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10 Things I learnt this week- #Week2

10 Things I learnt this week- #Week2

I started this series last week. Click here for 10 Things I Learnt this week- #Week1 Continuing with the series, this is what I want to share for this week,

  1. Iceland is the only country with no mosquitoes. Though they do have 2 species of Midges and one of them actually bites. Source : Geography Now Youtube Channel (highly recommended if you want to know about different countries)
  2. Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla– 15th May was the birthday of Late Captain Mahendranath Mulla, who chose to go down with the vessel, INS Khukri (while he had a chance to rescue himself), when it was attacked by a Pakistani Submarine during the Indo-Pak war of 1971
  3. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a EU-wide regulation that controls how companies and other organizations handle personal data. Many companies that are present in the EU conducts training & workshops for their employees to make them well aware of GDPR guidelines
  4. Nishan-e-Pakistan to Morarji Desai- Morarji Desai is the only Indian to receive Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian honor of Pakistan
  5. Invite only Dating Apps:- There are multiple dating Apps that are only meant for a selective few- Instagram influencers, Ivy-League graduates, filthy rich people and so on. It is difficult to have a profile on these apps as they have an extensive application process and most of them can be joined only if you have an invite. Some examples are Raya, Sparkology, The League, Luxy etc
  6. Content Marketing Toolkit by LinkedIn :- LinkedIn provides a toolkit for Content Marketing which has a Content Calendar Template, Social Media Distribution Plan and several other features. Know more about it here
  7. Miss India Universe 2012 at ISB- Shilpa Singh, Miss India Universe 2012 is a MBA Candidate at the Indian School of Business, Class of 2019, further adding it to the amazing diversity of the student & alumni base that ISB takes pride in.
  8. Incognito Mode for IRCTC train booking:- IRCTC website works better on Incognito Mode on Chrome (Personal Experience)
  9. Premium Tatkal has a dynamic pricing :- The premium tatkal facility introduced by IRCTC has a dynamic pricing model, just like the airlines- more the demand, more will be the price of the ticket.
  10. Spreadsheet course by Datacamp- Datacamp, the renowned website to learn Data Science (R/Python) has just launched a free course on Spreadsheets. You can access it here 

I hope you found this useful & interesting. FOLLOW my blog so that you get an email when I add a new post to this series the next week. The FOLLOW tab is on the right side of the screen (if you are reading it on desktop/laptop) and on the bottom (if you are reading it on mobile).

-KA

10 Things I learnt this Week- #Week1

10 Things I learnt this Week- #Week1

This series has been inspired by Mr. Ankur Warikoo‘s(ISB Alum & CEO, Nearbuy) idea of collating and sharing collective wisdom. I intend to write a post every week on every new thing I will learn on professional & personal front (will also try to mention the sources of these nuggets of knowledge and wisdom). I hope to carry out this initiative for a very long time in the interest of everyone who follows my blog.

