Hyd alums )c. Releasing an Alum newsletter chronicling the happened , happening and yet to happen events alongside any relevant information.

2) Smooth alumni interaction :- Coordination is the key here. Considering that time is of essence to all ISBians I will ensure sure that all the clubs/activities requiring an Alum interaction are channelized and directed in the most efficient and effective manner possible. This will help encapsulate alum involvement and eliminate redundant efforts.

3) Tap and Build upon existing programs :- Will continue to build upon the programs like Shadow your alum, A day in work life of your alum and will stimulate similar efforts. I plan to assertively involve successful alums in mentoring current students who aspire to be follow their footsteps. I believe, by one-on-one involvement alums can bring much more to the table.

4) Be Accountable :- I aim to (a) execute recurring checks to ensure all the initiated and intended activities are completed within the designated timeframe and (b) address all concerned issues at the earliest.

Having graduated from IIT Roorkee and with a work experience of 6.5 years I have had enough opportunities and exposure to impart in me the skills that justify my candidature. I am confident of making it a better year for you, for school and last but not the least for the alumni.I had nebular mind initially but now I am sure that together we can make a difference. Together we can have the best SOLSTICE ever.What we need is passion and persistence.

Looking for your valuable support,

Pranay Raicha

“A Student this year. An Alumni Forever.”

Week 5 entry delayed !!!

2009-05-30T03:48:00.001+05:30

End terms are taking a toll..
Will have 5th week entry mid next week..

gud luck to me :-)

Week 4 @ ISB

2009-05-24T07:51:00.003+05:30

This week was pretty much one for lazying around .. Though whenever some of the mid-tem marks were uploaded on blackboard I pledged to study more this week..

I continued to stay late till night (exception: - yesterday when i crashed at 10 ; thats y this post early in the morning) rather early morning but could not study (my trademark) ... but thats ok ... i m having fun..

We presented RnH case study on monday stats quiz on tuesday and faced boring lectures monday thru thursday...

Sat this week had a slot booked for 4 hrs .. It was called Leadership Development Program (LDP) .. though it could have been shorter (by atleast 50%) i thoroughly enjoyed it and made sure my group enjoyed too ... My signature style :-)

LDP was abt having 360 degree feedback from my seniors , peers , juniors and best friends and they sure gave me a shock by rating me decently... some weaknesses which they pointed out were surprises too ...
The session started with the prof defining Feedack , strength , weaknesses , 360 degree etc and then the group was set loose to tear apart each others strengths and weaknesses to come up with a) group strength b) group weaknesses and an action plan to overcome these..

Then came realizing core incompetencies and I had no difficulty choosing carelessness at the top for me to address... Infact a few wrote this as my numero uno weakness. Exact words follow " His careless behaviour which he says is COOL , should be avoided". I liked the honesty my raters showed... Thanks a ton to them ( Tarun Sir , Naveen Sir , Jai , Krishna , Deepak , Pavan , Lokendra and Pramod )...

Then came the fun part, the room was chaotic and we were told to write down first suggestion anyone suggests to improves your weaknesses... That sure was fun with people coming with brilliant ideas...

Before we wrapped up LDP the prof explained difference b/w assertive and aggressive.. Assertive is controlled , flexible and rational with Aggressive being the diametrically opposite ...

In a week we have our end terms and I have lot to study so I am off now..

P.S> ISB Rocks... We have a theatrical screening of IPL final with drinks , food etc and it sure promises to be a lot of fun tonight...

ISB week 3

2009-05-18T01:53:00.003+05:30

19th day on campus and you have examination.. That can only happen in an MBA college ... That too 4 papers back to back ...

My school theory, that in an year most important exam is atleast 300 days from day 1, was routed and I was cribbing for time ... This time too I was amongst the last ones to start .. I mean among those ones who started :-)

The subjects came stumped some , were beaten by some and dint bother many ....

Stats was easy , eco was amazing ( people apreciated the questions unsure about the solutions) , accounting was fun and marketing was GYAAN...

Exams at ISB were great in the sense they made clear that they do not want to test our anlytical minds to the deep... They just want to see whether our thought processes have evolved in the direction they were pushed towards.. How else can you explain concept of an open book exam or for that matter an exam where u are allowed to carry cheat sheets having all the formulas.. So the trick is not to mug up the formula but to know which formula to apply ...

