To swim against the tide :)

It all started a long time back when I was about 12 years old. It was summertime, Darsh and I were attending a swimming summer-camp for about 30 days. It was all good until about 15 days. I had been taught the front stroke and was in the process of getting to know diving. That was when the incident happened :-D.

I remember only bits and pieces, not the entire thing (it has been more than 18 years!). We had these 2 kids living in the house right in front of ours then and we used to play together a lot :). I remember we were playing one of our games, probably some kind of a run and catch game when it happened. I fell and my right knee got scraped pretty bad. It wasn't really a scrape, it was as if all the flesh on my knee had been cut open (I don't know to this day what I fell upon to cause it to rupture like that but the speculation is that it was a part of dad's scooter :-D). There was some white visible stuff underneath all the blood (this is what Darsh keeps insisting scarred him for life :-D. Again don't know whether they were some kind of nerves or bones exposed!)). Thankfully dad was at home and immediately took me to the nearest physician, who was also our family doctor.

Well, the first concern was not really a scar, but to close the opening as soon as possible. The doc could have suggested me to be taken to a hospital, but he decided to stitch me up himself. I was given a tetanus shot and stitched up. Don't know the number of stitches, but I know it was pretty bad, because that opening was certainly bigger than my forehead one. My leg was bandaged and I was told to keep it as straight as possible (not to fold it) and keep it dry. There went my dream of becoming a swimming star :-D. To be honest, I never had that dream, but really wanted to learn swimming, so was very much disappointed. Imagine sitting at home with a stiff leg for 21 days while Darsh went swimming and being told enough stories to get me all jealous :-p.

After the 21 days I did recover and my leg has been okay (except for this ugly scar on my knee :-D). I did go swimming now and then, to practice the only stroke I knew how - the front crawl. I wasn't very good at it, but somehow never tried to take a class again. Indian swimming pools, to be very honest, aren't the most comfortable places for women as such and I would feel extremely conscious whenever I did go. But knowing what I know now, I wish I could have taken a class and improved my swimming lots earlier. Better late than never I guess :).

After I came to the US, I went swimming lots of times and took water fitness classes. I always had this idea running on the back of my mind that I should take classes and polish (to put it very lightly :-D) my skills. But I was somehow very embarrassed. Had so many "what ifs" running through my mind. I mean I had been told all my life that swimming is learnt best when you are young (same with cycling). What if I was too old to learn? What if everyone else in the class is young and I stand out? What if I was would waste away the money without results? So in the 4 years I had been here, I just went to and fro and never ventured into it.

I don't know what changed in November 2009. But something did. I think it might have been that we were thinking of enrolling Snugli into a swimming class and I wanted to be proficient around her :-D. I mean, I had seen parents guiding their children in deep water and I wanted to be that parent :). One day, I finally said "What the heck! Lets do it and think later" and registered for the class. I am a member of the local YMCA so it cost just an additional $26 for 8 classes which was not too bad. In the first class, I was relieved to a huge extent - I was the only one taking that class (2 classes later I was joined by another student who actually had hydrophobia and I was in total awe of her for even getting into water, but the first 2 classes were exclusively mine) and that my teacher was a young lady (very much younger than me :-D). The latter part turned out to be inspirational rather than disheartening because it was good to have a younger teacher who swims so well. The best thing was that she understood exactly what I wanted.

My front crawl, though I was able to swim a couple of laps, wasn't refined at all. I had practiced what I remembered from my summer camp (which wasn't much to go on) and I would always be out of breath at the end of half a lap. Which certainly implied that I was doing it all wrong. First of all I wanted to get that corrected and then learn all the different strokes (I could float on my back, but always failed when I tried doing the back stroke. The other strokes, I hadn't even tried till then). Another major thing for me was that I had never learned to keep myself afloat in the deep end, so though I wasn't really scared of the water, I was very much afraid of the deep end. I mean though I would go out to the deep end, I would always be afraid that if I lose breath somewhere in the middle, I have nowhere to go. So there was lots to learn in mere 8 classes :-D.

As I mentioned, the teacher immediately started pointing out the flaws in my front crawl and giving me tips on how to improve the moves. One of the first things she mentioned was to get a good pair of goggles (they let you see where you are going which help the confidence level, plus keep the chlorine out of your eyes). I hadn't bought anything as of then, so that was fine. She also suggested I don't buy nose plugs because once you get used to them, its difficult to swim without them. As far as the front stroke went, first of all I wasn't keeping my body straight and as much afloat in the water as possible. Secondly when reaching out for the next stroke, my arms weren't as out of water as they should be and hence they were slowing me down. Other than this, my breathing technique wasn't really proper (I wasn't breathing out inside the water and instead was trying to do it all - breathe out and in when I came up for air) which was tiring me out majorly.

Obviously I couldn't make all the changes in one go. If I concentrated on the breathing, I would forget about the arms. If I concentrated on the leg movement, I would forget the breathing. So the first couple of classes were tough on me. I had only one class per week, but I went twice a week to practice all I was told to. I also made it a point to pin-point my doubts and ask the teacher those particular queries. By the third class, my teacher actually said that she could see a conscious improvement (I didn't really believe her, yet :-D). Thats when she decided to teach me the breaststroke. Now that redefined "difficult" for me :-D.

The breaststroke has totally different moves compared to the front crawl. The arm movement is different, the leg movement is different, the breathing is different, basically just about everything is different :-D. For a person who has just been doing the front stroke for a long long time, it was like a different reality. The arm movement pushes the water outwards horizontally while the legs push the water out vertically. I kinda got the arm movement pretty fast, but the leg movement - I would simply forget and switch to the front stroke related leg movement, which certainly wasn't helping :-D. The arm and leg movement in a stroke obviously work together to propel the swimmer forward. So mix and match hardly ever works :-D. I still don't know how I got through that one, only that it required tremendous amounts of concentration. Now the breaststroke is one of the easiest strokes for me and I love it :).

