sandeep_chads

How could I miss this, but I wrote a lot on test magic and loved solving questions here. Testmagic was my favorite past time. There are several blogs here that inspire you and I loved reading those blogs. THANK YOU SO MUCH TEST MAGIC AND ALL THOSE WHO STUDIED WITH ME.

Best of luck to everyone who is preparing for MBA or appearing for interviews. I wanted to share my experience with all of you and uncover some myths to make your journey a little better and feel good about yourself. There are several blogs that talk about the study pattern etc, therefore I refrain from talking about it. MY MBA experience is slightly long so you will have to bear with me. I am from India therefore I always considered IIMs and ISB as the father and mother of MBA schools. I gave my CAT in 1999 and got a 99.2 percentile and did not get a call from any IIMs. I gave my GMAT in 2003 and scored a 630. Needless to say, I was disappointing and I did not apply for obvious reasons. I gave my GMAT again in 2006 and got a 690. I applied at ISB and was waitlisted for the interview but never got a call. The reason stated was that my GMAT score was too low. I was broken and completely shattered. I gave my GMAT again in 2009 and got a 640. There is another blog that I wrote in testmagic explaining what happened. I got psyched out while giving the GMAT since I wrote my AWA however was not able to submit it on time and the time expired. I thought that I missed submitting my essays and that screwed my GMAT. only to realize that I got a 6.0 in AWA. You can understand my situation now when I felt that MBA was not for me. I almost gave up and thought that this is not my cup of tea, coffee, soft drink, or hard drink. I even wrote on the forum when people requested me to not give up.. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE .. 3 years later, I gave my GMAT again in 2012 and got a 670 and 6.0 in AWA. The score was not good and I was almost shattered. I knew I will not get any calls but I still thought of applying to some of the schools. Btw.. Some of the other folks who had applied along with me were averaging 710 +. There were others with 770s and 750s. Anyways I went ahead and applied to IIMA, IIMB, IIMC, and IIML. I was also planning to apply to ISB. Here I want to take a small break and talk about my profile since it bears some relevance to the rest of the story. I AM LIKE ANY OTHER IT GUY Experience - 10 years Field - Information Technology Designation - Technology Architect International Experience - 7 years Hobbies - I teach at a Govt School for the last 2 years, I Blog regularly (schadda.blogspot.com), I am also a martial artist Extra Curricular: I am passionate about public speaking and have been involved with Toastmasters at various levels and won at the regional and international levels So coming back to my applications, I got interview calls from IIMB, IIMC, and IIMA. IIML is yet to announce its results. To cut the long story short, I had a great interviewing experience with IIMC, IIMA, and IIMB. I will share the details of the interview a little later. For now I have got a call from IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta and I am ecstatic to learn that I will be able to live my dream this year. Now, I want to clarify some myths and share some learning: 1) It does not matter how many times you give your GMAT as long as you can defend it. When I was asked this in my interview, I mentioned that I would have given it 10 more times if I am not able to convert it this time. 2) Only folks with high GMAT scores get into IIMs or other prestigious institutes. I am a living example. But I must confess, in the last 2-3 years, I did not just take a break of 3 years. I built my profile as strong as possible so that I am able to defend everything I say. - My communication was weak, therefore I joined Toastmasters and went on to win the regional competition in extempore speech in Michigan. - My social responsibility had nothing substantial therefore I started teaching at a govt school. I am teaching there for almost 2 years now and am in love with the kids. - I also started writing a blog that became very popular and has good number of hits in my technology community. I believe all this helped since IIMA conducts extempore speech in the interview and that did not surprise me. One very important thing that I wanted to share was that though I scored a 670 in GMAT, I felt I was much better than this. Some of the fundamentals are embedded in my mind so well that my accuracy in SC, RC, and CR was consistently 90%. I still think 670 was a score on a day that had gone bad. But, I also accept the fact that probably I was destined to have a similar score since I scored in the vicinity 4 times. The net story is that DO NOT GET DISHEARTENED. You have no idea what is in store for you. Your interview is also very very important and so is your profile. In IIM Bangalore GMAT holds only 10% weight-age in your overall profile. There is one thing that I kept saying to myself --- I AM DOING THIS FOR MYSELF and not anyone else. I would have tried 10 more times had I not got through. 