My preparation was few hours per subject and major part went in devising my innovative cheat sheet and marking pages in book which had important concepts ...

I was exuding confidence when I entered exam hall with a cheat sheet in my pocket encompassing all the formulae ever derived , touched , used in a sample problem and so on...

Then came the end of midterms and suddenly the winds were blowing in reverse... the silent atrium was chaotic as usual .. the ever empty lawns of SV had parties ( multiple ) ... We had a section A get together , SV4 party and off course the batch party at the lounge of '08. I came back from last one only to find an interesting set of people strumming chords and singing all ditties ranging from kishore kumar to , english softies with an amazing mix of soutn indian melodies...

People here are talented and versatile... I am yet to explore if I have anything.. lets c...

Not to forget we are already overloaded with next week assignments with Rohm and Haas coming up wednesday and accounting proj due next weekend...

I have just come back from study group meet for R&H follwed by quick table tennis cameo and then penning this down before I crash to bed...

Life at ISB is never slow...

GoodBye Mohan Sir !!!

2009-05-12T22:02:00.002+05:30

ISB drives us crazy .. If i dont pen this down today .. I may never will ...

I am a bad student .. I always have sky high limitation set for my teacher.. I want my teacher to teach me so that I do not have to study more :-)

Mohan Sir stumped me and my expectations in one day ... It has been 5 classes only and for me accounting has changed from greek and latin to assets and liabilities ... He is undoubtedly best teacher I have ever had... Next prof has some very big shoes to fill in ....I am sure he will rock too !!!

Mohan Sir taught in a way that even an idiot can make sense.... Best part he keeps class on toes and grinning for like forever... his mercurial wit and amazing capacity to present and explain concepts is impeccable... Here are some examples...

He deservedly got a standing ovation from our section and I am sure all sections had same feelings ... All sections dunked him too .. Now thats sporty ....

When I was clapping for him today I did not want him to go .... He was the one who made me feel that ISB is a good choice (though he is visiting faculty) ... He was the only prof in whose class I could understand things with the clas.. I lag behind a bit in other classes but in this I was almost spot on !!!..

First question I asked him today - Would be back for any electives and he said "NO".. I felt bad ...

You can never have enough of Mohan Venkatachalam ...

Thank you Mohan Sir !!!
Good Bye and Good Luck !!!

Week 2 @ ISB

2009-05-11T04:11:00.004+05:30

Week 2 just got over. In layman terms I mean that a weekend is over on Monday morning 4 Am in ISB.

The week was OK .. My schedule is almost fixed.. Classes till1PM then lunch @ home ( luxury at ISB) then doze off for an hour or two (three if I am lucky or being stubborn or dead asleep where alarm tone stops existing) ... Wake up have some fun around .. Dine with Neha and then sit to studies... Till 2 at least ..

Well I am up till 4 today and still not feeling sleepy because nest week is mid-terms .. I m journalizing my second week and mid-terms are less than a week away ... This is the story at ISB ... Every three weeks there are exams and this goes on and on till you graduate from ISB (Hopefully !!)..

Did I mention that there are study group assignments which are due every monday morning ensuring we don't breathe in weekends and spend all our (available ?) time with 4 more morons in a study room shouting , screaming and seldom discussing assignments ..

This weekend was bad... Between Friday night 8 PM and Sunday morning 1 AM we spent about 15 hours on marketing assignment ( KODAK) and the result when compared to other groups is mediocre to be generous ( thats the consensus we have but we are still hopeful of decent grades ; given complex graphs and tables we have made )...

Btw, someone changed his status on USB chat network as " And I thoughr Kodak meant good time"... Bang !!! Crisp and Succint !!!

Last part of weekend is sunday .. We did Eco assignmenr because our first assignment was not upto the standard and to catch up on grades ( I have started wondering if this is all I care about ; needs lots of introspection) we gave it an honest shot because best of 2 assignments will be given weightage ... Then came FADM assignment which ate up time post dinner...

Btw,
Here are the profs:-

Fadm prof rocks !!! Funny , intelligent , fast , energetic ( infectious energy level) , crystal clear

MGEC Prof 1 ( there would be one more too ) is almost catching up with Fadm guy .. but concepts are not too cler to me yet .. gotta work on that too ...

