Hear your inner voice !

This post talks about speech made by Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Computers. This has got nothing to do with the GMP course, but I put it here because its such a powerful speech and I thought everybody should give it a read atleast once. I have read it multiple times since the first time I read, sometimes last week, and everytime I read, I am charged up !

I am quoting few lines from the speech ---
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Very true and very relavent, isn't it !!

Ok, now here is the link --> Link

XLRI in pictures

Prof Madhukar Shukla has posted some nice pics of XLRI campus and its students.

1. Virtual Tour through the XLRI Campus: http://lifeatxl.blogspot.com/

2. The XLRI over the years: http://tinyurl.com/64ds3c

Status Update -1

Thanks to 3 day break starting tomorrow :-), I am able to write down this post. I am gonna cover what has happened in last 10 days and whats gonna happen in next 10 days ....

1. Official Dining Hall Inauguration- As I wrote in my last post , a new dining hall has come up exclusively for GMP students. This was officially inaugurated on 25 June. The event was a good way to unwind and talk to the faculty along with wonderful dinner and cocktails. Few of the enthusiasts clicked couple of pics too. Here is one ... Well, I am being selfish enough to pick the one where I am in center :-)


2. Different Committees- As in any civil society, you need people who can volunteer to work that extra mile to achieve something that can be mutually beneficial for the entire society, you need these volunteers for the betterment of the GMP juntaa too. How much do these volunteers actually volunteer and how much result can they bring forward is a debatable question though ;). Nevertheless, we had elections (yes, you read correctly elections- we did closed ballot voting, open voting, selection ) to elect members to these committees. Members to Media, Admin, Brochure, Finance, Extra-currics were elected.
I happen to be part of Media committee..:-)


3. Outbound Program- The entire batch of 100 has been divided into three groups. Starting this Friday- Sunday, for three consecutive weeks, one group will be going for an industrial visit to Tata Steel/ mines, one group to Outbound trekking program and third group to bed (Ahhh, that elusive sleep) !!! Its gonna be fun in either of these activities and I am especially looking forward to Steel plant and mines visit. Coming from a Comp Sciences background means I have always been playing around with 'dabba', little seen the big furnaces and deep mines..


4. Academics- I specifically put this down in the last, so that I can write long notes on this. I am not gonna talk about longgggggg study hrs or 6 hrs sleep or case assignments, which is a norm here but rather about things that make me feel excited -
Lets start with micro economics.. there are functions, typically production functions that help you predict what quantity of prodn. is the optimal quantity.. anything less or more will make you lose profits...

Macro- Economics- The big daddy of economics, helps you predict where the national economy is going. You look at country' figures and find for yourself if the economy is sound enough for investment !

Accounting- Checking the balance sheet of companies and trying making meaning out of the same. Where has the company hid its money is something thats interesting ! Will take some time to learn Enron's- creative accounting though!

Quant- Helps you figure out the expected value of anything, like, for example, how many people would visit my blog today? Or whats the probability that people coming to this site will read my friends blogs too !

Ethics and CSR- Interesting to see how people are working for betterment of society and still making money, a win- win situation for all.

Organization Behavior- Different exercises have enabled me to see what kind of person I am and what shortcomings do I need to work through !

The reason why I find all this interesting is that it gets closer to real life problems per se, unlike the java or .net where your only partner is a compiler !! With 20 days of course, I am already feeling enlightened ! and Thanks to the wonderful profs here who have made their subjects pretty interesting !

GMP at PG

The increase of seats in this year GMP program has found a mention at PagalGuy.
The news also talks about the batch profile of current students.

GMAT Prep !

Some of people asked me for my GMAT prep. I am summarising here all that I did. Please take a note that individual strategy differs and what applies to me may not apply to others.

To start with my score was 700, not a high one, but givent the time constraints I had, I think it was pretty decent for me.

Ok, for total time, I took approx 3 months, with approx 2 hrs per day on an average. You might have a higher or lower time depending on how much time can you devote and whats yiour grip of subjects at hand.