1) Before I did my official guides, I read a book called - A_Grammar_Book_for_You_and_I_Oops_Me 2) I also read the CR Bible 3) Once done, I read OG 10, OG 11, and OG 12. 4) once I was done with the OGs, I completed the LSAT questions for CR and RC. (btw - I have this book with me. If anyone needs it then please PM me) Regarding my interview, I prepared for all current affairs, my engineering, and almost everything on my application form. This is how my interview went in IIMC and IIMA. IIM-Calcutta Q - Who is the CM of Bangalore? Shettar Q - Who is the Governor of Bangalore? Bhardwaj - Hansraj Bhardwaj Q - Who is the previous CM of Bangalore? Yedyurappa (Damn.. somehow Gowda slipped out of my mind) Q - have you heard of Gowda? A - yes he was the previous CM, not Yedyurappa I laughed and told the professor that I goofed up. Q - Where have you been in and around Bangalore? A - Yes, Mysore Q - What is that temple called on top of a hill in Mysore? A - Nandi Q - How far is Nandi from the base? A - 2-3 kms, 30 min drive Q - What are the few amazing things about the Mysore Palace? A - Sword of Tipu Sultan which is not there anymore Q - Whose paintings are on display at the Mysore Palace? A - NO IDEA, but told about some fascinating paintings that I recollected seeing 7 years back Q - Tell me about your hobbies? A - teaching, blogging Q - Grilled me about Vedic Mathematics? Which Vedas contain script for Vedic maths? A - Atharvaveda..told about everything I know Q - Which book do you refer to teach Vedic Maths? A - Told Q - Give an instance where referring the internet for Vedic Maths has helped you? A - Told Q - Why was Maths required at that time - during 3000BC when the Vedas were written? A - Told to keep a count on the number of soldier and cavalcade for armies... The prof told.. it was for calculating distances and measurements and I told that I was thinking out loud Q - If you are so passionate about teaching then why MBA? A - Told Q - You will lose all that you are doing now? A - Told in negative. told about my passion. and I was candid about sharing the number of times I have applied for my GMAT and I that I will not give up. Q - Any questions? A - Nah.. I am good. IIMA Got an extempore topic - If India's literacy rate is that high, then why are iNdians illetrate.... i have a habit of standing and delivering my speeches therefore I asked the professors whether I could stand and deliver. I gave a 3 minute speech. I had some facts in india education since I am fascinated about it. Lucky topic :) Q - What is the literacy rate in India.. A - Gave the literacy rates for India, kerala, Gujarat etc Q - What policies has India implemented for education? A - Talked about how Bharat Nirman and MNREGA help education indirectly. Talked about RTE Talked about ensuring 25% guaranteed education for impoverished in some good schools Q - Asked full form of MNREGA? A - Told Q - If there is a policy that is not being implemented, then what will you do? A - Talked about provisions in legislation to pass a bill Talked about RTI Talked about petitions etc Q - How long have you stayed in Mexico? A - 10 days.. Q - Where is Mexico? A - Between NA and SA Q - Laughed for a bit.. because Mexico is in NA and not between NA and SA A - Even I laughed and acclaimed that thoda goof up ho gaya :) Q - What language do they speak in Mexico? A - Spanish Q - Where is Portuguese spoken? A - Brazil Q - What about other countries in South America A - Spanish Q - What do you as an Cloud Architect? Tell me what you did yesterday? A - Told - Q - What is Cloud? A - Told Q - Why is cloud important? A - Told. I love my field so I had more than enough information Q - Why do you want to do MBA? You will not be able to do any of this if you do MBA? A - Replied in Negative. Again there were references about my GMAT appearances and I told them that you will see me every year until you select me :) being a little cheeky Q - What do you do in your spare time? A - teach / blog Q - What do you blog about? A - Told Q - Got details about my blog. A - I invited them to visit my blog. Q - Do you want to take 1 toffee? A - Only 1 ?? They said - you can take more if you have kids I said ... I am only a kid and took 2 and left One thing I wanted to make sure was that I keep the energy levels in the room high. Well, this was a long post.. but I wanted to tell all of you that one thing that will take you to the best B schools is the belief in yourself. I read a book called - Think Again. One learning I took from the book was that if you train your brain to a goal, the goal will walk up to you. I believe this is what happened to me as well. Getting through IIMs was a dream and I am living it now. So gonna party hard for some days before I figure out how to fund the education :)

