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About Webmaster

Site Admin and webmaster of the project

mayonnai5e’s Errors & GMAT lessons learned:blog in threaded format

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So what I am reading in my spare time these days?

mayonnai5e started his GMAT preparation on Beat the GMAT forums when I was on my Biiiiiiiiiiig-vacation. Therefore I couldn’t track his progress and so the thread, closely. Still I remember, I had put some comments whenever I saw his my blog errors and lessons learned thread. He, very meticulously wrote his GMAT progress “mistakes done n lessons learned” and end up producing some new strategies to attack GMAT test! Like Eric, he too started writing his daily progress about his ‘GMAT studies, tests taken, obstacles faced and new strategies adopted

One of the advantage of writing your GMAT test preparation progress in thread format over the blog is you make it more interactive! You can invite others to share their similar experience or solve your troubles. Mayonnai5e had Eric and Stacey K. with him on his GMAT journey.
Check out the whole thread (especially last few pages) and you’ll find some cool tips and analysis from Stacey K.
Stacey Koprince is one of the eminent GMAT teacher from Manhattan GMAT and resident expert at Beat the GMAT forums. (You can check out the detail profile of Stacey Koprince at manhattan.com)

1000 SC series RIP

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This post is dedicated to the thread I once started to compile all the questions of 1000 SC document, which would be discussed on Beat the GMAT forums.

The purpose of starting the thread was not to encourage GMAT students to use 1000 SC document but was just to give them ready reference to the other threads where the respective question from 1000 SC are discussed in the forums. It was for benifit of forums’ members. But now it’s not a sticky maybe because of some reasons
The questions are taken from GMAT sets JJ. (which was once a product of ScoreTop.)
Beat the GMAT had not created that document is not associated with 1000 SC in any way. In fact this document is available for free even before BeatTheGMAT was born.

vhooosh!! I think I’ve talked a lot about these stuffs here, on my GMAT blog or on some GMAT related forums( TestMagic &/or BeattheGMAT). I cant help it as many people ask about 1000 SC, CR documents, their credibility, GMAT sets & then questions like what’s JJ or what’s GMAT sets… and all sorts of rumours or realities. I think I’ve had enough of replying or responding to it. It’s kind of banter chat and has no substance in it; so now I have decided not to talk about it anymore!

Oh yeah! that reminds me to one more “hot topic” of which I am really pissed off reading over and over again. May be I’ll talk about it on my next article .. perhaps for the last time. The topic is : first 8 question myth πŸ˜† :thumbsup:

BusinessWeek Forums made open for public

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I may be quite late in finding this out but at least for me it’s ^the news^.
BusinessWeek Forums is now made open for all.
It’s the “CLASSIC” and one of the oldest & perhaps the largest and reputed online forums for related to MBA preparation and admissions.
Only problem with BusinessWeek Forum compared with other online forums was, it was only for its members. That means no guests were allowed see the content and the topic discussions of the forums. Today when I checked the site after almost an era, I could roam around without logging in!
Yes, that I think is significant move from BusinessWeek. They were actually stopping many of its prospective members by having “members only forum”. Many applicants still rely only on Google, BusinessWeek and of course, Webdesign499 through this site https://www.webdesign499.com/want-to-better-your-website-performance-read-these-top-seo-tips/.
It’s a welcome move from BW online!

Pagalguy is down

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…Can’t believe it.
Pagalguy is India’s most influencial (most popular and biggest) MBA related website. Though it’s more concentrated to Indian MBA entrance test (CAT) it has very popular section for GMAT test too!

Pagalguy.com Portal and its forums’ been down since more than couple of days! (?)
I am not sure about this as I personally didn’t check the website since many days. As I think I have reduced my forum participation and ^posting activities^.

My friend called me up and asked whether Pagalguy Forums is actually down; so I today checked it out myself and result is the same.

I know it takes a great load-n-traffic during this period of the year when CAT results are ’round the corner. And I have seen on some occasions site being down for some time. Mostly it goes down for some modification in code etc. But this time it’s the biggest downtime I have ever noticed. I dont know the reason why its down but I am sure its a big loss for the Pagalguy. for such heavy traffic site every seconds counts! right πŸ˜‰

Hope it’ll up soon!

IE get it now.