Started with Kaplan Premier, a very basic book, it helped clear my basics. There are 3 tests towards end, keep that for last. Dont attempt in the start. While working through this book or otherwise, make sure, you are revising wrong questions too. Follow this strategy all through the prep.

Next, I started with OG (Official Guide) 10/ 11, which ever edition you lay hands on. I bought photocopied notes from a shops in Ber Sarai area in Delhi, near JNU. Other Indian cities would have similar 'stores'. If want to read online, its here--> OG 11 . This book has extensive questions, practise them thoroughly, don't worry about wrong ones, make sure you are revising those.

The third an final book I referred was Kaplan 800, again bought as a photocopied material. (Google it and am sure you would find a dump some where on net). Now, this was the book that I found to be most useful, had the toughest questions and is said for people who are aiming for perfect 800. Attempt this only after you are done with OG.

Other references- You would find plenty of stuff over net if you google 'GMAT prep'. Would suggest dont go over all that as it would unnecessarily confuse you. Depending on what your weak areas is, focus on correcting that.
1. SC- Spidey’s (Dump ) and Saahil’s SC Notes
2. SC- Manhattan SC Guide ( Dump )
3. Quant- Didnt refer any other book.

Finally, I started with tests, gave two tests that came with GMAT CD (you get when u register for exam), Kaplan 3 tests and couple of other tests that I laid my hand on net.

Suggested Reading-
1. GMAT Experience- Link
2. Another GMAT Experience- Link

Last but not the least, here is the bible of all gyan-
PagalGuy
In fact, I owe my GMAT success to PG. Long live PG !!

Thats about it, should you have any questions, drop me a comment.

First Week

Sunday, 11.30 PM, by time the blog gets published it would be 12 and that should officially mark the close of first week of GMP ! So here is the week that went by ---

First the schedule- Better than last in terms of time that I could spend on myself. Infact more things are happening outside the class, with all clubs, escpecially consulting, getting live and people gearing up for the same.

For classes, we are now in terms with ledgers and journals, with the rising inflation and how to measure the GDP/ GNP and how to find the expected profit of a company. Suddenly, I have started to feel that Mr. Chidambaram might take in an advice from students of GMP ! We also had classes on managing human behavior, organization behavior and ethics with ethics class being taken by Prof Ghandy, former Director, TELCO.

I also took some time to explore Jamshedpur city. There are two shopping areas here- one Sakchi and other Bishtapur, with me paying a visit to Bishtapur for evening snacks at a restaruant. I also visited Jublee Park with my pals. On a whole, the city is fairly well designed and whosoever has any concerns about security in this part of India may relax.

One more topic before I ask google to publish my blog, our mess changed from shared MDP to one specifically for GMP. And that means a new caterer and a new menu. Well, apart from the usual change in food, which I must confess is really awesome and I would have tough time controlling my weight, is the service in the mess. A person from the mess staff gets in water at each and every table for each student, something akin to water serving in restruant. And not only that, the staff would also take turns to seek your feedback on food and also serve you anything that you would need right on your table. With the pampering, I almost feel like an IAS officer. Would have a tough time getting back to corporate world !!! :-)

Day -2 to 0

Day -2
Well this day was no different from Day -3 in terms of the classes as it went from 9 to 9 as usual and the followed by a case study dicussion which we had to do in newly formed groups of our own.

Day -1 and Day 0
Well, these were my first official half days as on one of these days classes ended at 5.15 and on other at 2. No matter that these days were Saturday and Sunday and I could have been watching movie at PVR on one of these days back home or simply idling. Isnt that great !! :-) Well, that the life at XL !

One thing, that has stuck me in last few days is the pure passion that the faculty here carries. There is lots of positive energy that flows over whenever the classes are conducted. I am really impressed by the knowledge the profs here have and at the same time be modest enough and patient enough to answer students queries.

From whatever the profs have told the class, the institute and the profs have big ambitions and dreams about the GMP program and its students. No doubt that the intake this year was doubled fom 55 to 100.