The answer is 4 not five. Actually, this is a typical problem testing the Binomial Theorem's Pascal's triangle if you remember: n = 0, 1 n = 1, 1 1 n = 2, 1 2 1 n = 3, 1 3 3 1 n = 4, 1 4 6 4 1 n = 5, 1 5 10 10 5 1 Here we need to ignore the 1's at the left end and I will explain you why: The question says - There are n colors that can be arranged in whatever form as long as arrangements do not matter such that sum of these combinations of colors is >= 15 Let us assume we need 4 colors therefore we have to find: how we can arrange the 4 colors taken 1 at a time, taken 2 at a time, taken 3 at a time and so on: i.e. 4C1 + 4C2 + 4C3 + 4C4 = 4 + 6 + 4 + 1 = 15 -> reason we ignored the first term in the pascal's triangle is because it denotes nC0. So the answer should be 4 such colors are required. let us look at the options as well - colors = a,b,c,d 4c1 = a,b,c,d 4c2 = ab, bc, bd, ac, ad, cd 4c3 = abc, abd, bcd, acd 4c4 = abcd 4+6+4+1 = 15

I think averaging is the nest method to solve long fractions

Mujtaba please clarify the question: Is it: X(n+1) = 2 X(n -1) OR X(n+1) = 2 X(n) -1 If the former is true then none of the above choices are correct If the latter is true then A looks like the correct answer

video game industry decade golden age However experts gaming industry over Earlier - companies large, innovative technologies competition prices low recently economic turmoil closure decreased competition -> less innovation, higher prices, and recent games -> disappointing Gamers unhappy development. 1) Author clearly states that no competition means no innovation due to which gamers will be unhappy and all sorts of problems may happen. Answer C 2) I don't know the rest of the passages. Post the entire RC.

bad weather-> switch to high-priced cocoa, -> pepper sales low supply low -> price high = price cocoa. I believe the inference should be that now the producers can switch back to pepper :) Let's look at the answers Infer (A) Pepper is a profitable crop only if it is grown on a large scale. - No reference on large scale. Avoid words like ONLY (B) World consumption of pepper has been unusually high for three years. - There is no reference of consumption © World production of pepper will return to previous levels once normal weather returns. - Probably, probably not. This answer is the closest to my initial inference. We can infer that if weather is fine, then the producers will switch back to pepper just the way they did for cocoa because it is high priced crop. (D) Surplus stocks of pepper have been reduced in the past three years. - we know demand is high and supply is low - but we don;t know whether there were surplus stocks of pepper at the very first place so can't comment on it getting reduced (E) The profits that the growers of pepper have made in the past three years have been unprecedented. - This is too strong a sentence to be true. We cannot say for sure that the producers made UNPRECEDENTED profits. The demand was high and the costs were soaring but also weather was bad so probably they had to build castles to store pepper and that ate into the profits ;) I am going against the tide here and marking the answer as C. What is the official answer Btw - I just did a quick check on other posts and the OA = D though I am still not sure :(

The passage says that the govt. will scare the people about ham etc. It does not say whether they scared the people by narrating the risks about the products. Probably, they scared by showing some ghastly pictures of animal slaughter. That wouldn't suggest any risks about ham or anything similar. :)

Lolz, this is a funny one ;) The answer should be (A) Using 1 If the 3 sides of a triangle are equal, then by SSS (side,side,side) the 2 triangles are congruent we do not need to know much about the angles Using 2 If the 3 angles have the same angle, then by AAA (angle, angle, angle) the 2 triangles are similar, but the area may be different

good explanation Brent.. I went off on a tangent on this one

Thanks Brent - I got this question in MGMAT and was wondering there was something wrong with the question stem :)

Hey Lav - your approach is right but I guess there is a small mistake A/3 + B/7 != 77 it is A/3 * B/7 = 77 rest all looks good. I would have marked C and gone ahead because I would see 2 variables and 2 equations, however it turns into a quadratic equation and you always run a chance to have 2 solutions to it.

Question 15 acts -> consequences. do nothing implied - doing nothing is not an act 15 The speaker implies that A we may prefer to live safely. B all acts have consequences. C consequentially is not safe. D not doing anything is not an act - Correct I remember solving these questions elsewhere. Terminating the answers now

Question 14 older dads - children score low older mothers- children score higher 30,000 Australian children- 8 months , 4 years, 7 years. C least supported 14 Which of the following conclusions is least supported by the above finding? A Children born to older dads may have to pay a significant price- in intelligence. - This can be a conclusion B It is better for women to conceive at older ages. - This can be a conclusion C Older dads are financially well-established which ensures good nurturing of their children, leading to higher IQ. - Opposite can be concluded D Younger women will give birth to dull children. - This can be a conclusion

Question 5 All German philosphers, except for Marx, are idealists. infer - Marx is not idealist From which of the following can the statement above be most properly inferred? 1. Except for Marx, if someone is an idealist philosopher, then he or she is German. - What :) 2. Marx is the only non-German philosopher who is an idealist. - Marx is probably the only one who is not an idealist 3. If a German is an idealist, then he or she is a philosopher, as long as he or she is not Marx. - Can't speak for all Germans, Only philosophers 4. Marx is not an idealist German philosopher. - This is the right answer 5. Aside from the philosopher Marx, if someone is a German, then he or she is an idealist. - Can't speak for all Germans, Only philosophers Updated Later: This is a good question. I did not read it properly. It states - that we have to tell the argument from which the above statement can be inferred: On re-reading this question, I believe the correct answer should be 5 and not 4.