I think it was in the 4th class that my teacher noticed that when asked to swim a lap, I would stop at the spot where I can still reach the ground and come back. Thats when I told her that I was a wee bit afraid that mid-way through the deep end, I would struggle and would have to be "rescued" :-D. So her method was simple, she asked me to get to the deep water, convinced me that even if I go down, it was hardly 12 feet, so I could come up very easily (I knew it but sometimes fear doesn't have logic :-D). And she showed me a move to keep myself afloat. It was a softer version of the breast stroke, standing up in the water rather than laying on the stomach. One point she stressed was that each person will have a point of balance on which they can do the movement and the trick was to find that point. In the subsequent practices on my own, I would force myself to go to the deep end and try different ways to keep myself afloat. I lost the so-called fear of deep end in the 4th class itself and started enjoying being there where my legs just can't reach the ground :).

I was also taught the backstroke in the 4th class. Yup, lots of things going on simultaneously :-D. As I said before I knew how to float on my back and it was only a matter of learning how to kick the legs out and the arm strokes backwards. The difficulty lies in the aspect that whenever you are getting the arms out of the water or putting them in, any splash of water can straight hit your face and in turn your nose, causing panic :). So the trick is to soften those 2 moves (for each arm, so total 4 times per each complete stroke) - when the arm is coming out of the water, use the thumb and when going in, use the side of the palm (rather than the palm itself which can result in an unwanted splash of water) :). So to learn the stroke itself wasn't that difficult, but these little tips were (again needed a lot of concentration).

The teacher did miss out one week in between the 4th and the 5th (and later b/w the 5th and the 6th), so it did give me lots of classes inbetween to practice :). The 5th class (again seeing my improvement), she taught me the butterfly stroke. Now this is the most difficult, the grand-daddy of them all :-D. The main problem of the stroke is that it uses the entire body, so there is no part of the body that is not exercized. And since it requires all of the body parts, it also needs lot of concentration, plus lots of stamina. In addition, its THE stroke for abdominal exercise, because it uses the core as the strength. The leg movement is the key (called the dolphin kick), coupled with the body movement, that give the swimmer the ability to actually push the upper body out of the water. Also there is a very tiny breathing window (actually a breath every other stroke is suggested, but I still have to take a breath every stroke ;-) :-D). Needless to say, I still haven't got this one perfect till now. I do try to do atleast 2 laps each time I swim, but every half-a-lap I have to stop for breath. My kicks aren't yet synchronized with the arm movement (there are 2 kicks to each stroke), so lots of practice ahead.

I did go the 6th week, to gather more little details and tips to make it all better. By this time December end had arrived and we had to leave for our India trip. The teacher and I decided to take it up once I was back, but you knew what happened after I came back - with my not keeping well and later the incident :-D. Even later when I wanted to, the teacher had some exams going on (she is still a student in our local university), so it got postponed again. So to this day, we haven't got a chance to get back to the 2 remaining classes. I want to improve my butterfly, learn flip turn (a great help in lapping without stopping - tried it a couple of times, but its been a long time since I have done any paltis, so my head reeled :-D) and learn on-the-spot diving (tried it, but my ears ring, so I'm sure there must be a trick to it :-D). Well, its been almost an year, so maybe I'll actually take further classes some other time.

Right now, I swim twice a week (thinking of making it thrice a week from next week onwards :-D). I have come a long way from someone who used to swim about 4 to 6 laps in an hour. Now-a-days I swim minimum 12 laps in half an hour including warm-up and inbetween flexibility exercizes. The routine is usually 2 front crawls, 2 breaststrokes, 1 butterfly and 1 backstroke, 2 times. Plus another 2 laps in the end as relaxation laps where its a lazy swim :). I love breaststroke and enjoy frolicking in the deep end. As for the rest, I am still practicing keeping my legs up in the front crawl (which I've heard improves the speed), keeping my concentration in the backstroke (lying on my back tends to get me wool-gathering and I forget the tricks until I get a splash on my nose :-D) and trying to improve everything about my butterfly. I've been complimented a couple of times on my swimming (which I cannot believe as I still feel very incompetent sometimes :-\) and I am very proud of what I have achieved :). I have been trying to convince Sri to take up some classes (he knows swimming, but he is not comfy with any strokes other than the front crawl just like I was an year ago), but well, he is still dilly-dallying :-D.

I still cannot believe that one year ago I even had the hesitation. One thing the whole experience has taught me is that a person is never too old to try something new. I mean, yes there maybe a hesitation, there maybe embarrassment, but believe me, its all worth it. It helped me prove to myself that this old dog can learn new tricks and oh man, is there a lot more to learn :).

Official Update :)

Received the GMAT official report on email yesterday (I don't know what the lady was talking about when she said 21 days - maybe its the number of days for the schools to get the report). And my AWA score is

5.5/6.0

I honestly thought that my essays on the actual test didn't sound as "complicated" as the sample essays in all the books. Well, maybe the evaluators are into "simple" :)).

Jumping up and down round 2 is on!! :-D.

The jagged road to GMAT..