The stats prof reminds me of Guruji !!! My chemistry teacher @ IITR ...
The explanation is beyond the scope of this blog :

Marketing is something which worries me .. I need to understand it better and for that pre-reads .. Will plan on doing them too .. sometime .. hopefully ...
If you wanna know when will I study for mid-terms.. I wanna know the answer too .....

Frantic !! This week too !!!

My first assigment @ ISB

2009-05-06T19:29:00.004+05:30

This is an interesting one. At least for me it was.
We submitted our first group assignment last week and today the results came out.
( Max marks 49)
Here is the conversation I had after the results were out.

Deep - Oye, number dekhe
Me - Nahi
Deep - 47
Me - Wow , cool .. (thinking the effort paid off , as we spent 5 hr more compared to whole classs)
Deep - Avg is 48.67
Me- S**t !!

Epilogue:
One whole year lies ahead obscuring such shocks and surprises.

Week 1 over

2009-05-05T02:00:00.003+05:30

That was frantically fast paced.
I cant believe I am 1/50 MBA already...

When I heard only 4 days classes that too only 4hrs each I was like "Huh , cakewalk for a good boy like me".

But I was surprised to find myself cribbing for time in less than 50 hours into the core term.

There were assignments, pre-reads( never ending ) and case studies all hogging my time of sleep and fun ..

Need to get used to it soon so that I can fully use my stay here @ ISB.

At this very moment,
I have a stats quiz in abt 6 hirs and 45 minutes and I am barely midway.

This is fun !!!
Consider it a pun !!!

The fun has begun !!!

2009-04-29T03:00:00.004+05:30

Core term has started on Monday and on the night of tue and wed I have studied ( actually fun interspersed with study attempts) till 3 AM with my study group.

Did not want to not-blog this night. An year of such nights is here but first one deserves a mention.

Ciao !!!

Week 1 and 2 @ ISB

2009-04-23T10:41:00.002+05:30

Phew !!!

Long Orientation week ended last sunday.. Was pretty much jam packed with Alum Gyaan , Team building activities , Club presentations and placement stuff thrown around everywhere.

Special mention for treasure hunt in which we discovered the map of ISB and many useful places too.

This week I am chilling around as there are pre-terms going on and I have not taken any. Though there is a slight glitch in the fact that I should have opted for accounting as I don't know anything abt it.

Lots of pre-reads have already been suggested and I havent started yet..

I am utilising the pre-term to do the precious thing @ ISB.... Sleeping to the fullest.

Parties and dunking sessions @ ISB can be done anytime... That spruces up the fun here ...

ISB Rocks !!

Joined ISB !!

2009-04-16T18:35:00.001+05:30

Finally,
I hv joined ISB

Orientation week is in full swing and it is fun
i am already falling in love with the place

lack of sleep and laptop are the primary reasons for scarcity of details in this post

probably later :-)

Writing essays ??

2009-02-19T14:53:00.002+05:30

This post is too good.
It has links to some good tips.

No value add from my side. :-)

Profile vs Chances

2009-02-19T11:30:00.002+05:30

The ISB co 2011 thread on pagalguy has started and exactly same trend shows up...

People are posting their profiles and asking if their profile is good...Whethe they will get a call .. how much GMAT is gud enuf ...

Here is what i replied to few such posts... It is posted here in Gyaan-Section because the post in ISB thread will be lost soon in flurry of new posts..

What would you do if I say your profile is not good... Will u give up ur dream?

What would you do if I say ur profile is gud ... Will u stop polishing your profile?

Either way it is harmful...

No one is capable or rightful enough to comment on anyone's profile or interview chances...
Any one who thinks that he needs an MBA from ISB , or for that matter any other good B-school , would have something in his profile which could make him unique and can b his/her USP...

So plz plz plz ...
1) Identify ur weaknesses
2) Polish ur strengths
3) Address ur weaknesses for eg if u have poor acads then get a good gmat score ...
4) Trust urself.. Everyone is unique.. So are you !!!
5) Be honest to yourself.

ISB , for sure , says HOLISTIC evaluation and completel believes in it.

Purpose of the blog !!!

2009-02-13T12:15:00.003+05:30

When I created this blog I created it in fancy of other bloggers.. I wanted to commemorate my experienes too... Thats why this was the description of the blog.

"Dedicated to steps taken towards realizing my goal of doing an MBA some day from some good school"...

I know i dint really ever coped up with it... but now that I have admits from ISB and IPMX I want to revive this blog. Thats why I have added this into my PG signature.

