CAT Prep

My first attempt was in 2006 during the final year of engineering. Preparation started of in May with an intense 5 day study of quant and di from a Career Launcher book for MBA entrance exams which i found in the Fort area of Mumbai. Those 5 days were my first and last attempt of preparation for CAT that year. There was a free all india mock cat and i got 98+%, while a year ago in a similar free mock i had scored 90%. So i got a 50% discount and joined the aimcat series. I used to write the mocks very seriously till i got placed in September; always scoring 96%+ with the best rank of air 48. But i rarely used to clear DI cutoffs and never reviewed my mistakes or attempted the unanswered questions. After placement, i lost interest and could never get into the 'zone' in exam and mock % started declining to 93%+. Finally in the real CAT, i basically screwed up with a 90% overall and a shocking 75% in both di and quant and 98% in verbal.

In July 2008, after 1.5 years of thinking about gre\mba\better job in MS,Amazon etc i decided to give CAT with the aim of getting into iima or iimc. Wrote a free mock with the hope of discount but scored only 96%, so had to pay full amount for the aimcats. I started reading http://www.economist.com/printedition/, http://www.newyorker.com/ and practiced atleast 1 puzzle daily. The main difference this time was that i used to review each mock cat for atleast 10 hrs (includes time for revising 2-3 times). So i was improving with each mock cat and started gaining confidence that this would be the first and last serious attempt on CAT. Another major difference was i used to follow mock cat review discussions on http://pagalguy.com/ by spending at least 1 hr after each test reading strategies and mistakes of the forum members.

Though on average i spent less than 45 min daily for the preparation, i was doing very well with scores >98%. But the DI scores were pathetic again; i just hated the section and found it painful to spend time in it; the lowest di score being a 57%. Slowly through the mock cat reviews i was gaining confidence as i could solve problems after spending lot of time for each one. But even in September scores in DI were always <92%.>

To lose the DI fear, i took xerox of all previous year aimcat tests and started off in earnest, putting in 2 hours daily. But in mid september i had to go to S.Korea for 1.5 months for the final stage of a project i was working on. Luckily i had more spare time in Korea than in India, but was unable to motivate myself to prepare due to various distractions. :)
Only in the last week of my stay, i got scared and started DI again and surprisingly after the 5 week break from studies, i was easily able to solve the DI sets. I also realized that my order of VA,QA,DI may not be the right one; so i decided that first i have to attempt the 2nd strongest section QA first, then weakest section of DI and finally my strength - VA (Never got <98.5%).

D-Day - The centre was hard to find and very far away, but as i started early at 7 am i reached the centre 1 hour before the exam. It was a school and my room was a class for 4 th class students; so the seating was very uncomfortable. As we were waiting for the papers, I started to focus only on the exam and not think about external disturbances (entering the zone :)...in every other exam i would have a random topic at the back of my mind). Gave 35 minutes for QA and did 8 questions, then gave 55 min for DI and attempted 13, got a feeling that each one of my attempts was right. Then spent 45 minutes on VA and did 24 questions. Now comes the most critical part; in the last 30 minutes i was a bit distracted and was slow. I had 15 minutes left after VA and knew that only if i attempt 3-4 questions in QA, i could clear the cutoff. I tried 4-5 which seemed easy but could do only 2 of them (Damn, was getting out of the 'zone' :( ). The time was up and the invigilator started collecting the papers and i was in the 3rd last bench; i knew i had to attempt 1 question atleast. It was a geometry question, and 2 options were eliminated by quick substitution and one of the remaining options felt like it was the right one; so i circled it.

Result -
QA - 10C, 1W - 39 - 96.02 - A cut off - 37 -The geometry question was correct :)
DI - 13 C, 0 W - 52 - 99.64
VA - 18C, 6 W - 66 - 98.72
Overall - 157 - 99.76% - BLACKI calls - AIK converts

Newspapers: Daily or weekly

Will a person be able to gain more knowledge and concepts by reading a weekly newspaper rather than a daily one?

