Tuesday, November 29, 2005

The IIFT test - 2 down,3 to go...

Relieved a bit today coz my mentor is here to show me a bit of directions regarding my code – and have some insight into the performance issues I have been havin since last week…nice to sit with him n understand the code…shud have done a major part of it earlier…but yea it was tough – n no one kinda had time 4 me…Da delivery is supposed to be today…so lets wait n see what happens…

It was a relief that da IIFT test went fine yesterday – some changes in da paper,yeah,but not so significant. With a 100+ attempts…yea I can say that I mite make it big – but again…IIFT gives out only around 800 calls…naturally the top 800 and those who lie a bit below, say in the top 1500-2000 and having sufficient workex will be da ones called…the convert ratio of course is seemingly even more harsh…only 120 finally convert…so well…even if I have performed good…n there is someone who has performed better…there goes my chance at IIFT…

Sometimes I really cant understand howeva what do they get by putting questions like the foll in GK…

Which of the foll is true?
a) The climate of the equitorial region is 20 deg in summer blah blah…
b) In the tropics, the rainfall decreases from 30 deg East latitude to blah blah….
c) Blah blah..
d) Need I say more?

It makes me wonder whether MBA in International Business will deal with weather forecast. Have a look at the next one…

Which of the foll is true?
a) Of the 10 million species living today, about a few hundred are endangered and blah blah
b) Of the 70 million species living today, about a few fifty are preserved blah blah…
c)&d) more blah blah…

Yeh kya ho raha hai bhai?? Is this general knowledge or have I gone psyched? Who will go to learn this stuff? Are these facts or statistics? With these myriad questions in mind, all a student answerin IIFT entrance wud do is of course – resort to blind guessing – with dese kinda questions around there isnt even a need to read the question – the OMR is enugh…J

Big deal…IIFT kind of wants us to mug up evrythin possible…a relief that the IIMs at least don’t do that…n neither will XL from now onwards if my guess is rite…

And after all the torment in GK wat does one see in the Quant section is the following…


(forgive me as I cudnt replace da word below with the appropriate symbol)

- Integral of e^x(1+sinx)
___________
(1+cosx)


Now do we actually integrate this in the exam?? Where da hell does application of integral calculus come in foreign trade neway???


The less said the better about IIFT…nyway lukin fwd to a better JMET on the 11th…answerin it for the first time…

The evenin yest was as usual spent freakin out with the gang, and was giggling and laughing out at Deewane Huey Paagal…a definite time pass movie!!

Back to work now…!a

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

CAT - came, saw and conquered...the aspirants!

Don’t really know whether I shud shed my tears on my blog too, after I have done so on PG…but I mite as well do it as I gotto write sumtin bout the Common Aptitude Test…

The Common Aptitude Test…ahem! Was it just common aptitude this time or was it sumtin more dan dat? Wateva it was, it was certainly another bomb or a monster for sure..which about 20k-30k guys(kinda da serious aspirants from the mammoth 1.75 L guys) had been comprehending from the last six monts or so…The IIMs once away had their cake – n ate it too…even though the variable marking pattern had been introduced last year, the decrease in the number of questions from 123 to 90 created even more tension – no for me it dint…for me it just enhanced my fear of not bein able to solve the questions from areas which I dint know much about…coz with just 30 questions in quant n DI there was no much playing around…u had to stick to the questions given to u…

So much so for CAT…DI was tough as usual for me..there was only one calculation based caselet which was a bit time consuming…and one easy one…the scare was the more no of 2 markers in each section. True the IIMs once more stressed on the risk-taking ability of managers…this time with even more emphasis as there were 20 2 mkers in each section…

Some of the institutes have termed CAT 2005 as one of the toughest in history..with the Verbal section being defintely the toughest…howeva I dint find verbal so tough on Dday…verbal is a good day-bad day concept acc to me…u just got to have ur instincts rite in verbal n try to match ur thoughts with those of the paper-setter…at least dats what he means by stating ‘choose the most appropriate alternative’…in case of ne verbal question – new or old, and most importantly, in case of RC – good lord there were 2 mkers in tat section too this time…howeva was kinda my strong area this time so me was relaxed…

Quant was quant by its name – dint find it easy either – though I seem to have a good accuracy there…howeva the no of 2 mkers again was daunting…one had to go for them or else he wud comfortably ‘miss’ the so called cut-offs…

Wat is the main point is the tension that creeps in one mind during the paper, howeva much he tries to avoid it…this time I can say I avoided it to around 80 percent…but landed up lookin at the watch more than I was lookin at the paper itself…the passing seconds push one in deeper truble…if I hadnt done dat…maybe I wud have got past the cutoff in DI too..which I normally don’t – hehe…

Howeva there was some point in mind which told me continuously that dis was one paper where no preparation wud have helped…leaves me with more doubts regarding next year’s preparation – if at all the need will arise…da amount of people screamin on PG about the difficulty level and the vagueness of the paper are witness to dat..

For now its back to my work, and da expectation of performing better in the other exams to come…at least those were the ones which I kinda lok forward to more than CAT itself…!

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Dedications to this lonely Diwali...

Those of you who are wondering why the title ‘lonely diwali’ – well, diwali is certainly not very entertaining and lively for all – especially for those who do have holidays, but do not go home as they have a hoard of management exams approachin, and their scores in da mocks only seem to be dippin further down – and well, when 90 percent of their roommates leave for their homes and they cant – and when it’s a bright shiny diwali day and da visit to the nearby ATM yields null as their salaries havent yet been credited into their accounts- also when they spend the nite all alone watchin Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani on TV(now dats a switch- don’t remember havin seen one from ages), n plus a nite where the current goes twice on account of a stormy nite…

Ooh la la – dats Diwali there!!

Basically it was the same for all the people around – cudnt even sit in peace at a place due to the fireworks goin on in all directions – especially those rite outside the window, one side of which I was sitting in order to get some entertainment through Shah Rukh and Juhi…no big deal…isnt Ganesh the same way for Goans- when we don’t let even a single soul in the locality rest in peace – yes let the children enjoy their holidays, and da teenagers their free time – coz they aint getin ne later in their life, especially if they enter IT world…

Da absence of the salary realli stung me yest’day though – had to withdraw from the existing balance, which seemed like a beggars account, after havin donated funds to da likes of XL, FMS etc etc…except this time the etc doesn’t lead to much as I really don’t wanna flood da treasuries of more b-schools…Tot I’d buy a nice book instead – so picked Five Points Someone from the roadside – a friend had suggested I go thru it, as it depicted da life story of someone I cud neva be in life – an IITian…of course showin da truth of how da life in those institutes is…

Wid around 15 days to go, I don’t have much to say – except dat I keep tellin guys I shall give it my best shot, which sometimes is just not enugh to sail u thru…howeva a recent friend of mine wid whom I met day b4 yest encouraged me to some respectable extent – to say da guy is real gud at da mocks wud be an understatement…but me hapi dat I found a nice friend in him…

Retiring from the blog for 2day…spent an extra 2 hours at office, inspite of havin nutin much to do…but I am not very sure where the fatigue comes from – physical coz the responsibility at office can turn massive, or fear dat da whole cycle which happened post-July this year will repeat nxt year…Maybe only dat keeps me lookin ahead and not think of givn up…