My situation for the past week has been this - my nails have been bitten to their very-possible ends. There has been very less sleep and lots of nerves. My stomach had this knot which grew day by day until 2 days ago when I could actually almost feel it. I've been on the edge and its been a long long time since I've felt something like this (probably 8 years back when my engineering life came to its end- wow, yes, its been 8 years!). I don't really like the way I was feeling. All this was on account of my GMAT test yesterday, April 4th 2009, morning. When the TOEFL demon feels like a cute fluffy dog comparatively, you can imagine how terrifying the GMAT monster is..

But wait, lets rewind to April 2007, when I completed TOEFL and was thinking of actually going for GMAT. Its not that I didn't put in the effort, I tried to study for about 2 months. But whenever I attempted a practice test, my pacing was terrible and I almost always had about 10 questions remaining whenever I completed a test. This kinda disappointed me (you think? :-p). Plus when I found out that I was pregnant, the already slackened pace came to a grinding halt. I'm going to blame the hormones, thank you very much :-D.

Fast forward to about December 2008. The pregnancy excuse had expired, even the child excuse was not working anymore. I had to do something, so I started off studying early in the mornings without telling anyone. Actually even Sri was unaware of this secret studies for quite sometime. I was able to study only for an hour because of "Snugli" circumstances :-D, yet something was better than nothing. I started practising some tests in January and one thing I realized that I was mistaking the "75" minutes for each section to be 45 minutes and falling behind pretty bad. To this day, I don't know whether thats what I did in 2007 when I tried all those tests. If so, then I could have actually taken the test way earlier {slaps forehead}. Once I realized my mistake, I was a bit more confident.

Pause. Before we talk about confidence and the actual prep of the test, lets get the basic definitions over and done with. GMAT stands for Graduate Management Admission Test and it is basically acts as a preliminary to apply to most management schools (some do accept GRE scores). GMAT is a computer adaptive test (hence called GMAT CAT) which means that the test adapts to the student's difficulty level. In simpler terms, if say difficulty of questions range from level 1 to 10 and say, the first question is a level 5, if the student answers correctly, then the test sets the next question to a higher level of difficulty. If the student answers wrong, then the next question will be a lower difficulty level. Totally confusing, I know.

In addition to this, the scores are not direct. Usually if there are 100 questions say and you answer 80 correctly then your score is 80. But in GMAT, this is not so. There is a difficulty factor that comes in. So if you answer 60 difficult questions and 20 not-so-difficult ones correctly, then your score might be 90. In the same way if you answer 60 not-so-difficult questions and 20 difficult ones correctly, then your score might be lower than 50. Mind you, this is just an example. Hence, the correct number of answers is converted to a scaled score and is tallied in a distribution to get your percentile and a score. Yeah it is as crazy as it sounds :-D. The maximum score is 800 and top schools in US and UK usually say 680 is the lowest they accept. The school I am looking at says that their average is 607.5, but I was expecting to score atleast a 650 and hoping to get a 700 ;-).

If your mind is not boggled yet, lets move on. The total test is about 4 hours inclusive of 2 10 min optional breaks and school selection/survey screens. The following are the sections in the GMAT:

1) Analytical Writing Assignment (AWA):

The AWA consists of 2 essays which need to be completed in 30 min each. This section is graded separately for 6 points and this does not count towards the total score. But if you plan to apply to top schools, then you need atleast a 5. It has 2 parts.

• a) Analysis of an Issue: In this essay, we have to write for or against an issue stated.


• b) Analysis of an Argument: Here we critique an argument given, state its flaws and suggest how it can be strengthened.

The essays are tougher than those on TOEFL, but I still wasn't worried, just looked at a few sample ones and that was it.

2) Quantitative section:

This is the Math section of GMAT and it has 37 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 75 minutes. That means about 2 min per question. The section has 2 types of questions but the problems are intermingled.

• a) Problem Solving: This can range from a simple problem to a very wordy problem where you might need to figure out what the equations are and solve them to get to a solution (and yes, you have 2 min to do that!).


• b) Data Sufficiency: This one is a bit too weird to explain. Here a question is asked and 2 pieces of data are given. You have to determine whether the 1st data or the 2nd data or both the data or both the data individually or neither the data is sufficient to determine the solution to the question asked. Phew!

I was scared about this mainly due to the computer adaptivity part. I am good at Math and that became the scary part. If you are good, the test adapts to that and you always get difficult problems. And difficult problems usually take more than 2 steps to solve. Yup the 2 min was a major constraint. Moreover I was making some totally silly mistakes (once I got totally stuck in a problem thinking 9*9=36!!!) and was completely irritated with myself. The problems require concentration. If the problem asks x directly, you can solve it. But if it asks for x/2, you solve for x and forget the x/2, one of the 5 choices will always have that answer {rolls her eyes}. Now imagine it asks 30% of x/2, then more wrong choices are littered your way. I'm giving a very simple example, but you get the idea.

All in all, the Math is supposed to test whether you answer difficult questions under pressure correctly (and not by fluke). The test is brilliant, but you can see how this whole thing is a big problem for the person actually taking the test ;-).

3) Verbal section:

The final section of the GMAT is verbal. If you think that verbal will be easy after the TOEFL, you are utterly wrong! GMAT verbal is on a totally different level. It has 41 questions and again has to be completed by 75 min, which makes it about 1.5 min per question. There are 3 types of questions here:

• a) Sentence Correction (SC): You have to determine whether a sentence or part of it is correct. Usually atleast 2 of the 5 choices sound correct.


• b) Critical Reasoning (CR): This consists of a 4-line argument and after reading it, you have to determine which of the 5 choices strengthen the conclusion/weaken the conclusion/is the conclusion/is an assumption and so on. The questions require full concentration.