Question 4 low faculty/student ratios = good education. very small student population = desired Flaw = very small student does not mean low faculty by student ratio Which of the following, if true, identifies the greatest flaw in the reasoning above? 1. A low faculty/student ratio is the effect of a well-rounded education, not its source. 2. Intelligence should be considered the result of childhood environment, not advanced education. 3. A very small student population does not by itself, ensure a low faculty/student ratio. - This is the right answer - very straight forward 4. Parental desires and preferences rarely determines a child's choice of a college or university.

Question 3 increase in fabrications-> publishers interested in circulation than truth minors check fraud. Many assumptions are plausible Minors are not interested in circulation - but this is an inference not an assumption The argument above assumes that 1. newspaper stories exposed as fabrications are a recent phenomenon. - no reference to timeframe 2. everything a newspaper prints must be factually verifiable. - Not necessary - newspapers may publish comic sections :) 3. fact checking is more comprehensive for minor publications than for major ones. - Plausible but not a strong assumption. Having staff for checking content does not mean that the content is actually being checked. I drop it after reading 5 4. only recently have newspapers admitted to publishing intentionally fraudulent stories.- no reference to timeframe 5. the publishers of newspapers are the people who decide what to print in their newspapers.- Plausible - Publishers just decide on their own without any checks

Question 2 crime-> up 30 percent court -> fault lenient judges Argument can be weakened if we show that lenient judges are not the root cause of the issue The argument above would be weakened if it were true that 1. 85 percent of the other states in the nation have lower crime rates than does this state.- No impact on argument 2. white collar crime in this state has also increased by over 25 percent in the last year. - Strengthens the argument 3. 35 percent of the police in this state have been laid off in the last year due to budget cuts. - This may be the real cause 4. polls show that 65 percent of the population in this state oppose capital punishment. - No impact on argument 5. the state has hired 25 new judges in the last year to compensate for deaths and retirements. - No impact on argument

Question 1 saturation radio advertising-> maximum recognition. Inference is that radio adv reaches the masses. 1. Radio advertising is the most important factor in political campaigns in Los Angeles. - can't say that radio adv is the most imprtant factor. Probaby mass appeal is the strongest factor :) 2. Maximum name recognition in Los Angeles will help a candidate to win a higher percentage of votes cast in the city. - author talks about name recognition and not votes 3. Saturation radio advertising reaches every demographically distinct sector of the voting population of Los Angeles. - slightly strong in its statement but plausible 4. For maximum name recognition a candidate need not spend on media channels other than radio advertising.- Probably spending on other media channels may give the candidate some recognition if not the maximum recognition 5. A candidate's record of achievement in the Los Angeles area will do little to affect his or her name recognition there. - Incorrect - there is nothing that states or implies that records are not imp

we doubt - govt report - any impact we believ - opposite will happen conclude - balanced diet is imp Implied - govt made some outrageous remarks regarding intake of non-veg food 1. no implication of vitamins' 2. no alcohol 3 is the answer therf\efore C

Inspection program needed Auto exhausts impacting ppl Clean air - important Before looking at the answer choices, I believe a major assumption is that Inspection program should be a success for the air to become clean which is restated in D

33 rpm made 78 rpm go out of market CD replaced 33rpm and will .... A) there is no reference of the record playing public B) It is the record industry that is getting impacted. Rather the profits will reduce C) There is no reference of 2nd hand market.Probably 33 rpm already made this impact D) Plausible - though there is no reference of the manufacturers E) there is nothing in the passage that relates CD with computer generated music. I would go with D

govt plays role in mkt -> tax -> price ceiling Dev economies - govt role disputed The author should agree that Dev economies do not require taxation and price management.on looking at the choices I felt the answer wants to relate the well being of the developed nations with their attributes 1) There is referrence of surpluses and shortages - not sure what refers to developed economies 2) same as a 3) the author talks about price ceiling and not higher prices 4) There is no relation between celings and shortages 5) The author states that the Govt. creates the surpluses and shortages therefore these do happen intentionally on the D day I may mark E but there is no reason for me to mark it

Author supports - Nuclear policy has acted like a deterrent Reason - WW 3 has not happened Flaw should be something that weakens this relationship or something that tells us that Nuclear Policy may not still be a deterrent Option E tells us that the Nuclear policy may not be there.. it is the economic reason that there is no war

how can you chose 2 equations from a given set of 4 equations = 4C2 = 12 the only pair of equation whose product can be written in the form x2-(by)2 are (x+y) and (x-y) = 2 equations Therefore the probability is = 2/12 = 1/6