Wednesday, December 19, 2007

How should I go about preparing for the GMAT?

This is what I would call a good schedule:

1. Buy OG and Kaplan Premier Program. Read through their description on the GMAT for authentic info on what the GMAT actually is.
2. Do some online research for at least a week. Read through as many online discussion forums as possible - mind you, I am talking about general discussion forums; do not peek into the ones that discuss specific problems and answers. At least not yet. This is to give you a wholesome view of the GMAT.
3. Then take the GMATPrep test 1. Since you are doing this without any preps, your score will tend to be on the lower side. This is just to see where you stand before preps.
4. Then take the diagnostic test alone in OG to analyse your section-wise strengths.
5. Then start your actual preps with Kaplan Premier Program. Complete the exercises section by section. As you complete each section, look up other related resources online. This is when you should get into discussing specific problems and solutions related to the section you just completed. Also, go through the various notes and docs available online - if your online research was proper, you would have got these by yourself. Else ping me. I will send them to you. (some hints: there are some docs on scoretop.com called "1000 series". These are sets of 1000 questions in the verbal section.)
6. Once you complete all other resources, start with the OG. Complete all the exercises in this book.
7. Finally, just a week before the day of your actual GMAT exam, take GMATPrep test no. 2. The score you achieve now would more or less be the same score you would get in actual GMAT (My GMATPrep Test 2 score was 10 marks less than my final score). The one week is just to give you some buffer time to prepare in case your GMATPrep Test 2 does not go well.
8. Rock GMAT!
Meanwhile, you would have some full length tests in Kaplan's CDs and any other tests you might have got from the net. Distribute these tests over your schedule so that you keep writing full-length tests at regular intervals. This is to get yourself used to sitting in front of the computer for almost 4 hours. When you take these mock tests, your essay sections would not be evaluated. But DO NOT skip them. Write them in spirit, if at least to get adjusted to the marathon test-writing experience.

This is just my suggestion. Do go through Pagalguy forums. GMAT-acers regularly put up posts there on their preparations strategies.

Friday, December 14, 2007

How to buy a second-hand car?

A year back I was suddenly smitten with love for cars and began to ogle at every 4-wheeler on the road. I also did lots of research on how to buy a second-hand car.

Reproduced below is a piece of gyan that I got from a colleague (CP Ramki) on the issues that we need to be careful about when checking a second hand car out:

Quote:

It is always recommended to buy from a certified place like True Value or Automart. You’ll end up paying about 10-25k extra (depending on the car you buy) but I’ve seen it’s worth it. A few additional things you might want to check are:

- Check the RC book for the correct ownership. Sometimes it so happens that the car might be company leased car which gets transferred to the individual after the lease period completion. In this case, even though the car is a single user car the RC book will show two names. It usually says “Change of name” or something like that. This is ok but some people might complain about it when you try to sell your car later on.

- Check for valid insurance.

- If you are buying from a certified place like automart/true value, no need to worry about the engine; and they’ll also be accident free cars. One thing you might want to do is: check for rusting on the underside of the car. Check for rusting/welding of the silencer pipe. Silencer pipe is typically made of three sections (or two) but whatever…do check all sections for welding or rusting. That would indicate that you might have to spend money on the silencer parts sometime down the line. So you can negotiate on that.

- Check the condition of tires. If they are not new, you can negotiate on that.

- Check the condition of the drive shafts. We cannot actually check these from a mechanic’s eye but this is something which you can do. When you go for the test drive, take the car to a place where you can turn full 360 degrees. Then turn the steering completely to the left being stationary, and then do one full circle. Same for the right and if possible reverse. If you hear any sound (duh-duh-duh…or gad-gad-gad like rattling :)) during any of these turns, it will indicate a worn out or broken drive shaft. This sound is there only when you make tight turns so unless you do that you wouldn’t know

- If you are buying a car with A/C, then you might want to check the A/C for proper functioning.

- Check the music system for proper functioning. This is again not an essential but something on which you can negotiate the price ;)

- If you are looking to sell you car in a couple of years then go for a brand which has good re-sale. Honda and Maruti have a good re-sale value but Ford, Daewoo and Fiat don’t have much.

- If you are looking to own the car for a while, then go for a car which has not done more than 25,000 KMS (30,000 max). Also check the service records if possible to see whether the owner has been getting the car serviced regularly.

This is all I guess. Happy shopping!

Unquote


To begin your online research, visit:

team-bhp: A very active web-forum on cars. Trust me you would love to go through these discussions


To estimate prices of cars:

carwale helps in estimating a fair price for the deal you have in mind: very useful tool, near accurate


Some online resources you would like to see before checking a specific car out:

An article on The Hindu

Maruti's used-car buying guide

Apart from this, check out EVERY SINGLE website on used cars that you can lay your eyes on. Every bit of info you pick up can help you in your negotiations :)

And of course, one standard tip is: Take a reliable mechanic along with you to evaluate the car on offer (just in case you miss something)

If you have anything more to add, do use the comments section!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Why do we get hiccups?