• c) Reading Comprehension (RC): Its all about passages and questions. But TOEFL passages look like children stories compared to this. The passages maybe on Science/History/Art/Finance/Economics or whatever. So first of all, you may not even understand the passage. Plus the questions are never direct. For example, if the passage is on Mona Lisa, say, TOEFL question might be "who painted it?". But GMAT question as such would be "What is the main idea of the passage?" (choices may range from the Mona Lisa, to Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings, to paintings in general) or "what's the author's attitude in the passage?" (choices ranging from appreciation to condemnation :-\). Please feel free to extrapolate this to serious passages with similar questions :-p.

English was never my first language. So grammar isn't something that is an integral part of me. I speak/write good English, but actual grammar is something else. If it "sounds" correct, it doesn't mean it is! I was doing okay, but wasn't getting any better with study. "Practice" was the only advice I got from everywhere :-p.

And thats that! And so by the end of February I was hardly managing to study an hour, but stepped up the pace in March. What was my strategy, you ask? Strategy? Are you kidding me? With Snugli around, the only time I get is when she naps. During her morning nap I cook, so what was left was her afternoon nap. And she doesn't nap continuously, so couldn't really take a test on weekdays at all. So I made it a point to study atleast 2 hours a day (I did skip days sometimes) and take one test per weekend. In 2007 I actually had completed studying Princeton Review's Cracking the GMAT with DVD, 2006 edition. So I started off with Barron's GMAT, 2007 edition this time. I didn't buy any books, the books were all courtesy of our library :). Once I was done with it, I again reviewed the Princeton review book and also took their free online test.

By this time I had to take an appointment date. I took my TOEFL test 2 years ago on March 17th and it expires after 2 years. I wanted to be done with GMAT within then. But I mailed the university I want to take up MBA in and they said that the TOEFL scores would be valid this year (well, if they change their mind, I'll have to take up TOEFL again, but it should be much smoother after GMAT :-D). That gave me the excuse to postpone it a little longer and I finally set the GMAT test appointment to be April 4th, morning 8 AM, shelling out $250 for the same :-p. Thankfully there is a centre here in Lexington about 10 miles away. And so the crunch time had begun ;-).

What really helped me more than the books I mentioned earlier, was the official guide (OG) from the GMAT people. About a fortnight ago, I downloaded pieces of the 11th edition from the internet (Esnips is a good source :-D), took printouts and started on the sentence correction questions of the verbal section. Man, they have a hugge set which kinda made me more confident. Then went onto study the critical reasoning and about half of Reading comprehension. But then I discovered the best thing. The MBA site has a GMATPrep tool which you can download and practice tests on. The tool has only 2 practice tests, but just by deleting a folder and reinstalling the tool you can get multiple tests (though some of the questions might be repeated since its the same database). Whats really wonderful is that the tool is a replica of the actual test and also has the same algorithm. So you see the same screens plus you get the computer adaptive part.

My mistake was that I took my first GMATPrep test only last Sunday. Though I wasn't very accurate on the verbal, the pacing wasn't a problem there. But quantitative was a major problem, my pacing was all wrong and I ended up guessing about 10 questions because I just didn't have time left to answer them (one tip is that its better to guess than leave the questions unanswered as there is a penalty :-D). Overall, my score wasn't that bad even with about 10 incorrect questions in Math and another 10 in verbal (lets talk about the scores later ;-) :-D). I had initially thought of taking only 2 GMATPrep tests, but it was then I knew I had to take atleast a couple more. I decided not to overstress myself the last 2 days. So Sunday noon was my 1st test. I took the 2nd on Monday evening locking myself up in the room while Sri watched over Snugli. Then deleted and reinstalled the tool. Took my 3rd on Tuesday evening and 4th on Wednesday. I was totally tired by then. So on Thursday and Friday though I did work out the OG Math questions. I didn't take any tests.

Also on Thursday we drove and checked out the test centre, which was a good thing to do, as on the test day I planned to go by myself (ofcourse driving around with Snugli so early in the morning didn't make sense). By Friday I was a nervous wreck. I knew it wasn't a matter of life and death (which my dad always says), or the end of the world (courtesy of mom) or it wasn't as if I couldn't retake the exam (this one's by Sri). But I didn't want to retake the exam. I wanted it over and done with once and for all. I wanted no regrets and didn't want to waste away $250 :-p. I was scared of making a silly mistake and ending up with a disastrous score.

Also I read a GMAT experience which further scared me. That person had scored just like me in the prep tests, but scored very less in the actual test. One of the reasons suggested was that he hadn't practiced the essays and probably that resulted in more pressure. I hadn't practiced essays either! I just couldn't the whole thing out of my head. I tried to relax myself as much as possible. I was taking deep breaths all the time. I even went to my Zoomba exercize class because I find that I enjoy dancing very much and that it relaxes me. I made it a point to stop studying altogether by night and sleep early (but that I was up another hour awake was a different matter :-D). Then finally I realized that this was exactly how I felt before Bungee-jumping. But then it was an exhilarating experience. The idea somehow gave me peace and I managed to sleep.

On the D-day, I was up at 5:30 AM and ready by 6:30 AM. Again made it a point to eat some light breakfast (all tips and tricks of tackling GMAT) and to carry a couple of energy bars with me to the centre. I had to carry my passport and had to be there 30 min before the appointment. I was there at about 7:15 AM and inside the centre at about 7:25 AM. There were a couple of students with me and one of them had a couple of books in front of her and was studying away. This kinda made me smile and helped me relax some more. Later I found out that she was taking a different test on ultrasound :-\. I was the first person, so they gave me a sheet full of disclaimers to read (:-D) which screamed that anyone who is found cheating will be blacklisted with all the universities, hehehehe :)). Since I wasn't planning to be blacklisted, this helped me relax further.

