[case study] Jack’s GMAT story

Jack’s GMAT Story is a cautionary tale of a typical MBA aspirant, ‘Jack’ who plans his GMAT prep and MBA application journey. It’s a multi-page article converted from series of posts for ease of browsing.

  1. Index Page
  2. Preface
  3. Jack’s Story : Wrong approach
  4. Solution to the dilemma
  5. What went wrong
  6. The right approach

I’ve konwn thousands of GMAT students and many relate to Jack’s story. I might add couple of more posts about the survey/poll I conducted on various GMAT  forums for this article.

Jack GMAT story compiled

Here’s ready link for all posts of [Jack GMAT story: A case study]
Dont worry if you lose this page. I have made a quick link on right column of my blog in reference section, so that you dont have to hit back button.

I might add couple of more posts about the survey/poll i conducted on various GMAT related forums. And also add peoples responses.

time to wrap up.

Its time to move on.
Yeah! its time to say bye to the blog for some days …may be some months.
I really have to add some value to the blog before I quit blogging.
So have to finish Jack’s GMAT case study.
I apologise, those who have been waiting for my comments on Jack’s GMAT story.
I received good responce from one of the online boards i might publish peoples comments here.
But first i have to post the other unpulished parts of Jack’s story.
I earlier had some trouble with my PC, then with my blogspot then with my unpublished posts…(suddenly they disappear) & then with my inertia…
now i am done with all these i ll publish the remaining part by tomorrow.
Thankyou for your patience.
I know it was late from me publishing the case study… August end was the ideal time to publish that story.
Today if you read the case it might be too late since the application last dates are round the corner you cannot take risk now to analyse your GMAT mistakes or re-take it ….
of course it varies with case to case so just cut it.
Also a note for those who come here from Dave’s MBA weblog
Do not mis-understood and count me in race for MBA class 2009.
I have no intention to plan it this year & not for couple of more years …
I think, Dave added my blog link there because he didnt find any other suitable place for me
hee hee
I will be back by January 2007.
& will take the GMAT oh i mean Beat the GMAT.
till then all the best to all bloggers who are applying for next fall.
& all the best to all those who are going to take the GMAT.

Aftermath: the chewing gum story.

Note: You should read this story before you start reading this one, click here
Now
what you gonna do with that phenomenal chewing gum?
I wont recommend you to simply throw it away; after all it was the record time that you kept anything in your mouth.
so it should be well treated…if not stick on your green bill-board you at least send off it in a proper manner.
so
any suggestions are welcome.
People, please feel free to suggest our friend how to dispose that fucking chewing gum off.
My puts first:
how about sticking that chewing gum in the keyhole of your irritating neighbour?
Just imagine that fat aunty trying to get rid of that gum; or that abusive uncle or worse that ten years old idiot crying and calling his momma?….

chew the *ucking gum

You are at the railway station.
Train has not arrived yet. &
you have a lot of time to eat. So, you go to shop and buy a b88mer bubblegum. You take out your Johnny Cage -RayBan’s goggle from your denim shirt’s pocket and place it on.
Now look at this: Macho dude’s arrived.
cigerette aint make statement anymore. People hate smokers these days.
This chewing gum is ON, man!