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To begin the ‘download-review articles’ series. I have decided to start off with simple and most essential download.

I learned the 30% of visitors come to my sites are still using 6.0 version of IE. That means half of those who use Microsoft Internet explorer use the earlier (and obsolete) version of IE. I see no point in sticking with the browser which is 6 years (?) stale.

The new browser (oh even IE 7 is considered to be old now… πŸ™‚ ) IE 7,Β  has lot of more additions; it is mo secure & faster & has many new features that MS IE browser was missing earlier.
Features such as: tab browsing and search slot at the top right side were lacking. Something Microsoft borrowed from opera and Mozilla firefox browsers.
I recommend everyone who use IE 6.0 or those who use windows XP and haven’t upgraded their browsers to upgrade it to IE 7. You can also do it by tuning Windows automatic udates ON.

I want to talk about some of the best and unique features that IE 7 version has which I think other browsers lacking.
1.] Feed reader allows you to read the content offline and at your leisure time. Although its broadband / DSL internet connection almost everywhere now and you rarely find dialup these days. ( I use dialup by the way) it comes very handy even if you have dedicated /always on internet connection. I think opera browser has this feature since ages. but firefox doesnt have this one.
2.] Costomised search slots.
Yes, ironically I heard Firefox is (most?) open source browser and you can do whatever you want to with it, but I see lot of feature “easy to use” in IE.
For example I could add my favourite costomised search engine scour.com to IE but not in Firefox. Heck! I can een hae Okut Seach using IE 7 without Google toolbaΒ  You can add itually any search engine from any site.
isn’t it cool?
So what are you waiting for? Get it now! It’s absolutely free!

Some disadvantages, I must mention: It’s available only for Windows XP SP 2 or higher versions of operating systems.
It still doesnt include spell check.
& lastly it doen’t stores the text if the application crashes. (which is a serious problem I think)
And application crashes quite often, btw!! πŸ˜‰
But overall, I recommend this browser as it’s in-built; no hassle; comes free with Windows Vista & available free on automatic updates on Windows XP.

GMAT forum, ScoreTop banned by GMAC (?)

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Well that was about to happen!

Though the news came bit late (than expected) and eventually it came when I was away from the GMAT world. (I mean, you can guess I was away as I was not blogging about GMAT and preparation stuff.) And therefore I couldn’t post an article about it. I think I dont have a valid source now to back this article. Anyways lets hope that the question mark in the title of the post will keep me safe. πŸ˜€

ScoreTop is GMAT preparation company which owns a forum ( I have mentioned about the forums on my blog on several occasions). ScoreTop give (used to give) question bank, known as GMAT sets to its ^VIP members^. The “GMAT sets” arguably used to contain contemporary questions that would most likely to come in real GMAT test.
They had high hit rate and perhaps thats why they are still famous in GMAT preparation industry eventhough they are no longer being published.

Some things better keep unsaid…. anyways but it was suspecious. and eventually it happened. At least thats what I heard from some other GMAT strategy forum.

should I kill Johny CAGE?

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I have been thinking about it since long. And it’s not unusual! I killed many of the brands that I created… it’s a cycle and I love doing that.
Creating an identity,
-popularizing,
-then killing your own brand.
-To start from the scratch;Β  once again.
But Johny CAGE is very close to me and has almost become part of my life. Ironically it WAS part in the real life and now it’s in virtual world of cyberspace too. So there are less chances of me chucking this name πŸ˜‰
Couple of years back when I started blogging on blog*spot, I deliberately chose my identity as JohnyCAGE and then had decided not to disclose my real name. Well! there were (are?) some reasons as to why I didnt want to reveal my real identity real /family name. Unless I do anything significant I thought I would go with Johny CAGE. I had completely different plans about blogs and I end up doing something different. But ultimately I cant deny the fact that johnyCAGE made me famous(?). and chucking this name is high risk game. I dont fear of starting anything afresh. I have been doing that since childhood but I fear of copying the brand.

So I think I will keep JC with me…

hoosh I am still in dilemma. whether to go by my real name now onwards or continue with JohnyCAGE? It’s a genuine concern because I am entering into new domain now.. where nobody knows my earlier existence. Had it been GMAT I would have definitely continued with Johny C.