Finally the lady in charge called me, took my passport, got my signature and scanned my palm (!!). I had read about palm scanning, but it was a very cool thing to experience eventhough the device was nowhere near cool :-p. Then she gave me a locker key, asked me to remove my watch (I knew stopwatches/digital watches were not allowed, but I was wearing a simple feminine watch and was surprised that even that wasn't allowed). She also asked me remove my bracelet as it might make a sound against the table and disturb others (!!!). I could only take my passport and locker key inside, so locked up everything else and proceeded to the test room.

Now this was really very cool. They had a small hall fitting about 15-20 students. 1/4th of the room was a glass cubicle from which a person could continuously monitor everyone in the room. Plus they had cameras and microphones in the room to see everyone's facial expressions and hear any mutterings (all anti-cheat mechanisms). This was continuously streamed to the cubicle on a comp. As someone seeing such a thing for the first time, it was all very exciting. Anyways, the lady there scanned my palm again (this would be done every time anyone entered/exited the hall) and escorted me to my seat.

I took a deep breath and began. Before starting the tests you have to select the schools. I chose 5 schools nearest to where I live. Also this particular screen is not timed (every other screen in the test is), so I checked the laminated scratch-sheet and markers they gave me. I moved through the tutorials pretty fast and soon encountered the 1st essay question. I'm not supposed to mention any questions here, so I'll just say, I did pretty okay in the analysis of argument and was able to complete it in 30 min (I was just reading it for the final time when the time expired :-p). The Issue essay was also pretty okay. I think I'll get above 4 on the section, but have to wait for official scores (which will come only after about 21 days). It was time for my first optional break.

You have to raise your hand if you want to take the break and wait until you are escorted out. After palm scanning, went to the locker, ate the energy bar, went to the restroom, washed my face with cold water, drank some water from a water fountain nearby, stretched/walked around a bit and was ready to tackle the Math monster :). The quantitative section was, well, I still don't know how to describe it, tough. I was able to stop myself from making some silly mistakes, but there is no way to know whether you are getting, if not every question, atleast some of the questions right. People say that if you find the test tough, it means that things are looking good - it indicates that you are on a more difficult level. I did screw up on the pacing and in the last had only about 2 minutes for 3 questions. Tried and marked my answers based on process of elimination and finished the section. Took the next optional break (Its good to take the breaks. It helps you forget the past and move on ;-). Even the energy bars are supposed to help as the test requires tremendous mental energy. Also it keeps your mind from jumping to hunger in the middle of the test and lose concentration).

My head was still reeling with the Math, so I kept muttering "Let go of it, its done" to myself. Did a repeat of things of the previous break and went back in. Again took several breaths and began. The Verbal was pretty okay I thought. Very early in the section, my pace was strong, so I had more than enough time. The CR and SC questions were as tough as usual, but the RC passages were thankfully understandable. Halfway through the section, My eyes started feeling the strain, so I started resting them and taking short breaks. With 10 questions remaining I still had 30 min time, so was able to close my eyes and relax whenever I wanted. I actually finished the test with 10 min left! Now came the really-scary part- the scores of the quantitative and verbal sections would be reported immediately. But first I had to chose to report or cancel the scores.

For me there was never really a choice, I had gone determined to report the scores no matter what. Before it gave me my unofficial report, I had to go through a series of survey questions (which ask about your experience, your field, where you studies etc) which was a bit irritating :-p. Then it was time to see the scores. I was out-of-mind scared, took a very very very deep breath and clicked Next. And there it was -

UNOFFICIAL GMAT SCORE REPORT

	Scaled Score	Percentile
Quantitative	48	84
Verbal	36	78
Total	700	90

700! 700?? I had this huge smile on my face immediately, got out and got a printout of the unofficial score report. Called Sri immediately and literally shouted into his ears :-D. Jumped up and down and danced the whole day yesterday, called everyone and told stories about the whole experience in detail ;-) :-D. I was on a high whole of yesterday and was brought down only today morning when I realized that had I only attempted the tests a bit earlier, maybe I'd have scored better. Oh well :-p. I'll be receiving the official score report in 21 days and am planning to head to the university this week to get things moving. Finally!

My scores in the prep tests were as follows:
GMATPrep1 - 650
GMATPrep2 - 660
GMATPrep1(repeat) - 700 (but there were a few questions repeated)
GMATPrep2(repeat) - 720 (again a few questions repeated)

They say usually the real score will fall between + or - 30 of the prep test score :-D. Also just wanted to add that in the real test, I never got a single question repeated from the Prep tests or the OG, though basically the screens were the same and that really helped a lot :).

And so in the pond of life, the duck encountered another duck-eating monster. Yes the duck was prepared, but it couldn't help but be scared. But you know what? This duck scan still fly, baby :))).

Caption Challenge :)

I have been following the Presidential election for many days now, the simple reason being that its everywhere. Though it doesn't really matter who wins this election to me, I do like to catch up on various tidbits. I especially love Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 blog. I love the various challenges they put up, so recently when they put up this caption challenge, I entered it and guess what! My caption has been selected in the top 7. Now the people have to vote and decide which is the best :-D.