  1. GMAT’s time has been reduced by 30 minutes- The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has announced trimming of GMAT exam time by 30 minutes to 3.5 hours beginning April 16 worldwide. It’s been widely speculated that GMAC has removed the ‘experimental questions’ (which do not add any weightage to the final score) from the test.
  2. Keyword Research- When typing in your main keyword into Google, look at the auto-populated suggestions at the bottom of the search page. This will give you an idea of the keywords that people are entering to search for your service or product. Courtesy- Creighton Wong on LinkedIn
  3. Kakeibo- Kakeibo is a ‘budgeting journal’ used to set saving goals and spend wisely by Japanese people. It was first popularized in 1904 by Hani Motoko, Japan’s first female journalist, as a way for housewives to manage budgets. In case you don’t want to make one, you can buy readymade Kakeibo from Amazon to track your spending.
  4. World’s highest post office– World’s highest post office is in Hikkim (pin code 172114). Located at 15,500 feet, Hikkim is part of the Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh. I met a person during my last solo trip to Mcleodganj. “I went there and mailed a letter to myself and all my close friends”, he said.
  5. Zostel in Chitkul-   Chitkul is a village in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. It is the last inhabited village near the Indo-China border. The Indian road ends here. Zostel, the famous chain of backpackers’ hostels, just started its hostel in Chitkul.
  6. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome among Dentists:- Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), characterized by pain, numbness and/or tingling into the palm and first three and a half fingers of the hand and and it used to be prevalent among Dentists. However, use of Rotary Endodontics has reduced its prevalence.
  7. (New Book Alert) Infinite Variety: A History of Desire in India : This new book by Madhavi Menon is a historical account of Desire in India. “Same-sex dargahs, a Malayali Hindu god with a Muslim boyfriend, Bhabhiphilia, the queerness of the zero: you’ll never think about desire in India the same way again” says one of its descriptions.
  8. (Book Recommendation) The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld : Not in the last week, but this book was strongly recommended to me to learn sales tactics  by Mr. Rohan Kothari (IIT Bombay and ISB alumnus) during a one-to-one mentoring session with alums last year at ISB. I thought of including it here.
  9. Custom Audience for Facebook Ads : Apart from targeting through demographics and interests, you can upload an excel sheet (in csv format) of email id and phone number of people you want to view your ad. The ad will directly targeted to those people (provided they use the same email id to login to facebook and they have connected their phone numbers to facebook). You can read more about it here
  10. Prezi for impressive presentations : Prezi.com is a website to make visually appealing presentations and the results are much better than Microsoft Powerpoint. But, it is a completely paid website. Courtesy Kashish Khandelwal

I hope this post was insightful and helpful. If you found this helpful, you should FOLLOW my blog so that you get an email when I add a new post to this series the next week. The FOLLOW tab is on the right side of the screen (if you are reading it on desktop/laptop) and on the bottom (if you are reading it on mobile).

Please let me know in the comment section about your views on this initiative.

Be good.

-KA

My GMAT Debrief- 730 (Q50 V39) in 1st attempt

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Date and Center- 3rd January 2016, Kormangala Bangalore
Score- 730 (Q 50, V 39) IR- 1 (was completely clueless here)
Attempt- 1st
Started Preparation during Mid November (exactly during Diwali vacations)
Schools targetting- I got an admit to ISB (Indian School of Business) through EEO (Early Entry Option). I will be joining batch of 2017-18.

I was never consistent while preparing and the major chunk of my studies happened in last 10 days. Neither did I take a single mock in one sitting.

Quant

I am not from Maths background so it was always a nightmare for me. Bought Manhattan Strategy Guide and completed all topics. Then got myself GMAT Club Tets, tried 10 questions from 700 level but couldn’t solve a single of them. Decided not to touch those questions. Solved around 100 600 level questions with 70-75% accuracy. Hence, out of 1500+ Questions in GC Tests, 1000 are still lying unsolved.

Did OG 2015 + Quant Review 2015 + OG 2016 + Quant Review 2016 cover to cover. Marked the questions I got wrong and revised a few days before exam. There are 25% new questions in 2016 versions of both the book and many questions which were present in 2015 editions are omitted from 2016 editions. So, it is a good idea to get all 6 books (OG 2015, VR 2015, QR 2015, OG 2016, VR 2016 and QR 2016).
I never solved Quants questions posted in this group as even the sight of them used to give me shivers.

Verbal

Got E-Gmat Verbal Online subscription. Its SC is amazing (but you still need to be thorough with OG). I didn’t find anything spectacular in its CR. Didn’t touch its RC (neither the lessons nor the questions). After finishing started with its Scholaranium (700+ Questions). Did around 150 questions from SC (82% accuracy) and 80-100 questions from CR (72% accuracy). Got bored and didn’t attempt the rest of the questions (So, 60-70% of my Scholaranium is left unsolved as well). As already mentioned, didn’t attempt its RC.