From now on till April 11th ( The day I join ISB CO 2010) I will b posting whatever steps I took and what mistakes I did. Post that I wouldd love to maintain this as a companion of the most enriching year of my life.

Hopefully I will stick to the plan.

GMAT Timing !!

2009-02-12T13:44:00.002+05:30

If you plan to take GMAT before next application season then try and knock it off by April. It will give you 2 full months before application season to prepare your sample answers.

Strengths , Weaknesses Goals , Why MBA , Why now etc.trust me even if these are not asked in interview straightaway you have to convey these to the adcom. Some way or the other.The better you are prepared on these bette would be your capability to weave these facts into answers of other questions.

1) Start with GMAT.

2) Forget everything ( except any community service if you are doing) and by everything I mean everything on MBA aspect too like research , contacts etc.

3) 2 months post GMAT are for this only

GMAT re-takers take it only if you feel you can improve your score atleast by 30-40 points.

This was my strategy. You can devise one for yourself too.

Expert Pagal !!!

2009-02-12T13:22:00.002+05:30

If you don't understand the subject then you ae not familiar with arguably the best site for MBA preps:- PAGALGUY.COM.

A new thread has started on Pagalguy which I am sure will be hugely successful and informaive like the last year's thread.

Anothe thread that I love on PG is Art of writing SOP this thread not only helped me fine tune my goals but also gave me good words to explain them.

I plan to posy my theories and strategies here and on the aforementioned thread. Just feel like paying back to PG.

Till then

Adios

A night of confusion !!!

2009-02-11T10:30:00.003+05:30

My previous posts should tell you the confusion.
I got admits from IIM Lucknow Noida campus executive MBA program ( IPMX) and from ISB Hyderabad.

Last day to submit acceptance fee at IPMX was 10th and so was the result date of ISB R2. I got an extension in IPMX as my couier was misplaced. Luckily I had the xerox of the DD which helped me convince the IPMX Adcom for the extension in deadline.

Here are the factors which helped me make the decision

1) Batch Size - IPMX 50 ISB 560
2) Infrastructure ISB way ahead of IPMX
3) Stability - IPM 2nd batch ISB 8th batch
4) Pedagogy - IPMX ( IIM Profs ) ISB (Global fculty)
5) Fee + expenses - IPMX INR 15L and ISB INR 21L
6) Frens advice - unanimously ISB
7) Placement ISB usually has a great record and this year approx 1/3rd hv been placed. IPMX batch 1 is still struggling.

I got holy mail from ISB at abt 6:45 PM and slept at 1:00 AM and in between my mind was facing juggernauts of thoughts.

And the verdict is

INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS !!!!!

Twist in the tale !!!

2009-02-10T20:37:00.002+05:30

Dear P R,
Congratulations! We are delighted to inform you that on the basis of a comprehensive and careful evaluation process, you have been offered admission nto the ISB’s one year Post Graduate Programme in Management which commences on April 11, 2009.
We believe that your profile will add significant value to the diversity of backgrounds, outstanding talent and significant achievements represented by the students in our new class and also bring in a valuable perspective to our classroom discussions and international community.
Please confirm your intention to enroll in the programme by:
Remitting a non-refundable Admission Fee of INR 200,000 (Indian Rupees Two Hundred Thousand Only) or USD 5,000 to reach us latest by 25-Feb-2009, to ensure that your place in the class is retained. Instructions for making the payment are given in the file attached to this email.Completing the admission acceptance formalities in your ISB online application account. The instructions for this are also provided in the documents attached to this email.The formal admission offer is being sent to you by courier separately for your records. However, you should not wait for that to reach you to complete your acceptance formalities. The date of transmission of this email is considered as the date of official communication of the admission offer.
All dates and times are as per Indian Standard Time. If you do not wish to accept the admission offer, kindly login to the online application and decline the offer. This will ensure that another deserving applicant on the waiting list is offered admission.Please note: All disputes arising out of or in respect of Admission to the PGP shall be referred for Arbitration to the Dean, ISB, Hyderabad or to his nominee, whose decision shall be final and binding on the parties. The Arbitration shall be at Hyderabad and be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.
If you have any queries or concerns prior to your enrolment, please do communicate with us at pgpadmissions@isb.edu or +91 40 2318 7474.
We look forward to welcoming you into the Class of 2010.