The top 7 are below:

- "OH.. This is even prettier than the "Daughters of Aerial Wolf Killers" sign from yesterday!" (Coolpapa)

- Sarah Palin, correcting her own daughter's homework. (Desperatevoter)

- "Ooh! Where's that Katie Couric at? I can tell her that I read this sign today!" (Aaron)

- Palin refutes allegations of racism by using a black marker. (Fara Singleton)

- "Hey, maybe I'll name my next kid 'Pipe Wrench'." (bobcatpaul)

- "I'm just gonna blur out that 'Girls Gone Wild' URL down there, with it..." (Gordo)

- "I hope that the gotcha-media doesn't notice that my pen cost $100,000." (Dee)

The last one is mine obviously. Well, I hope I win, but I'm glad to be picked out of more than 150 entries - a few of which are mine ;-). Since it was a multiple-entry contest, I also entered the following:

"Darn that Tina Fey! She's not only imitating me, she forging my signature too! Doggone it!"

"The plumber folks in the small towns are the only Pro-Americans around, I say!"

"Joe the plumber not only hates Obama, he has daughters supporting me too? What a dream dude!"

"Plumber's daughters? I must teach them abstinence just the way I taught my eldest!"

"Just like newspapers, I not only read everyone of 'em signs, I sign 'em too "

"When I asked the Lord to give me a sign, I don't think I meant this.."

"Oh man, all this signing is make me forget the key words. What were they again? Oh yes - maverick, energy, palling around with terrorists and socialist of course. And they call me a Caribou Barbie.."

Now you know why I'm not blogging as much ;-).

Update: Well, I didn't win. But never really thought I would :).

Blowing my own trumpet :-D.

A real quick update. I am feeling really proud and happy today. One of my blog posts is published in Vijay Times epaper's Jun 6th 2007 "Bloggers' park" section.

Here's the way to access it:

1) Go to Vijay Times Epaper.
2) Do not register but click on "Click here for FREE access to e-paper".
3) A pop-up window wil open with the day's online paper.
4) On the top right side there will be Edition and Date dropdowns.
5) Select date as Jun 6th 2007.
6) Scroll using "next" or "previous" to Page 6.
7) Scroll down a little to see the "Blogger's park" section and my post "The age of innocence" in it :). BTW the original post is here.

:-D. And thanks to Chitra for pinging and letting me know :).

Cracking the TOEFL IBT :)

Sorry for being missing for almost a week. Well, it was Easter long weekend and we were off on yet another of our adventures, but that will be for the upcoming post...

TOEFL. Test of English as a Foreign Language. When I started studying for it somewhere around the end of January 2007, I thought it would be easy. After all like Amitabh Bachchan says in "Namak Halaal",

I know such English that I will leave the British behind. You see sir, I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English, I can run English, because English is such a funny language.

Hehehe. But there were problems in queue. The format of TOEFL had changed and there was a new terrifying "Speaking" section introduced. I am a good speaker, in front of friends that is :-p. Put me on a stage and I start blabbering (though I do sing on stage). Singing seems like a lesser evil compared to speaking on stage anytime :-p. Though the speaking section in TOEFL would be just recording on a computer, it was still enough to make me nervous.

Let me start at the beginning. The new TOEFL IBT (Internet based test) is for 120 marks and consists of 4 sections carrying 30 marks each:

• Reading: The regular comprehension. A passage is given, you have to read through and answer the questions listed about it later. The advantage is that you can refer to the passage whenever you want (it doesn't go away). But there are some questions which might prove to be a pain. Like the one worth 2 points which asks you to choose 3 options to summarize the passage out of 6 very-similar-points. I was not very worried about this one.



• Listening: In this one, you have to listen to lectures/conversations etc and answer questions. The audio would be played only once, so you cannot really refer to it again, but you are allowed to take notes. Here again, I wasn't very worried as I had the Barron's TOEFL iBT Internet-Based Test 2006-2007 12th Edition with CD-ROM book from the library and practiced the taking notes part very well.



• Speaking: Now this was a pain. There are 6 questions in the Speaking section of TOEFL. First 2 deal with your favourites/opinion. Next 2 are integrated questions, you have to read a passage, listen to a conversation/lecture and speak stating the summary. The last 2 are listening questions, where you listen to conversation/lecture and speak summarizing the topic. Man, I practiced about 7 model tests totally, yet my answers would come out stilted. I pulled Sri into listening to some of my responses and he gave some suggestions. Though I improved, I was just not comfortable with the section :(.



• Writing: You have to write 2 essays for this section. One is an integrated essay where you need to read a passage, listen to a lecture and then summarize (again the passage would be available for reference but the lecture was played only once) and the other an independent essay where you have to write on a topic arguing for a position. I didn't even practice this one. I consider my blogging enough practice :-D. I did look through the sample essays provided in the book. But didn't really bother too much.

The previous TOEFL CBT is considered "intelligent" in which how you answer the first section determines the type of questions you get in other sections (this is still used in countries where IBT hasn't been introduced yet). But thankfully, the new IBT doesn't have that. Anyways after studying the Barron's TOEFL book I mentioned, I was ready to take up the test. I wanted to take it on 10th March 2007, but when I tried to book in on 6th, I found out that there would be a late fee for that date :-p. So I booked it for 17th March 2007 (for $150!) and finally took it up then.

The test was at 8 AM in the morning and Sri drove me to the test centre. I noticed that there were a lot of Oriental people taking up the test. After showing my passport for identification, I was taken to my seat which had a computer and a headset (with headphones and a microphone). After making myself comfortable in terms of volumes etc, I started off. The total test would be for 4.5 hours! The reading and listening sections were comfortable and I completed them within the allotted time. I didn't even check my answers, I didn't really want to waver, so with complete concentration read the passages, listened to the lectures and answered the questions.