I love hiccups. Absolutely adore them things.

Simply because they break down barriers and differences.

Just imagine this: You are in an all-important meeting chaired by THE BOSS who heads everything in your company and is revered as much as the Pope is. Halfway through the meeting, he starts hiccuping like an idiot. The next time you think of that boss, am sure your mental image would no longer return that dynamic guy. You might even smirk.

Such is the power of the hiccup in crashing barriers down. It is a small thing, but often entirely out of our control.

How does it happen? Here's a highly simplified version of the story...

Real estate in the human body is very limited. God had to design and implement this huge complex system within a very small area and volume. So he had to resort to extreme compression (see what happened to your kilometres-long intestines) and intelligent design. Till date this remains a record in VLSI design.

Coming to the point, this limitation on space forced God to fabricate a lot of multipurpose entities.

No, am not going to talk abt what you have on mind, though that is a multipurpose thing too.

What I want to refer to, is the throat. The same throat is used to transport air, as well as food. This happens through a 2-lane traffic system: one lane is reserved for food, while the other is for air.

However, there is one specific length of the throat in which both food and air have to travel along the same lane. To avoid their intercourse (meaning, intermixing in the course) God has placed a small door in that part of the throat. This door will make sure that at any point of time, the region hosts air alone, or food alone.

While talking about breathing, we need to get the diaphragm into the scene. It is the breathing muscle situated beneath our lungs. It is this diaphragm that pushes air out or pulls it in.

Now a lot of coordination is needed in the way all this functions. i.e., the diaphragm cannot push or pull air, when food is coming down the pipe. These kind of conditional decision making responsibilities lie with the brain.

While God is absolutely amazing as a VLSI design engineer, his coding skills leave much to be desired. He wrote the code for sharing throat-time between air and food with some constraints. These constraints imply that the code will work well at normal pace. But if something happens too fast, the code will go kaput.

For e.g, let's say you are eating. The brain keeps sending out signals to the diaphragm and all other gizmos referred to above saying: "Now pull air in - Stop - now let the food pass through - No you fool, make the food go DOWN, not UP! - Stop - now send some air out" and so on and so forth. All the elements of the system function perfectly as long as there is a small time gap between these instructions. But when these commands come rapidly (say, when we eat very fast), the system becomes unstable. And unable to comprehend what has to be done, the diaphragm pushes some air up the voice box. There is a small opening on top of the voice box. When the air gushes out through this opening, we get the characteristic "hic" sound. Voila! You have hiccuped!

Now why does it keep recurring for sometime?

Once the first hiccup happens, the brain senses that something is wrong, and sends some correction signals. As long as these correction signals fail to synchronize with the diaphragm, we would keep hiccuping.

Now, the way to stop hiccups is: to clear up all the confusions in the commands, and set on flow a clear flow of instructions - to either swallow, or breathe. This is why some people succeed in controlling hiccups by holding their breath (for a limited time, mind you). Or by taking in several sips of water successively. These would set a clear stream of commands in motion again, and succeed in controlling hiccups.

(I have avoided all jargon here. If you wish to know actual biological names of the parts of the anatomy I spoke abt here, check out MSN's Encarta entry on hiccups)

Sunday, December 9, 2007

The enigma called GMAT

GMAT - FAQs:

What is the GMAT?
The GMAT is an online computer-adaptive competitive test that lakhs of people write all over the world every year, to become eligible to apply for the MBA (or related degrees) of top B-schools in the world.

Who conducts the GMAT?
GMAC (Graduate Management Admission Council) - an independent body that is not affiliated to any B-school. They simply conduct the exam and give a report on the candidate's analytical, problem solving, and verbal skills. Any B-school in the world is free to use these scores to judge their applicants.

Which B-schools consider the GMAT for admission?
Most of the B-schools of the world, worth their salt. From Harvard to Kellogg's to the ISB to Great Lakes. Get the entire list at the official website mentioned below.

You said the GMAT is online. What does that mean?
You would have to take the exam on a computer in an authorized testing center. This requires you to know the basics of operating computers (mouse and keyboard handling). Nothing more.

What is tested in the GMAT?
The GMAT tests one's analytical, problem solving (math) and verbal skills.