With best wishes,
Sincerely,
Menon V.K.Sr. Director -
Admissions & Financial Aid
Indian School of Business
Gachibowli
Hyderabad 500 032Ph: +91 40 2318 7474Website: www.isb.edu/pgp
Instructions_for_accepting_the_Admission_Offer.

Dilemma Continues !!!

2009-01-14T10:26:00.002+05:30

Till just about a week back I thought an ADMIT was all I wanted to conquer the world.. That is now long left behind and I have already entered a world of questions.. Bigger and Tougher..

The yahoo group is active and 2 topic doing rounds are
1 ) Loan - Andhra bank and PNB have tieups so it shoul dnot be a problem.
2) Brand Building of all Executive IIM courses - Thats an interesting initiative by common admits of PGPX ( IIMA) , PGPEX (IIMC) , IPMX ( IIMLNC) , EPGP ( IIMB).

I have an ISB R2 i/v invite and am not really able to concentrate on that. I still feel that IIMLNC invite should steer me thru ... Though a lot of suggestions have been pouring in to atleast take the i/v seriously and a fair share amongst them favor the invite too seriously ...

The plot thickens but an admit surely makes you smile every now and then.
Lets see...

Aaj se nayi kahaani !!!

2009-01-07T18:18:00.006+05:30

I have never maintained this blog but from now on I will update this regularly.
And the reason is this.

My MBA sojourn till now says

PGPX - No i/v call

PGPEX - Dinged after i/v .. I was not deemed good enough to be a part of 3rd waitlist even. Sigh !!!

IPMX - Admit :-)

ISB R2 - i/v invite.

XLRI GMP - Applied.

iimc submitted

2008-07-29T08:18:00.003+05:30

long time no c !!!!

submitted iimc pgpex form yesterday

not too hopeful..
not totally hopeless..

but pessimism takes a toll over optimism

fingers are crossed and hands folded in prayers

:-)

will post my pgpex essays at the end of this application season on my blog..
will help at least some i guess

Time to rejuvenate

2008-03-20T15:26:00.001+05:30

Will be back soon ...
Hv to keep all dreams aside for ths one..

Despair continues!!!

2008-03-12T10:33:00.004+05:30

hmmm...

my previous 2 posts created a picture of my failure and this post is no surprise ..
just continuation of my laziness , reluctance , carelessness whatever u want to call
it...

am still lacking the motivation , the instinct , the zeal to do it ...

Recently read "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" ..
Nice book..Almost changed my perception towards life ..
probably need to read more such motovating books to find a motivation..

till then its ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.........

Can someone write a comment which will motivate me to bring out the best in me ...

Heading nowhere

2008-02-20T18:03:00.001+05:30

i m not heading anywhere !!!!!
Dunno whats there in future's chest !!!!!

I dont feel like it these days

2008-01-22T13:24:00.000+05:30

I am trying hard to find out something motivating for me...
i hv to prepare my essays do some research but i am not spending even a single minute in a month..

recently read Harry potter 6 ... wanna read seven now but somehow is that what is needed... but i cant control myself..

while reading a book or playing a game or writing blog i start living in a fake world...
that helps me involve more ... actually i cant control it...

wont lie .. i dreamt of harry and dumbledore in the days i was reading HP 6 ...

have taken net connection ( FINALLY !!!) and am going to research Vault n wetfeet soon..

lets see...

Snapshots from hell

2007-11-23T12:40:00.000+05:30

Finally,

I spent some time reading Snapshots from Hell...

Its been a long book .. Though 286 pages only (and i have not reached the end yet) i took long to read it ... I was getting bored by the over-technical and over-MBA_curriculum type chapters... This book introduced me to the subjects that are ( were ?? ) taught in Stanford when the author studied there but some subjects were elastically elongated and I felt like i am already there studying the subjects..

The best dialogue in the book was by a professor. He says " One day I want to hire a batch which is double the current strength. One batch will go thru the standard curriculum and other will spend two years playing basketball, partying and golfing ... and I bet 10 years down the line both batches will have same career path lying ahead and behind of them"

This made me think ( Though my knees hurt )... and I agree to the professor to an extent .. The MBA colleges of repute have such tough admission/selection/rejection procedures that the companies are convinced that the students which are capable of getting thru such process are capable/eligible/intellectual enough to handle the complex and responsible tasks companies expect them to ....