There is a break of 10 minutes between the listening and speaking sections and this is mandatory. So went out and made myself relax for the upcoming difficult task. While there I met a oriental student, who gushed that the test was very difficult and he thought that he wouldn't be doing well. The fact surprised me (maybe I had taken too many model tests and was well-versed with the reading and listening) and kind of made me more confident :-D. Then I returned to my table for the Speaking section. I tried to speak as clearly as possible and though I made a couple of mistakes (like forgetting to look at the time and not completing one of the answers in time, a couple of grammatical errors), I felt good. I think now that I could not have done any better :).

The last section was the writing section. The integrated essay came out wonderful (I'm not really supposed to mention the topics as I signed a copyright agreement while taking the test :-D), the only problem was that just as I was correcting a final grammatical error, the time was up and the essay auto-saved itself :-\. The independent essay came out even better :-D. I thought out points and hammered (suththi-hodiyodu :-D) them nicely into the essay. I had done well :).

The results were supposed to be after 15 days or so I thought. So on April 2nd, when I panicked and looked at the registration site, I found out that it was 15 "business" days. Oh well. I was confident yet had doubts.

Confident me: "I'm sure I'll get above 100 :)."
Not-so-confident me: "What if I don't even cross 79? :(."

(79 is the minimum score stipulated by the university I want to apply to).

Well, today is the 16th "business" day. Morning as soon as I got up, I checked whether I had any mails and didn't find any from the TOEFL people. So I logged onto the registration site to see that the scores were "available". I took a deep breath and clicked on the link.

114/120

Reading	29/30
Listening	29/30
Speaking	27/30
Writing	29/30

They also had paragraphs describing how "High" my scores were and indivudual sectional summaries. God! I am so ecstatic! I have been jumping up and down ever since. I knew that I wouldn't score well in Speaking, so am really surprised at the 27. I was sure that I'd score something around "20-22". Well, with all the weird accents around, maybe mine was pretty clear for the examiner and he/she must have given the marks just because they understood what the heck I was talking about :-D. I'm happy and I'm grateful :). I guess you must have guessed it'd be a positive result from the title of the post and the smile there ;-). If it had been bad, I don't know whether I'd have been able to write a post on it :-\.

Well, one down, another to go! GMAT, here I come!

Wrrrrrrrrroooooooommmmm power!

I've been driving all my life. But the first I remember of it is when my parents bought me a cycle, BSA champ. This was probably when I was around 8 years old. I didn't find any pictures of the brand-I-had-then on the net. These days the BSA champs are all colourful. Mine was just a plain white one. I remember riding it for long with the balancing wheels on and never taking them off. My cousins all learnt earlier than me, but still I refused to consider the riding-without-the-balancing-wheels option :-p. The final straw came when Darsh learnt how to balance :-D. That was when I finally got them removed and first enjoyed a cycle ride without the grating sound of the balancing wheels (fell a couple of times in the process :-D).

I soon grew bigger and the cycle was no longer a fit for me. When I was 12 years old, I got a brand new BSA Streetcat. It was dark blue and it had yellow coloured stretched-thin cats all over (Again I didn't find any snaps over the internet. I have a sketch of it that I drew at home, but well, maybe next time). Remember that one?


Boom boom shakalakha, boom boom shack!
Street cat's gonna knock you back!


Hehehe. I absolutely adored my new cycle. After I begged and pleaded I was even allowed to take it to school (previously I used to take the bus or walk, the school was only about 2 furlongs from my house :-p). I still remember the day I did take it to school the first time. After classes I came outside only to see many boys of my class grouped around my bike and admiring it. I proudly (and stylishly ;-) :-D), took out the cycle ;-). My bike and I went on to have a long relationship. When I finished primary school and joined a highschool which was pretty far away (about 4km I think, not sure), I preferred going on the cycle rather take the bus. Even friends had cycles, so we'd cycle back home together up until a point and then part ways in the evening.

During this time, one of our neighbours, who was also a collegue of my mom's, had a spare old rickety luna. So we borrowed it from him and thats the first ever motorized vehicle I drove :-D. Well, handling a luna was much easier than riding a cycle, ofcourse. On saturdays the school started early and so usually dad would drop me off. But after I learnt on the luna, he would allow me to drive his Kinetic Honda, though I was not even 16 then ;-). It was because of that, I think I got the hang of main traffic areas :). But I continued to take the cycle to school otherwise and even later when I entered my PU college, I took the cycle to college for the 1st year.

As soon as I turned 16, I applied for a learner's licence (it was in fact just 2 days after my 16th birthday and I remember the evaluating police officer make a comment saying "You are in a hurry alright" :-D). And soon got my own Hero Puch automatic to drive. It was red in colour and it had no gears and was just perfect. So it took me to all of my PU and later some of my engineering classes. I was a bit accident prone. I mean I wasn't deliberately doing it, but one day it'd be a cyclist coming in front of me and me skidding and the other day an autowala breaking suddenly in front and me falling. It was not very frequently, but like once in 2 months. I remember my parents being very worried about it, but later slowly I got over it...

Meanwhile I faced getting a driving license from an Indian RTO for the first time in my life. I had decided not to give bribes, so the first time I went to the RTO, I stood in long queues, spent the whole day there and the evaluator failed me with the excuse saying I didn't have a "L' board (I noticed how he had passed another fellow with the same deficiency). When I went to reapply, I was told that I didn't have a valid learner's license as my LL was for 50cc vehicle and not for above. Huh?? How the heck did they conduct the test the first time then? Total chaos! Anyways I applied for a new LL and then had to wait 3 months to attempt the practical DL test. The second time I put big white boards with a huge "L" inside, attached 2 of these to both front and back and took the test. This time I was failed without even an excuse. Also I was a witness to the guy actually taking a wad of money from somebody. God! I was getting pretty frustrated, still reapplied and took the test 3rd time and passed. Finally! This experience taught me that you either have to sacrifice time or money to get what you need.