You wear dark black goggle and think you look like a dude.
Train comes. You get into the train, chewing the gum. You, of course remove that goggle. You still have that chewing gum in your mouth.
Journey is long and chewing gum is a great ‘timepass’.
You dont realise how arrogant you look chewing that fucking gum. You cant hear peoples voices. You have your ipod plugged in the ears too. So you dont bother & you dont care.
But still its people whom you want to impress. You start experimenting with your gum.
You blow a nice big bubble.
Yeah! now we are talking.
People are looking at you, some wtih just a plain stare, some with disgust. You blow it once again. You become unignorable now. You dont realise that the smell of that mint is all over the compartment. Now people actually are looking at you.
thats it man this is all i wanted.
i wish i could wear my gocxy too but i dont want to be look like a blind.
YOU SUCH AN IDIOT! sigh!
Within five minutes, all mint is lost.
By ten minutes, you lose all interest in chewing it. it’s 15 minutes and you feel like vomiting.
You just want to throw away the fucking gum now.
And now for the first time you realise that you dont have enough space to move in the train, let alone go an spit through the nearby window.
Had it been some rapper of some chocolate i could have asked this guy to throw it for me. But NO.
…cant just hand it over to somebody.
It’s a chewing gum dammit! You cant keep it in your own hand too; as, ermm, well, you know why.
You are stuck. you are trapped.
You have no other option but to chew the gum for all the time you have in the train.
People are no longer looking at you. You also dont feel like impressing people anymore; nor you have any interest left in attracting other fellos in the compartment. Never especially if you are chewing a dirty cheap bubble gum, for last forty minutes.
Now you determined with ‘dont-quit’ attitude. & to make things interesting you make a bubble. A BEEEEEEG one.
wow! that was never been such a big.
In fact you never had such a big bubble.
How much is it?
2inch? 3inch?
i cant say man it’s nose that comes in between.
wh0a! its such a big… i cant take it anymore.
You want to blow it off. But it doesnt. You want it to get punctured. But it simply doesnt. In fact it goes on and on. You taking it in; breathing in.
Oh! thats a strat; take the inside air of bubble in your mouth.
Ok. Bubble is shrinking. But you just cant take it in. There’s no oxygen, you sucker. People are looking at you with disgust. & now you know what is choking.
You know now theres only one the ultimate solution to this.
Just blow it off. Blow it till it goes off. I know its the worst option, especially in public. i know its awlful but it works. It’s the ultimate solution.
i am out of breath …have to take breath from nose and blow the fucking gum. i know it sometimes sticks to your chin, your nose as it breaks; its risky but i have to do it.
You let it blow as big as you could till it blasts. and finally it busted.
Huuuushh thangodd?? ohmygawd!!

What the hell just happened? You took a big breath in order to blow it off. And bubble sticks to your nose (yes, even before it broke). You blew it off and worse is yet to come. As the bubble sticks to your nose, you go out of breath. (again?). Desperately you want to take your gum in hand now. Your desired station is far away. You dont want to take that sticky chewing gum in your hand; because you know why!
You manage to take your bubble gum back in your mouth but not all, some part of it sticked on to your chin and some to your nostrils. You had to remove that sticky gum on your nose by your own hands obviously. and  yes people witness whole episode.
You are perplexed. You dont know what to do. The little part of gum is in your hand. You cannot throw is away since window is far out of your reach. You cannot take it in because of obvious reasons. So you just keep it in your hand, safely hiding. You have lil bit of chewing gum in one hand and i-pod in other. You take every precaution to not to touch your hands to each other.
You dont get in a more mess by sticking the gum to your i-pod!
You still have that chewing gum in your mouth. But you dont care it much, since your all attention now has shifted to the small part of gum that is in your hand. Incidentally you learned that people know that it’s in your hand. so you stop rubbing it.
wow! how it turned dark grey?
After some time luckily you get the seat to sit. But window is still far away. Away from your reach.
OK. Now all I want is some good nap for an hour or so.
Yes, I deserve it!
You remove the headphone put your i-pod in the bag. You do everything with just one hand. You need to get rid of that gum in your hand so as to sleep peacefully.
NO.
I never place it on coach. I am not that nasty afterall. and not in front of public at least. I wont.
But you have to get rid out of it.
You cleverly bend down to sort your shoe laces. you have already removed shoes and socks but you still do some lace work. You slyly put that gum in between the first two fingers of your foot.
YOUR HANDS ARE FREE NOW.
phew!
You do some hair work with smile on your face. You place your hands folded cross on your laps and put head on it for sleeeeeeep
Peace for you; peace for passengers too!!
When you got up from your sleep, some station has just been passing. You afraid whether it was your station. After some peeping through window you realise that you got up right on time. The next station is yours.
After hundred minutes of healthy sleep you wish to wash your face, your head. But your have no time. You are in hurry. You have no time even to socksup or lace up. You get your bag; ensure that i-pod is still in the bag. You have to rush; you ask your neighbours to make way. You hurriedly wear shoes and put your laces inside it too.
dont have time, man!
The gum is still in your mouth. NO. DONT ASSUME the THINGS! (?)
And fortunately (or unfortunately), you are not dumb enough to ignore or forget the other part of that gum, which you secretly-yet-smartly placed in your foot fingers. So you DID check your fingers and you were pleased to see that grey gum is not there…
lost in those dreamy hundred minutes.
HAPPY.
You put your foot, along with your socks and laces in the shoes and head for the door. You come out of train like a winner. You just thank god that you woke up just in time.
After all I find myself quite lucky.
The moment you thought that, you realise that chewing gum hs sticked in your teeth!!
It cant be. Its just impossible. I have done PhD in fucking chewing gum and I know chewing gum never sticks in your own mouth…
Unless you are not chewing it for like 100 minutes and still keeping it in month? Unless you are out of stimulating wet tounge; you are out of saliva; you have arid glands. And by the way, you never had a bubble gum in your mouth more than two hours! Ever! So whatever you observe now, it’s totally new for you.
OK. you are quite angry and nervous and that made your heartbeats high; you work out your ^stimulation^ and manage to chew that rubber under control.
You are coming back to home-in your alley-walking down the street-wearing the ‘ray ban’ gocxy-a bag in one hand, keychain in other, plugged in ear ‘ipod’
what else do you need to make a statement?
or lets rephrase it:
what else do you need for that attitude?
the fucking chewing gum.
Yes. And you still have that in mouth. So why bother to throw it now. it served you well.
Although its not worth posting on my green walled bill-board. I’ll not just throw it away. It got to be cherished.
What do you say?