More to write abt the book or may be other books..

sometime later

Change in plan

2007-10-03T13:47:00.000+05:30

Nope !!!! This is not because I planned it.. It just happened.. I have become lazyyyy..
I have a few books at home to defy my reasoning that its because i dont have good books.

I have to read:

Snapshots of Hell
Short stories by Roald dahl
Men r from Mars women r from venus

and lot more...

But i hv no guilts i m living each and every moment of my life..

Will get serious soon ...
Have to get serious soon..

Time to kill or Time to go for a kill ??

2007-09-27T10:27:00.000+05:30

Done with GMAT..
Decided to apply next year..

I am rejuvenating life .. but at times I think that i should probably utilize this time in preparing for next year.

I have to find a lot of answers and biggest of them is Y MBA ??
Like many (or most?) other people I want MBA to get to a dream job in dream company .. Thats the short term goal with no long term goal in sight..

Its dreading when i think how will i expand the above line in 300 400 1500 or even 2000 words when it comes to essay writing next year...

I need to find asnwers to questions like:

Y MBA
Y this college
Y this specialization
Y at this time
Y executive MBA
Y this
Y that

I frequently visit blogs of Iday , rungee ( links on the side bar ) where they have their journey documented in awe inspiring fashion .. mentioning all the do's and don'ts of the MBA ...

Research of colleges is pending too.. I do not know which colleges i m going to apply next year ... I know i want to go in functional consulting but again i cannot defend an EMBA only by saying this ...

I have thought ( not planned yet ) of using next few months n polishing my writing and spoken english .. I am ok but not good ... Have to start reading novels ...

Will post my thoughts on books and/or stories as and when i complete them ...

Lets see how it goes ...

Kickstart the journey

2007-09-26T16:03:00.000+05:30

Am finally done with 730 celebrations !!! Treated myself and family.

I will apply next year. Though I know that I want to be in India, I can't help dreaming Harvard , Duke etc. Inspite of dreaming these schools I am still rigid on being in India ... Many reasons for this rigidity primary being the fact that I know I don't deserve these colleges... Secondary is finance and tertiary is a non-exhaustive list...

Since I have an year i want to prepare with ease but with vigour so that i get selected in atleast one good B-School next year.

Have to polish my portfolio this year and also need to make sure that I write decent enough essays next year. Its always helpful to know oneself and plan accordingly.

To kickstart i have added few good links in my blog and will visit them religiously. This is to make sure that I get the ideas about how essay are written and what pleases the AdCom of any good college.

The transcripts need to be ordered too.

The journey has begun ....

My GMAT DeBrief

2007-09-26T15:59:00.001+05:30

The same post is also available here

There u can see people congratulating me :-)

------------------------------

Hi Folks...

I m done with it and with a pleasant final screen on GMAT showing 730....
However, I strongly feel a 50/40 combo should have yielded 740 ..... Thoughts ?

here goes the story >>>>

Background

Indian IT professional... Working for 5 years almost ... thought of MBA after sensing stagnancy in career...

Decided to give it a shot in 3 months and started in mid June ...
Paced my preparation after scheduling the appointment in first week of July....

Preparation

GMATPREP, old paper based tests, BTG Forum , OG 11
OG 10 , 1000 CR , Kaplan ,
Dint buy anything except Princeton.. Tons of stuff is available on net …

First 10 days went in getting acquainted with table n chair...

Started off with Princeton .... An ok kind of book but anything was good to begin the journey ..... Never referred it back after June…

Maths was my strong point ( though not as strong as that of folks here on the forum ).. So i did not really prepare much on that ... Just solved few old paper tests and some OG 11 questions whenever I needed a break from verbal …One thing which I would recommend to everyone who is good at maths is that TARGET 51 and work for it .... What I did was just 4 days before my GMAT i browsed thru each question on maths sections of this form which had GMATPERP/POWERPREP in the subject.... I dint solve them but still this helped me brush up my concepts and also helped to focus on GMAT level difficulty questions ..... I am sure this site has 80% of the GMATPREP software solved ....

