My CAT - 1,2,3 & Trends

My array of mock tests have started to swell. Unfortunately I'm struggling with quants this time. A friend of mine told me that GMAT retakers tend to focus on their weak areas from the first GMAT and lose out on their strengths and I seem to be well on that way for now.

Veritas prep - (feel good) - 710 Q45,V42
Kaplan free online - 690 Q45 V39 (this is not a adaptive test)
Grockit #1 - 680 Q43 V40


I had taken the Veritas in May, before my first real GMAT test. Although I had got a 620 then, the 710 now probably is a little skewed since I have been exposed to their questions before. I did remember getting some repeats.

My GMAT was Q48, v33 and for my retake I've put a lot of emphasis on verbals. So I am seeing some benefits of that, but unfortunately am struggling with time on quants and that has dipped. I wish I could maintain my earlier quant score and reach these verbal scores, that would be just perfect for me.

My aim is only to get above the 700 mark. I will spend the next 2 days practicing on harder questions on Quant and give another CAT on Thursday and make my decision on when you take my test date. I hope in the next 10 days I should be able to get to my peak (whatever it may be) and hope for the best on the exam day.

I am still wondering if I should give a shot at GMAT prep tests this time around, since I've given them 3 times already in May and I'm sure the scores would be a little skewed if I retake them now. Any thoughts ?

As a footnote, I'd like to leave with a great resource on SC and CR, an abridged version of notes and shortcuts from Manhattan & GMAT takers. Check 'GMAT notes/resources' in the resources page tab on my blog.

Setting Goals

Giving yourself a goal is to eventually see yourself somewhere doing something you feel will make you happy. But most of the time, we let ourselves be the victims of the external influences and situations that take us out for a ride. Many of us choose to think that is our life and we grow to dislike how it has slowly ridden us of our dreams or what we thought we'd become by a certain age.


Rather than be whisked away for a ride, its more fulfilling to create that destination for yourself. Once that's created very often we find the path is created. Have you felt this happen when you tried goals for the short term? Arranging your wedding, preparing for a important meeting with your top bosses, etc.? The thing here was that an external situation - your fiance/parents, your boss gave you these goals. What would happen if you set one for yourself?

 To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.  ~Eva Young

The most important reason why we get lost after a while in the corporate world is we were so used to the structured world for school work, courses to take, instructors and counsellors to guide us that once we arrived, after the initial euphoria of a few years, gaining those promotions that seemed exciting to get, we find we have been so busy making money for our shareholders & directors and measuring up to the goals that they have set for us, we have forgotten if we had to make any for ourselves long term.

It is never too late to be who you might have been.  ~George Eliot

When I chose the book by Donald Trump 'Think Big and Kick ass', I just picked it up since the title was such a spunky one. Ofcourse I had seen Donald Trump in the reality TV board room and he is someone who would be easily intimidating. What he elaborated in the book with apt examples from his and his friend's/peer's lives was that the most important thing was to keep thinking BIG. That meant you had to have a bigger goal as you move on in life. The bigger you make it in some achievable quantums, the more engaging your interest in your life, the more time you would learn to live stress free. How stress free?

We always forget the time when we do something we love. How can we be stressed moving to a goal that we set for ourselves ? Think about the time you enrolled for a university course or for a job hunt, when you set out to do something that you wanted and achieved. Didn't you find it stress free and fulfilling ?

And like Donald Trump says in his book.

"I like thinking big. If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big."

The serious question of what I want to do

Self introspection is the key to understanding yourself and building your aspirations for a career change or changing gear.

Wild imaginations of being a writer, interests in travel and photograph immerged in my thoughts when I introspected. Albeit only to confuse me initially, they also led me to understand what I liked about those interests. They also moved me to an understanding of what motivated me.

The writer in me likes to observe people and their situations and experiences, how they overcome their obstacles and these days why they do what they do. It also makes me analyse and critique, since writing is a evolution. My first attempt at fiction was a story on how people from different backgrounds go back to their roots to find themselves clash in a single scene.

Travel interests are largely a projection of my curiosity in different cultures, their sense of identity, history, apart from plain old exciting vacation time. Photography, a recent serious interest was rooted from the fact that I love to observe what goes on in the mind of a photographer when he or she captures the image. Why that composition, why that perspective, how was the light and shadow used, what are the layers in his thoughts, how did it arouse curiosity and be interesting.

A personal project that I undertook for my granddad's 100th birth anniversary celebrations, was a photobook that I wanted to publish as a takeaway for everyone in the large extended family that participated in the day's celebrations of the wonderful self-made man that my grandfather was. It got me digging through loads of photo-albums across several houses of relatives. The more I dug in, the more it showed me how widespread his impact in not only his own, but his siblings families. Every picture has a story. I believed it when I heard them from my relatives. At that time I wondered on my 100th birth anniversary who would remember me and what would they remember me with. Food for thought.

All this led me to believe that I have pursued what I inherently liked. I love to be curious, analyse, collaborate, try different things, design and critique. I like to work on details and over the years understood that I need to put a stop to going indepth, once it starts being irrelevant in terms of the big picture. These talents have led me down the path of software design, something I've truly enjoyed. Software design exactly covers all these aspects of human attribute, apart from a desire to create.

So that's about where I came from and after that I had to continue to understand what I wanted to do, now that what my nascent qualities were revealed to me. The result would now be a exploration of into my future career path.

Serious about self-introspection?

• What activities do you love doing?
• Why do you love it? What does it bring out in you?
• Do you use those qualities at your work place and does it bring out the best in you?
• Analyse your career path and responsibilities shouldered. Reflect if you see your best traits shine in them.