Pagalguy turns four!

Ok now look at some stats:

Active Users: 200

Threads: 17,192
Posts: 568,705
Members: 81,036

The stats I have provided above and the website I am talking about is one of the most popular and populated youth forums website.
Yes, I didn’t say MBA-Admissions related forum site. I call it youth forum website.

Yes, four years ago the founder, Allwin (you can find his blog link on the bottom of the right column) might have started the site with the same intention: to provide CAT related discussion forum. And the scope of the site might have been restricted to CAT (Common Admission Test: entrance test conducted for Indian premium institutes like IIMs) related discussions; however today this site has gone beyond that… Beyond CAT, Indian MBA, beyond GMAT, and now international MBA. The website takes interviews of deans of various business schools.
Recently site published the interview of Mr. Caleel, Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Oh yes apart from MBA business this site also do some charitable work. Check out touching lives forum there. I can go on & on but talking about Pagalguy.com in a single post is impossible. You just gotta check it.

I am very fascinated by this site. I started participating in the discussions lately. Since I am aiming for US-MBA my activities are(/were) restricted to two forums only. Which do not quite rock as compare to its other Indian-forums. If you see the numbers, when I say its not rocking, I mean the new thread started has just hundred visits in a day. Well that’s actually quite big number.
So I didn’t quite know the persons there. Then one day I came across this invitation thread.
I checked in.
And I attended the celebration too. Check out the thread you might see me there in the photos….(don’t expect some running man’s pic there… I don’t always run.)
I think I was the only fool who was wearing shirt and a trouser on the party day!!

Some vet-n-loyal people of pg shared some stories about what was there earlier and it is today…I actually had gone through a fantastic thread of history of pagalguy the day beforeand as I hv mentioned I hv done PhD in Allwin’s blog, so I knew the story already…

All the best wishes to Pagalguy.com

no posts added

I have so much to write.
but i am facing some technical difficulties.
My PC is down.

Meanwhile lots of interesting stuff happened. on GMAT-MBA front as well as on my personal front.

phew.
will post once my PC is recovered.

till then lets beat the GMAT
and happy blogging!!!

Jack’s GMAT story: [part- IV RIght Approach]

Case A: An undergrad student.

This is the best time to take the test. Although, average age of GMAT test taker is more than GRE-folks, it is still recommended to take it in early ages.

A college student can get good resources from the library, he has peers, friends who can study together & motivate.

The life after graduation is quite miserable, plane and lonely. (believe me!)

Jack could have decided to take GMAT on December, joined some quality forum boards- gained some mixed opinions and knowledge-networked with other fellow GMAT students & MBA aspirants. By Feb-March Jack could have taken the GMAT test successfully.

Case B: Person has all free time, nothing else to do but to study for GMAT.