Assumption 1: The subscriber has access to the Net\TV for major part of the day.
Assumption 2: The subscriber prefers a real book\paper to reading on LCD\CRT screen.

I feel that having a weekly newspaper will have the following advantages:

1. Filtering out the noise.
e.g. a) The Varun Gandhi ''hate speech" incident can be summarized in 400 words at the end of the week. What is the use of reading every sundry personality's opinion? All the differing viewpoints and actions can be crisply summarized in the weekly edition.

e.g. b) Since the size of the edition is limited(can't expect the reader to read a 500 page version right?); all the junk news about the page 3; unnecessary news about accidents\murders\sports (we anyway know the results before the paper comes) can be compacted.

I am not saying that news like murder\municipal elections are not important. Instead of allocating print space for every single event; the trends and major events can be highlighted in the weekly edition.

2. Focus on concepts and trends.

Since the reader might be already aware of the major events in the week and the journalists have lot of time to analyze the data; the focus will be on how to interpret the facts and give an incisive version of the events.

e.g. a) The reader would have already heard of bomb blasts in Assam. The newspaper can give a report on why the terror groups are bent on killing people; with a pictorial\tabular trends in last few years? What are the steps the government has taken to solve the menace? If another blast happens in the same region within 3-4 weeks; then it can just give a brief paragraph about the event and ask the user to check the previous report which will be available online now .

The best weekly news magazine surely has to be - The Economist; it is not just about news but also the why, how and what now analysis that has made me a big fan. I have not found a similar Indian magazine. But among the daily newspapers - Livemint is quite good.

PS - I came to form these opinions while preparing for my mba interviews and i felt that reading daily newspaper was not of much of a knowledge add and they were boring too.

Why do ya blog?

I was asked this question by my friend who felt that my first post was very vague.
When i reread it today; i realized he was true. I felt that editing that post will not be wise thing; it would be better to let the writing evolve by keeping the past mistakes in mind.

Major Reasons -
1. Writing a public blog helps one to think from different perspectives as one is aware that the article can be dissected by a stranger. Basically the feeling that your thoughts are in the public will make the author more responsible while writing.
2. As a can be accessible anywhere and can't be lost like books; the articles can help me look back from the future on what were the books read, ideas, biases and the people i am influenced by, at this point of time.

What i plan to write -
I plan to keep the blog impersonal; i.e. nothing about my daily life. The focus will be on ideas, events and articles\books.

Target Audience -
Actually i am not sure who will read this blog and whom should i write for. As it will be impersonal; it will be hard for friends to follow. I will update the 'target audience' after writing around essays.

Proposal for public expenditure tracking

Today's featured website is http://www.recovery.gov; which contains information about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It is about the new stimulus plan to help the US recover from the current recession. I think its a pretty good initiative to make the government spending transparent.

I wonder what would it take to implement this idea on a much larger scale; and with a cool and simple UI which any layman can use. Just imagine this - In an enhancement feature for maps; you can zoom in to your Government college library\park in your locality\highway to your home and find the financial details and information like the deadline\delay\contractor for new\existing projects. Now this is what i call a "kickass mind blowing idea". :)

There are infinite possibilities. You can find out how your local MP\MLA\Muncipal corporation is utilizing its funds. Vigilant citizens can prevent funds going down the drain or into the pockets of our babus and Netas. There won't be any need of well meaning people having to spend long hours in front of sarkari offices\ courts for getting public information by filing RTI's.

Of course the new system will not be free. Also converting all the government records to digital form and deciding what information to publish will be a mammoth task. [We can't have details of the expenditure for RAW on moles and defectors from our friendly neighbors right? :)]

But surely the benefits of this system will be immense compared to the costs. Corruption can be almost eliminated due to the transparency - Taking a Hypothetical example; People can ask why a 2 km bridge on M.G.Road has taken 2 years and Rs 100 crore to be completed; while a similar bridge in Jayanagar was constructed for half the budget in half the time. The possibilities are really mind boggling.