CR– I also tried to do CR from CR Powerscore Bible. Couldn’t solve many questions and gave up in the mid. CR was always frustrating for me. In the end, I decided to stick only with OGs and VRs (both 2015 and 2016 editions). Also did a few (around 60 ) questions from Gmat Prep Question Document downloaded from GmatClub three days before exam.

SC– Re-revised all questions from OG 2015, 16 and VR 2015,16 2-3 days before exam. Was confident as accuracy in these questions was 90% (and had done well in E-Gmat SCs as well).

RC– I had only attempted 5-6 RCs (all from OGs) before the actual exam. Comprehension was never an issue as I have been a voracious reader (My Goodreads analytics show that I have read 43 books in 2015 and 12,500 pages in total). Even last night before the exam, I read one short story by Alice Munroe.

Mocks- Princeton 1- 630, Princeton 2- 650, Gmat Prep 1- 700 (got a few questions which I had already solved before in Verbal) , Veritas- 650, Gmat Prep 2- 620 (10 days before the exam). Didn’t bother to look for the solution of questions I did wrong as I was too frustrated and had almost given up (But had to take the exam anyway as I had booked the dates during the beginning of preparation itself). Never took any mocks after that and decided to build upon what I already knew.

Exam Day

I had screwed up my sleep pattern during the last days (took 10 days off, used to study at night and sleep during the day time). As expected, couldn’t sleep for a single second last night. Kept revising SCs from OG and solved a few easy Quant questions (I had always known that I won’t be able to solve tough quants, hence I focussed on getting the easy ones correct no matter what). Reached near the center two hours ago, sat in CCD which is just in front of the centre. Had coffee and a sandwich. Just before entering the centre, popped up a Modafinil 200 mg (Google what it is) with a can of Red Bull and smoked an iceburst (to keep myself alert).

AWA- Had never practiced this before but wasn’t of much issue. Took 10 minutes to frame my answer and wrote it down in 15 minutes. Revised for grammatical/spelling errors in last 5 minutes.

IR- Solved a few, randomly answered rest of them. I found it too tough. Also, I had never attempted this section in any of the mocks.

Quants- EXTREMELY EASY is the word. I would say it was easier than OGs . Confidently solved 9 out of first 10 correctly (guessed 1). Next questions were easy as well. And I used to get to know by the first look of the question that whether I will be able to solve or not. Hence, randomly guessed 3-4 questions without wasting any time on them. Even then, I missed the last question as time was up (yeah I am that slow in Maths). I got sh** scared thinking about the heavy penalty for leaving a question unanswered. Calmed myself down during the break and ate a chocolate.

Verbal– SC was tricky but easy if you have been a consistent reader and are thorough with basics. Had questions on Comparisons, Rhetorical Construction, Idioms, Use of Present Perfect Tense and so on.

CR as expected was too tough (for me atleast). Infact wasn’t even able to understand the question stem of two CRs. I guessed them randomly and made smart guesses for others. While I was confident of getting most SCs correct, I was hardly sure of 2-3 CRs in total.

RC- 2 short + 2 long. The last one was 4- 5 paragraphs long and was extremely difficult to comprehend (was based on finance and economics). Couldn’t get the gist but tried to eliminate wrong answers somehow.

Couldn’t believe when it showed 730 on the screen (Q 50, V 39 and a dismal IR 1 ).

Key Takeaways :-

1. Official Questions are god (specially in Verbal). Do not digress much.
2. In Quants know which question you can’t solve, make a smart guess and move on without wasting time.
3. Mock scores may suggest what you are going to get in the actual exam, but this is not a rule (who knows it better than me ) Don’t stop studying till the last day.
4. Instead of solving tough questions, focus more on making sure you don’t get the easy ones wrong.
5. Make SC your strength. Why? 1st reason- You can easily master it. 2nd reason- It’s the least time taking type of question in Verbal.
6. Never stop reading.

Disclaimer- Above strategies worked for me but there are many people in this group who have scored much more than me, so its better to have their opinion as well.

I am most active on Instagram and will mostly reply there if you have any queries. Follow me- https://www.instagram.com/ansh_isb/