Jack could have got max out of it (… out of this period). He really doesn’t have to join any tuition of preparation classes. As he could have done it all alone, with stable mind of course.

Jack has plenty of material and online resources such as forums and blogs. The key is to get to know what suits you out of the materials available.

Most of People (most of Jacks!) say that they need as much material as it is available on earth.
No!. It is a wrong approach. Yes, you should review every material available, but then you have to decide what suits you.

There are certainly loads of resources and hard/ soft material available. And each material has its own style; each tutor has her own style of approaching to the plan ( what it’s called the strategy) or particular problem.

Each unit/ coaching class / tutor has his/her own strategy. You have to decide which strategy works for you.

It’s not about getting the maximum material available but about getting the maximum out of the material available.

Case C: Balancing work and study

This is very crucial!

We have loads of similar cases here.

Jack has full time job. He hardly finds time to check with his parents or his old friends. Jack lives comfortable life (read: earning money) and focus on GMAT in this case, goes fading.

In order to avoid this:

Jack should learn to love his GMAT journey first. May be he should keep a blog or do some other inspirational stuff.

He can join a preparation classes. Some reputed or may be third grade; it doesn’t matter as long as it is making Jack’s GMAT journey stimulating. (Caution: the above statement is valid only if Jack has other wise materials available.)

It is very important for Jack to keep his GMAT interest alive. May be he should network with other GMAT aspirants and meet on weekends. Such tiny things can help Jack stay alive.

If Jack is successful in keeping his GMAT interest alive the rest things become “cake walk”.

No matter how hectic your life is, you can always find some
time for your favorite activities.

Indulge in GMAT related forums- get addicted. No harm, if you find the zeal to study at age of 29. Being addicted is sometimes beneficial. 😉

I think I have provided three vital scenarios ( cases I mean). However if you, readers find new case feel free to discuss it here or on some forums boards where I am available.

Thank you.

Jack’s GMAT story: [part- III What Went Wrong]

Jack has been studying for GMAT since long. And during this period he missed quite a few opportunities to take this test.

Most of the time, what he missing was right approach, strategy to prepare for the GMAT and some good advice.

When Jack was completing his degree, it was ideally the best time for him to take the test. Honestly, it gets more difficult once you get a full time job. Jack had his classmates to take the test. It would have been definitely easier for him to take the test then.

But he missed the boat.

After finishing his education Jack had some free time that could have used wisely for GMAT preparation. He in fact did utilized that time but not so wisely. Too many cooks spoil the soup.
Yes! Same thing happened with Jack this time.

Unfortunately he couldn’t resist to apply for jobs simultaneously. Jack failed to realize the case if he gets a call from a prosperous company on the verge of taking the GMAT. Exactly same thing happened and Jack faced this dilemma. He had to drop the idea, one more time. But he wouldn’t have gotten success in GMAT because the wrong approach he followed.

He had all free time available for preparation, Jack bought all material available on earth also he joined tuition/classes. Well in most of the cases it is recommended but Jack went to extreme and end up confusing himself for the right strategy that would work for him.
Yes! too many cooks spoil the soup. Oh! I forgot to mention about the forums and blog he used to indulge in!!

After resuming to his job, Jack hardly finds time for anything extra work like studying for GMAT. Though Jack turned wiser than before, he has time constrains, mental stress and job responsibilities. He’s struggling to manage work-life balance forget about extra efforts for GMAT study.
He needed the force to go for GMAT study. He made up by his own… He could have done much better if he had joined some classes this time.

Above all things of Jacks story went wrong… Jack could have done better. To know the right approach read on.

Jack’s GMAT story: [part- II Solution]

I must confess that, this dilemma of Jack is genuine and is tough to provide the correct solution. What makes this situation really tough is his GMAT-score 610.
Jack still has plenty of time (may be couple of more years) before he would apply to b-school.
610 is critical score, an ‘on-the-wall’ score you can say; which is not a good score but given a chance, with proper study strategy he can improve his score to a respected level
610+40=650! which is at least an average score for decent business schools. But note that it could go really tough for Jack to improve his score by more than 40. therefore I call 610 as a critical score. Anything less and I would not advice Jack to retake the test. Remember, you cant fool this test.
To be cont….what went wrong