What are the various sections in the GMAT?
1. Analysis of an issue: This is a subjective section in which you would be asked to submit an essay on your views on a given topic.
2. Analysis of an argument: This is another subjective section in which the question is presented in the form of an argument. You would have to submit an essay on the strength of the argument - say, what more info would make the argument strong, or what weakens it and so on.
3. Quants: This is the arithmetic section having 37 questions totally. Questions would be of the following types:
Problem Solving: Normal math questions. Solving the given problem.
Data Sufficiency: A question statement would be given, along with 2 more supporting statements. You would have to judge how much of that info is needed to answer the question asked.
4. Verbal: This section tests your English skills (41 questions totally). Questions would be of the following types:
Sentence Correction: The question would have an English statement that is afflicted with a grammatical error. Choose the best way of framing that sentence from the choices given.
Critical Reasoning: Questions that test your logical reasoning prowess.
Reading Comprehension: A passage would be given, along with some related questions.

You said the GMAT is computer-adaptive. What does that mean?
This means your answer to each question (in the quants and verbal sections) will decide the next question the computer throws at you. It works like this:
The first question would be something of medium difficulty, which they expect 50% of the candidates to answer.
If you answer the first question right, your next question would be of a slightly higher difficulty.
If you answer the first question wrong, the next question would be slightly easier.
Naturally, if you get very difficult questions in the exam, rest assured that you must have done the exam very well to have reached that level of difficulty.
Some inferential gyan on this:
Most people claim that the first 10 questions in each section are very important. They say that if you do these very well, your final score will be great. But if you make many mistakes in these questions, how-much-ever you try to compensate in the subsequent questions, your final score would not be something to write home about. I dunno how true this is, so take this one with a pinch of salt. But this is a very common piece of advise that everyone gives. So it might do you good to take care of this. You may wish to spend slightly more time on these questions then.

How does the GMAC decide on the difficulty level of questions?
Very important: Every GMAT comes with some dummy questions which wont affect your score (positively or negatively). These questions are included in the test to check how many of the candidates are able to answer these questions. From this info the GMAC would classify questions into different levels of difficulty. Since these questions would not affect your scores, it pays not to spend too much time on them. But is there some means of identifying which of the 37 + 41 questions are dummy questions? NOPE! So the only solution is: do not spend too much of time on ANY question. Spending 5 mins on a dummy question is the last thing one would want to do!

What is the duration of the GMAT?
Just less than 4 hours (inclusive of four 5-minute breaks)

Is the GMAT a multiple-choice test?
Two sections of the GMAT are of the multiple choice type (Quants and Verbal). The other two sections are of the subjective type which requires the answer to be in the form of essays. (This entails that if you can type fast, it is a definite edge!)

What would the score look like?
Your final score for the quant and verbal sections together would be on a scale of 800, while that for the 2 essay questions together would be on a scale of 6.0 (So you would receive two scores eventually, though it is the score on 800 that is valued much more by most B-schools)

What would be a good score in the GMAT?
Roughly:
More than 740: GREAT! Harvard & Kellogg would love to receive applications from you.
680 - 740: Good!
640 - 680: Just above average. If your profile is otherwise good, and you have scored well at college and school, then this score might be sufficient.
Less than 640: Your profile has to be spectacular for you to gain an entry into a good B-school. In most cases, it will do you a world of good to re-take the GMAT.

HOWEVER, this is a blatant case of generalization, and it would differ from case to case on the basis of the following parameters:
- The B-school you are applying to
- Your work-ex
- Your extra-curricular activities and involvement in social causes
- Your academic performance at school and college
- And some specific parameters (For e.g., look at this: The average GMAT score of the 2007-2008 batch of the ISB is 707. But, for Indian Males from the IT industry, the average score is 730+. So if you are an Indian IT Male, then you would need a score that is considerably higher than 730 to be safe, though it is not mandatory)

Compare the GMAT with the CAT.
GMAT is online. CAT is offline (paper test).
GMAT is computer adaptive, but in the CAT all questions are predetermined.
In the GMAT, everyone gets an entirely different set of questions. In that CAT, there are usually four sets of question papers that everyone gets.
In the GMAT, one cannot leave questions unanswered (naturally!). In the CAT, you can skip any number of questions without answering.
The topics covered in the GMAT are quite limited, when compared to those in the CAT.
One can safely say that the GMAT is easier than the CAT for the following reasons: CAT is a test on your strategizing skills as well; and the overall level of difficulty of questions is higher in the CAT.