Verbal was my weak point … I am ok in English but poor in MBA English … I still make mistakes… I started off with Princeton then MGMAT SC and moved on to solve OG 10 ( tracked my results )…
At the end of OG 10 I was comfortable in CR , OK in RC and SC…..
Apart from this I used to browse questions on the forums ( BTG being the only forum I used…. Hope Being is correctly used )

Next step was focusing on SC notes by some stalwarts … Saahil, Spidey , Rajat , Vamshi ( not as popular as others but a must read for someone who is poor in English , brilliantly explained concepts and terminologies)… After that I felt better in SC… Atleast I was able to improve in the easier ones with almost 100% accuracy…

I started taking tests in early August.. Took Kaplan tests and almost decided to quit when I saw my scores… After 1.5 moths of preparation my Kaplan scores were 590 , 600 , 610 and 590 respectively…Only consolation was QUANT ( 50 , 48 , 39 , 50) …. At this point important suggestion.. Plz take a GMATPREP before starting ur preparations… Then took a GMATPREP and was happy to see a score of 700…Took its retake and with few repeated questions scored a 730.. so I thought I m somewhere in 680 700 range and still need to improve…

Started solving 1000 CR a set a day just to make sure that I don’t lose touch on CR …I just did the 24 sets which are related toGMAT… Soon paced on it and finished it in 8 days.. Wanted to do 1000 SC but was afraid that since some answers were wrong I would end up shaking my concepts … moved to solve SC questions from ARCO and Kaplan and Powerprep instead….

Started off with OG ll and was surprised that I did quite well in that … In SC and CR I was touching close to 85% accuracy which was sufficient to catapult my score to 720+ …

Last weekend before the GMAT I took GMATPREP and scored 760 and 760 ( in the retake) … Maths was a 51 but it was because I already saw all maths questions on the form ….

I could not study in last 2 days … Was too excited to study and spent this time in cooling my nerves and boosting myself….

For AWA I read out all the docs available on this site and also the doc which has a sample essay to the 200+ official AWA topis… Hats off to the author of that doc..I created templates of my own… Copied good words and nice sentenctes in a place and kept revisiting them ( bcoz I knew I cud never think that way I had to mug them)

The test day
I am not a morning person so I took and evening time 5:30 to 9:30…
Got stuck up in traffic and it spoiled my mood…. Tension overshadowed my confidence and continued to do so till I reached there just 15 minutes before test time…

Centre was good…

Splashed my face and felt better …Cudnt buy anything to eat bcoz of time crunch … This is very important bcoz you yearn for food during the test … Still I utilized breaks… took splashes of water….

AWA were from the official list only.. Wrote ok essays ( I expect to get 4 atleast…. Am keeping fingers crossed)

Quant started of well and except 2 questions I knew the approach to solve all of them…
Educated guess on these 2 ( which I m sure went wrong) and some silly mistakes (which are my birthright) helped me reach 50 …. Though I was sure that my quant will be atleast 49 I was happy to see 50 finally.. In all my tests I finished with well 15 minutes left… I triple checked first 15 questions and made sure that I utilize full time… I corrected my mistakes in 3 questions …… That surely helped….

Verbal – This was the only test where none of the questions were repeated for me …but started of well.. Had RC at question no 5 and could comprehend it… I cruised along.. One important tip here … Forget the question as soon as you click confirm.. don’t think about any question which you have already attempted… this kills time and confidence and concentration …. If at all u want to think then think that what u did was right and its time to focus on the one in front of u right now….I selected atleast 5 A’s on SC which kind of caused concern but I continued… CR’ s were OK and except 2 I m sure it went well… I was not able to comprehend 1 RC towards the last and probably got it all wrong …. I finished off with 57 seconds to go …

Then some BIQ screens and then I selected report scores… my head was down with fear and anxiety and when I saw 730 … I was on 7th heaven…

Ohhh what a day … 730 is an achievement…..

Lessons learnt

1) KAPLAN RC’s are bad to practice.. They will kill ur confidence if u are an OK performer… SC and CR should be done if u target 700+
2) Take a test before starting preparations
3) Keep track of mistakes
4) Keeping COOL is more important then all the prepaation
5) Confess your weaknesses and focus on them but keep polishing your strengths

Acknowledgements

A big thanks to ERIC for maintaining this…. A perfect place … Best part is that it is GMAT only ….. Very well organized and driven by excellent members… Special thanks to JAYHAWK2001 , GIVEMEANID , BENY ( for thrashing my AWA’s so that I cud focus more on it) , GABRIEL , CYBERMUSINGS and many other folks ….

BTG Rocks !!!