Anyways I am still thinking on this gibberish issue… you ‘ll get to know my decision soon πŸ™‚

Applying to IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade) New Delhi

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As you know already, that I am thinking of applying to IIFT this year. So, I have to hurry and get the application form filled as deadline is nearing. I checked the official site of IIFT
which of course I liked. haahaa not because I am applying there… honestly I am more used to homepage of US MBA programs & it’s very different from them. Simple-Light and Plain!
No flashy pictures and no fluff. Yeah I agree that those flashy homepages look cool and sleek.
This however is much coarse.
I read all instructions and I realised that I HAVE to make a demand draft first and then check with rest of the application.
A demand draft of Rs. 1330 for general candidates and Rs. 700. for minorities/ and if you are a foreign candidate or NRI(non residential Indian)/ NRI-child you’d have to pay $75 for applying.
Couple of days back I went to town to the Bank for DD. But as usual seeing jammed packed (crowded with people ) bank was real turn off. The bank is going through major transformation and so is very troublesome lately. It was obvious that it’d take me at least four hours in queue standing 😯 to get the DD. So I chucked the whole plan and came back empty hand.
…Actually this was a wise decision as we have sub-branch of it in our village which hardly has any transaction. I submitted my DD form to the sub-branch & I got the DD next day!
Cool isn’t it! I didn’t have to wait for it standing for four hours.
I was not in hurry so I could afford this.
Now that I had my DD in my hand ready. I again checked IIFT site to apply online…
applying was easy but it said that you should have a printer ready to take out the print of your application which then to be sent to IIFT.
haahhaa & my printer is in my home town so right now I have just copied it for printing it from a stationery store or cyber cafe tomorrow.
Once I take the print out of the application form, I’ll have to send it to IIFT along with the Demand Draft.
I got to keep a close eye to all deadlines:
One thing I like about the website is as soon as I applied online they gave me access to my page through which I could track important informations like deadlines
so here’s a sneak peek’
:

1. Last Date for Sale of Prospectus by post: 20th August 2007
2. Last date for Sale of Prospectus across the counter at IIFT: 3rd September 2007
3.Last Date for Receipt of completed Applications: 3rd September 2007
4.Written Test: 25th November 2007
(10 amΒ–12 noon)

hmm interesting! they haven’t mentioned about he Group discussions and Personal Interview dates… I think that should be around January-February 2008.
And for my own record: I am writing the test pattern that is mentioned on the college website verbatim

The admission test is a multiple choice objective type written test (in English). Duration of the test is two
hours. It will cover English Comprehension, General Knowledge & Awareness, Logical Reasoning and
and Quantitative Analysis.
THERE WILL BE NEGATIVE MARKING FOR WRONG ANSWERS.

I used to be good in General knowledge once… haahaa ages back.. guess I’ll have to again start reading pink papers .

Thinking of Indian MBA…

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Dont look around, you are right. It’s me. Yes! aim-wsc is thinking of applying to some Indian MBA programmes this year!
surprised? yeah! even I am as surprised as you’re!
I think I must clear this haze around aim-wsc a bit…(OK may be I’ll write an introductory post soon.)
…that’s not the purpose of posting this article… today however, I’ll just talk about my voyage to various Indian MBA programs.
Now you might ask which programs am I thinking of: IIFT. IIFT & IIFT. Right now it’s the only one college I am thinking of applying but soon I’ll reach to some concrete decision.
FMS New Delhi, SP Jain, IIT SOM Mumbai are some of the other colleges I am thinking…
Now the obvious question arises: Why IIMs is not in the list… well for some odd reasons I don’t want to apply there… (not like sour grapes πŸ˜‰ Yeah I know it’s not in my stretch and even if it would’ve I wouldn’t apply there…)
I’ll check it up with PaGaLGuy Forums but surprisingly I get more hits @ CoolAvenues when I searched about any MBA program in India on google… seems they are doing better with SEO and the stuff.
So I’ll check CoolAvenues site too…yeah I should not forget that this site is commercialised even before PaGaLGuY forums/ portal started. Anyway all I need is some information about these institutes which I would use to make a decision whether to apply to their programmes or not.
Well most probably ( according to my instinct) I wont be apply to any of other Indian or international MBA program this year. So it’s gonna be IIFT only.
But I’ll surely come up with some good reasons for the decision that I would make.