Qns to the audience -
1. Do you see any disadvantages to the common man because of this new system?
2. To hardcore techies -
a.How hard is to implement this feature if the government willing to release the data?
b.How will you present the information so that a layman can easily understand the data and make inferences from it?

Political strategy

After India achieved independence; Congress(INC) has been the only major political party till the mid 90's. One major reason for this was at it had strong roots throughout the country even before independence. Though there were a few right wing and other opposition parties; they did not enjoy mass support. And of course the biggest factor for congress became so powerful is because of the association with Gandhi( the only true Pan-Indian political icon).

Except for the two cases where INC self destructed - after the Emergency episode, and the Bofors scandal; it was always in power till 1996.

So the only opposition to congress at the national level was Bhartiya Jana Sangh party and leaders like J B Kripaaini and J P Narayanan at various points of time.

The BJP which is successor of BJS; came to prominence only after it raised the RamJanmabhoomi issue and started advocating Hinduvita policies directly and indirectly.
So only through revolutionary means; even though the 'revolution' here meant polarizing the indian society; a party was able to challenge the monopoly of congress. It may be possible that most leaders in BJP don't give a damn about the Hinduvita ideology; but just want to enjoy the power and privileges. But the only way they could take power was by doing something which gives them lot of publicity and mass appeal.

Basically the hypothesis is that the only way a new\marginal party can challenge the major one is not just by having a different mass(esp for less dev countries) ideology; but also instigate a little anarchy even though it is bad for the society in the short term (few times in long term too). Like our good friend the Joker would say - "challenge the established order".

Now we all know that the political systemis corrupt..blah blah...the leaders are uneducated and loot and divide people....blah..youth\educated\etcical leaders needed...blah.

Now this brings us to the most interesting part of this essay - If a new party(has lot of funds) whose main ideology is a better India and has very intelligent, ethical and determined people wants to come to power; what steps should they take?

Well, I don't have an answer :); and would love to hear some ideas. Though there are parties being started by IIT\IIM alumni, professionals; it is hard to imagine them coming to power say in the next 20 years. One major point one has to consider is the diversity and population of India. Only leaders like Asoka, ChandraGupta, Akbar(they had military power in addition to good intentions) and Gandhi(soft power) were able to to influence India positively. The only way a 'good' nation wide popular leader can emerge is if there are some extarodinary changes through external factors or if the such a situation is created intentionally. Again what the situation should be is the billion dollar question.

P.S -
Does anyone know of examples of societal\political change being brought about in a peaceful way? Two simple examples i can think of are education\electricity; they were not forced upon people. Maybe because these are related to very fundamental necessities (Money, comfort); there was no need of coercion.

First of many

I guess this first post should be about what is the Raison d'etre for this blog.

Well that's a tough one. One obvious reason is sheer boredom. Another reason is that a blog is a great way to put one's thoughts, and reasoning out in the open for the whole world to perceive.

But is it true that the 'whole' world (people with diverse opinions) will devote their time on reading something which may be conflicting with their beliefs?

I feel that though the web has made data easily accessible to people; instead of people becoming more receptive to diverse ideas we see people on similar frequencies congregating on a much larger scale and the thinking becomes more narrow. Whether this is good or bad for the society is a very interesting question.

Some examples for this are social news websites like reddit and digg. I have been an avid user of reddit and came across many interesting tidbits through it. But the site 's audience is mainly software techies(mostly males) aged from 20-30 with a liberal mindset. During the initial 6 months the links posted were really interesting; but as the number of users started increasing the quality of content declined. [P.S there are still good articles on programming most of the time].

Well maybe this blog can help throw some light on this principle of 'unity in diversity'. [People with similar ideas converge while the absorption of conflicting views is null]

Anyway i haven't mentioned the major Raison d'etre for this blog. Basically i read a lot and sometimes think too; and i come across many interesting sites, articles. I feel putting this information on the web will at least be infinitesimally useful to someone.