Well, so after I got my DL, I got a nice brand new Kinetic Honda. It was a shiny dark blue and it accompanied me to my engineering college for 2 years and later my first job for 1 year and second job for 2 years. I did manage to wreck it by falling a couple of times, but not as much as I wrecked the poor Hero Puch. Looks like I had improved a bit :-D. I had to leave it when I came to US (I'm still sad that the 2-wheelers are not very common here) and now my dad's using it. As for the BSA champ, I don't remember what happened to it. Darsh used it for sometime, but later I don't remember. Mom gave away the streetcat to a friend's daughter and I remember I was very sad to give it away but it was occupying space as I wasn't using it anymore. Dad sold the Hero Puch to someone and I wasn't really sad as I thought it'd have a better owner than me ;-).

Although all this while, we had a car at home, I never really tried/bothered learning how to drive it. So though, Darsh had aleady gone ahead and started taking the car around, I was kind of never interested. After I got my job, I thought why not learn it and joined a driving school. Well, the clutch and gears always got me. I didn't feel comfy with the whole thing at all. But this time I went through the driving school for the DL and the guy being bribed nicely from the school (which was a part of the fee that I had paid to learn driving), passed me after seeing 2 minutes of my driving :-p. I still remember the evaluator sitting in the 2nd row of the car and actually throwing the pass-declaring paper towards my instructor! These people are really like fat, overgrown rats who can do what they want!

Despite getting my DL, I never really ventured out in the car. The one time I did, I scratched an auto and it cost my dad Rs.600 to get me out of the mess :-p. Auto drivers look for such opportunities. Our car wasn't even scratched, but well, that incident undermined my confidence all the more and I just took to practicing with dad just within our locality. I had the DL but really it was of no practical use. Anyways, after I got married, I did learn how to drive another vehicle. A geared Yamaha Enticer, Darsh's motorcycle. Though I actually rode it only twice, it was lots of fun and obviously lots different (make that powerful) from my Kinetic Honda.

After I came to US, I never really took any interest in driving, though Sri was continually encouraging me to (he had selfish interests of sitting like a maharaja while I drive, which I have been doing all this while ;-) >:) :-D). About 5 months ago, I finally got a driving manual to learn all the rules here. After memorizing the rules and the specifications, I took the learners's test and passed the test. It consisted of a vision test (to determine whether you notice things on road) and 2 written tests, one on rules and the other on road signs. It was pretty easy and I got my instruction permit. Here with an IP, you can drive the car but only if you have another person who is 21 years or older with a valid DL.

Its ulta driving as I call it (as its opposite to how its done in India). And most of the cars here have an auto transmission. So there is no clutch and no gears, all you need to care about is the accelerator and break. Man, was that a relief! Here the rules are what matter most. In India, roads are chaos with no lanes concept and people driving everywhere. Here, since there are hardly any 2-wheelers and even if there are, since they are supposed to be treated equivalent to cars, there's not much of confusion on roads. There are clear-cut lines for rules and the police catch people only if they cross that line. Since most people follow rules, you just have to be conscious and not be extremely careful like in India. I started off on our old Nissan Sentra and got the hang of it pretty soon. Whenever we went off to the gym ( a post will be coming up on that soon) or grocery-shopping, I drove. So slowly (very slowly :-p) after being corrected in all aspects by Sri , after 4 months, I finally took the driving test for the first time last Tuesday.

But things went wrong. I had taken the old Nissan Sentra to the test. Firstly the window on the evaluator's side malfunctioned and I could feel he got irritated then and there. Further he switched on the AC and the engine being old, couldn't handle the AC and it stalled at a point. Well, me being nervous as it is, panicked and made a couple of mistakes, one of which was not being careful enough for a "Stop" sign. This was hazardous, as "STOP" means you have to stop at an intersection and look carefully both sides before crossing the road. Despite this, I completed parallel parking (hadn't even practiced this and had thought I would fail because of this) and a turnabout (page 18 on this manual) without problems. Anyways, the evaluator declared me failed and asked me to take another driving test appointment for next week.

I was very disappointed with myself and the car. But smart Sri, whose idea was "If she falls from a horse, lets get her on an elephant", immediately that evening insisted that I drive the SUV and practice on it. I was scared first, as the SUV is wider and lengthier than the car. But as soon as I started driving, I could feel the difference, the power and the handling were wayyyyy better. So after driving around for a week, I went to the driving test on this Tuesday taking the SUV with me. The evaluator who came in was different and considerably nicer too ;-). He asked me what went wrong last time and I told him that the car gave some mechanical problems and that I panicked. He saw the SUV and commented good-naturedly that he was sure that this car wouldn't give any problems :-D. This time I was very careful, took care of all Stop and Yield signs, did the parallel parking and the turnabout successfully and basically didn't make a single mistake. I also noticed that the evaluator was observing all my actions and making notes. When we finally finished the test, he passed me saying that I drove very well, but that I'm green around the edges :-D, meaning that I need a bit more experience. Oh man, I was so happy. Thanks to the patient efforts of first my dad and later Sri, now I am able to drive a car around confidently :).

Now I can share atleast a bit of driving when we go on long drives. I have gone on one of the freeways here and it feels wonderful to drive at high speeds and still be in control. But I haven't driven for more than half an hour in a stretch. So need lots more practice and hope to get that by driving around :).


We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly,
but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey,
or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way - Anonymous.