Can you name some resources that would be of help?
1. The GMAT Official Guide (known as "OG" in GMAT circles) is a must-have. It is the bible for GMAT. It is released by the GMAC council itself, and contains actual GMAT questions. Cost: Rs 1850/- when I bought it in early 2007. Available at leading bookstores like Landmark. You can get it online too. It is in its 11th edition now (might have changed by the time you read this).
2. Kaplan GMAT Premier Program. I am not really happy with the verbal section in this book, but the quants section more than makes up for it. Also, it comes with a CD having some practice tests and 4 full-length GMAT tests WHICH ARE ALL LOW-SCORING. So don't let these tests demoralize you. (I scored 590 - 670 in these four tests; just a week before my actual GMAT where I scored more than a 100 more than the highest of these. Without any substantial preps.) So all I would say is: take these tests for practice. but dont let the scores demoralize you. Cos quants is more difficult in this, and verbal is ridiculous.
3. Loads of online material are available at:
Pagalguy - THE haunt for all MBA-hopefuls in India
www.scoretop.com
(Especially don't miss out on the notes that are available in these locations. There are some people like Spidey and Sahil who have uploaded the notes they made during their preps and many GMAT-takers find them very helpful. Am not placing the links here cos I want you to search for them :) Will help you in getting a clearer picture of the GMAT as you read thru every bit of info on the net. If you are unable to get them, ping me. I'll send them over)
4. GMATPrep software: Contains 2 full-length GMATs. Again, comes from GMAC, so you can treat these as actual GMAT tests. They are extremely accurate in predicting your GMAT scores.
Am sure there are lots more of material. But these are the ones I used.

How should I prepare?
Find my 2 cents on this here.

When can I take the GMAT?
Unlike exams like the CAT, the GMAT does not happen on one specific day of the year. You can schedule a GMAT appointment for any weekday of the year at your convenience! (Akin to the GRE)

Where do I register for the GMAT?
www.mba.com. This is where you get all the official info on GMAT too.

What documents would I need, to register for the GMAT?
A "good" identification doc. A passport is the best thing you can have. And for some countries (which includes India), the passport is the only doc that is accepted. Check www.mba.com for exact info on this.

How much does it cost?
You would be charged 250$ for scheduling a GMAT appointment.
Outside of this you would have to spend some money on books / learning resources (I spent a total of Rs 2800 for 2 books)

Why are you doing this?
I took the GMAT in May 2007 and hence, have some first-hand knowledge about the test. But when I first began to eye the GMAT, I terribly missed the presence of some resource to turn to for some solid initial info. So this is just an attempt to plug that gap and save you some online research!

(If there is something specific that you want to be addressed here, just drop a comment)

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Why do my eyes look eerily red in some photos?

Am sure this has happened to all of us: When posing for a photo, we smile heartily. That is, initially. But the photographer does not click. He keeps twiddling with the controls, awaiting the right moment, which would ALWAYS arrive just after we stop smiling and literally start saying cheese, in a meek attempt to sham a smile.

After all this rigmarole, we rush over to the photographer to look at the picture. And our eyes look as red as #FF0000.

This phenomenon is called "red-eye" (now, you didn't guess that, did you?).

Why does it happen?

Visualize a room having a window with curtains. The wall opposite to the window, is red in colour. The curtain can be opened or closed to control the amount of light passing through the window.

The human eye has a very similar structure. The wall is the retina, which is red because it is rich in blood cells. (For the girls, the shade of the colour is what you would call "blood red")

In front of Retina the Wall (akin to Rahul the Wall) is the window with the curtain - the iris. It is designed to let in an optimum amount of light. So in very bright conditions, the iris will close as much as possible, allowing little light to enter the eye. In dark conditions, the iris will open as wide as possible to gather all the light it can grab. (So the iris is similar to us in being discontent with what it gets by default)

When we take photos in low-light conditions, the iris of our eyes would naturally be wide open. When the photographer clicks, a blinding flash appears..

And everyone dies..

No, I mean, the flash is fired from the camera. The white light from the flash falls on the eyes of the people posing for the photograph. (On other parts of the anatomy as well. But we are interested in the eyes only. For now). This light is of very high intensity and is fired at very short notice. This short duration is not sufficient for the iris to close completely. So by the time the camera stores the photo, the iris is still wider open than it should be, meaning the retinal wall is still largely visible. And remember, it is red in colour. This is what is reflected as red-eye in photographs.

How do we avoid red-eye effect then?
After a picture is taken, one can remove red-eye by software means. There are so many tools that do this.
But a way of eliminating red-eye from occurrence itself is called "advanced strobing". Most new digicams have this feature. If you set "Red-eye reduction" to "on" and try taking a picture in low-light conditions with flash, the flash would be fired twice. The first time is just to trigger the iris into closing, and the second time is to take the actual picture. So by the time the picture is taken, the iris would have closed and blocked the (literally) bloody retinal wall.

So the next time someone wonders why red-eye occurs in photos, you would be able to tell them....
.... where to look for info right? (He he.. My Google analytics reports can do with more numbers)

Absolute Gyan...

My other blog is more of a casual personal diary, with the "personal" part ignored. Over the past few months I have often had small sparks of thoughts that could have evolved into blogs of binary flesh and blood, but for the fact that they would have stuck out like sore thumbs there. So all along, I had thoughts of owning one more virtual real estate that would be dedicated towards sharing all the knowledge I possess. This blog is an effort towards that.

Do check back in a while. Let's share absolute gyan!